Transcription: One of the most persistent themes in the history of the Near East has been the gradual movement of the Bedouin nomadic tribesmen out of the desert heart of the Arabian Peninsula towards more fertile and attractive fringes. From prehistoric times onward, the land of the Fertile Crescent, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine have all had their ethnic complexion and their civilization affected by the culture of the nomads, and this primitive desert way of life has in turn been refined and transmuted by contact with the civilizations of the more technologically advanced peoples. The histories of the ...
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