al-Sayyid | |
|---|---|
 Entrance to al-Sayyid | |
  al-Sayyid  al-Sayyid | |
| Coordinates:31°17′04″N34°54′58″E / 31.28444°N 34.91611°E /31.28444; 34.91611 | |
| Country |  Israel |
| District | Southern |
| Council | al-Kasom |
| Population (2023)[1] | 5,775 |
Al-Sayyid oral-Sayed (Arabic:السيد;Hebrew:א-סייד) is aBedouin village inIsrael. Located in theNegev desert betweenArad andBeersheba and just south ofHura, it falls under the jurisdiction ofal-Kasom Regional Council. In 2023 the village's population was 5,775.[1]
The tribe'soral history tells that its first leader moved to the area fromEgypt with his wife (of local origin) some time in the beginning of the 19th century.[2] They settled amongst the other Bedouin tribes around Beersheba andlived off the land. However, other tribes refused to marry their daughters to the al-Sayyids, who were known as "the foreignfellahin." Eventually the head of the tribe managed to marry his sons to women from theGaza area. However, their low social status meant that they continued to be rejected locally, and so the next generation began to marry cousins, a trend that continued for five generations. Even today other tribes continue to veto marriage ties with the al-Sayyids.[3]
The social differences between the tribe and its neighbours led to opposition to plans to include the village within the municipality of the nearby city ofHura (that was established in 1989). Instead, the village was placed under the jurisdiction ofAbu Basma Regional Council. It was officially recognized followingGovernment Resolution 881 on 29 September 2003, which created eight new Bedouin settlements (seven of which were to be located in the Abu Basma Regional Council).[4]
Al-Sayyid is mainly populated by members of the al-Sayyidtribe, who are noted for the high levels ofdeafness amongst their population and their subsequent development of theal-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language,[5] which is used by many of the hearing villagers as well as the deaf.[6] Five percent of the tribe (150 of the 3,000 as of 2004) are deaf, compared to a usual rate of 0.1%.[3] One suggested cause is the high level ofinbreeding within the tribe; 27% of marriages are between cousins, and 65% are between couples related in some way, and a quarter of the population carries the deafness gene.[3] This is attributed to the tribe's historical isolation in the area. There is a presumption that a recessive gene for profound deafness is traced back to sons of the "founding" couple,[5] two of whose five sons were deaf.[7]
Since 2004, when the village was recognized, there was a significant infrastructure improvement. Several new school buildings were erected. Today there are three elementary schools and two high schools in al-Sayyid.[8] The nearest university isBen-Gurion University of the Negev inBeersheba.
Village residents receive medical service from medical clinicLeumit, there are additional medical clinics andTipat Halavperinatal baby care centers in the nearby township ofHura.[9]
The phenomenon of anAl-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language was first revealed in 1990 by anthropologist Shifra Kisch, and it became well known in 2005 when an international team of researchers from different universities, including theUniversity of Haifa, headed byWendy Sandler, started to study this unique sign language.[10]Margalit Fox, a journalist forThe New York Times, wrote a book about it, calledTalking Hands: What Sign Language Reveals About the Mind, published in 2007.[11]
Authority control databases: National |
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