The amir al-ʿarab (Arabic: أمير العرب, also known as amir al-ʿurban, أمير العربان; lit. 'commander of the Bedouins') was the commander or leader of the Bedouin tribes in Syria under successive medieval Muslim states. The title was used as early as the 11th century to refer to Salih ibn Mirdas, but was formalized as a state institution by the Ayyubid Sultanate and strengthened by the latter's Mamluk successors. The office was preserved under the early Ottomans (16th–17th centuries), at least ceremonially, but its importance had declined by then. The jurisdiction of the amir al-ʿarab was generally limited to central and northern Syria, and its holder often held iqtaʿat (fiefs) in the Syrian steppe, which formed the imarat al-ʿarab (emirate of the Bedouins). The imarat al-ʿarab was created bo