Let’s Make a Deal at Beersheba Bedouin Market

Just before the desert sun rose, a small breeze blew and the little campfires flickered as the Bedouins prepared their morning coffee. In a few minutes, the sky turned a lighter blue and the Bedouin men, who had ridden through the night, began making deals.

A new day had begun at the Bedouin market on the outskirts of Beersheba, gateway to Israel’s Negev Desert.

Nearby, in an adjacent and equally dusty field, the central business of the day--the buying, selling and trading of sheep and goats--coincided with the first real sunlight. Talking more with their hands than their mouths, the robed Bedouin men made a trade here and a sale there as their sons herded and sometimes dragged the animals to their buyers.

Some would be that evening’s dinner, some would be fattened for a future meal, some used for breeding and some for investment. In addition, a few of the best would be used for the Bedouins’ ritual slaughter in the cemeteries where their ancestors are laid to rest.

With the sun fully up, Bedouin women--dressed in black, with only their eyes and noses showing--set up their displays of crafts on blankets in the market area closest to the road.

Down the slope was the regular Thursday Arab market, where merchants offer ersatz crafts, some real antiques, bolts of cloth and blue jeans. Local food products were sold from semi-permanent booths.

Likewise, on the side of the field closest to town, Jewish flea-market dealers displayed their mostly European wares and European and American clothes.

Welcome to a 5,000-year-old institution. Desert nomads have traded here with each other and the merchants of a nearby village since prehistory. It was here that the desert tribes could sell their animals and goods, purchased along ancient caravan routes, and buy the agricultural products from the settled farming region to the north.

Because of the wells that made this an oasis, it was a natural stopping place of the caravans traveling the wasteland between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, to the south and west, and Moab and Gilead (now part of Jordan), and Aramea (now part of Syria), to the east and north.

Rubbing sleep from your eyes, it’s best to start the day with a glass of strong Arab tea, with either mint or the local herb nanna , or a cup of mud-like Arab coffee.

Assuming that your stomach is up to it, try some of the best falafel in the Middle East, which is available from carts in the Arab quarter of the market and in the goat and sheep field.

If falafel for breakfast is more than you can deal with, vendors in the Arab quarter sell small, sweet Israeli pastries and Arab candies. This is also the place to buy the local dates, both the sweet kind sold in American markets and the golden, leathery, less-sweet Arab variety, plus figs and local produce.

Don’t miss the olive sellers, whose goods are of an astounding variety. Favored are the small, cracked olives that are salty and sweet at the same time.

For shopping (assuming you’re not in the market for livestock), there are two standouts: the small, flat-weave rugs and the handcrafted jewelry, both sold by Bedouin women.

Language should not be a problem. When you show serious interest in an item, an agent--a Bedouin or an Arab man (or two or three) competent in English--will appear, as if by magic, to handle your side of the bargaining. He is paid a commission by the seller after your deal is concluded.

And deal you will. Never accept the offering price. A typical negotiation for a small rug, about 2 feet by 3 feet, hand-woven by the seller from the wool of her family flock of sheep and dyed with the pigments of the plants and minerals of the desert, might start with an asking price of 200 shekels.

A good first offer would be, say, 75 shekels, while disparaging the quality of the cloth, coarseness of the weave and the poor taste of the colors.

Stick to your offer for no more than five minutes. An increase to 90 shekels for an item you’re really interested in is about right. This will be rejected with a dismissive wave of the hand. It’s time to walk away for a while.

Your second trip to the seller (maybe dealing through the same agent or maybe another one who has appeared on the scene) is the time to get down to business. A fair conclusion in this case would be about 125 shekels.

Carefully count out the money. It’s best to have exact change, because the seller may claim not to have change and then try to keep all the bills in his or her hand. Shake hands with the agent--never with the Bedouin woman--and exchange smiles all around.

For a large transaction, a floor-size rug for instance, two negotiating sessions are only the beginning. One purchase we made entailed half a dozen trips back to the seller over a period of almost four hours.

The final price was quite reasonable. Then again, we took a chance that the carpet would be sold to another customer during our absence.

Other transactions for less expensive items, such as handcrafted brass kitchenware, are usually fast and painless, with one or two counteroffers made during one visit.

The exquisite handcrafted gold jewelry set with semi-precious stones from the desert is rarely displayed. When it is, usually near the area where the Bedouin women sell their chicken and eggs, you stand back and observe.

When a buyer fluent in Arabic huddles with one of the women and she retrieves a small leather bag or wooden box from inside her robes, you can slowly approach and look over the wares.

Again, an agent will appear on the scene to translate and eventually lead you to other sellers. This is where a knowledge of what you’re looking at is essential.

