The Bedouins are an Arabic-speaking people who inhabit the Sahara Desert in North Africa. The desert itself covers over three million square miles of Africa, making up almost 30 percent of the African continent. The term “Bedouin” comes from “Badiyah”, the Arabic word for desert, and means “the people of the desert”. The Bedouins are not one tribe, but a number of tribes which inhabit the vast area of northern Africa, particularly in Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. Outside of Africa, they also live in the Middle East nations of Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iraq, Iran and Jordan. They are based predominantly on family clans. The typical family unit usually includes two parents and their children. Sometimes grandparents, and the brothers and sisters of the parents, may be part of that family unit. These small family units constitute the larger clan, which includes new people who have married into the family. Typically several of the families will travel the desert in groups of between thirty and forty people, and set up their tents in close proximity. This is referred to as a “gourn”. Rarely, however, will the entire clan travel together.