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A  HISTORY  OF  THE  ARABS 
IN  THE  SUDAN 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES 
VOLUME  I 


\ 


CAMBRIDGE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

C.  F.  CLAY,  Manager 

LONDON    :   FETTER  LANE,  EC.  4 


NEW  YORK  :  THE  MACMILLAN  CO. 

BOMBAY       J 

CALCUTTA  I  MACMILLAN  AND  CO.,  Ltd. 

MADRAS       ) 

TORONTO    :   THE   MACMILLAN  CO.   OF 

CANADA,  Ltd. 
TOKYO :  MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA 


ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


A  HISTORY  OF  THE  ARABS 

IN  THE  SUDAN 

AND  SOME  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  PEOPLE 

WHO  PRECEDED  THEM  AND  OF  THE 

TRIBES  INHABITING  DARFUR 

BY 

H.  A.  MACMICHAEL,  D.S.O. 

SUDAN  POLITICAL  SERVICE 


VOLUME  I 


V 


IT993<|. 


'bo  ,  l(  .  3S, 


CAMBRIDGE 

AT  THE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 
1922 


Mr  de  Herbelot  pretends  that  the  Arabs  of  the  Defart 
exceed  the  other  Arabs  in  Wit  and  Cunning. ...Be  this  as  it 
will ;  both  the  one  and  the  other  are  mightily  fond  of  the 
Noblenefs  of  their  Extraction. 

The  Chevalier  D'Arvieux,  Travels  in  Arabia  the 
Desart  (1718 ad  ),  pp.  96-7. 


PFlriTCD    IN  QKEA.T    BRITAIN 


INTRODUCTION 

ONE  of  the  first  steps  which  anyone  desirous  of  studying  the 
history  of  a  people  naturally  takes  is  to  consult  such  native 
records  as  may  be  extant  and  appraise  their  importance  as  evidence. 

Following  this  course  in  the  case  of  the  Sudan  Arab  one  is  sur- 
prised to  find  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  population  is  in  possession 
of  scraps  of  paper  which  they  regard  as  having  a  historical  value.  The 
owner  often  cannot  read,  but  he  is  prepared  to  produce  for  inspection 
a  handful  of  disreputable  papers,  torn,  frayed  and  filthy.  Some  turn 
out  to  be  unintelligible  contracts  concerning  the  cultivation  of  a  plot 
of  land,  some  are  extracts  from  a  manual  of  prayer  and  ablution, 
some  are  promissory  notes:  others  contain  strings  of  names,  pedi- 
grees of  the  owners  to  'Abbas  the  uncle  of  the  Prophet  or  some  other 
notable.  If  the  native  is  asked  the  source  of  the  genealogical  frag- 
ment either  he  thinks  that  he  found  it  among  his  father's  papers  or 
says  that  it  is  an  extract  which  was  taken  for  him  from  a  larger  work 
owned  by  some  "feki."  In  the  latter  case  one's  hopes  are  perhaps 
raised  by  a  graphic  description  of  an  enormous  tome,  centuries  old, 
said  to  have  been  composed  "by  el  Samarkandi  perchance;  but  God 
knows!"  And  one  proceeds  in  search  of  the  "feki."  Then  comes 
disillusionment.  Sometimes  the  manuscript  has  been  lost  or  burnt, 
or  it  has  been  lent  to  a  relative  at  the  other  end  of  the  country,  or 
eaten  by  white  ants.  Sometimes  the  "feki"  admits  possession  and 
with  great  care  produces  a  few  pages  of  genealogies  obviously  written 
within  the  last  few  decades.  In  this  case  one  is  generally  referred 
for  the  original  manuscript  to  some  other  "feki"  who  either  lives 
beyond  one's  reach  or  died  some  years  ago. 

In  time,  however,  one  does  hear  of  some  accessible  "feki"  whose 
manuscript  has  been  the  fons  et  origo  of  many  of  the  ragged  shreds 
in  circulation  and  from  him  one  learns  that  he  or  his  father  copied 
this  "nisba"  fifteen  or  twenty  years  ago,  from  the  copy  that  was  in 
possession  of  some  other  learned  "feki." 

Occasionally  one  finds  a  "nisba"  that  is  known  to  have  been  in 
the  hands  of  the  owner's  family  for  several  generations.  An  original 
author's  manuscript  a  century  or  more  old  I  have  never  seen,  though 
such  may  possibly  exist. 


VI 


INTRODUCTION 


The  chief  reason  for  this  disappearance  of  documents  is  not  so 
much  the  reluctance  of  the  "fekis"  to  risk  their  possessions  in  alien 
hands,  though  this  motive  has  to  be  combated  where  confidence  has 
not  been  established,  as  the  indubitable  fact  that  both  the  Mahdi 
and  the  Khalifa,  and  especially  the  latter,  gave  stringent  orders  for 
the  destruction  of  all  modern  books  and  documents1.  The  Mahdi 
feared  that  research  might  tend  to  invalidate  his  pretensions  to 
be  the  Expected  One,  and  the  Khalifa,  who  was  a  Ta'aishi  from 
Darfur,  was  only  interested  in  genealogy  to  the  extent  of  declining 
to  appear  less  nobly  born  than  his  subjects.  Consequently  vast 
numbers  of  documents  were  deliberately  burnt  during  the  period  of 
Dervish  rule,  many  others  were  buried  and  so  lost,  or  destroyed  by 
white  ants,  and  only  a  few  survived  to  the  present  day. 

My  first  impression  after  examining  a  medley  of  these  copies 
fragments  and  extracts  was  to  the  effect  that  they  were  worthless ;  but 
a  closer  acquaintance  shewed,  on  the  one  hand,  that  there  were 
various  scattered  remarks  and  indications  which  had  a  certain  value 
in  themselves,  and,  on  the  other,  that  some  passages  recurred  almost 
word  for  word  in  the  majority  of  the  longer  "nisbas"  and  pointed 
to  a  common  origin  dating  from  about  the  sixteenth  century. 

It  also  became  more  and  more  clear  that,  however  faulty  the  details 
might  be,  the  larger  tribal  genealogies,  particularly  those  connected 
with  the  name  of  el  Samarkandi,  contained  in  the  form  of  a  genea- 
logical parable  much  valuable  information  concerning  the  inter- 
relation of  the  tribes  of  the  Sudan. 

Even  allowing  that  the  intrinsic  value  of  these  documents  is  com- 
paratively small  it  is  none  the  less  true  that  anyone  wishing  to  con- 
duct researches  into  the  history  or  sociology  of  the  country  would 
have  the  unwelcome  choice  either  of  delaying  his  work  to  collect 
specimens  of  these  manuscripts  from  all  over  the  country,  and  then 
examining  them  for  what  they  were  worth,  or  of  ignoring  the  docu- 
mentary evidence  altogether.  If  he  could  afford  the  delay  he  would 
presumably  choose  the  former  alternative  and  would  rapidly  find 
himself  sinking  deeper  and  deeper  into  a  morass  of  contradictions 
and  inaccuracies  from  which  a  year  or  two  of  work  would  hardly 
serve  to  extricate  him.  To  obviate  the  occurrence  of  this  dilemma  and 
smooth  a  little  the  path  of  research,  by  collecting,  comparing  and 
annotating  such  documents  as  I  could  find  in  the  course  of  my  work 

1  Cp.,  for  the  case  of  the  Mahdi,  Slatin  Ch.  vm. 


INTRODUCTION  vii 

in  various  districts  of  the  Sudan,  was  the  object  I  set  before  myself 
in  the  first  instance.  If  the  zeal  of  a  fool  has  outrun  angelic  discretion 
I  can  only  hope  that  someone,  with  a  more  comprehensive  grasp  of 
the  necessary  scientific  and  historical  material  than  I  could  ever 
pretend  to,  will  be  stimulated  to  undertake  the  task  so  imperfectly 
attempted  in  the  following  pages.  The  general  plan  adopted  is  as 
follows.  The  ethnological  characteristics  of  the  people  who  lived  in 
the  various  quarters  of  the  northern  Sudan  before  the  coming  of  the 
Muhammadans  is  first  discussed  in  Part  I,  since  it  is  to  them  that  the 
non-Arab  element  in  the  population  of  the  present  day  is  chiefly  due. 
The  extent  to  which  the  institution  of  slavery  has  affected  the  racial 
type  of  the  Sudan  Arab  is  perforce  ignored.  Its  consideration  would 
have  postulated  a  knowledge,  which  I  do  not  possess,  of  half  the 
negro  races  of  Central  Africa;  and  in  the  second  place  the  fact  that 
certain  racial  and  cultural  modifications  have  been  caused  by  breed- 
ing from  slave  women,  chiefly  Nuba,  Dinka,  Fur  and  FERTiT,  need 
only  to  be  kept  in  mind  throughout  and  their  exact  definition  and 
classification  is  rendered  less  essential. 

Secondly,  in  Part  II,  an  attempt  is  made  to  trace  the  earlier  history 
of  some  of  the  more  famous  Arabian  tribes  of  whom  branches  eventu- 
ally settled  in  the  Sudan,  and  to  accentuate  the  degree  of  racial  con- 
nexion or  distinction  existing  between  them. 

A  more  general  account  of  the  fortunes  of  the  Arabs  in  Egypt 
from  the  seventh  to  the  fifteenth  century,  shewing  some  of  the 
causes  that  led  to  their  southward  movements  and  the  conditions 
that  accompanied  these,  is  given  in  a  second  chapter;  and  at  the  same 
time,  where  there  are  any  data  forthcoming,  some  note  is  taken  of  the 
course  of  events  in  the  Sudan  during  the  same  period. 

Part  III  is  occupied  with  a  series  of  notes  upon  the  history  and 
composition  of  the  Arab  tribes  now  in  the  Sudan. 

Part  IV  opens  with  a  chapter  on  the  origin  value  and  limitations 
of  the  native  manuscripts.  Then  follow  translations  of  thirty-two 
native  manuscripts,  with  explanatory  notes,  appendices  and  genea- 
logical trees.  It  will  be  objected  that  some  of  them  are  worthless 
excerpts  and  might  well  have  been  omitted.  Two  considerations 
chiefly  induced  me  to  include  them.  In  the  first  place  this  portion 
is  intended  to  represent  a  small  corpus  of  manuscripts  typical  of  the 
country  rather  than  a  Golden  Treasury  of  historical  fact.  In  the 
second  place  it  is  instructive  to  note  the  extent  to  which  variations 

M.S.I.  b 


viii  INTRODUCTION 

and  coincidences  respectively  occur  in  the  presentation  of  the  same 
facts  by  a  number  of  documents  which  for  the  most  part  are  either 
copied  one  from  the  other  or  traceable  to  a  single  source.  One  not 
only  learns  something  of  the  accuracy  or  inaccuracy  of  the  particular 
facts  stated — a  small  matter  as  a  rule — but  is  also  enabled  to  gauge 
more  confidently  the  degree  of  reliability  which  is  likely  to  attach  to 
native  manuscripts  in  general  when  circumstances  do  not  admit  of 
the  application  of  the  comparative  test. 

H.  A.  M. 

5  October,  1921 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction ,  v 

Bibliography  of  Editions  referred  to        ...  xiii 

Part  I 

THE  INHABITANTS  OF  THE  NORTHERN  SUDAN 
BEFORE  THE  TIME  OF  THE  ISLAMIC  INVASIONS 

CHAP. 

1.  The  Pre-Islamic  Arabian  Element       ....  3 

2.  The  Nubians,  the  Nuba  and  the  Libyan  element        .        12 

3.  The  Bega,  the  Blemyes  and  the  Nuba  of  Meroe  .        35 

4.  The  non-Arab  races  of  Darfur 52 

Appendix  i.  A   tabular   comparison   of  the    Berti   and 

Zaghawa  dialects        .         .         .         .         .118 

Appendix  2.  A  tabular  comparison  of  the  dialects  of  the 
people  of  Mi'dob,  the  Birked  and  the 
Barabra      .         .         .         .         .         .         .119 

Appendix  3.  A  tabular  comparison  of  the  dialect  of  the 
Fur  with  those  of  certain  of  the  "Ferti't" 
tribes  ........       120 

Appendix  4.  A  short  vocabulary  of  the  Masah't  language       122 

Appendix  5.  The  Tungur-Fur  of  Dar  Furnung      .         .       122 

Part  II 

THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  ARAB  TRIBES 
THROUGH  EGYPT 

1.  The  Progress  through  Egypt  in  the  Middle  Ages  of 

certain  Arab  tribes  now  represented  in  the  Sudan      131 

Appendix.  On  the  penetration  of  the  Sudan  by  Berber 

Tribes 151 

Note  to  Genealogical  Trees  1 ,  2  and  3  (from  Wusten- 

feld) 154 

2.  The  General  Progress  of  the  Arabs  through  Egypt 

and  their  invasions  of  dongola     .        .        .        .155 

Genealogical  Trees  1,2,  and  3  .  between  192  and  193 

62 


x  CONTENTS 

Part  III 

THE  ARAB  TRIBES  OF  THE  SUDAN 
AT  THE  PRESENT  DAY 

PAGE 

Introduction 195 

CHAP. 

1.  The  GA'ALifN  and  Danagla  Group       ....  197 

(a)  The  Bedayria,  Shuwayhat  and  Terayfia          .  201 

(b)  TheGhodiat 203 

(c)  The  Batahfn 206 

(d)  The    Rubatab,    'Awadia,    Manasir,    Fadliin, 
Mfrafab  and  Dubab,  etc 209 

(e)  TheHakimab 212 

(/)   The  Gawabra 212 

(g)    The  Shaikia 213 

(h)    The  Gawama'a,  the  Gima'a,  the  Gamu'ia, 

the  Gimi'ab  and  the  Gema'ab        .         .         .221 

(j)    The  Magidia  and  Kurtan       .         .         .  23 1 

(k)    The  Ga'aliin  proper 231 

2.  The  Guhayna  Group 237 

(a)  The  Rufa'a  group,  the  Guhayna  proper,  the 
Lahawiin,  the  'Abdullah  and  the  Inkerriab    .  239 

(b)  The  Beni  'Omran 249 

(c)  The  'Awamra,  the  Khawalda,  the  'Amarna 

and  the  Fadni'a      ......  249 

(d)  The  Shukria  and  the  Dubasiin       .         .         .  250 

(e)  The  Dubani'a  or  Dubaina      .         .         .         -253 
The  "  Fezara "  group 255 

(/)   DarHamid            256 

(g)    The  Zayadia          ......  262 

(h)    The  Beni  Gerar 264 

(/)    The  Baza'a 264 

(k)  TheShenabla  .  ....  265 
(I)  The  Ma'alia  and  the  Ma'akla  .  .  .267 
(m)  The  Dwayh  or  Dwayhi'a        .         .         .         .269 

(«)    The  Mesallamia 270 


CONTENTS  xi 

CHAP.  PAGE 

3.  The  Guhayna  Group  (continued) 271 

1.  The  Bakkara 271 

(a)  The  Beni  Seh'm     ......  276 

(b)  The  Awlad  Hamayd 277 

(c)  The  Habbania 278 

(d)  The  Hawazma 280 

(e)  The  Messfria,  Humr,  Ta'elba,  Hoti'a,  Sa'ada 

and  Tergam  .......  284 

(/)   The  Rizaykat 290 

(g)    The  Ta'aisha 292 

(h)    The  Beni  Helba 293 

(/)    The  Beni  Khuzam 295 

(k)    The  Beni  Husayn 296 

(I)     The  Bashi'r 296 

(m)  The  Salamat,  Beni  Rashid  and  Ziud      .         .  296 

2.  The  Nawaiba,  Mahn'a,  Mahamid,  'Eraykat  and 
'Atayfat        .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  298 

Appendix.   The  Genealogical  Trees  of  the  Bakkara  (I-V)  301 

4.  The  Guhayna  Group  (continued) 307 

(a)  The  Kababi'sh 307 

(b)  The  Mogharba  or  Moghrabin        .         .         .316 

(c)  The  Hamar 319 

5.  The  Kawahla  Group 324 

(a)  The  Kawahla 324 

(b)  TheAhamda 328 

(c)  The  Hasania  and  the  Husaynat     .         .         .329 

6.  The  Kenana  and  Deghaym 330 

7.  The  Rikabia 333 

8.  The  Hawawir,  Gellaba  Howara,  Wahia  and  Kor6bat  335 

9.  The  'Ababda  and  Kerrarish 338 

10.  The  Kerriat 340 

11.  The  Southern  Mahass 341 

Appendix  on  certain  Burial  Customs  on  the  Blue  Nile  342 

12.  The  Hamran 344 

13.  (a)    The  Rashafda  and  Zebaydia  .         .         .         -345 
(b)    The  Hadareb  and  Hudur       ....  346 


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Essays  and  Studies  presented  to  Wm.  Ridgeway.  Cambridge,  191 3.  (e) 

Address  to  the  Anthropological  Section  of  the  British  Association 

Manchester,  1915.  (/)  "An  Undescribed  Type  of  Building  in  the 
Eastern  Province  of  the  A.-E.  Sudan."  Journ.  Egypt.  Archaeol.  vol.  II, 
Part  in,  July,  1915.  (g)  Article  "Nuba"  in  Hastings'  Encyclopaedia 
of  Religion  and  Ethics,  (h)  "Note  on  Bisharin."  Art.  in  Man  of 
June,  1915.  (0  "The  Physical  Characters  of  the  Nuba  of  Kordofan." 
Art.  in  Journ.  Roy.  Anthr.  Inst.  vol.  XL,  1910. 

