Words Like Daggers: The Political Poetry of the Negev Bedouin (Studies on Performing Arts & Literature of the Islamicate World, 13)

Contents
Acknowledgments
Figures
A Note on Transcription, Transliteration, and Arabic Script
Introduction
	1	A Poem Is Born
	2	History’s Emotion
	3	Poetry as a Window into Culture
	4	The Importance of Poetry in Arab Societies
	5	Bar-Zvi as a Player in the Field of Poetry
	6	This Book and the Study of Bedouin Poetry
	7	Interpreting Poetry as “Thick Description”
	8	On the Selection of Political Poetry
	9	On Terminology and on the Politics of Language
Chapter 1 Verses Sharp as Arrows
	1	A Different Battle Poem
	2	The Beginning of the Conflict over Land and Power
	3	Movement Swift and Violent
	4	The Struggle for the Crown of the Tiyāhā
	5	The Zāriʿ War as Reflected in Poetry
	6	A Farewell to Arms
	7	The Gaysiyyah and the Bedouin
	8	Conclusion
Chapter 2 A New Critical Tone
	1	The Buds of Internal Political Critique
	2	From the Turkish Sinai Campaign in the Year of the Locust to Their Defeat at the Gaza Gates
	3	Prophesying the Fall of a City
	4	A Cry of Despair at the Iniquities of the Turks
	5	Remonstrations against Land Sales to Jews: the ʿAzāzmeh Version
	6	Remonstrations against Land Sales to Jews: The Tiyāhā and Tarābīn Versions
	7	Complaining to Ibn Saud about Ibn Saʿīd
	8	The Poetic Protest against Land Sales Waxes Poignant
	9	Conclusion
Chapter 3 “The Catastrophe Lying in Wait”
	1	The Bedouin and the 1948 War
	2	The Fall of Beersheba and the Flight of the Bedouin Leadership
	3	The Nakba in the Poetry of the Refugees When They Arrived in the Negev
	4	Conclusion
Chapter 4 “Light Up Our Moon Now That It Has Set”
	1	A Poetic Meditation on the Changes That the War Brought to the World of the Bedouin
	2	Criticizing the Sad State of the Bedouin Leadership in 1949
	3	Scathing Language and Audacity of the Poet
	4	The Trauma of Expulsion and Forced Transfer in Bedouin Poetry
	5	Conclusion
Chapter 5 “God Be Praised, We Have Become Modern Now”
	1	The Loss of Tribal Cohesion and Its Discontents
	2	Criticizing the Bedouin’s Political, Social and Normative Weakness
	3	Gender Role Reversals as Allegories of Political Upheavals
	4	Decrying the Israeli Authorities, Collaborating Chiefs and Regional Arab Leadership
	5	Conclusion
Conclusion
	1	Back to the Summer of 1975
	2	Bedouin Poetry in its Poetic Context
	3	Political Poetry in a Changing World
	4	Bedouin Poetry as “Deep Play”
Appendix
Bibliography
Index