Most of the silver jewelry is of poor quality, often made in local factories. It sometimes is plated brass and contains the thinnest coating of silver, which would pass at a cursory glance. The silver pieces hawked by men in the Arab market are the worst of the worst and should be avoided.

All across the Bedouin market, women sitting on the ground will be displaying bolts of the cloth and fine embroidery for reasonable prices. Quality abounds, and the colors can range from gaudy to the most beautiful muted earth tones, sometimes embroidered with gold or silver thread. Small finished articles, Muslim caps and throw-pillows are also for sale.

Items too large or too numerous to conveniently carry from place to place on vacation can be shipped home through the Israeli post office. Supermarkets invariably have a good supply of empty cartons near the door.

Pick up one of these boxes on the way out of the supermarket after buying a roll of strong tape and a felt-tip marking pen. Address the carton and take it, unsealed, to the post office, where the contents will be searched.

If you choose to send your purchases home in advance of your departure, for security reasons you may have to take your goods outside, where a postal official will go through the contents and stay with you until it is repacked and sealed.

Bedouins roam the desert from Saudi Arabia across Egypt and Israel without regard to national borders.

All the countries of the area have great stretches of unfenced frontiers watched over by soldiers in towers who allow the Bedouin caravans, with their camels, goats, sheep and chickens, safe passage.

A few Bedouins have settled permanently in Beersheba, and even they frequently maintain tents outside town for the times when, for people who are accustomed to life without borders, living in even a small city becomes unbearable.

Because of the Bedouins’ nomadic life style, the goods at the market will vary from week to week, depending on who is passing through the area.

Beersheba is 52 miles southwest of Jerusalem and 70 miles southeast of Tel Aviv on generally very good roads. The city has only one tourist hotel, the Desert Inn.

The hotel, on the edge of town, has a credible dining room and a large swimming pool. All of the 170 rooms have baths, phones and radios.

From the hotel, it’s only five minutes by car to the old city, where falafel stands, pastry shops, pizza parlors and a few full-service restaurants serving Western-style food can be found.

Most of the population, who live in what is known as the new city, seem to come to the old city in the late afternoon and early evening to stroll and greet one another at the outdoor cafes.

K. K. Le Israel Square is the center of the action, and is surrounded by the downtown and commercial district.

Outside town, the ancient site of Tel Beersheba has been excavated, uncovering 6,000 years of Bedouin life in which little has changed. Archeologists here have found evidence that the nomadic tribes passed through the area for millennia to trade as they moved their caravans across the seemingly endless deserts, seeking grazing for their herds.

Beersheba, which means literally “the place of the oath,” is where, according to the Bible, Abraham made a deal with the local ruler Abimelech, whereby in exchange for seven ewes he could water his flocks, and they swore eternal friendship.

It’s also the place where the prophet Elijah sought refuge after slaying the priests of Baal, the Canaanite god. Jacob stopped here en route to Egypt, where he consulted an oracle, and Isaac lived here for a time. Once the thriving southernmost outpost of the ancient Hebrew empire, the city fell on hard times. At the dawn of the 20th Century, its population had fallen to about 2,000.

About 1900, the Ottoman Turks decided to make Beersheba a thriving city again and the administrative center for its government in southern Palestine.

In 1917, Beersheba was the first Mideast city captured by the British in World War I, and in 1947 it again came under Arab control. On Oct. 21, 1948, the new Israeli army defeated the Egyptians, and in the ensuing 40 years Beersheba’s population has swelled to more than 110,000.

For a closer look at Bedouin life, local travel agents can arrange day-trips to a Bedouin camp, including lunch or dinner. Inquire at the desk of your hotel or at the government tourist office near the bus station.

Lawrence of Arabia, on a spying mission, was captured here by the Turks and imprisoned. Some examples of quality Turkish architecture still exist in and near the old city.

The Great Mosque is now a museum, and the original Turkish baths serve as an administration center for the city government. The museum exhibits Byzantine relics and fine collections of artifacts from the surrounding desert dating to before the Persian period, about the 6th Century BC.

Most of the residents of Beersheba live in the new city, where the settlers, almost all of whom have arrived since 1948, built a modern city of wide boulevards lined with apartment buildings. The residents are overwhelmingly immigrants, having come from Europe, the Soviet Union and the Jewish communities of the Middle East.

One word of caution about the Negev: You may not feel the heat because you perspire so much and may not know that you’re perspiring because moisture evaporates almost instantly in the unbelievably dry desert air.

It is nearly impossible to consume too much liquid in this environment. Bottled water and soft drinks are universally available at the market, at service stations and in small shops. The excellent local beer is sold in many of the same places.

For more information on travel to Israel, contact the Israel Government Tourist Office, 6380 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1700, Los Angeles 90048, (213) 658-7462.