Sell  (Rev.  E.).   Essays  on  Islam.    1901. 

Slatin  (Sir  R.  C).    Fire  and  Sword  in  the  Sudan,  1879-1895.  Transl. 

Wingate.   London,  1896-7. 
St  John  (J.  A.).   Egypt  and  Mohammed  Ali,  or  Travels  in  the  Valley  of 

the  Nile.   London,  1834. 
Stewart  (C.  E.).    "Extracts  from  a  Report  on  the  Sudan  by  Lt.-Col. 

Stewart.  Khartoum,  Feb.  1883."  (Appendix  to  Mahdiism...,  q.v.  sub 

Wingate.) 
Strabo.   Rerum  Geographicarum  Libri  xvn.   Ed.  Casaubon,  1620. 
Sulpicius  Severus.   Ap.  Vitae  Patrum,  ed.  1628  (quoted  by  Quatremere). 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  xxi 

el  Tabari  (839-923  a.d.).  Chronique  d'Abou-Djafar  Mohammed  Tabari. . . . 

Vol.  1  only.  Transl.  L.  Dubeux.    Paris,  1836.    (Orient.  Trans.  Fund 

Publ.) 
Theocritus.   Idyllia    (Quoted  by  Letronne,  q.v.) 
Tremaux  (P.).  Voyage  en  Ethiopie  au  Soudan  oriental  et  dans  la  Nigritie. 

Paris,  1862. 
el  Tunisi  (Sheikh  Muhammad  Bey  'Omar),    (a)  Voyage  au  Darfour. 

Transl.  Perron.   Paris,  1845.   (b)  Voyage  au  Ouaday.  Transl.  Perron 

et  Jomard.   Paris,  1851. 
Van  Dyck  (E.  A.).  History  of  the  Arabs  and  their  Literature. . . .  Laibach, 

1894. 
Vansleb.   The  present  state  of  Egypt,  or  A  new  relation  of  a  late  voyage 

into  that  Kingdom  performed  in  the  years  1672  and  1673  (translated). 

London,  1678. 
Volney  (C.-F.).    Travels  through  Syria  and  Egypt  in  the  Years  1783, 

1784  and  1785.  Transl.  from  French.   2nd  edn.   London,  1787. 
Von  Luschan  (F.).   The  Early  Inhabitants  of  Western  Asia.  Journ.  Roy. 

Anthr.  Inst.  vol.  xli,  191  i. 
Von  Muller.  "  Extract  from  notes  during  Travels  in  Africa  in  1847-8-9." 

Journ.  Roy.  Geogr.  Soc.  vol.  xx,  185 1. 
Vopiscus.     (Ap.   Historiae   Augustae   Scriptores,   ed.    1620,   quoted   by 

Quatremere  and  Letronne.) 
Waddington  (G.)  and  Hanbury  (B.).   Journal  of  a  Visit  to  some  Parts  of 

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(The  Traveller's  Library,  vol.  10).   London,  1852. 
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London,  1837  and  1878.   3  vols. 
Wilson  (Sir  C.  W.).   "On  the  Tribes  of  the  Nile  Valley  north  of  Khar- 
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1895. 
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(C.  L.).   Karanog:  The  Town.   Ibid.  191 1. 
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xxii  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

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London,  1900.   3rd  edn. 


PART  I 

THE  INHABITANTS  OF  THE  NORTHERN  SUDAN 
BEFORE  THE  TIME  OF  THE  ISLAMIC  INVASIONS 


M.S.  I. 


[3] 


CHAPTER  1 

The  Pre-Islamic  Arabian  Element 

I  With  the  country  which  roughly  speaking  lies  south  of  the 
twelfth  parallel  of  latitude  we  are  not  here  concerned  as  to  all  but 
a  limited  extent  it  falls  outside  the  sphere  of  the  Arab.  Tribes  of 
Arabs,  it  is  true,  pasture  their  herds  at  certain  seasons  south  of  this 
line,  and  in  some  cases  cultivate:  the  Bakkara  tribes  of  southern 
Kordofan  and  Darfur  and  the  Seli'm  Bakkara  on  the  White  Nile 
are  the  most  notable  examples  of  this :  but  allowing  a  few  exceptions 
due  to  the  suitability  of  the  sub-tropical  zone  for  cattle-breeding  it 
is  fairly  accurate  to  say  that  the  country  south  of  the  twelfth  parallel 
is  not  yet  arabicized  in  the  sense  that  is  true  of  the  drier  zones  of 
country  further  north,  where  the  Arab,  or  soi-disant  Arab,  is  in 
undisputed  possession. 

It  is  proposed  in  these  first  chapters  to  give  some  general  idea  of 
the  ethnic  characteristics  of  the  people  who  inhabited  this  northern 
portion  of  the  Sudan1  before  the  period  of  Muhammadan  immigration. 

II  Now,  it  is  well  to  realize  in  advance,  the  fact  that  the  Muham- 
madan settlement  in  the  Sudan  caused  a  profound  modification  of 
the  pre-existing  native  stock  is  apt  to  obscure  the  other  equally 
important  fact  that  long  before  the  Islamic  period  Arabian  races  had 
been  crossing  over  into  Egypt  and  the  Sudan.  Let  us  then,  as  a  first 
step  in  the  discussion  of  our  subject,  attempt  to  estimate  the  extent 
to  which  non-Muhammadan  immigration  to  the  Sudan  took  place 
from  Arabia  during  this  earlier  period. 

III  It  would  be  a  most  surprising  fact  if  the  connection  between 
the  two  sides  of  the  Red  Sea  had  not  been  intimate  from  the  earliest 
dawn  of  history,  for  their  inhabitants  were  to  a  large  extent  cognate 
races2  and  the  passage  was  an  easy  one. 

The  merchant  led  the  way.  From  the  most  ancient  times  trade 
in  aromatic  gums,  ivory  and  gold  flourished  between  Arabia  and  the 
ports  of  Egypt,  the  Sudan  and  Abyssinia3.  Settlements  arose  on  the 
African  coast  and  traders  carried  their  wares  at  least  as  far  as  the 

1  I  limit  the  meaning  of  the  term  "  Sudan"  throughout  to  the  country  at  present 
so  called.    This  excludes  Abyssinia  and  Eritrea. 

2  Cp.  Elliot  Smith,  Ancient  Egyptians,  p.  87. 

3  See  Periplus,  Introduction   and   p.  60;   Crowfoot,  Journ.  Roy.  Geogr.  Soc. 
May  1911,  pp.  523,  524. 

I — 2 


4  THE  PRE-ISLAMIC  ARABIAN  ELEMENT      1. 1.  in 

Nile,   Of  the  Wadi  Hamamat  route  that  runs  east  and  west  between 
the  Red  Sea  and  the  Thebaid  Professor  Elliot  Smith  says : 

From  the  records  inscribed  upon  the  rocks  along  this  route  we  know 
that  there  was  some  traffic  along  it  in  the  times  of  the  fifth  dynasty :  but 
it  is  such  an  obvious  means  of  access  from  the  Nile  to  the  sea  that  we  can 
be  sure  it  must  have  been  a  trade  route  even  in  predynastic  times,  or  at 
any  rate  a  highway  where  the  Arab  and  the  Proto-Egyptian  met  and  inter- 
mingled. The  widespread  occurrence  of  marine  shells,  presumably  from 
the  shores  of  the  Red  Sea,  in  the  predynastic  graves  of  Upper  Egypt  and 
Nubia  is  positive  evidence  of  the  reality  of  such  intercourse1. 

IV  Some  again  have  held  that  the  conquering  dynastic  Egyptians 
who  worshipped  Horus  were  in  fact  Arabians  who  entered  Africa  by 
way  of  Massowa,  and  in  the  course  of  developing  this  theory  Professor 
Navile2  quotes  the  saying  of  Juba,  recorded  by  Pliny,  that  the 
Egyptians  were  of  Arabian  origin,  and  "as  for  the  neighbours  of  the 
Nile  from  Syene  to  Meroe,  they  are  not  Ethiopian  nations  but  Arabs. 
Even  the  temple  of  the  Sun,  not  far  distant  from  Memphis,  is  said 
to  have  been  founded  by  the  Arabs3."  Without  going  so  far  as  this, 
one  would  allow  that  in  early  dynastic  days  Arabians  did  enter  Egypt 
in  large  numbers  by  way  of  the  Eritrean  coast  and  settle  there ;  and 
in  that  case  far  more  of  them  are  likely  to  have  settled  nearer  home 
and  south  of  the  Egyptian  frontier,  in  the  Sudan. 

V  Some  such  movements  are  probably  reflected  in  the  ever  recur- 
rent tradition  that  the  early  dynasties  of  Egypt  were  of  Ethiopian 
origin.  It  is  perhaps  too  often  assumed  that  "Ethiopian"  is  neces- 
sarily the  equivalent  of  "  negro."  Certainly  in  the  second  millennium 
B.C.  south-west  Arabia  was  beginning  to  colonize  the  highlands  of 
Abyssinia,  and  those  cross-currents  of  migration  had  begun  to  flow 
which  reached  their  height  during  the  hegemony  of  Ma'in  and  Saba 
(c.  1500-300  B.C.)4. 

Throughout  the  whole  of  this  period  a  large  proportion  of  the 
world's  commerce  passed  by  way  of  Abyssinia  and  the  coast  of  the 
Red  Sea  to  the  Nile5,  and  the  populations  on  either  side  of  the  straits 
of  Bab  el  Mandeb  became  more  and  more  assimilated  to  one  another6. 

1  Elliot  Smith,  loc.  cit.  p.  88. 

2  Navile,  Origin  of  Egyptian  Civilization,  Smithsonian  Rep.  1907,  pp.  549-564. 

3  Pliny,  Bk.  vi,  34. 

4  See  Sir  H.  Johnston  in  jfourn.  R.  A.  I.  xliii,  1913,  p.  385  ;  Winckler,  in  World's 
History,  p.  249,  etc. 

5  See  Schurtz  in  World's  History,  p.  433. 

6  Cp.  Palgrave,  C.  and  E.  Arabia,  11,  240  ff. ;  and  Ludolphus:  the  latter  says  of 
the  Ethiopians  of  Abyssinia,  "They  are  not  natives  of  the  land  but  came  out  of 
that  part  of  Arabia  which  is  called  the  Happy,  which  adjoins  to  the  Red  Sea" 
(ap.  Bent,  p.  175). 


1. 1.  ix.       THE  PRE-ISLAMIC  ARABIAN  ELEMENT  5 

VI  Under  the  Ptolemies  trade  throve  equally,  and  there  is  ample 
evidence  of  Arab  trading-stations  in  the  first  and  second  centuries 
a.d.  on  the  coast  from  Bab  el  Mandeb  to  the  Gulf  of  Suez1. 

VII  As  regards  early  Arabian  immigration  by  land  to  Egypt,  there 
are  some  who,  while  rejecting  the  theory  that  the  early  dynasts  came 
through  Ethiopia,  would  yet  bring  them  from  Arabia  into  Egypt  by 
way  of  the  peninsula  of  Sinai2.  This  is  very  doubtful.  The  positive 
evidence,  dating  from  the  time  of  the  earliest  dynasties,  does,  how- 
ever, prove  that  the  eastern  side  of  the  Delta  was  being  perpetually 
harried  by  nomads  from  Sinai  and  Syria3,  and  there  are  numerous 
early  reliefs  shewing  a  Pharaoh  smiting  the  Beduin,  "the  sand- 
dwellers"  of  the  mining  regions  of  Sinai4. 

VIII  During  the  twelfth  dynasty,  nearly  2000  years  before  the 
Christian  era,  the  monuments  prove  that  there  was  also  trade  with 
these  Beduin.  "The  needs  of  the  Semitic  tribes  of  neighbouring 
Asia  were  already  those  of  civilized  people  and  gave  ample  occa- 
sion for  trade5";  and  hence  the  famous  picture  from  the  tomb  of 
Khnumhotep  II  at  Beni  Hasan,  in  which  is  depicted  the  arrival  of 
a  band  of  Beduin  traders6. 

The  more  amicable  conditions  now  prevailing  are  also  suggested 
by  the  wording  of  the  Tale  of  Sinuhe's  flight  to  Palestine  during  the 
time  of  the  same  dynasty : 

I  came  to  the  Walls  of  the  Ruler,  made  to  repulse  the  Beduin... I  went 
on... I  fell  down  for  thirst... I  upheld  my  heart,  I  drew  my  limbs  together, 
as  I  heard  the  sound  of  the  lowing  of  cattle,  I  beheld  the  Beduin.  That 
chief  among  them,  who  had  been  in  Egypt,  recognized  me.  He  gave  me 
water,  he  cooked  for  me  milk.  I  went  with  him  to  his  tribe,  good  was  that 
which  they  did  (for  me)7. 

IX  About  1657  B.C.  occurred  the  Hyksos  invasion  of  Egypt8.  This 
people  may  have  been  Hittite  or  possibly  Arabian  by  race:  the 
evidence  points  to  the  former9,  but  we  may  assume  in  any  case  that 
Arabia  sent  its  quota  of  Beduin  in  the  wake  of  the  invaders10  and 
that  during  the  Hyksos  period  and  that  succeeding  it  trade  between 
east  and  west  flourished  to  a  larger  extent  than  formerly. 

1  See  Periplus  and  Ptolemaeus,  passim. 

2  E.g.  Lepsius,  q.v.  ap.  Navile,  loc.  cit.  3  Elliot  Smith,  loc.  cit.  pp.  92,  93. 

4  See  Breasted,  A.R.  i,  168,  236,  250,  267,  311-315.  The  first  of  these  dates 
from  the  first  dynasty,  and  all  fall  within  the  period  of  the  first  six  dynasties. 

5  Breasted,  Hist.  p.  159. 

6  Ibid.  p.  158,  and  A.  R.  1,  620;  Schurtz,  loc.  cit.  p.  619. 

7  Breasted,  A.  R.  1,  493.  8  Breasted,  Hist.  pp.  179,  442. 
9  Von  Luschan,  Journ.  R.  A.  I.  xli,  191 1,  p.  242. 

10  Breasted  (Hist.  p.  181)  remarks  that  the  Hebrews  in  Egypt  may  have  been 
"  but  a  part  of  the  Beduin  allies  of  the  Kadesh  or  Hyksos." 


6  THE  PRE-ISLAMIC  ARABIAN  ELEMENT        1. 1.  x. 

X  When  the  Empire  was  at  the  noontide  of  its  glory  and  the  Syrian 
wars  of  Thutmose  III  (1479-1447  B.C.)  had  broken  down  such 
barriers  as  remained,  "all  the  world  traded  in  the  Delta  markets1," 
and  an  inscription  from  the  tomb  of  Harmhab  (1350-13 15)  is  par- 
ticularly interesting  as  proving  that  Arab  settlement  in  Egypt  had 
been  taking  place  for  some  time:  it  records  how  fugitives  from 
Palestine  begged  the  Pharaoh  to  give  them  an  asylum  in  Egypt 
"after  the  manner  of  your  fathers'  fathers  since  the  beginning2." 
By  now,  too,  the  Shasu  or  Khabiri,  the  desert  Semites,  including 
Arabs,  Hebrews  and  Aramaeans,  were  inundating  Syria  and  Palestine, 
until,  in  the  reign  of  Ikhnaton  (1375-1358)  they  became  paramount 
on  the  eastern  borders  of  Egypt3. 

Their  power  received  a  check  at  the  hands  of  Seti  I  (c.  1313- 
1292),  and  they  were  also  no  doubt  affected  by  the  repulses  inflicted 
by  Rameses  II  (1292-1225)  on  the  Hittites. 

By  the  time  of  Rameses 's  death  there  were  numbers  of  Arabians 
captured  in  war  and  enrolled  as  serfs  in  Egypt,  or  employed  as 
mercenaries4. 

XI  The  power  of  Egypt  then  began  to  decline,  and  during  the 
nineteenth,  twentieth  and  twenty-first  dynasties  the  Libyans  so  over- 
ran Egypt  that  by  950  B.C.  they  had  gained  the  supreme  power5. 
The  presumption  is  that  some  of  the  eastern  nomads,  who  were 
divided  by  no  great  racial  gulf  from  the  Libyans,  took  the  oppor- 
tunity at  the  same  time  to  settle  with  them  in  the  Delta  and  inter- 
marry with  them  as  they  had  probably  already  intermarried  with  the 
native  Egyptians. 

XII  In  the  Nubian  period  which  followed,  Assyria  rose  to  the 
height  of  her  power  and  subdued  Egypt.  Psammetichus  I  (663-609) 
was  practically  a  vassal  of  that  power  in  the  early  years  of  his  reign ; 
but  later,  as  Babylon  supplanted  Assyria,  he  asserted  his  indepen- 
dence and  entered  into  widely  ramifying  foreign  relations  with  the 
powers  to  the  north  and  east;  and  his  successors  imitated  his  example. 

