Bedouin Hospitality

After an exhausting day of travel, Mary Ellen and I decided a trip to the Judean Wilderness would be a great way to ground our travels.  So off we drove through various Arab villages en route to the ancient cliff dangling monastery of Mar Saba. Today was Friday, the primary worship day for Muslims.  Everywhere we drove, we saw men and boys making their way to the local mosque.  The cries of the muezzin, however, called us to different kind of worship. Ours would be in the sanctuary of the cliffs and rocks and, more surprisingly, in the tent of a simple Bedouin woman.

This vast, hauntingly denuded dessert wilderness evokes a peace that pierces the soul.  The beautiful landscape is rugged and wind-swept, seemingly empty of all life.  But all it takes is a few minutes to tune the eyes and ears to the music of silence which loudly amplifies the bleating of a sheep, the soaring wonder of the hawks, and vibrant flowering of shrubs recently made green by thunderous rains. 

When we arrived at the monastery, Hamoudi, the Bedouin in charge of security welcomed us and bid us to follow him. We weren’t quite sure what this meant as he led away from the monastery down an unstable path. His broken English was difficult to understand and finally it became clear that he wanted to take our picture. So we let him and thanked him, me thinking this exchange was now going to involve money. But I couldn’t have been more wrong. 

Uzahra making bread in her outdoor oven

The next thing we knew, his mother appeared with bread dough and they invited us over to a fire pit ensconced in the rocks. Fueled by animal dung (there is not much wood in the wilderness), she showed us how to bake the bread on the side of the cast iron pot buried in the coals. We then were invited up to the tent for sweet Bedouin tea.

Aisha in her home

The tent was a study in simplicity. One large room divided into sleeping and cooking spaces. The roof was cardboard and tarps. Blankets served as walls. The space was immaculate and organized around bare essentials. The beds served as the seats, a stool doubled as a table, and smiles all around helped bridge the language barrier. 

Not only was there tea but our host brought out the food harvested and prepared from the land: olives, zatar, and bread. Our souls were nourished in the warmth of this unexpected welcome. 

food from the land

The Prophet Muhammad says that “whoever believes in God and the day of resurrection must respect his guests.” The Bedouins believe this means that being good to your guest is to honor God. In return, God will honor them for their gracious hospitality







To Hamoudi, Uzhara, Aisha, and Adam, we pray God will bless you a hundred times over for the gift you gave us this morning!

view from their "front porch"