Editing Negev (section)

===10th–19th century Bedouins===
{{Main|Negev Bedouins}}
[[File:Palmer map of Northern Sinai and the Negev (with modern borders overlaid).jpg|thumb|In 1871, the first scientifically accurate map of the Negev by [[E. H. Palmer]] was published in conjunction with the Ordnance Survey of Palestine and the [[Palestine Exploration Fund]]. The red dotted lines have been overlaid to show the modern borders that apply today.]]

Nomadic tribes ruled the Negev largely independently and with a relative lack of interference for the next thousand years.<ref name="Shahinp459"/> What is known of this time is largely derived from oral histories and folk tales of tribes from the [[Wadi Musa]] and Petra areas in present-day [[Jordan]].<ref name="Shahinp459"/> The Bedouins of the Negev historically survived chiefly on sheep and goat husbandry. Scarcity of water and of permanent pastoral land required them to move constantly. The Bedouin in years past established few permanent settlements, although some were built, leaving behind remnants of stone houses called 'baika.'<ref name="Finkelstein"/>