XIII  Sixty  years  after  the  death  of  Psammetichus  I  Cyrus  founded 
the  Medo-Persian  empire,  and  in  525  B.C.  Cambyses,  King  of  Persia, 
occupied  Egypt. 

XIV  The  Arabs  may  have  strengthened  their  footing  in  Egypt 
during  the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  periods.  Herodotus6  indeed 
speaks  of  Sennacherib  as  "King  of  the  Arabians  and  Assyrians" 

1  Breasted,  Hist.  pp.  244,  253.  2  Breasted,  A.  R.  in,  10,  11. 

3  Breasted,  Hist.  pp.  263,  284,  285.  *  Ibid.  pp.  254,  317,  318. 

6  Ibid.  pp.  298,  327,  328,  333  ff.;  and  cp.  A.  R.  in,  570;  iv,  35,  83,  84. 
6  Bk.  11,  141. 


1. 1.  xvii.    THE  PRE-ISLAMIC  ARABIAN  ELEMENT  7 

and  his  army  as  "the  Arabian  host."  So,  too,  the  Persian  period 
lasted  for  about  200  years  and  presumably  the  settlements  of  Asiatics 
that  now  occurred  included  a  proportion  of  Arabs.  The  presumption 
is  made  more  certain  by  the  fact  that  when  Alexander  the  Great 
conquered  Egypt  in  332  B.C.  he  appointed  Cleomenes  of  Naukratis 
to  be  governor  of  "Arabia  about  Heroopolis"  with  the  title  of 
"Arabarch,"  and  so  important  was  this  official's  position  that  he 
was  also  responsible  to  Alexander  for  the  whole  tribute  of  Egypt1. 

XV  In  the  reign  of  the  first  Ptolemy  we  hear  of  the  Arabs  providing 
great  convoys  of  camels  for  the  abortive  invasion  by  Antigonus2,  and 
no  doubt  they  transported  and  raided  both  sides  alternately  through- 
out all  the  wars  of  the  successive  Ptolemies  on  the  Syrian  frontier; 
but  to  what  extent  they  made  any  permanent  settlement  in  Egypt 
during  this  period  it  is  impossible  to  say. 

XVI  Meanwhile  let  us  not  forget  the  more  continuous  intercourse 
that  was  proceeding  further  south.  Not  only  were  trade  relations 
maintained,  but  the  Kahtanites  or  Himyarites  of  southern  Arabia 
were  forming  a  definite  link  between  the  Arabs  and  the  negro  popu- 
lation of  Abyssinia3,  and  periodically  invaded  the  Nile  valley.  We 
need  not  pay  much  attention  to  the  tale  of  Sheddad,  a  Himyarite 
king  of  the  'Adites,  who  invaded  Egypt  in  the  days  of  Ashmun  the 
great-grandson  of  Ham  son  of  Noah,  and  built  pyramids  and  reser- 
voirs before  he  was  compelled  to  retreat4,  but  the  tradition  that  one 
of  the  early  kings  of  Yemen,  'Abd  Shams  Saba,  the  founder  of  Marib, 
invaded  Egypt5  probably  refers  to  an  actual  incursion  from  the 
south-east  during  the  Nubian  period. 

XVII  More  important  matters  were  the  expeditions  of  Abraha 
"Dhu  el  Manar6"  and  Afrikus. 

The  former  was  born,  according  to  Caussin  de  Perceval,  about 
134  B.C.,  and  was  king  of  Yemen,  and  brother  or  son  of  el  Sa'ab 
"Dhu  el  Karnayn"  ("The  two-horned")7.    He  is  said  to  have  made 

1  Mahaffy,  History  of  Egypt,  pp.  20,  21.  2  Mahaffy,  loc.  cit.  49. 

3  Cp.  Palgrave,  Arabia,  I,  453,  454.  4  Makrfzi,  Khetdt,  II,  523. 

5  See,  e.g.  Abu  el  Fida,  pp.  114,  115,  quoting  Ibn  Sa'id;  Van  Dyck,  p.  15  ;  and 
Caussin  de  Perceval,  1,  52. 

6  "  He  of  the  Signposts."  For  his  expedition  see  Abu  el  Fida,  p.  117;  Van  Dyck, 
p.  16;  and  Caussin  de  Perceval,  1,  67  (citing  el  Nuwayry,  Hist.  Imp.  Vet.   Yoct. 

P-  52). 

7  Caussin  de  Perceval  (1,  65)  calls  el  Sa'ab  "Essab."  He  was  called  "The  two 
horned  because  he  wore  two  plaits  of  hair  hanging  down  over  his  temples"  (Van 
Dyck,  p.  16),  or  else  because  "he  wore  a  crown  with  points  like  horns"  (C.  de 
Perceval,  loc.  cit.).  By  reason  of  the  nickname  he  was  sometimes  confused  with 
Alexander  the  Great  "Dhu  el  Karnayn."  It  is  possible  there  is  a  connection  here 
with  the  "two  horns"  worn  by  the  Mek  of  Bujaras  (q.v.  Part  III,  Chap.  2,  xxxm) 
and  the  two-horned  "takia"  worn  by  the  Fung  (see  Part  III,  sub  " 'Abdulldb"). 
"  On  ne  sait  pas  precisement  pourquoi  Alexandre  recut  le  surnom  de  '  Zou-1- 


8  THE  PRE-ISLAMIC  ARABIAN  ELEMENT    1. 1.  xvn. 

an  incursion  into  the  Sudan  and  advanced  as  far  as  the  Moghrab. 
This  story  evidently  points  to  a  Himyaritic  expedition  into  the  Sudan 
by  way  of  Abyssinia.  Abraha's  son  Afrikus,  or  Ibn  Afriki,  invaded 
northern  Africa  probably  about  46  B.C.1 

XVIII  There  are  grounds  for  supposing  that  these  invasions  were 
followed  by  two  distinct  Himyaritic  settlements  in  the  interior  of 
Africa. 

In  the  first  place,  numbers  of  them  are  said  to  have  settled  west 
of  Egypt  among  the  Libyan  tribes  and  multiplied  with  these  under 
the  common  name  of  Berbers :  such  is  the  origin  assigned  with  very 
reasonable  probability  to  the  Sanhaga  and  Ketama  sections  of  the 
Berber2.  In  this  connection  it  may  be  noted  that  at  the  battle  of 
Actium  Arabs  of  the  Yemen  fought  for  Antony  on  the  galleys  of 
Cleopatra3. 

Secondly,  it  seems  certain  that  colonies  of  Himyarites  settled  in 
Nubia,  though  it  is  hard  to  say  whether  the  traces  of  Himyaritic 

carnayn'  ('a  deux  cornes').  Les  uns  pretendent  que  c'est  parce  qu'il  avait  deux 
eminences  sur  la  tete,  d'autres  parce  qu'il  avait  deux  cornettes  a  sa  couronne, 
d'autres  parce  qu'il  avait  deux  longues  tresses  de  cheveux  pendantes,  d'autres 
parce  qu'il  subjugua  1'univers,  de  l'Orient  r£el  a  l'Occident  r£el,  etc La  de- 
nomination d' 'Alexandre  aux  deux  cornes'  est  1'analogue  de  celle  de  Jupiter 
Ammon."    (Perron,  ap.  el  Tunisi,  Voy.  au  Ddrfour,  pp.  456,  458.) 

1  Caussin  de  Perceval  (1,  70)  points  out  that  Caesar  in  46  B.C.  was  opposed  in 
Africa  by  the  Numidians  of  Juba,  i.e.  by  the  Libyo-Berber  tribes,  and  that  these 
latter  were  compelled  to  retreat  before  meeting  Caesar  because  of  an  invasion  of 
Juba's  state  at  the  instigation  of  Caesar  by  a  certain  Sittius  at  the  head  of  an  army 
of  adventurers.  Sittius  may  be  Afrikus,  and  the  name  Afrikus  may  have  been 
merely  conferred  in  honour  of  the  expedition.  Ibn  Khaldun  (1,  27)  calls  him  "ibn 
Sa'ifi."  Concerning  the  expedition  itself  see  Ibn  Khaldun,  1,  168-176  (citing  Ibn  el 
Kelbi);Pococke,  Spec. Hist.  Ar.  p.  60;  Abu  el  Fida,pp.  116,  117;  Caussin  de  Perceval, 
I,  69  (citing  the  above  and  el  Nuwayry's  Hist.  Imp.  Vet.  Yoct.  p.  52);  Carette, 
Explor.  Scient.  de  VAlgerie,  in,  306;  and  Leo  Africanus  (Hakluyt  ed.),  1,  122. 

2  See  Ibn  Khaldun,  1,  27  and  184,  and  11,  178;  and  cp.  el  Mas'udi,  in,  240. 
Ibn  el  Rakfk  (q.v.  ap.  Carette,  loc.  cit.  p.  49)  says  that  the  first  people  to  inhabit 
Barbary  were  five  colonies  of  Sabaeans  under  Ibn  Afriki,  king  of  Yemen,  and  that 
they  gave  birth  to  600  tribes  of  Berbers.  These  five  colonies  were  taken  to  be  the 
Sanhaga,  Masmuda,  Zenata,  Ghomara,  and  Howara.    Ibn  Khaldun  only  allows  the 

Himyaritic  origin  of  the  Sanhaga  and  the  Ketama.     He  says   ^c  ^A    s^L^\ 

V  >fff!P'  *e*dj-9<  !>cUJ  cA*0-5l  jjlj  A*^J|  (ed.  ar.,  vi,  97,  Bk  in).  He  puts 
down  the  rest  as  related  to  the  Philistines  and  descended  from  Canaan. 

Cp.  also  Ibn  Batuta,  n,  196.  This  traveller  visited  Zhafar,  a  month's  journey 
by  land  from  Aden,  and  records  the  striking  resemblance  between  the  food,  the 
habits  and  the  women's  proper  names  among  the  people  there  and  among  those 
in  the  Moghrab.   He  says 

("This  resemblance  bears  out  the  statement  that  Sanhaga  and  other  tribes  of  the 
Moghrab  are  of  Himyaritic  origin.") 

3  Caussin  de  Perceval,  loc.  cit.  p.  70,  quoting  Virgil,  Aeneid,  vm,  706. 


1. 1.  xx.       THE  PRE-ISLAMIC  ARABIAN  ELEMENT  9 

influence  which  occur  there,  and  which  will  be  noticed  later1,  date 
in  the  main  from  this  or  a  later  period. 

At  this  period  sun-worship  was  flourishing  both  in  Southern 
Arabia  and  among  the  Himyaritic  colonists  of  northern  Abyssinia2 
and  the  worship  of  the  same  deity  that  survived  at  Talmis  (Kalabsha) 
until  the  time  of  Justinian3  may  well  have  formed  a  bond  of  sympathy 
between  Himyarite  and  Nubian  through  the  medium  of  Abyssinia 
and  so  have  facilitated  and  encouraged  intercourse  between  the  two. 
Pliny,  as  we  have  already  seen,  even  quotes  Juba  to  the  effect  that 
the  Nile  dwellers  from  Aswan  to  Meroe  were  not  Ethiopians  but 
Arabians4 — a  statement  which  though  obviously  exaggerated  may  be 
taken  as  containing  at  least  some  grain  of  truth.  There  is,  too,  a 
tradition5  that  Abu  Malik,  one  of  the  last  of  the  true  Himyarite 
dynasty,  made  an  expedition  into  the  Bega  country  in  quest  of 
emeralds  and  there  perished  with  most  of  his  army.  The  event  on 
which  this  tale  is  founded  probably  occurred  during  the  early  decades 
of  the  Christian  period6. 

XIX  In  25  B.C.  Augustus,  under  the  impression  that  the  merchan- 
dize brought  to  the  Red  Sea  ports  by  the  Arabs  was  produced  by 
Arabia,  commissioned  Aelius  Gallus,  the  Prefect  of  Egypt,  to  conquer 
that  country7. 

This  expedition  was  a  failure ;  but  about  thirty  years  later,  having 
learned  that  the  most  valuable  merchandize  brought  by  the  Arabs 
came  originally  from  India,  and  desiring  a  monopoly  for  ships  from 
Egyptian  ports,  the  Romans  imposed  a  25  per  cent,  import  duty  on 
goods  from  Arabian  ports  and  destroyed  Adane,  the  chief  trading 
centre  of  them  all8.  For  about  two  centuries  Roman  shipping  was 
developed  at  the  expense  of  the  Arab9,  but  the  old  freedom  of  inter- 
course between  the  two  coasts  does  not  seem  to  have  been  checked 
thereby,  and  by  the  time  of  Diocletian  (284-305  a.d.)  the  Axumites 
of  Abyssinia  and  the  Himyarites  of  the  Yemen  had  entirely  regained 
the  trade  ascendancy10. 

XX  These  two  peoples,  closely  connected  by  race,  were  now  united 
by  the  bond  of  a  common  religion.  Axum  had  been  finally  converted 

1  See  Index,  sub  "  Himyar." 

2  Cp.  Van  Dyck,  pp.  18  and  38;  and  see  Part  II,  Chap.  2,  xxvi. 

3  Letronne,  Materiaux 

4  "  Quin  et  accolas  Nili  a  Syene  non  Aethiopum  populos  sed  Arabum  esse  dicit 
usque  Meroen."    Pliny,  Bk  vi,  para.  34. 

5  Caussin  de  Perceval,  1,  82;  Van  Dyck,  p.  18. 

6  Caussin  de  Perceval  puts  the  date  of  Abu  Malik's  birth  in  31  A.D. 

7  Milne,  pp.  19,  20.  8  Ibid.  p.  34. 

9  Cp.  Muir,  Life  of  Mahomet,  pp.  Ixxix,  Ixxx.    He  attributes  to  this  cause  the 
northward  migration  of  the  Kuda'a  and  Beni  Azd. 
10  Milne,  p.  94. 


io  THE  PRE-ISLAMIC  ARABIAN  ELEMENT      1. 1.  xx. 

to  Christianity  by  Frumentius  about  330  A.D.,  and  the  faith  spread 
very  rapidly  throughout  Abyssinia1.  The  Yemen  had  been  converted 
half  a  century  earlier  and  remained  nominally  Christian  until  about 
500  a.d.  when  the  king,  Dhu  Nawas,  a  descendant  of  Abraha,  adopted 
Judaism2. 

XXI  Both  Anastasius  (491-518)  and  Justinus  I  (518-527)  sent 
embassies  to  the  Himyarites  seeking  their  aid  to  check  the  increasing 
inroads  of  the  Persians  by  an  attack  in  the  rear3;  but  their  plans  were 
nullified  by  the  trouble  that  had  arisen  between  the  Himyarites  and 
the  Axumites  as  a  result  of  the  persecution  of  Christians  by  Dhu 
Nawas.  Elesbaan,  king  of  Axum,  invaded  the  Yemen  and  subdued 
it  about  522  a.d.4,  and  until  about  the  end  of  the  century  it  remained 
subject  to  Abyssinia,  though  the  actual  administration  remained  in 
the  hands  of  the  Himyarites. 

XXII  The  last  of  the  Himyarite  viceroys  was  Sayf,  the  son  of 
Dhu  Yazan  and  grandson  of  the  Dhu  Nawas  mentioned  above.  This 
man,  with  the  aid  of  the  Persians,  succeeded  in  driving  most  of  the 
Abyssinians  out  of  el  Yemen  and  enslaving  the  rest.  Some  of  these 
latter,  however,  murdered  him  about  608  a.d.  and  he  was  buried  at 
Sana'a.  The  Persians  then  occupied  the  country  until  it  was  con- 
quered from  them  by  the  Muhammadans  in  6345. 

Now,  curiously  enough,  this  Sayf  ibn  Dhu  Yazan  is  fabled  to 
have  founded  the  kingdom  of  Kanem6.  That  he  did  not  do  so  is 
quite  certain,  great  traveller  though  he  is  related  to  have  been  in 
Arab  tradition7.  But  during  the  tumultuous  years  which  ushered  in 
the  seventh  century  in  Arabia  and  immediately  preceded  Islam,  there 
may  have  been,  and  probably  was,  some  emigration  from  the  Yemen 
to  Africa,  and  it  is  not  outside  the  bounds  of  possibility  that  some 
of  these  Himyarites  penetrated  to  the  far  west,  called  themselves 
members  of  the  royal  family  of  el  Yemen  and  were  accepted  as  such 
by  the  ignorant  natives8. 

1  Letronne,  loc.  cit. 

2  Van  Dyck,  pp.  20,  21.  The  legend  that  a  Himyarite  founded  a  dynasty  in 
Bornu  at  the  end  of  the  sixth  century  (Nachtigal  ap.  Schurtz,  loc.  cit.  pp.  534,  582) 
is  curious  but  unsupported  by  evidence. 

