Clinton Bailey: A Guardian of Bedouin Heritage Passes Away at 88

Sat Mar 01 2025 00:19:29 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)
Clinton Bailey: A Guardian of Bedouin Heritage Passes Away at 88

Celebrated American-Israeli scholar dedicated his life to preserving Bedouin culture through extensive recordings.


Bailey’s enduring documentation efforts have left an irreplaceable legacy of a fading way of life amid modernity pressures.

Clinton Bailey, an American-Israeli academic who dedicated his life to preserving the rich traditions of the nomadic Bedouin tribes of the Middle East, passed away on January 5 at his residence in Jerusalem, aged 88. His death was confirmed by his son Michael, citing heart failure as the cause.

Born in Buffalo, Bailey invested over five decades in meticulously recording the oral poetry, wisdom of the elders, rituals, weddings, and proverbs of the Bedouin tribes across the southern Israeli Negev Desert and the Sinai Peninsula. Often traversing the desert landscape by Jeep, and even accompanying migrations on camel, he amassed an invaluable archive of a predominantly unwritten culture.

In an interview conducted in 2021, Bailey expressed a sense of urgency in his work, highlighting the profound changes encroaching on Bedouin society due to modern influences. Industrialization, governmental boundaries, and the arrival of modern technology were rapidly altering the tribal landscape, leading him to prioritize documenting their traditions before they vanished.

In 2021, he donated an impressive collection of 350 hours of audio tapes and a vast array of photographs and slides to the National Library of Israel. The library lauded his work as a “treasure of orally transmitted ancient culture” that is now at risk of fading from the memory of the younger Bedouin generations who have been exposed to contemporary lifestyles.

Bailey's significant contributions not only preserved the cultural identity of the Bedouin tribes but also forged deep relationships with the tribal communities, many of whom regarded him as a revered custodian of their heritage. His legacy endures as a powerful reminder of the fragility of cultural diversity in an ever-evolving world.

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