This thesis analyzes economic change among the bedouin of northern Arabia by examining four factors: the trade in camels; intertribal raiding; large-scale attacks by the Akhwan; and trade and smuggling. Many writers have assumed that the sale or hiring of camels for transport by camel-herding tribes was their major source of income, and that the spread of modern transportation caused a decline in the demand for camels, resulting in lower prices for the animals, and an economic crisis for the bedouin. The well-documented case studies in this thesis will show that the transformation of bedouin society in the modern era was more complex. The first chapter will present an overview of the principal factors that affected bedouin livelihoods during the nineteenth century: the environment, intertribal relations and relations with settled populations. The second chapter examines how the trade in northern Arabian camels changed between 1850 and 1950. It shows that demand for camels rose and fell throughout the period, even as the use of modern modes of transport increased. In fact, from about 1892 to 1914, the sale of thousands of camels from northern Arabia in the markets of Egypt for butcher's meat accounted for a large portion of the total camel trade in the region. The third and fourth chapters examine in detail the ways in which intertribal raiding, large-scale attacks by Akhwan forces and government policies affected bedouin livelihoods in Kuwait, Iraq and Transjordan between 1920 and 1940. The final chapter demonstrates how growing state power altered bedouin trading patterns during the same period, and how some tribes became involved in smuggling, or were harmed by zealous anti-muggling measures carried out by government officials.