3  Milne,  pp.  103,  104.  4  Procopius,  De  Bell.  Pers.  I,  19  (ap.  Bent,  p.  178). 

5  Van  Dyck,  pp.  21-24,  and  Abu  el  Fida,  pp.  118,  119. 

6  He  appears  under  the  names  "  Sayf  ibn  Dhu  Yazan,"  "  Muhammad  Sayf 
Ullah,"  or  "Sayf  ibn  Hasan."  See  Carbou,  1,  4-7,  Barth,  II,  261,  262,  268,  269, 
633,  and  Nachtigal. 

7  Abu  el  Fida,  loc.  cit. 

8  Cp.  Carbou,  loc.  cit.  and  Barth,  II,  269.  I  suppose  Sultan  Bello  to  refer  to 
this  movement  when  he  speaks  of  certain  Berber  slaves  and  conscripts  in  el  Yemen 
as  rebelling  against  the  Himyarites  and  being  forced  in  consequence  to  emigrate  to 
the  African  coast.  "They  then  went  to  Kanoom,  and  settled  there,  as  strangers, 
under  the  government  of  the  Tawarek,  who  were  a  tribe  related  to  them,  and  called 


l.i.  xxv.     THE  PRE-ISLAMIC  ARABIAN  ELEMENT  n 

XXIII  But  to  revert:  the  Persian  armies  were  active  in  the  sixth 
century  a.d.  in  the  north  as  well  as  in  el  Yemen,  and  their  pressure 
on  Egypt  steadily  increased  until  in  616  a.d.  that  country  and  Asia 
Minor  had  been  wrested  out  of  the  hands  of  the  Romans. 

The  Persians  themselves,  as  a  race,  had  affinities  with  the  Arme- 
noid  invaders  of  an  earlier  date1,  but  among  their  number  were 
members  of  many  Syrian  and  Arab  tribes2,  and  with  these  latter 
their  congeners  already  settled  in  Egypt  were  no  doubt  in  active 
sympathy3. 

XXIV  The  rule  of  Persia  in  Egypt  only  lasted  for  ten  years.  They 
had  lost  the  support  of  the  Arabs  as  a  result  of  the  Islamic  move- 
ment, and  by  626  Heraclius  had  driven  them  out. 

But  by  now  both  Roman  and  Persian  were  enfeebled  by  con- 
tinuous warfare  and  the  Arabs  began  to  swarm  over  the  frontiers  of 
Egypt.  For  a  while  they  were  bought  off  by  subsidies,  but  in  639 
'Amr  ibn  el  'Asi  led  his  forces  into  the  country,  defeated  the  prefect 
Theodorus  at  Heliopolis,  and  drove  the  Romans  back  into  the  Delta. 

By  641  Babylon  had  fallen  and  Alexandria  was  besieged. 

Terms  were  then  agreed  upon,  and  in  September  642,  Alexandria 
was  surrendered  and  Egypt  passed  under  the  domination  of  the  Arabs. 

Their  immediate  success  cannot  be  credited  wholly  to  religious 
fervour.  A  proportion  were  no  doubt  inspired  by  the  new  faith,  but 
many  were  with  equal  certainty  animated  by  purely  material  con- 
siderations; and  their  task  was  the  easier  in  that  they  were  freeing 
from  a  foreign  yoke  a  country  in  which  numbers  of  the  population 
already  consisted  of  their  own  kith  and  kin. 

XXV  We  have  thus  seen  that  in  pre-Islamic  times  there  was  a 
direct  current  of  Arab  immigration  into  Egypt,  and  most  probably 
into  Libya,  through  southern  Syria,  and  a  similar  influx  into  the 
Sudan  through  Abyssinia,  and  a  channel  of  trade  from  the  mid- 
Red  Sea  coast  to  the  Thebaid.  It  may  therefore  be  regarded  as  more 
than  probable  that  the  ever-increasing  infiltration  of  Arabs  from  these 
three  directions,  and  their  converging  movements  up  and  down  the 
common  highway  of  the  Nile,  whether  in  search  of  trade  or  pasture, 
had  by  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century  led  to  the  implanting 
at  various  points  of  a  definite,  if  racially  indeterminate,  Arab  strain 
in  the  population  of  the  northern  Sudan. 

Amakeetan.  But  they  soon  rebelled  against  them,  and  usurped  the  country — 
Their  government  nourished  for  some  time  and  their  dominion  extended  to  the 
very  extremity  of  this  tract  of  the  earth ;  and  Wadai  and  Bagharmee,  as  well  as  the 
country  of  Houssa...were  in  their  possession."  (See  Denham,  Clapperton,  and 
Oudney,  II,  446,  447.)  1  Von  Luschan,  p.  244. 

2  Butler,  Arab  Conquest,  p.  81  note.  3  Milne,  p.  114. 


[12] 


CHAPTER  2 

The  Nubians,  the  Nuba  and  the  Libyan  Element 

I  The  way  has  now  been  cleared  for  the  discussion  of  the  non- 
Arab  races  which  the  Islamic  Arabs  found  in  the  Sudan. 

II  All  of  these,  with  the  exception  of  the  nomad  Bega  in  the 
eastern  desert,  were  commonly  included  by  the  invaders  under  the 
vague  denomination  of  Nuba.  This  term  first  occurs  in  literature  in 
the  geography  of  Eratosthenes1,  who  was  born  in  276  B.C.  He  speaks 
of  "the  Novfiat."  Later  the  name  occurs  as  Nou/3«Se?,  or  in  the 
Latinized  form  of  Nobatae. 

The  ultimate  derivation  of  the  word  is  not  known,  but  it  appears 
to  be  of  very  ancient  origin  and  may  be  connected  through  the  Coptic 
NOTBT  (meaning  "to  plait")  with  "nebed,"  the  word  used  in  the 
inscription  of  Thothmes  I  (date  c.  1540  B.C.)  to  denote  "the  plaited- 
haired  ones,"  or  as  it  is  perhaps  with  less  accuracy  translated  "the 
curly-haired  ones"  whom  that  monarch  overthrew  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  the  third  cataract:  "He  hath  overthrown  the  chief  of  the 

•"Nubians1;  the  Negro  [nehesi]  is  helpless There  is  not  a  remnant 

among  the  curly-haired,  who  came  to  attack  him2." 

I  imagine  that  the  Arabs  simply  adopted  the  word  which  they 
found  commonly  used  in  Egypt  to  denote  collectively  the  races  living 
south  of  the  first  cataract3.    With  ethnological  differentiation  they 

1  Ap.  Strabo,  Bk.  xvn,  ed.  Casaubon,  p.  786. 

2  Breasted,  A.  R.  11,  71,  and  S el igman,  Journ.  Anthr.  Inst,  xliii,  1913,  pp.  616, 
618.  The  latter  says,  "With  regard  to  the  word  in  the  inscription  of  Thothmes  I 
rendered  'the  curly-haired,'  i.e.  as  a  synonym  of  'Negro'  {nehesi),  written  earlier 
in  the  inscription... it  is  necessary  to  exercise  a  certain  amount  of  caution,  for 
Miss  Murray  points  out  that  this  word  reads  Nebed,  and  is  determined  by  a  lock 
of  hair,  i.e.  'the  curly-haired'  stands  for  'the  nebed-haived.'  But  'nebed,'  according 
to  Brugsch,  does  not  mean  '  curly,'  but  is  the  equivalent  of  the  French  tresser, 
natter,  entrelacer,  and  is  akin  to  the  Coptic  NOTBT  =plectere,  intexere."  Seligman 
does  not,  however,  allude  to  the  possibility  of  any  connection  between  NOTBT  and 
"Nuba."  The  word  "Nuba"  is  sometimes  derived  from  " nubu,"  the  word  used 
for  "  gold"  in,  e.g.,  the  inscription  of  Amenemhet  (Ameni)  in  the  time  of  the  twelfth 
dynasty  (see  Breasted,  A.  R.  1,  520).  Gold  and  slaves  have  been  the  chief  attraction 
of  the  Sudan  in  all  ages.    (Cp.  Budge,  I,  534,  541.) 

3  Elliot  Smith  says:  "We  are  not  justified  in  calling  both  the  early  and  the  late 
inhabitants  of  Nubia  '  Nubians ' ;  in  fact,  it  is  very  doubtful  whether  we  ought  to 
apply  the  name  to  the  pre-Hellenic  population  of  the  Nile  valley  between  Aswan 
and  Meroe"  {Arch.  Surv.  Nub.  Bull.  II,  Cairo,  1908).  R.  Lepsius  speaks  of  the 
probably  incorrect  extension  of  the  name  "Nuba"  to  all  lands  out  of  which  slaves 
were  brought  to  the  north  (Nubische  Grammatik). 


I.  2.  IV.  13 

were  little  concerned,  and  until  late  years  that  subject  remained 
sufficiently  obscure. 

The  Present  Inhabitants  of  Nubia 

III  At  the  present  day  the  inhabitants  of  Nubia,  which  may  be 
taken  as  extending  along  the  Nile  banks  from  Aswan  as  far  south 
approximately  as  the  eighteenth  parallel,  to  the  vicinity,  that  is,  of 
Debba  and  Korti1,  are  commonly  known  to  the  north  as  Barabra 
("Berberines")  and  to  the  south  as  Danagla,  i.e.  inhabitants  of 
Dongola2. 

The  term  "Barabra"  is  used  to  include  the  Kanuz  between 
Aswan  and  Korosko,  a  people  whom  we  shall  see  to  be  an  element 
distinct,  the  "Nuba"  round  Haifa,  the  Sukkot,  the  Mahass  proper, 
and  frequently  the  Danagla.  The  Danagla  extend  as  far  north  only 
as  the  vicinity  of  Arko  Island  and  do  not  admit  that  they  are  Barabra. 
Physically  and  linguistically  the  Sukkot  and  Mahass  fall  into  a  single 
group  and  are  distinct  from  the  Kanuz  and  Danagla.  The  two  latter, 
however,  bear  obvious  resemblances  to  one  another  and  their  lan- 
guages are  similar.  This  curious  fact  is  due  without  doubt  to  the 
geographical  peculiarities  of  the  Nile  valley  between  Korosko  and 
Dongola,  the  effect  of  which  is  to  leave  the  Mahass  and  Sukkot 
more  or  less  isolated3. 

IV  All  these  people  are  Muhammadans  and  have  Arab  blood  in 
their  veins,  but  racial  characteristics  derived  from  non-Arab  ancestors 
have  survived  very  persistently,  and  more  noticeably  so  among  the 
Mahass  and  Sukkot.  The  Kanuz  and  Danagla  approximate  very 
much  more  to  the  Arab  type. 

At  the  same  time,  the  importation  of  slave  women  from  the 
south,  which  has  proceeded  uninterruptedly  for  centuries,  has  lent 
a  further  measure  of  spurious  homogeneity  to  all  of  these  Nubian 
peoples4. 

1  The  southern  limit  of  "  Kush"  under  the  Pharaohs  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty 
was  practically  the  same,  viz.  Napata  (Breasted,  A.  R.  11,  1020). 

2  "Danagla,"  or  more  correctly  "Danakla"  is  the  plural  of  "Dongolawi"  or 
"Donkolawi."  There  is  probably  a  connection  between  "Danakla"  and  the 
"  Danakil"  of  the  northern  Somali  coast  (see  Johnston,  The  Nile  Quest,  pp.  34-42). 

3  Cp.  Beckett,  Cairo  Sc.  Journ.  Aug.  191 1;  Burckhardt,  Nubia,  pp.  25,  26; 
and  Anglo-Eg.  Sudan,  i,  83,  where  the  term  Barabra  is  used  to  include  the  Danagla. 
Burckhardt  {loc.  cit.)  says:  "The  inhabitants  of  Nouba,  and  Wady  Kenous,  as  far 
as  Dongola,  are  known  in  Egypt  under  the  name  of  Berabera  (sing.  Berbery);  but 
that  appellation  is  seldom  made  use  of  by  the  inhabitants  themselves,  when  speaking 
of  their  own  nation."  As  usual,  he  is  accurate.  By  "Mahass  proper"  are  meant 
the  Mahass  of  Mahass  district  as  distinct  from  the  Mahass  settled,  e.g.  on  the 
Blue  Nile. 

4  Cp.  Schweinfurth,  11,  194. 


14  THE  NUBIANS,  THE  NUBA  I.  2.  v. 

V  As  regards  the  Barabra  as  a  whole  one  thing  is  quite  certain: 
there  are  no  grounds  for  closely  connecting  them  as  a  race  with  the 
Nuba  of  southern  Kordofan  as  Riippell,  Rossi  and  Keane  did1.  They 
are  very  similar  in  type  to  the  Middle  Nubians  who  lived  between 
3000  and  4000  years  ago  in  the  same  locality,  but  these  had  no  more 
racial  affinity  with  the  southern  Nuba  than  the  Barabra-Danagla 
have,  and  the  latter  are  almost  the  complete  antithesis  of  the  southern 
Nuba  both  physically  and  culturally2. 

It  may  be  the  case,  and  probably  is,  that  the  southern  Nuba  are 
to  some  extent  the  modern  representatives  of  the  race  of  negroes 
who  temporarily  held  Dongola  and  the  cataract  country  south  of 
Haifa  in  the  days  of  the  Middle  Kingdom  and  early  Empire  and 
whose  congeners,  no  doubt  at  a  later  date,  formed  part  of  the  forces 
of  the  Ethiopian  dynasty  that  conquered  Egypt  and  ruled  it  for 
something  less  than  a  century,  but  these  negroes  were  aliens  in  the 
northern  Sudan  and  most  of  them  were  forced  back  to  the  south, 
and  their  place  in  Lower  Nubia  was  taken  by  its  original  inhabitants 
and  settlers  from  Egypt. 

In  the  Dodekaschoinos3  it  is  probable  that  the  negroes  had  hardly 
displaced  the  original  inhabitants,  but  south  of  Haifa  they  must  have 
done  so  temporarily  and  to  some  extent  modified  the  racial  type  in 
the  process.  But,  even  so,  allowing  for  periods  of  interruption,  it  is 
true  to  say  that  from  the  time  of  the  Middle  Empire  (2000-1600  B.C.) 
and  onwards  for  centuries,  and  throughout  the  Meroitic,  Ptolemaic 
and  classical  periods,  and  again  in  the  years  preceding  the  decisive 
Arab  conquest  of  the  Sudan,  a  strong  infiltration  of  the  Egyptian 
and,  later,  of  the  Egypto-Arab  type  was  steadily  and  almost  un- 
interruptedly proceeding  in  the  northern  Sudan  and  the  negro 
element  was  correspondingly  decreasing  in  that  region. 

VI  It  will  be  seen  too  that  this  prolonged  infiltration  to  the  south 
was  more  than  the  return  of  an  ancient  population,  reinforced  by 
fresh  blood,  to  its  quondam  home  on  the  river.  When  once  the  Arabs 
had  overthrown  the  Christian  kingdom  of  Dongola  and  established 
themselves  in  its  place,  they  rapidly  amalgamated  with  the  local 
Nubians  and  began  to  send  colonies  further  afield. 

Thus  it  came  about  that  Barabra,  with  an  Arab  leaven,  pene- 
trated into  Kordofan  and  settled  round  about  the  most  northernly 
of  the  Nuba  mountains  and  intermarried  with  the  negroes  who  were 

1  See  Seligman,  Journ.  Anthr.  Inst.   1913,  xliii,  610,  and  Beckett,  loc.  cit. 
pp.  200  ff.    For  Keane,  see  Man:  Past  and  Present,  p.  75. 

2  Seligman,  loc.  cit. 

3  See  Part  II,  Chap.  2,  xxxix. 


1.2.  viii.  AND  THE  LIBYAN  ELEMENT  15 

probably  descendants  of  the  erstwhile  conquerors  of  Nubia1.  The 
immigrating  race,  in  addition,  imposed  its  own  language  upon  the 
blacks  in  their  vicinity,  and  thus  are  explainable  the  linguistic 
affinities  which  have  troubled  so  many  generations  of  investigators. 
The  Barabra,  in  short,  do  not  speak  a  language  akin  to  that  of  the 
northern  Nuba  of  southern  Kordofan  because  the  negroes  conquered 
Nubia, — the  negroes  probably  spoke  some  language  or  languages  of 
their  own  that  may  still  survive  in  the  mountain  fastnesses  of  the 
far  south, — but  because  the  Barabra  colonized  the  country  round 
the  foot  of  the  northern  hills  of  Dar  Nuba.  The  conclusion,  however, 
has  here  anticipated  the  argument  and  we  must  revert. 

The  Earliest  Inhabitants  of  Nubia 

VII  As  regards  the  earliest  period  it  has  been  proved  that  those 
shadowy  inhabitants  of  northern  Nubia,  who  are  known  to  archae- 
ologists as  "Group  A,"  were  contemporaries  of  the  pre-dynastic 
Egyptians,  that  both  buried  their  dead  in  the  same  way  and  that  in 
cultural  matters  there  were  marked  similarities.  The  two  peoples 
must  have  been  practically  uniform2,  and  their  stock  may  have 
extended  in  a  more  or  less  diluted  form  from  Egypt  to  the  Blue 
Nile  and  Abyssinia3.  They  were  a  "small,  dark-haired,  black-eyed, 
glabrous  people"  bearing  a  close  resemblance  to  the  Libyans  of  the 
southern  Mediterranean  seaboard,  and  were,  in  the  earliest  period 
of  all,  devoid  of  all  negro  characteristics4. 

