The Logic behind the Succession of Saintliness among the Bedouins of the Western Desert of Egypt : An Integration of the theories of Arab Descent and Islamic Saint Veneration

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Through an analysis of the marginal position that is socially occupied by the "Murabiteen" people among the Bedouins of the Western Desert of Egypt, this research sought to integrate the theories of Arab descent and Islamic saint veneration. It served to clarify the fact that the descendant groups of saints are an archetype of the Murabiteen, because they embody both the marginality of the saints in the Islamic doctrines, and that of the client tribes in the Arab descent system. At the same time, the research introduced into studies on Islamic saint veneration a rare case, which lacked an element of Sufism or Islamic mysticism.Digitalization of the data, including field notes and photos which the head investigator had collected among the Bedouins since 1988, was almost completed. All the same though a more refined cross referencing of the data needs to be done. Unfortunately the translation of traditional Bedouin ritual songs has remained incomplete, due to the fact that the cooperation of native assistants, an indispensable factor, was not adequately secured.A fruit of the research was the fact that the head investigator read papers at two international symposiums, one entitled "The Dynamism of Muslim Societies : Toward New Horizons in Islamic Area Studies," which was held at Kisarazu in Japan in October, 2001, and the other being the first World Congress of Middle East Studies at Mainz in Germany, on September, 2002. Those papers are now being rewritten for publication along with a collection of treatises by Taylor & Francis, where the head investigator happens to be an editor. He is also preparing three articles in Japanese encompassing the results of this research. These are due for inclusion in an eight volume series of books entitled "Islamic Area Studies," scheduled for publication by the University of Tokyo Press in 2003 and 2004.