Bedouin denotes a lifestyle, not a people. In parts of North Africa, Bedouins are "Hamitic" people (Berber, Kabyle, and so on), while the Arabs (which are Semitic) are city-dwellers.
In times of Muhammad, the core of the Muslims were residents of cities (especially Yathrib, which was called "town [medina] of the Prophet"), while old Muslim sources complain the Bedouins were non-believing hypocrites - many of them left Islam when Muhammad died and had to be taken back to Islam by force.
In later days, the Arabs took the "Bedouin" lifestyle as a sort of ideal, even when they never lived similar to it. This is the source of the connotation of Arabs with Bedouins.
In short: Some Arabs are Bedouins, and many Bedouins are Arabs, but they are two distinct groups, which happen to overlap in membership.
Phoenicians were no Bedouins, neither Aramaeans in NT time (Laban was a Bedouin, like Isaak and Jacob), Idumaeans were also by and large no Bedouins, as to the Nabataeans, I'm unsure. I don't recall any figure in the NT which was Bedouin.
Bedouins spread out over the pastures of the
Arabian Peninsula in the centuries C.E., and are descendants from the first settlers of the Southwestern Arabia (
Yemen), and the second settlers of North-Central Arabia, claimed descendants of
Ishmael, who are called the Qayis. The rivalry between both groups of the Bedouins has raged many bloody battles over the centuries.
The fertile crescent of Arabia was known for its lucrative import trade with southern Africa, which included items such as exotic
herbsand
spices,
gold,
ivory, and livestock. The oases of the Bedouins were often mobile markets of trade, as their lifestyle involved frequent migrating of the herds in search of greener pastures. The Bedouins were often ruthless raiders of established desert communities, in a never-ending conquest for plunder and material wealth. Equally, they practiced generous hospitality, and valued the virtue of
chastity in their women, who were their ambassadors of generosity and hospitality. They followed their code of honor religiously, governed by tribal chieftains, or Sheikhs, who were elected by tribal elders.
In the first few centuries C.E., many Bedouin were converted to Christianity and
Judaism, and many Bedouin tribes fell to Roman
slavery. By the turn of the seventh century, most Bedouins had been converted to
Islam.
Cities were created by two trends: Beduin traders becoming more sedentary, and Jews migrating from Palestine. The Jews were expelled from Palestine by the Romans after the 70 and 132 insurrections. Yathrib (Medina) is an example of an Arabian city that was originally settled by Jews. There were Jewish merchants, Jewish Bedouins, Jewish farmers, Jewish poets, Jewish warriors. There developed a symbiotic relationship between Jews and Arabs (Jews heavily Arabized, but Arabs heavily influenced by Jewish beliefs).
One city played a unique role in the Arabian peninsula: Mecca. Mecca was not situated at the crossroad of any major trading route, but it was situated near a oasis marked by a black cube, the Kaba. Legend had it that the kaba was placed there by the first man, Adam, and then rediscovered by the Jewish prophet Abraham (known as Ibrahim in Islam). Over the centuries it became a sanctuary for many gods. The Mecca before Mohammed was a model of religious tolerance. Pilgrims came from all over the peninsula to worship their gods, particularly during an annual pilgrimage (haji) to Mt Arafat. There were idols to the Nabataean gods (e.g., Kutba), to the goddess Uzza (Isis, Aphrodites), to Jesus and Mary. The chief god was Hubal, the Syrian god of the moon, chief god of Mecca. There was also a god named Allah, lord of the kaba, the Arab name for Enlil, an ancient Mesopotamiam god. who had three daughters: Manat, Allat, AlUzza. Oracles (kahin) interpreted the gods through ecstatic poetry, a procedure modeled after Delphi's oracle. Since there were 360 idols and the Pilgrims were expected to rotate around the kaba seven times, Mecca was probably also a cosmic metaphor (360 days of the year, seven astral bodies).
The only monotheists were the "hanif" (poets and visionaries), notably Zayd bin Arm who opposed both Judaism and Christianity but believed in only one God.
In the 4th century a man named Qusayy gained control of Mecca, collected the nearby idols, created a monopoly of pilgrimage and established the tribe of Quraysh as the wardians of the shrine ("the tribe of Allah"). Qusayy created an economic empire based on the lucrative captive market of pilgrims and on the advantages provided by the Kaba (Mecca as a sanctuary was exempt from warfare, the great commercial fairs coincided with the pilgrimage cycle). But the wealth of the Meccan elite violated the egalitarian spirit of the tribe and created social layers, with the Quraysh elite at the top. Usury became commonplace. Accumulation of individual wealth replaced the communitarian spirit of the Beduin tribe. Individual inheritance became commonplace, and this led to a patrilinear society.
There was much wealth in Arabia, although it was mostly traveling across it. Arabian trade routes to India became strategic to the Romans because of continuous warfare against the Sassanids.
At one point the Arabs were surrounded by Christians: Byzanthium in the north, Yemen in the south and Ethiopia to the east. Then there were the Zoroastrians of the Persian empire, and the Jews who had settled in the Arabian peninsula itself. Therefore the Arabian peninsula was the only place in the world where the three monotheistic religions met.
Somehow this religious tolerance upset many people, and several "prophets" emerged during the sixth and seventh centuries. One of them eventually succeeded.
Mohammed, an orphan at young age, was raised by his uncle with his younger cousin Ali. He worked as a caravan trader and married a widow who was much older than him. This widow, Khadija, was an exception in a male-dominated society: she was rich and she was powerful. It is likely that it was thank to her that young Mohammed became respected. It was in fact Khadija the first one who believed in Mohammed's visions. One can speculate that maybe it was Khadija who manufactured the whole story of the "messenger from Allah". After all, her only way to gain power in Mecca was through her husband. (Khadija was exposed to monotheism way before Mohammed: her cousin Waraqah ibn Nawfal was a Christian monk who had translated part of the Old Testament from Hebrew into Arabic).