The  First  Arrival  of  the  Negroes 

VIII  Later,  about  the  time  of  the  third  dynasty,  negro  types  began 
to  settle  in  Nubia  as  far  north  as  Aswan,  and  from  now  onwards 
"the  population  that  grew  up  was  a  mixture  of  early  Nubian  and 
dynastic  Egyptian  with  an  ever  increasing  Negro  element5." 

(a)    The  Bahr  el  Ghazdl  Type 

These  negroes  were  for  the  most  part  "short  and  relatively  broad- 
headed,"  of  a  type  akin  to  that  found  at  the  present  day  in  the  south 

1  Further  evidence  on  this  subject  will  be  found  in  Part  III,  Chap,  i,  where 
details  of  the  Bedayria  and  other  Danagla  tribes  are  given. 

2  Elliot  Smith,  Ancient  Egyptians,  p.  66,  and  in  Arch.  Surv.  Nubia,  Report  for 
1907-8,  11,  Chap.  II;  Reisner,  Sudan  Notes  and  Records,  Jan.  1918,  p.  7. 

3  Elliot  Smith,  Ancient  Egyptians ,  pp.  78,  79.    Of  this  stock  he  also  says  (p.  54): 
'There  is  a  considerable  mass  of  evidence  to  shew  that  there  was  a  very  close 

resemblance   between   the  proto-Egyptians  and  the  Arabs  before  either  became 
intermingled  with  Armenoid  racial  elements." 

4  Elliot  Smith,  Cairo  Scient.  Journ.  March  1909,  pp.  56,  57. 
6  Seligman,  loc.  cit.  p.  614. 


16  THE  NUBIANS,  THE  NUBA  I.  2.  viil 

of  the  Bahr  el  Ghazal  province,  and  entirely  distinct  from  the  in- 
vaders of  the  Empire  period. 

(b)    The  Nilotic  Type 

The  tall  Nilotes,  Shilluk,  Dinka  and  Nuer  of  the  White  Nile 
valley,  who  now  intervene  between  the  Bahr  el  Ghazal  and  Nubia, 
and  are  dissimilar  to  either  group  and  display  certain  Bantu  affinities, 
could  not  at  the  time  of  the  earlier  (Bahr  el  Ghazal)  invasion  have 
yet  occupied  their  present  position1.  It  is  likely  that  they  arrived 
there  during  the  second  millennium  B.C.,  or  later. 

The  "C  Group"  in  Lower  Nubia 

IX  By  the  time  of  the  twelfth  dynasty  the  fusion  of  races  in  Lower 
Nubia  had  resulted  in  the  production  of  the  singularly  homogeneous 
blend  of  traits  which  distinguish  the  people  of  the  Middle  Empire, 
that  is,  dynasties  twelve  to  seventeen,  or  "C  Group";  the  very  type 
which  in  a  modified  form  is  represented  in  the  same  locality  by  the 
Barabra  of  the  present  day. 

By  the  same  date  the  population  further  south  must  have  become 
almost  exclusively  negro  (nehes). 

Early  Libyan  Influences  in  Nubia 

X  Concurrently  with  the  early  negro  infusion  into  Nubia  further 
racial  modification  was  probably  being  caused  by  the  settlement  on 
the  Nile  of  Libyans  (Temehu)  from  the  western  oases  and  the  steppes 
of  northern  Kordofan. 

In  the  time  of  the  sixth  dynasty,  about  2750  B.C.,  Harkhuf,  the 
Governor  of  the  district  round  Aswan,  went  to  Yam,  i.e.  Lower 
Nubia  on  the  west  side2,  and,  he  says,  "I  found  the  chief  of  Yam 
going  to  the  land  of  Temeh  to  smite  Temeh  as  far  as  the  western 
corner  of  heaven.  I  went  forth  after  him  to  the  land  of  Temeh  and 
I  pacified  him...3."  Harkhuf  then  went  southwards  through  Upper 
Nubia,  crossed  over  to  the  east  bank,  and  returned  downstream  to 
Egypt  bringing  with  him  incense,  ebony,  oil,  grain,  panther-skins, 
ivory  and  throwing-sticks4.  The  advocates  of  the  Libyan  theory  find 
here  evidence  that  the  Libyans  (Temehu)  lived  between  the  first  and 
second  cataracts,  but  as  Giuffrida-Ruggeri  remarks5,  "there  is  still 
the  possibility  suggested  by  Hrdlicka6  that  these  Temehu  lived... on 
the  oases  of  Kharga  and  Dakhla,  which  are  in  the  Libyan  desert...." 

1  Seligman,  loc.  cit.  p.  624.  2  Seligman,  loc.  cit.  p.  613  note. 

3  Breasted,  A.  R.  1,  335.  4  Ibid.  p.  336,  and  Seligman,  loc.  cit. 

5  Loc.  cit.  p.  54. 

6  The  Natives  of  Kharga  Oasis,  Egypt,  Smithsonian  Misc.  Collections,   lix, 
No.  1,  p.  5,  Washington,  1912. 


1. 2.  xii.  AND  THE  LIBYAN  ELEMENT  17 

Budge1  thinks  from  the  list  of  products  brought  back  by  Harkhuf 
that  he  probably  penetrated  Kordofan  and  Darfur  via  the  oases  of 
Kurkur  and  Selima ;  and  Professor  Navile2  accepts  the  inscription  of 
Harkhuf  as  proof  that  the  Libyo-Berbers  were  occupying  Kordofan 
and  Darfur  and  possibly  Borku.  The  negroes,  he  thinks,  must  have 
ousted  them  at  a  later  date. 

Reisner  thinks  Harkhuf  followed  the  river  and  doubts  if  he  pene- 
trated as  far  as  Sennar.  The  products  brought  back,  he  points  out, 
might  have  been  obtained  in  trade  anywhere  between  Dongola  and 
Sennar,  whatever  their  ultimate  origin3.  However,  as  large  and 
wealthy  Arab  tribes  have  chosen  to  live  in  the  Bayuda  desert  for 
centuries  it  is  also  likely  in  any  case  that  races  of  similar  habits  and 
inclinations  occupied  it  before  them.  That  the  earliest  of  such  to  do 
so  were  of  Libyan  origin  appears  to  be  sufficiently  established,  but 
the  extent,  if  any,  to  which  these  races  settled  on  the  Nile  and  mixed 
with  the  Nubian  population  of  the  Middle  Nubian  period  is  still 
undetermined4. 

XI  The  Middle  Nubian  stock  was  also  mixed,  it  is  probable,  with 
another  strain,  that  of  the  red-skinned  Bega  from  the  eastern  deserts5. 
But  in  the  main,  from  Assuan  for  some  distance  south  of  Haifa,  it 
was  negroid,  though  certainly  not  true  negro6. 

Nubia  in  the  Time  of  the  Twelfth  Dynasty 

XII  During  the  time  of  the  great  kings  of  the  twelfth  dynasty 
(2000-1788  B.C.)  events  of  great  importance  occurred  in  the  northern 
Sudan7.  At  least  three  serious  military  campaigns  were  carried  out, 
by  Amenemhat  I  (1971),  by  Sesostris  I  (1962)  and  by  Sesostris  III 
(1879).  In  connection  with  these  a  series  of  forts  and  garrisons  was 
established  from  the  Egyptian  frontier  as  far  as  the  lower  end  of  the 
present  Dongola  Province,  and  at  several  of  these,  notably  at  Semna 
and  Kerma  (Inebuw- Amenemhat),  regular  colonies  of  Egyptians  were 
founded.  During  this  period  the  district  between  Aswan  and  Semna 
became  populous  and  prosperous. 

Every  lateral  valley  had  its  village  or  group  of  huts.  Every  square 
meter  of  alluvial  soil  appears  to  have  been  cultivated.  The  people  were 

1  1,  512.  2  Smithsonian  Rep.  1907,  pp.  549-64. 

3  See  Sudan  Notes  and  Records,  Jan.  1918,  p.  12. 

4  Bates  (The  Eastern  Libyatis)  would  go  so  far  as  to  class  the  Middle  Nubians 
as  a  race  with  the  Libyans  rather  than  with  the  Negroes.  Giuffrida-Ruggeri  combats 
this  theory  in  Man,  April  191 5.  The  question  of  Berber  influences  in  the  western 
desert  at  a  later  date  occurs  again  later  in  this  chapter. 

5  Seligman,  loc.  cit.  p.  619.  A  discussion  of  the  ethnic  place  of  the  Bega  follows 
in  Chap.  3. 

6  Reisner,  loc.  cit.  pp.  12,  13. 

'  For  the  following  see  Reisner  in  Sudan  Notes  and  Records,  April  1918. 

M.S.  1.  2 


18  THE  NUBIANS,  THE  NUBA  I.  2.  xn. 

Nubians,  perhaps  descended  in  part  from  the  harried  population  of  the 
Old  Empire,  but  increased  by  immigrants  from  the  more  exposed  districts 
south  of  Semna.  Culturally  they  were  still  in  an  uncivilized  state,  nearly 
neolithic.  They  were  sowers  and  herdsmen,  hunters  and  fishermen.  The 
only  crafts  were  pot-making,  cloth  and  mat-weaving,  and  basket-making, 
— all  carried  out  by  hand  with  the  simplest  of  tools. 

South  of  Semna,  of  course,  conditions  were  far  less  settled  and 
periodical  punitive  expeditions  were  necessary. 

The  expedition  of  Sesostris  I  appears,  however,  to  have  resulted 
in  the  "thorough  subjugation  of  the  country,  certainly  as  far  as  the 
upstream  end  of  Dongola  Province,  and  perhaps  well  into  Berber 
Province."  The  year  1962  marks  the  first  real  conquest  of  the  north- 
central  Sudan.  The  fort  at  Kerma  was  enlarged  and  the  settlement 
increased,  and  the  result  has  been  shewn  by  Reisner's  recent  excava- 
tions. These  prove  that  a  "special  local  civilization,  a  curious  modi- 
fication of  the  culture  of  Egypt,  deeply  affected  by  local  forms, 
materials  and  customs,"  was  developed  and  throve.  About  1879, 
however,  Amenemhat's  fort  was  sacked  as  the  result  of  a  rising  or 
invasion  from  the  south.  Sesostris  III  at  once  led  an  army  into  the 
Sudan  and  crushed  the  rebels  and  set  up  the  famous  stela  at  Semna, 
37  miles  south  of  Haifa,  inscribed  with  the  order  forbidding  the 
"negroes"  to  pass  downstream  beyond  it  for  ever1.  From  his  time 
until  the  New  Empire  no  mention  of  Nubia  is  found  in  the  Egyptian 
inscriptions,  but  its  occupation  certainly  continued  and  one  infers 
that  local  conditions  were  more  or  less  settled. 

Kerma  had  been  restored  and  made  the  administrative  centre  of 
a  province,  but  it  seems  that  about  1600  B.C.  it  was  burnt  out  and 
never  rebuilt. 

Nubia  in  the  Time  of  the  Eighteenth  Dynasty. 
Its  Egyptianization 

XIII  The  Egyptianization  of  the  northern  Sudan  was  proceeding 
steadily  in  the  time  of  Ahmose  (Ahmes)  I,  the  founder  of  the 
eighteenth  dynasty  (c.  1580-1350  B.C.2)  and  under  his  successors. 
Ahmose  I  placed  Lower  Nubia  ("Wawat")  under  an  Egyptian 
Governor,  and  his  successor,  Amenhotep  (Amenophis)  I,  appointed 
in  1548  the  first  of  a  long  line  of  Egyptian  viceroys,  who  ruled 
Ethiopia  during  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  dynasties. 

In  the  following  reign,  that  of  Thothmes  I,  occurred  the  serious 
revolt  and  its  suppression  to  which  reference  has  already  been  made. 

1  See  Breasted,  A.  R.  i,  652. 

2  For  the  following,  to  the  close  of  the  quotation  ending  "...kings  of  Ethiopia," 
see  Reisner  in  Sudan  Notes  and  Records,  Oct.  1918. 


1. 2.  xiii.  AND  THE  LIBYAN  ELEMENT  19 

By  the  time  of  Thothmes  III  the  northern  Sudan  was  adminis- 
tered by  two  sub-governors,  one  for  Kush  (the  south)  and  one  for 
Wawat  (the  north).  Mines  were  worked  by  the  Government,  taxes 
were  collected,  and  considerable  trade  was  developed  with  the  out- 
districts.  In  fact,  from  1548  B.C.  to  about  1090,  for  some  558  years 
that  is, 

Ethiopia  was  governed  by  Egyptian  officials  and  paid  tribute  to  Egypt.... 
The  Egyptians  followed  up  their  military  and  political  occupation  by  filling 
the  land  with  Egyptians, — soldiers,  officials,  priests,  merchants,  and  crafts- 
men. Southwards  of  Phile,  temples  were  made,  decorated,  and  maintained 
at  Kalabsha,  Gerf  Husein,  Kubban,  Es-Sebua,  Amada,  Derr,  Ibrim,  Abu 
Simbel,  Haifa  (Buhen),  Semneh,  Soleb,  Delgo  (Sesi),  Kawa,  Gebel  Barkal, 
and  other  places.  Each  of  these  was  a  centre  of  propaganda,  a  community 
of  scribes  learned  in  Egyptian  medicine,  law,  and  religion,  and  of  artizans 
trained  in  every  ancient  craft.... The  better  agricultural  areas  at  least  as 
far  south  as  Semneh  were  assigned  to  the  support  of  the  temples  and  turned 

over  to  immigrants  from  Egypt  and  their  descendants  for  cultivation 

The  viceroy  himself  with  his  personal  staff  probably  shifted  his  quarters 
from  el-Kab  or  Elephantine  to  Semneh  or  Napata  as  the  season  or  the 

necessities  of  the  administration  made  it  seem  advisable Most  of  the 

Egyptians  were  permanently  domiciled  in  the  country  and  had  brought 
their  families  with  them.  The  decimated  tribes  grew  into  a  completely 
submissive  population,  were  racially  affected  by  intermarriage  with  the 
ruling  class,  and  became  more  or  less  Egyptianized.  The  country,  as  a 
whole,  was  thoroughly  Egyptianized,  especially  in  religion.  The  names  of 
the  local  gods  were  remembered,  and  all  the  gods  of  the  Egyptian  pantheon 
were  called  upon  in  their  special  functions,  but  the  great  god  was  Amon- 
Ra,  the  god  of  the  Theban  family  who  had  conquered  so  much  of  the 

world He   dwelt  in  the  midst  of  the  "Holy  Mount"  which  we  now 

call  Gebel  Barkal,  and  in  the  days  to  come  his  oracles  were  to  decide  the 
fates  of  even  the  kings  of  Ethiopia. 

Now  there  are  no  pictorial  representations  of  Nubians  dating 
from  any  dynasty  earlier  than  the  eighteenth,  but  it  has  been  sug- 
gested as  curious1  that  from  then  until  the  time  of  the  twentieth 
dynasty — at  a  time,  that  is,  when  we  know  the  Middle  Nubian  popu- 
lation to  have  been  physically  similar  to  that  of  the  present  day — 
the  Nubians  who  were  conquered  by  the  great  kings  of  the  New 
Empire,  and  who  were  probably  the  same  people  as  those  whose 
boundaries  Senusert  (Sesostris)  III  some  three  centuries  before  had 
fixed  at  Semna,  are  habitually  represented  as  "full-blooded  Negroes 
with  coarse  negro  features."  This,  however,  would  appear  to  be 
perfectly  natural.  The  negroes  living  south  of  the  second  cataract 
and  in  the  country  beyond  used  to  raid  periodically  to  the  north  of 

1  Seligman,  loc.  cit.  p.  617. 

2 — 2 


20  THE  NUBIANS,  THE  NUBA  I.2.xiii. 

it.  Senusert  III  repelled  them1  and  fixed  their  boundary  above 
Haifa.  Later,  the  negroes — no  doubt  the  same  ones — gave  further 
trouble,  and  Thothmes  I  defeated  them  even  more  completely  and 
forced  them  back  to  the  third  cataract.  It  seems  probable  that  it  is 
these  negro  invaders  who  are  depicted  from  the  eighteenth  to  the 
twentieth  dynasty,  and  not  the  more  permanent  and  rightful  inhabi- 
tants of  Lower  Nubia. 

Discussion  of  the  Negro  Type  found  in  Nubia  under  the 
twelfth  and  eighteenth  dynasties.  the  kordofan  type? 

