One of the greatest Arab philosophers, the Tunisian Ibn Khaldun, had already drawn a line between the “urban Arabs” and the Bedouins at the end of the 14th century. His main interest was language, which by then had drifted far from its Koranic roots. It had become what he called “Arabic without vowels,” because in the cities, the grammatical endings of words had fallen off — much like what happened in the transition from Latin to French.
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Khaldun had journeyed from Tunisia to Cairo and on to Damascus. The urban Arabs had absorbed the civilizations that came before them — Byzantine, Egyptian, Roman. They lived side by side with infidels, Christians and Jews, and in the process lost their grip on religious orthodoxy, as well as grammatical precision.
The Bedouins, by contrast, preserved a kind of purity and the spirit of Prophet Mohammed’s early warriors.
Turning tensions into revolutions
Six centuries later, the conflict between countryside and city has taken a new shape — in Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and elsewhere. It is now the collision between poor migrants from rural areas and urban populations that are secular and lean toward a Western way of life.
Out of the chaos and the explosion of armed factions, entire regions came under the control of al-Qaeda and ISIS.
These tensions were exploited by the Muslim Brotherhood to ignite so-called “revolutions” against secular regimes. Out of the chaos and the explosion of armed factions, entire regions came under the control of al-Qaeda first, and later ISIS, all in the name of restoring the Caliphate and returning to the purity of Sharia law.
The head of al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front in Syria was Abu Mohammed al-Julani — current Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s nom de guerre. He eventually had a moment of clarity. He figured the urban Arabs would inevitably come out on top, so he broke away from ISIS, rebranded his militia as the al-Nusra Front, spinning it as a Syrian liberation force, and turned his back on the Caliphate dream. The caliph al-Baghdadi saw this as a betrayal and wanted him dead. But in the end, it was al-Baghdadi who was eliminated.
And shift and a rift
Hamas has followed a similar path. It started as the Palestinian branch of the Egyptian Brotherhood, then gradually became more urban in character. It no longer dreams of a caliphate but has shifted its goal to liberating Palestine “from the river to the sea.”
Worldcrunch 🗞 Extra!
Know More • According to reports, Israel is currently arming a group of Palestinians in Gaza, forming a militia called the “Popular Forces”, to fight Hamas in Rafah. Led by Bedouin leader Yasser Abu Shabab, the group claims to work under the Palestinian Authority, though its links remain unclear. The Israeli plan, devised by Shin Bet and approved by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, aims to take control of southern Gaza and replace Hamas’s influence.
While the Abu Shabab group denies ties to Israel, suspicions persist. The strategy echoes past Israeli tactics of exploiting Palestinian divisions, offering money and weapons to turn local factions against Hamas. Gabriele Magro, Worldcrunch (read more about the Worldcrunch method here).
The Bedouins of the Negev desert and the southern part of the Gaza Strip, though also in conflict with Israel, haven’t been too pleased with this shift. The two million residents of Gaza are mostly urban people, descendants of 1948 refugees from cities like Haifa, Jaffa, and Ashkelon — among them late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, for instance.
Arming the clans against Hamas fits neatly into this picture — a classic strategic maneuver by Netanyahu and the Israeli intelligence services that takes its cue from a long history.
