Milestone: Clinton Bailey (1936–2025)

COURTESY THETORAH.COM

Ethnographer Clinton Bailey devoted his life to the Bedouin of the Negev and Sinai. Throughout his career, he documented their lives and advocated for their futures. But for readers of BAR, just as significant was the attention he paid to the past.

Born Irwin Glaser in Buffalo, New York, Bailey made his way to Israel in the late 1950s. He completed his undergraduate work in Jerusalem and then returned to New York to do a Ph.D. in Middle East studies at Columbia University. In the late 1960s, he moved back to Israel, where he became fascinated by the Negev’s Bedouin. Bailey spent weeks on end traveling with various tribes, documenting tribal discussions, collecting proverbs, and recording songs.

Bailey was also concerned with how Bedouin culture informs the Bible.^a He didn’t think the Bible came from a Bedouin-like society, but rather that the biblical writers were appealing to formerly nomadic Israelites in an attempt to incorporate them into their semi-urbanized society. He focused, for example, on aspects of biblical law that are illuminated by the tribe and tribal justice in Bedouin society. He also studied the Exodus wanderings against the realities of life in the desert, and the ways in which biblical poetry parallels themes from Bedouin songs.

Bailey left behind a scholarly legacy comprising detailed knowledge about Bedouin society, values, and practices. There is much biblical scholars can learn if they turn their attention to his work and think creatively about how it can help make sense of biblical history, literature, and culture.