XIV  There  is  some  reason  to  think  that  these  negroes  whom 
Senusert  III  defeated  and  forbade  to  pass  north  of  Haifa,  the 
" plaited-haired  ones"  with  whom  Thothmes  I  later  warred  farther 
to  the  south,  the  men  depicted  as  tall,  coarse,  full-blooded  negroes, 
were  probably  akin  to  the  tall  mesaticephalous  type  that  now  survives 
in  southern  Kordofan  and  whose  remains,  dating  from  the  time  of 
the  twenty-fifth  dynasty  (Taharka,  Tanutamon,  etc.)  and  earlier, 
have  lately  been  found  at  Gebel  Moya  and  other  hills  in  the  Gezira2. 
They  no  doubt  followed  the  Nile  in  their  northward  movement, 
impelled  perhaps  by  the  Nilotic  stock  behind  them,  but  it  is  as  well 
to  bear  in  mind  the  possibility  that  some  of  them  also  came  overland 
through  Kordofan  by  way  of  the  Wadi  el  Mukaddam3. 

XV  It  is  to  this  type,  the  "nebed"  that  the  name  Nuba  is,  I  sug- 
gest, most  properly  applied,  and  it  is  a  noticeable  fact  that  the  Arab 
of  the  present  day  hardly  ever  speaks  of  the  Nilotic  negro  of  the 
south  by  that  name:  he  instinctively  reserves  it,  on  the  other  hand, 
(a)  for  the  big  black  of  southern  Kordofan,  (b)  the  hybrid  race  living 

1  See  above,  and  Breasted,  A.  R.  I,  640. 

2  Dr  Derry,  who  examined  the  burial  sites  at  G.  Moya,  and  Prof.  Seligman 
who  has  closely  studied  the  Nuba  of  southern  Kordofan,  agree  as  to  the  close 
resemblance  between  the  early  Ptolemaic  negro  of  the  Gezira  and  the  present  type 
in  southern  Kordofan  (see  Seligman,  loc.  cit.  p.  625). 

"The  cemeteries  of  this  site  [G.  Moya]  have  yielded  the  remains  of  a  tall 
coarsely  built  Negro  or  Negroid  race  with  extraordinarily  massive  skulls  and  jaws. 
In  a  general  way  they  appear  to  resemble  the  coarser  type  of  Nuba  living  in  south 
Kordofan  at  the  present  day,  and  it  is  significant  that  the  cranial  indices  of  the 
men  of  Jebel  Moya  and  the  Nuba  hills  agree  closely."  (Seligman,  Address  to  the 
Anthrop.  Section  of  the  Brit.  Assoc,  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  Report,  1915, 

P-  9-) 

Of  the  physical  characteristics  of  the  Nuba  of  southern  Kordofan  Prof. 
Seligman  says:  "They  are  a  tall,  stoutly-built,  muscular  people,  with  a  dark,  almost 
black  skin.  They  are  predominantly  mesaticephalic... nearly  60  per  cent,  of  the 
individuals  measured  are  mesaticephals,  the  remainder  being  dolicocephalic  and 
brachicephalic  in  about  equal  proportions."  ("The  Physical  Characters  of  the 
Nuba  of  Kordofan,"  R.  A.  I.  xl,  1910.) 

For  Reisner's  remarks  on  the  excavations  at  Gebel  Moya  see  Sudan  Notes  and 
Records,  Jan.  1919,  p.  65. 

3  See  later  in  this  chapter. 


1. 2.  xvi.  AND  THE  LIBYAN  ELEMENT  21 

at  el  Haraza,  Kaga,  and  other  hills  in  the  north  of  Kordofan,  and 
(c)  to  denote  the  aborigines  extirpated  by  the  Fung  at  the  beginning 
of  the  sixteenth  century  in  the  Gezfra  and  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
Shabluka  cataract. 

In  the  form  "Nubia,"  however,  the  name  came  to  be  applied  not 
to  the  country  whence  these  negroes  came  but  to  the  scene  of  their 
greatest  triumphs,  the  valley  of  the  Nile  between  the  first  cataract 
and  Napata.  Nay  more,  by  the  irony  of  fate,  although  the  northern 
portion  of  this  same  country  throughout  the  early  and  the  later 
dynastic,  the  Ptolemaic,  and  Roman  periods,  and  again  in  the  time 
of  the  Mamliiks,  was  considered  almost  an  annex  of  Egypt  and  was 
largely  populated  by  Egyptian  colonies,  the  use  of  the  name  "  Nubia  " 
was  tending  more  and  more  to  be  restricted  to  it  rather  than  to  the 
southern  portion,  and  we  shall  see  that  by  the  time  of  Ibn  Selim  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  tenth  century  it  was  not  uncommon  to  regard 
it  as  applying  par  excellence  to  that  most  northernly  district  of  the 
Sudan  commonly  called  Maris,  which  ended  some  way  north  of  the 
second  cataract1. 

The  Libyo-Egyptian  period  in  Nubia  and  the  Nubian 

Conquest  of  Egypt 

XVI  About  945  B.C.  the  Libyans,  who  in  the  course  of  centuries 
had  obtained  a  strong  footing  in  Lower  Egypt  and  the  Delta  and 
became  partly  Egyptianized,  seized  the  throne  of  the  Pharaohs  and 
founded  the  twenty-second  dynasty2.  How  this  affected  the  Sudan 
immediately  we  do  not  know,  but  in  the  records  of  750  B.C.  the 
northern  Sudan  appears  "no  longer  as  a  province  of  Egypt  but  as 
the  seat  of  an  independent  monarchy  of  which  the  Thebaid  was  the 
northern  province,"  and  Reisner  thinks  it  likely  that,  as  the  Libyan 
kings  subsequently  weakened  and  power  became  decentralized, 
Kashta,  the  Libyan  ( ?)  representative  commanding  in  the  northern 
Sudan  and  a  member  of  the  royal  family,  assumed  independence. 
He  even,  it  appears,  invaded  Egypt  and  established  his  supremacy 
as  far  north  as  Thebes.  His  capital  was  at  Napata  (Gebel  Barkal), 
and  we  may  assume  that  though  he  and  his  staff  may  have  been 
Egypto- Libyans,  the  mass  of  his  subjects  were  Nubians  of  the 
present  darker  type  in  the  north  and  negroes  or  semi-negroes  in 
the  south. 

1  Cp.  Budge,  1,  651,  and  n,  105;  also  Letronne,  loc.  cit.  Evidence  of  the  con- 
sistency with  which  this  tract  south  of  Aswan  was  considered  an  annex  of  Egypt 
will  be  adduced  later  (see  Part  II,  Chap.  2). 

2  For  the  followingsee  Reisner  in  SudanNotes  and  Record*,  for  Jan.  and  Oct.  19 19. 


22  THE  NUBIANS,  THE  NUBA  1. 2.  xvn. 

XVII  Kashta  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Piankhi  (744-710  B.C.1). 
This  king  took  further  advantage  of  the  decadence  that  had  over- 
taken Egypt  and  completed  the  work  begun  by  his  father  in  over- 
running the  whole  country  and  making  it  tributary  to  him. 

XVIII  Piankhi  was  succeeded  about  710  B.C.  by  his  brother 
Shabaka.  This  monarch,  not  content  with  merely  receiving  tribute, 
firmly  established  his  authority  over  the  whole  of  Egypt. 

He  was  followed  by  Shabataka2,  and  the  latter,  about  688  B.C., 
by  Taharka  (a  son  of  Piankhi),  who  in  the  reign  of  Shabaka  had 
commanded  the  Ethiopian  army  that  was  sent  to  Palestine  to  assist 
Hezekiah  against  the  Assyrians  of  Sennacherib,  who  were  now 
approaching  the  eastern  borders  of  Egypt. 

The  Assyrian  Danger 

XIX  Taharka's  main  preoccupation  throughout  his  reign  was  to 
stem  the  tide  of  this  Assyrian  invasion.  But  he  was  unsuccessful, 
and  in  670  B.C.  Esarhaddon  forced  his  way  to  the  Egyptian  frontier 
and  heavily  defeated  him.  Taharka  retired  southwards  leaving  the 
Delta  and  Memphis  in  the  hands  of  the  Assyrians3. 

Esarhaddon,  however,  did  not  press  his  success,  and  as  he  with- 
drew northwards  Taharka  reoccupied  Memphis  and  renewed  his 
intrigues  with  the  Palestinian  kings. 

XX  On  the  death  of  Esarhaddon  in  668,  his  son  Ashurbanipal 
continued  the  fresh  campaign  that  had  been  started  against  Taharka 
and  achieved  a  decisive  victory  in  the  eastern  Delta.  Taharka  again 
retired  southwards.  The  Assyrians  followed  and  occupied  Thebes, 
reinstated  the  Libyo-Egyptian  dynasts  as  Governors  in  Egypt  and 
left  garrisons.  Ashurbanipal  himself  then  returned  with  his  spoil 
to  Nineveh. 

Shortly  afterwards  Taharka  died4. 

XXI  Tanutamon,  a  son  of  Shabaka  (who  had  married  Taharka's 

1  The  dates  given  for  the  twenty-fifth  dynasty  are  as  amended  by  Reisner  in 
Oct.  1919. 

2  Manetho  makes  him  son  of  Shabaka,  but  Breasted  {Hist.  p.  377)  thinks  this 
a  little  doubtful.  Piankhi,  Shabaka  and  Shabataka,  it  may  be  noted,  were  all  buried 
at  Gebel  Kurru  near  Barkal  (Reisner,  Sudan  Notes  and  Records,  Oct.  1919). 

3  Breasted  (loc.  cit.  p.  378)  says  of  Taharka:  "His  features  as  preserved  in  con- 
temporary sculptures  shew  unmistakeably  negroid  characteristics."  Reisner,  on 
the  contrary  (Sudan  Notes  and  Records,  Jan.  1919,  p.  50),  says  that  though  the  Assyrian 
king  chose  to  represent  Taharka  as  a  negro,  he  "was  not  a  negro,  for  the  statues 
of  both  himself  and  his  descendants  shew  features  which  might  be  Egyptian  or 
Libyan  but  certainly  not  negro." 

4  He  was  the  founder  of  the  great  royal  cemeteries  of  Ethiopia  at  Nuri,  near 
Merowe. 


1. 2.  xxiii.  AND  THE  LIBYAN  ELEMENT  23 

sister1),  the  last  king  of  the  twenty-fifth  dynasty,  came  to  the  throne 
in  663  B.C.,  and,  though  in  name  he  ruled  over  both  Egypt  and  the 
Sudan2,  in  fact  the  only  result  of  his  attempts  to  recover  Lower 
Egypt  was  that  he  was  driven  back  and  Thebes  was  sacked  by  the 
Assyrians. 

By  654  B.C.  Tanutamon  was  dead  and  buried  with  his  great  fore- 
fathers Piankhi,  Shabaka  and  Shabataka  near  Gebel  Barkal,  and  the 
power  of  the  Sudan  over  Egypt  had  come  utterly  to  an  end. 

The  Meroitic  Period  and  after 

XXII  On  the  final  separation  of  Ethiopia  from  Egypt  Psammetichus 
(Psamtik)  I,  who  had  been  installed  by  the  Assyrians  as  King  of 
Sais  and  Memphis  and  become  founder  of  the  twenty-sixth  Egyptian 
dynasty,  did  not  concern  himself  greatly  with  the  Sudan.  The  rulers 
of  that  country,  too,  turned  their  attention  southwards  and  the 
province  of  Meroe  was  consolidated  and  developed  near  the  junction 
of  the  Atbara  and  the  Nile3.    It  was 

made  an  integral  part  of  Ethiopia  as  Ethiopia  had  been  of  Egypt.  Meroe 
was  Ethiopianized,  that  is,  brought  under  the  influence  of  the  Egyptian 
culture  which  had  been  inherited  from  the  days  of  the  viceroys.  But  this 
Egypto-Ethiopian  culture... was  certainly  greatly  diluted  by  its  extension 
to  Meroe.   Meroe  was  Ethiopianized,  not  Egyptianized. 

About  440  B.C.,  as  Reisner  believes,  and  certainly  before  350  B.C.: 

Meroe  had  in  its  turn  absorbed  Ethiopia  itself,  just  as  Ethiopia,  three 
centuries  before,  had  absorbed  its  mother  country  Egypt.  The  degeneration 
of  the  culture  became  more  rapid... even  the  race  was  changing.  The 
Egyptian  element  was  being  overborne  by  others,  Libyan,  Nubian,  negro, 
or  whatever  it  may  have  been.  The  fine  traits  of  the  educated  and  skilled 
Egyptian  were  visibly  fading  into  the  coarse  features  of  a  negroid  race 
which  may  have  been  slow  at  forgetting  but  was  incapable  of  giving  a 
creative  impulse  to  art,  learning,  or  religion. 

XXIII  We  now  have,  as  a  result  of  Reisner's  work  at  Nuri  and  the 
vicinity,  an  almost  complete  list  of  the  kings  that  followed  Tanutamon, 
but  there  is  no  point  in  recording  them  here.  More  important  is  the 
fact  that  certainly  by  the  time  of  Nastasenen  (Nastasen),  who  reigned 
from  298-278  B.C.,  and  probably  by  about  440  B.C.,  the  political 
capital  was  at  Meroe  while  the  religious  capital  remained  at  Napata. 

The  temples  of  Napata  with  their  endowed  bodies  of  priests  and  crafts- 
men educated  in  the  learning  of  Egypt  remained  the  cultural  centre  of  the 

1  Breasted,  A.  R.  iv,  920,  note.  2  Ibid,  iv,  920. 

3  The  date  of  the  actual  foundation  of  the  city  of  Meroe  is  not  known.  For 
further  details  as  to  Meroe  and  for  the  settlement  of  the  Automoloi  in  the  south 
see  the  following  chapter. 


24  THE  NUBIANS,  THE  NUBA  1. 2.  xxm. 

kingdom,  while  Meroe  became  the  centre  of  material  wealth  and  political 
power — It  was  not  until  a  generation  or  so  after  the  death  of  Nastasen 
that  the  rulers  of  Meroe  introduced  a  revival  of  learning  and  art  under  the 
influence  of  Ptolemaic  Egypt  and  made  their  capital  for  the  first  time  the 
cultural  centre  of  Ethiopia. 

XXIV  Some  further  remarks  on  Meroe  and  its  people  will  be 
attempted  in  the  next  chapter,  but,  before  leaving  the  subject  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Nubia  proper,  we  must  first  turn  to  the  classical 
geographers  of  the  Ptolemaic  period,  since  they  provide  certain  items 
of  information  that  are  of  value. 

XXV  We  have  seen  that  it  was  Eratosthenes  who  first  used  the 
term  Noi"/3«t  in  the  third  century  B.C.   As  quoted  by  Strabo  he  says: 

On  the  left  side  of  the  course  of  the  Nile  live  the  Noubai,  in  Libya, 
a  great  race,  beginning  from  Meroe  and  extending  as  far  as  the  bends 
[of  the  river] .  They  are  not  subject  to  the  Ethiopians  but  live  independently, 
being  divided  into  several  sovereignties1. 

Agathemerus  (third  century  a.d.)  in  a  bald  list  of  African  races 
includes  No0/3<u  (sic)  on  either  side  of  the  Nile2. 

Pliny  says:  "The  island  of  the  Semberritae  on  the  Nile  obeys  a 
queen.  Eight  days  journey  further  [north]  are  the  Ethiopian  Nubei. 
Their  city  of  Tenupsis  is  on  the  Nile3." 

Ptolemaeus  simply  mentions  a  number  of  Ethiopian  tribes  with 
outlandish  names,  but  contributes  nothing  definite  to  our  knowledge 
of  them  beyond  that  they  lived  on  the  Nile,  in  the  Island  of  Meroe 
and  beyond,  and  in  the  western  steppes4. 

Procopius5  says  of  Elephantine  (Aswan)  in  the  latter  half  of  the 
sixth  century,  "There  live,  besides  many  other  races,  the  very  large 
tribes  of  Blemyes  and  Nobatae.  The  former  occupy  the  interior  of 
the  country  and  the  latter  reside  in  the  Nile  valley  " ;  and  relates  that 

1  O-  dpicrrepuiv  Si  rr)S  piaews  tov  Ne/Xou  No0/3cu  KaroiKovaiv  iv  rrj  Ai^ijrj,  /xtya.  tdvos, 
diro  T77S  Mep6?;s  dp^d/xevoi  fJ.^xPL  r&v  dyKwvwv,  oi'X  viroTarrbixevoi  toTs  'A.idi.6\piv,  d\\'  ISia 
kcli{?)  irXelois  fiaaiXelais  diei\7]/j.fxevoi.    Strabo,  ed.  Casaubon,  XVII,  786. 

2  Bk.  11,  Ch.  5,  p.  41  ap.  Geogr.  Minores.  Agathemerus  wrote  in  Greek  an 
abridgement  of  Ptolemy's  Geography  entitled  Geographias  Hupotyposis. 

3  Pliny,  Hist.  Nat.  Bk.  vi,  §  35.  "  Insula  in  Nilo  Semberritarum  reginae  paret. 
Ab  ea  Nubei  Aethiopes  dierum  octo  itinere.  Oppidum  eorum  Nilo  impositum, 
Tenupsis."  For  the  island  of  the  Semberritae  (Sembritae),  which  is  perhaps  the 
district  between  Kassala  and  Kallabat,  see  following  chapter. 

