 The Ottoman authorities viewed the Bedouin as a threat to the state's control and worked hard on establishing law and order in the Negev.During World War I, the Negev Bedouin fought with the Turks against the British, but later, under T. E. Lawrence's influence, the Bedouins switched side and fought the Turks.Hamad Pasha al-Sufi (died 1923), Sheikh of the Nijmat sub-tribe of the Tarabin, led a force of 1,500 men who joined the Turkish offensive against the Suez Canal.