Pliny  also  calls  some  tribe  in  Syria  by  the  same  name  of  Nubei.  "Nee  non  in 
media  Syriae  ad  Libanum  montem  penetrantibus  Nubeis,  quibus  junguntur  Ramisi. 
Deinde  Taranei,  deinde  Patami."    (Bk.  vi,  §  32.) 

4  Ed.  Muller,  Bk.  iv,  748-783. 

5  De  Bello  Persico,  Bk.  I,  59.  The  text  is  as  follows:  evravda  tdvr\  re  &\\a  iroWa. 
LOpvTai  Kal  B\ip.vh  re  /cat  No/3drcu,  iro\vavdpuir6Ta.Ta  ytvri  dXXd  IW/iives  fxev  ravr-qs  5r]  tt)s 
Xcipay  es  rd  fxiaa.  wKTjvTai,  No/3dTcu  de  to.  dp.(pl  NeiXov  iroTa^bv  ^own.  Procopius  was 
born  about  500  and  died  about  565  a.d. 


1. 2.  xxvii.  AND  THE  LIBYAN  ELEMENT  25 

Diocletian  (284-305  a.d.)  as  well  as  paying  to  both  tribes  a  sort  of 
Dane-geld,  gave  the  Nobatae  a  tract  on  the  Nile  banks  and  entrusted 
to  them  the  care  of  the  Dodekaschoinos,  the  district  south  of 
Aswan1. 

XXVI  In  The  Egyptian  Sudan  Budge  speaks2  of  these  Nobatae  or 
Nuba  as  "a  powerful  tribe  of  nomads  who  lived  in  the  Western 
Desert"  and  adds  "The  Nobatae  appear  to  have  come  originally 
from  Dar  Fur  and  Kordofan  and  in  Diocletian's  time  their  settle- 
ments extended  to  the  oasis  of  Kharga."  Again  he  says3  "The 
people  who  lived  in  the  deserts  on  the  west  of  the  Nile... were  known 
to  classical  writers  as  'Nubae,'  or  Nubians,  and  'Nobadae'  or 
'Nobatae.'  In  Roman  times  the  Nubians  consisted  of  a  league  of 
the  great  tribes  of  the  Western  Desert4." 

The  statement  that  the  settlements  of  the  Nuba  extended  to  the 
oases  of  Kharga  rests  on  the  remark  of  Procopius5  to  the  effect  that 
the  Nobatae  who  were  settled  by  Diocletian  between  Egypt  and  the 
Blemyes  had  originally  lived  "about  the  city  oasis"  {i.e.  Kharga). 
It  has  been  objected6  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  oases  were  un- 
doubtedly of  a  Libyan  stock,  and  that  the  Nobatae  were  essentially 
a  Nilotic  race  and  could  not  have  been  so  far  north,  and  that  therefore 
Procopius  was  at  fault.  But  this  is  a  very  risky  line  of  argument: 
there  is  no  proof  that  the  Nobatae  were  essentially  Nilotic,  and  there 
is  a  quite  definite  probability  that  the  Libyan  races,  the  ancient 
Temehu,  and  the  Nobatae,  whether  on  the  river  or  west  of  it,  had 
commingled.  Throughout  history  the  nomads  of  the  west,  Libyans 
or  Berbers,  have  maintained  an  intimate  connection  with  the  dwellers 
in  the  Nile  valley;  and  there  may  have  been  both  Libyans  and 
Nobatae  at  Kharga,  or  a  mixture  of  the  two. 

XXVII  As  regards  the  religion  of  these  Nubians  the  evidence  is 
very  slight.  In  452  a.d.,  Priscus  tells  us7,  a  peace  was  made  between 
Maximin,  the  Roman  general,  and  the  Blemyes  and  Nubians,  and 
one  clause  of  it  stipulated  that  the  Romans  should  allow  the  others, 
according  to  their  ancient  custom,  to  make  a  journey  to  Philae  and 
visit  the  temple  of  Isis  and  take  thence  the  statue  of  the  goddess  and 
bring  it  back  after  a  certain  time. 

But  Christianity  had  by  now  begun  to  find  converts  in  Nubia. 

1  See  Evetts,  p.  260.  2  II,  176. 

3  ii,4i7- 

4  In  these  quotations  Budge  seems  to  press  somewhat  ahead  of  the  evidence. 

To  what  extent  I  agree  with  him  will  appear  later. 

5  hoc.  cit.  6  Hall,  Review  in  Man  of  May  1912. 

7  Fragm.  21  (ed.  Miiller)  ap.  Letronne,  Materiaux...,  11,  205  ff.  Priscus  is  a 
good  authority  as  he  was  in  Egypt  at  the  time  and  a  friend  of  the  general. 


26  THE  NUBIANS,  THE  NUBA  1. 2.  xxvn. 

The  statement  of  Eusebius1  that  so  early  as  the  reign  of  Constantine 
(313—337)  Christianity  had  penetrated  to  the  Ethiopians  and  Blemyes 
refers  to  the  Abyssinians  and  Troglodytes  converted  by  Frumentius 
in  the  east2,  but  it  is  none  the  less  probable  that  there  were  Christians 
in  Nubia  at  the  same  period,  and  the  record  of  Cosmus  Indico- 
pleustes  prove  that  there  were  some  there  in  the  fifth  century3. 

XXVIII  In  the  sixth  century  conversion  took  place  on  a  larger 
scale.  A  certain  priest  named  Julianus  "...was  greatly  concerned  for 
the  black  people  of  the  Nobades,  who  lived  on  the  southern  border 
of  the  Thebaid,  and  as  they  were  heathen  he  wished  to  convert 
them — "  He  accordingly  persuaded  Theodora,  the  Empress  of 
Justinian,  to  send  him  on  a  mission  to  Nubia.  There  he  "taught  and 
baptized  the  king  and  the  nobles,  and... thus  were  all  the  people  of 
Kushites  converted  to  the  orthodox  faith4,  and  they  became  subjects 
of  the  throne  of  Alexandria5." 

By  the  latter  half  of  the  century6  northern  Nubia  had  been  formed 
into  a  Christian  kingdom  under  Silko,  the  king  whose  Greek  inscrip- 
tion was  found  in  the  temple  of  Talmis  (Kalabsha).  It  is  not  unlikely 
that  he  was  the  actual  convert  of  Julianus,  and  he  was  almost  certainly 
the  founder  of  Dongola,  which  was  to  remain  the  capital  of  Nubia 
for  the  seven  centuries  during  which  that  country  barred  the  progress 
of  the  Arabs  and  their  religion  from  the  upper  valley  of  the  Nile. 

XXIX  But  when  all  is  said  we  know  very  little  of  the  state  of  affairs 
in  Nubia  in  Silko's  time  or  of  the  people  over  whom  he  ruled,  their 
racial  characteristics,  their  customs,  or  their  polity. 

They  were  it  seems  almost  continuously  at  war  with  the  still 
pagan  Blemyes7  who  occupied  the  lower  valley  of  the  Nile  from 
Primis  (Ibn'm)  to  the  frontiers  of  Egypt;  and  Silko  also  speaks  of 
his  raids  against  "the  others,  above  [i.e.  south  of]  the  Nobadae8." 

1   Vit.  Constantini,  i,  8,  ap.  Letronne,  loc.  cit.  2  See  I,  i,  xx  above. 

3  See  Butler,  note  to  Abu  Salih,  pp.  265,  266. 

4  I.e.  the  monophysite  beliefs.  The  narrator  was  a  Jacobite  or  monophysite 
Christian. 

6  Translated  by  Budge  (n,  295)  from  the  Syriac  of  Barhebraeus's  Ecclesiastical 
History.  Barhebraeus,  or  Abu  el  Farag,  drew  upon  the  earlier  work  of  John  of 
Ephesus.  Letronne  quotes  Pococke's  Latin  translation.  Budge  places  Julianus's 
date  between  540  and  548.  Barhebraeus  elsewhere,  speaking  inaccurately  and  in 
contradiction  to  the  passage  quoted,  says  that  in  the  reign  of  Constantine  were 
converted  "all  the  negroes,  such  as  Ethiopians,  Nubians  and  others"  (see  Letronne, 
loc.  cit.). 

6  So  Letronne  dates  the  inscription  of  Silko. 

7  The  inscription  of  Silko  says :  iiroi-qca.  elpi\vr\v  /act'  clvtuv  nal  w/xo<rav  fx.01  ra 
ei8u\a  clvtuv,  "  I  made  peace  with  them  and  they  swore  to  me  by  their  idols." 
They  were  converted  shortly  afterwards. 

8  The  Greek  is  01  dXXot  'Sovj3d8cov  dvurepu.  Budge  (n,  292-3)  wrongly  trans- 
lates "the  other  Nobades":  Letronne  is  correct.  These  others,  "the  other  kings " 


1. 2.  xxxi.  AND  THE  LIBYAN  ELEMENT  27 

He  calls  himself  /SacrtXicrAro?  NovfidBcov  ical  o\wv  rtav  AWiottcov, 
which  may  be  translated  "  Mek  of  the  Nuba  and  all  the  Ethiopians." 
But  even  if  one  allow  some  truth  to  his  pretensions  to  overlordship 
it  is  clear  that  with  the  lapse  of  time  a  process  of  disintegration  set 
in,  and  the  petty  kings,  the  /3aai\laKot,  who  are  mentioned  in  the 
inscriptions  of  Axum  and  Talmis,  were  evidently  prototypes  of  the 
meks  who  ruled  Nubia  so  late  as  the  nineteenth  century  and  who 
still  survive  in  name  among  the  Gamu'i'a  and  some  other  debased 
Arab  tribes  in  the  Nile  valley  to  the  present  day1. 

XXX  Now  the  manuscript  numbered  "D4,"  written  by  a  Berberi 
of  Haifa,  speaks  of  the  ancient  capital  of  the  Nuba  or  Nubians — he 
uses  the  words  interchangeably — as  Gebel  el  Haraza  in  northern 
Kordofan,  and  it  is  clear  from  the  context  that  he  refers  to  the  time 
of  the  twenty-fifth  dynasty,  i.e.  "  The  Nubian  Period."  I  am  inclined 
to  think  this  is  not  so  far  from  the  truth  as  might  at  first  sight  be 
supposed.  The  people  of  the  hills  of  el  Haraza,  Abu  Hadi'd  and  Urn 
Durrag,  which  lie  some  150  miles  west  of  the  junction  of  the  Niles. 
are  still  called  Nuba  in  spite  of  the  racial  modifications  they  have 
undergone  by  admixture  with  Danagla  from  the  Nile ;  and  both  the 
hills  mentioned  and  also  the  now  uninhabited  hills  in  their  neighbour- 
hood show  plentifully  such  traces  of  ancient  occupation  as  stone 
villages  on  the  slopes  and  old  tumuli,  presumably  graves,  by  the 
sides  of  the  little  water-courses  cut  bv  the  rains  in  the  wet  season, 
and  on  the  crests  of  the  hills.  Similar  tumuli  are  to  be  found  at 
intervals  all  along  the  banks  of  the  great  Wadi  el  Mukaddam  which, 
starting  from  near  Bagbagi,  about  seventy  miles  east  of  el  Haraza, 
runs  across  the  Bayuda  desert  to  Korti  at  the  southern  end  of  the 
great  bend  of  the  Nile2. 

XXXI  From  el  Haraza  to  Korti  is  only  two  hundred  odd  miles 
and  the  journey  is  easy.  One  can  follow  the  course  of  the  Wadi  el 
Mukaddam  for  most  of  the  way  and  find  plentiful  water  at  a  shallow 

as  they  are  elsewhere  called  in  the  inscription,  were  no  doubt  the  "several  sove- 
reignties" spoken  of  by  Eratosthenes  700  years  earlier,  but  Silko  does  not  specifi- 
cally call  them  Nobadae. 

1  Sir  C.  Wilson  (p.  12)  aptly  compares  these  "  Meks"  with  the  kings  of  Palestine 
overthrown  by  Joshua. 

2  I  have  opened  some  of  these  tumuli,  but  neither  in  them  nor  under  them  have 
I  found  anything:  they  certainly  were  not  houses  and  the  only  feasible  suggestion 
that  I  can  make  is  that  they  were  cairns  made  to  protect  the  bodies  of  the  dead  from 
wild  beasts  and  that  the  action  of  wind  and  rain  percolating  among  the  boulders  of 
which  they  are  composed  and  the  ravages  of  insects  have  destroyed  all  trace  of 
flesh  and  bones  alike.  It  is  probably  to  the  custom  of  erecting  such  cairns  that 
Agatharcides  (q.v.  ap.  Strabo,  III,  34)  refers  when  he  says  that  among  the  Megabarai 
the  dead  are  tied  neck  and  heels  and  carried  to  the  top  of  a  hill  where  they  are 
pelted  with  stones  until  they  are  covered  over  (see,  however,  Bent,  p.  78).  The 
cairns  are  roughly  circular  in  shape  and  the  stones  are  entirely  unshaped. 


28  THE  NUBIANS,  THE  NUBA  1. 2.  xxxi. 

depth  all  along  it,  or  if  one  prefer  there  is  a  more  direct  route,  that 
followed  by  the  Turks  in  1821  and  by  most  of  the  Arab  caravans, 
via  the  deeper  desert  wells  of  el  Safia,  Hobagi,  and  Elai.  Further 
west  and  very  roughly  parallel  to  the  Wadi  el  Mukaddam  is  the 
similar  Wadi  el  Melik  running  from  the  Darfur  border  into  the  Nile 
at  Debba,  only  forty-five  miles  west  of  Korti. 

At  el  'Ayn  on  this  Wadi  and  at  Abu  Sufian  to  the  west  of  it  are 
similar  traces  of  human  occupation  well  known  to  the  nomads1,  and 
at  the  southern  end  of  it  near  the  Darfur  border  they  are  very  common 
indeed. 

XXXII  In  these  parts  the  underground  water  supply  has  decreased 
to  a  very  striking  extent  of  late  years,  and  that  in  ancient  days  the 
rainfall  was  considerably  more  heavy  is  proved,  I  think,  by  the 
presence  of  gigantic  baobabs  (tubeldi:  Adansonia  digitata)  that 
are  centuries  old  and  could  hardly  have  passed  through  the  early 
stages  of  growth  had  the  country  been  as  dry  as  it  now  is.  Some 
hundreds  of  years  ago  the  country  on  both  sides  of  the  two  great 
Wadis  mentioned  may  have  been  habitable  all  the  year  through2. 

XXXIII  Now  it  is  certain  that  in  past  centuries  Danagla  from  the 
Nile  have  settled  at  el  Haraza,  and  fresh  colonies  have  joined  the 
older  ones  within  recent  years3.  It  is  also  believed  by  the  people  of 
Gebel  Midob  in  Darfur,  about  140  miles  west  of  the  Wadi  el  Melik, 
that  their  ancestors  were  Mahass  and  Danagla  from  the  Nile4,  and, 
as  Professor  Seligman  has  pointed  out5,  there  are  very  close  linguistic 
resemblances  between  a  list  of  their  numerals  which  I  collected  in 
19 1 26  and  those  of  the  Barabra  on  the  river. 

Emigrant  Barabra  may  have  reached  Gebel  Midob  by  way  of 
el  Haraza  and  Kaga,  or  more  probably  by  way  of  the  Wadi  el  Melik7. 
But  if  Barabra  from  Korti  and  Debba,  which  are  between  the  third 
and  fourth  cataracts  and  only  a  few  miles  from  the  pyramids  of 
Barkal,  could  settle  at  el  Haraza,  as  we  know  they  did,  and  at  Midob, 
as  we  may  be  fairly  sure  they  did8,  there  is  no  reason  to  deny  the 
probability  of  corresponding  movements  along  the  same  lines  in  the 

1  I  have  not  visited  personally  these  two  sites. 

2  During  six  years  that  I  passed  in  northern  Kordofan  I  never  saw  a  young 
baobab  growing  self-sown.  The  Arabs  also  declare  there  is  no  such  thing  and  say 
the  "tubeldis"  date  from  the  time  of  Noah. 

3  For  details  see  MacMichael,  Tribes...,  Chap.  vi. 

4  Ibid.  Chap.  vn.  Matrilinear  descent  with  inheritance  by  the  sister's  son  still 
holds  good  at  Midob  as  it  did  in  Christian  Dongola.  See  p.  59. 

6  hoc.  cit.    Cf.  the  vocabularies  of  Kenuz  and  Nubians  given  by  Burckhardt. 

6  Published  vtxjourn.  Anthrop.  Inst,  xlii,  1912,  p.  339. 

7  Marauders  from  Mfdob  and  thereabouts  follow  this  line  in  the  rainy  season 
and  early  winter  when  raiding  the  Arabs. 

8  See  Part  I,  Chap.  4. 


1. 2.  xxxv.  AND  THE  LIBYAN  ELEMENT  29 

opposite  direction  at  other  times ,  and  I  am  strongly  inclined  to  think  that 
the  Nobatae  were  once  lords  of  the  Bayuda  and  the  country  south  of  it 
and  that  their  negro  ancestors  may  have  previously  ousted  the  Libyan 
races  therefrom,  or,  more  probably,  become  fused  with  them  in  race. 

XXXIV  The  nehes  of  Senusert  III  and  Thothmes  I,  and,  to  a 
modified  extent,  most  of  the  western  and  southern  subjects  of  the 
Nubian  dynasty  which  ruled  Egypt,  may  have  been  of  the  same  stock 
as  these  negro  ancestors-  of  the  Nobatae  and  their  partly  Libyanized 
descendants  respectively;  and  if  the  racial  substratum  was  the  same, 
it  is  natural  to  suppose  that  the  extent  and  direction  of  migration  to 
and  from  the  river  were  at  different  periods  regulated  by  the  weak- 
ness or  strength,  as  the  case  might  be,  of  other  and  hostile  races 
living  on  the  Nile. 

For  instance,  when  the  tide  of  negro  invasion  was  rolled  back 
from  northern  Nubia  in  the  time  of  the  New  Empire,  most  would 
retire  southwards  along  the  river,  but  the  presence  of  alien  Nilotic 
negroes  in  their  path,  or  other  causes,  may  have  led  a  proportion  to 
move  westwards,  where  their  kin  may  or  may  not  have  been  already 
established.  .If  the  same  stock,  as  modified  by  Libyan  admixture, 
was  strong  enough  at  a  later  date  to  support  the  Nubian  Empire  of 
Napata  it  was  by  then  probably  predominant  also  in  northern 
Kordofan,  and  a  steady  intercourse  would  naturally  exist  between 
the  riverain  and  western  groups,  until  the  third  century  B.C.  when 
Eratosthenes  spoke  of  them  collectively  as  Nov/Sat. 

In  any  case  there  is  evidence  of  a  close  connection  between  the 
negro  invaders  of  the  second  millennium  B.C.,  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
Nubians  who  conquered  Egypt  under  the  twenty-fifth  dynasty,  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Gezi'ra  at  the  same  period,  the  present  inhabitants 
of  the  Nuba  mountains  of  southern  Kordofan,  the  Nobatae  of  Lower 
Nubia,  and  the  so-called  Nuba  of  northern  Kordofan. 

XXXV  The  weakest  link  in  the  chain  is  perhaps  that  connecting 
northern  and  southern  Kordofan,  but  even  here,  at  the  present  day, 
though  the  general  physique  is  obviously  quite  different,  there  is  a 
common  fund  of  superstitions  connected  with  rainmakers  and  ser- 
pents, and  recognizable  cranial  resemblances1. 

1  Particularly  the  flattening  of  the  fronto-parietal  region.  This  was  pointed  out 
to  me  in  19 12  at  Kaga  by  Professor  Seligman  (q.v.  in  Harvard  African  Studies, 
11;  Varia  Ajricana,  11,  181).  It  may  be  worth  mentioning  in  this  connection 
that  some  years  ago  I  was  told  at  Kaga  that  the  ancient  ("Anag")  population 
used  to  bury  their  dead  upright.  Lepsius  was  told  the  same  of  Southern  Kordofan 
{Discoveries...,  pp.  221-2).  Kordofan  takes  its  name  from  the  hill  of  that  name 
close  to  el  Obeid.  As  used  by  the  natives  the  name  does  not  properly  apply  to  the 
nomad  country  to  the  north  nor  to  the  Kaga-Haraza  group  of  hills  adjoining  it  nor 
to  the  Nuba  mountains  in  the  south.    See  MacMichael,  Tribes...,  App.  1. 


3o  THE  NUBIANS,  THE  NUBA  1. 2.  xxxvi. 

XXXVI  Other  minor  points  that  possibly  serve  to  connect  the  old 
inhabitants  of  central  and  northern  Kordofan  with  the  people  who 
lived  at  the  time  of  the  twenty-fifth  dynasty  in  the  Gezira,  and  even 
east  of  it,  are,  firstly,  the  occurrence  of  tumuli,  exactly  similar  to 
those  described  above,  both  on  the  Kerreri  hills  close  to  Omdurman 
and  on  the  small  rocky  eminences,  such  as  Gebel  el  Kehayd,  round 
Wad  Hasuna  and  Abu  Delayk1,  and,  secondly,  the  similarity  between 
the  contents  of  some  middens2  I  found  at  Faragab  in  Central  Kordo- 
fan near  Bara  and  objects  found  at  Gebel  Moya  {e.g.  ostrich-egg 
beads3)  and  at  Meroe4,  and,  thirdly,  the  finding  of  flat  stone  rings 
which  may  conceivably  have  been  ceremonial  mace-heads,  or  in  some 
cases  weapons  of  offence,  but  which,  I  think,  are  more  likely  to  have 
been  weights5,   or   stands   for   round-bottomed  jars,   both  in   the 

1  Both  several  days'  journey  east  of  Khartoum. 

2  See  MacMichael,  Tribes...,  Appendix  and  Plate  XIX,  and  Seligman  in  Annals 
of  Arch,  and  Anthr.  July  1916. 

3  These  ostrich-egg  beads  also  provide  a  link  with  the  Northern  Nuba  hills. 
Pallme  (p.  156)  speaks  of  the  people  of  the  latter  (Daier,  Tekali,  etc.)  as  wearing 
round  their  loins  "a  number  of  small  buttons  of  about  the  size  of  a  shirt-button, 
made  of  the  shell  of  the  ostrich's  egg,  with  a  perforation  in  the  centre,  through 
which  a  string  is  passed,  connecting  them  together.  I  took  the  trouble,"  he  says, 
"of  counting  the  single  buttons  of  one  of  these  ribbons  in  my  possession,  and 
found  a  total  number  of  6860." 

At  the  same  time  the  use  of  ostrich-egg  beads  is  not  confined  to  the  Nuba 
stock.  The  Shilluk  men  commonly  wear  girdles  made  of  them.  They  break  the  shell 
into  irregular  bits,  pierce  the  fragment  in  the  centre,  and  then  round  off  the  edges 
by  crushing  (Westermann,  p.  xxxi). 

4  See  Seligman,  loc.  cit.,  discussing  these  resemblances,  especially  that  between 
the  types  of  pottery  at  Meroe  and  Faragab.  He  thinks  that  "  At  a  somewhat  remote 
period — perhaps  at  least  as  far  back  as  the  Ptolemaic — the  Faragab  site  was  occupied 
by  a  people  rich  in  cattle,  living  in  huts  of  grass  or  straw,  and  using  bone  points 
for  their  weapons ;  a  people  rich  in  ivory,  which  they  worked  with  implements  of 
stone." 

5  MacMichael,  loc.  cit.  Plate  II.  Some  of  these — they  are  in  the  museum  at 
Khartoum — are  porphyrite,  felsite,  gneiss,  or  granite,  i.e.  as  at  Basa,  but  most  are 
of  soft  sandstone  and  too  light  and  friable  for  use  as  weapons.  The  Nubas  of  southern 
Kordofan  use  spherical  stone-headed  clubs  (Seligman,  "A  Neolithic  Site..."  Journ. 
R.  A.  I.  XL,  1910).  The  stone  rings  from  Kayli,  of  which  I  have  collected  numbers 
and  which,  though  rougher  in  workmanship,  are  exactly  the  same  as  some  of  those 
from  northern  Kordofan,  are  dated  by  Crowfoot  from  about  A.D.  150  to  a.d.  350 
(Seligman,  loc.  cit.  p.  214). 

In  ancient  as  in  modern  Egypt  there  were  public  weighers,  and  money  was 
in  the  form  of  rings  of  gold  and  silver,  and  was  also  tested  by  its  weight.  Wilkinson, 
speaking  of  these  rings,  says :  "  And  it  is  remarkable  that  the  same  currency  is  today 
employed  in  Sennar  and  the  neighbouring  countries."  Furthermore,  he  notes, 
"The  Jews  also  weighed  their  money.  Their  weights  were  of  stone;  and  the  word 
weight  in  Hebrew. ..also  means  a  stone"  {Manners  and  Customs...,  II,  10,  11).  The 
illustrations  from  Thebes  depicted  by  Wilkinson  show  that  these  weights  were  very 
like  the  stone  rings  of  Meroe,  and  the  latter  may  possibly  have  been  made  in  imitation 
of  the  Egyptian  system.  Cp.  also  Breasted,  Hist .  p.  92,  for  the  metal  rings.  He  adds 
that  "stone  weights  were. . .marked  with  their  equivalence  in  such  rings.  This  ring 
money  is  the  oldest  currency  known."  The  most  ancient  coinage  of  Darfur  also 
took  the  form  of  rings.   "  Le  premier  genre  de  numeraire  qui  fut  etabli  au  Darfour, 


1. 2.  xxxix.  AND  THE  LIBYAN  ELEMENT  31 

northern  hills  of  Kordofan,  at  Gebel  Moya,  Gebel  Kayli  (on  the 
Khartoum-Kassala  road),  in  front  of  the  altar  at  Basa1,  and  in  fact 
all  over  the  Island  of  Meroe. 

XXXVII  One  may  say  then  that  when  the  Muhammadan  Arabs 
invaded  Lower  Nubia  in  the  seventh  century  a.d.  they  found  there 
a  race  radically  compounded  of  pre-dynastic  Egyptian  and  cognate 
Hamitic  elements  blended  with  dynastic  Egyptian  and  Libyan  stocks 
and  deeply  and  repeatedly  modified  by  forty  centuries  of  dilution 
with  Negro  blood2.  One  of  the  two  main  Negro  strains  was  probably 
derived  from  Kordofan  and  the  Gezi'ra  and  in  classical  times  had 
been  represented  in  modified  form  by  the  Nobatae  or  Nuba. 

XXXVIII  As  further  evidence  of  a  fusion  of  Nuba  and  Libyan 
elements  in  the  Bayuda  and  west  of  it  another  fact  may  be  cited. 

So  late  as  the  seventeenth  century  a.d.3  the  Bayuda  was  still 
known,  as  it  had  been  a  century  earlier  to  Leo  Africanus,  as  the 
Desert  of  Goran,  or  Gorham,  or  Gorhan,  a  name  connected  with 
"Kora'an"  and,  as  I  believe,  with  "Garama"  and  " Garamantes4." 

XXXIX  These  Kura'an  ("Guraan"),  whom  el  Hamdani5,  by  the 
way,  includes  with  the  Nuba,  Zing  and  Zaghawa  as  descendants  of 
Canaan,  son  of  Ham,  are  a  mixture  of  Tibbu  and  negro  and  at  the 
present  day  they  form  a  large  nomadic  section  of  that  race  in  the 
deserts  north  of  Darfiir  and  Wadai6,  and  are  commonly  spoken  of 
as  "Tibbu  Kura'an."   Their  language  is  a  dialect  of  Tibbu. 

Of  the  Tibbu  Keane  says : 

The  Tibu  themselves,  apparently  direct  descendants  of  the  ancient 
Garamantes,  have  their  primeval  home  in  the  Tibesti  range,  i.e.  the  "  Rocky 
Mountains,"  whence  they  take  their  name  (Ti-bu  =  "Rock  People"). 
There  are  two  distinct  sections,  the  northern  Tedas,  a  name  recalling 
the  Tedamansii,  a  branch  of  Garamantes  located  by  Ptolemy  somewhere 

le  fut  par  les  habitants  du  Facher....Ils  prirent  pour  monnaie  des  anneaux  d'etain..." 
(Tunisi,  Voy.  au  Ddrfour,  p.  315).  On  the  whole,  however,  I  lean  to  the  theory 
that  these  rings  of  stone  were  simply  stands  on  which  to  balance  jars  (Crowfoot  in 
Sudan  Notes  and  Records,  Apr.  1920,  p.  91). 

1  Crowfoot,  "Island  of  Meroe"  (Mem.  XIX,  Arch.  Surv.  Nub.  pp.  16,  17, 
and  Plate  XI). 

2  Cp.  Elliot  Smith,  Arch.  Surv.  Nubia,  Bull,  in,  1909,  pp.  22  ff. 

3  See  R.  Blome's  Geographical  Description...  (1670)  quoted  in  the  Hakluyt  ed. 
of  Leo  Africanus,  1,  28. 

4  I  have  discussed  this  subject  more  fully  in  an  Appendix  to  The  Tribes  of 
Northern  and  Central  Kordofan. 

5  See  Makrizi,  Khetdt,  11,  571. 

6  The  name  Kura'an  also  occurs  in  Arabia  as  that  of  a  section  of  Huwaytat  near 
Diba  on  the  Red  Sea  coast.  Burton  {Land  of  Midian,  n,  97)  mentions  these  people: 
he  says  that  the  port  of  Dumaygha  belongs  to  the  Beli  ("Baliyy")  who  are  "mixed 
with  a  few  Kura'an-Huwaytat  and  Karaizah-Hutaym."  Burckhardt  (Nubia,  p.  510), 
commenting  on  the  passage  from  el  Hamdani,  says:  "The  Negroe  Moslims  to  this 
day  apply  the  name  of  Koran  indiscriminately  to  all  the  pagan  Negro  nations." 


32  THE  NUBIANS,  THE  NUBA  I.  2.  xxxix. 

between   Tripolitana  and  Phazania  (Fezzan);  and  the  Southern  Dazas, 
through  whom  the  Tibu  merge  gradually  in  the  negroid  populations  of 
[the]  central  Sudan.  This  intermingling  with  the  blacks  dates  from  remote 
times,  whence  Ptolemy's  remark  that  the  Garamantes  seemed  rather  more 
"Ethiopians"  than  Libyans The  full-blood  Tibus...are  true  Hamites1. 

XL  The  accounts  given  by  Herodotus,  Ptolemy  and  Pomponius 
Mela2  give  an  impression  of  the  Garamantes  as  a  nomad  race  extend- 
ing from  north  of  Fezzan  as  far  south  as  Nubia. 

Herodotus  says:  "The  Garamantians  have  four-horse  chariots  in 
which  they  chase  the  Troglodyte  Ethiopians3,"  and  Ptolemy  "Some 
very  great  races  inhabit  Labya,  namely  that  of  the  Garamantes  which 
extends  from  the  sources  of  the  river  Bagrada  as  far  as  the  lake  of 
Nuba,"...&c.4 

XLI  Again,  more  than  a  millennium  later,  we  have  Leo  (fi.  1513-15) 
saying5: 

Nubia... is  enclosed  on  the  south  side  with  the  desert  of  Goran.  The 
king  of  Nubia  maintaineth  continuall  warre  partly  against  the  people  of 
Goran  (who  being  descended  of  the  people  called  Zingani6  inhabite  the 
deserts  and  speaks  a  kinde  of  language  that  no  other  nation  vnderstandeth) 
and  partly  against  certain  other  people...  (i.e.  the  "Bugiha"  or  Bega7). 

XLII  On  the  strength  of  these  quotations  alone,  one  would,  I 
think,  be  justified  in  assuming  that,  just  as  for  many  years  before 
the  Christian  era  there  had  been  contact  and  fusion  between  the 
dark  Nubians  and  the  Libyan  races  descended  from  the  Temehu  in 
the  country  between  Dongola  and  Darfur,  so,  too,  in  the  Christian 
period  there  was  similar  contact  between  the  Nuba  (Nobatae)  and 
the  Tibbu  in  that  region. 

1  Man:  Past  and  Present,  p.  474.  The  latest  anthropological  researches  in  no 
way  clash  with  Keane's  view.  MM.  Gaillard  and  Poutrin,  authors  of  £tude  anthro- 
pologique  des  populations  des  regions  du  Tchad  et  du  Kanem,  agree  that  they  are 
largely  Berbers,  and  measurements  shewed  that  they  "belong  to  a  physical  type 
closely  resembling  the  Nigritians  of  the  Sahara"  (Review  in  Man,  March  1915). 
Carette  (loc.  cit.  p.  312)  also  says  that  the  Tibbu  and  Tuwarek  are  by  origin  Lamta 
Berbers.  Nachtigal  regarded  them  as  a  "population  intermediate  between  the 
indigenous  peoples  of  North  Africa  and  the  Negroes  of  the  Sudan  "  (Vol.  11  of  Sah. 
und  Sudan,  quoted  by  Carbou,  1,  120). 

2  De  Situ  Orbis,  ch.  iv.  3  Bk.  iv,  chaps.  174,  183. 

4  Bk.  IV,  p.  742.  kclI  /jLiyuTTa  /xiv  '£Qvt)  KaTavi/ierai  r-qv  Ai(3u7jv  rb  re  tQv  Tapa- 
fxdvTUJV  dirJKOv  atrb  ruv  rod  Ra.ypa.5a  irorafxov  irriyGiv  p.ixPL  TVS  Nou/3ci  \lp.vr)S...Kai 

5  11,  836.  For  the  Zingani  see  p.  56.  Marmol's  version  of  the  passage  quoted 
is :  "  Le  prince  [i.e.  of  Dongola]  a  guerre  ordinairement  tantost  contre  ceux  de 
Gorhan,  qui  est  une  espece  d'Egyptiens  qui  courent  par  les  deserts  et  parlent  un 
langage  particulier,  tantost  contre  les  peuples  qui  demeurent  au  Levant  du  Nil 
dans  le  desert"  (trans.  Perrot,  in,  71  ff.).    Marmol  flourished  about  1520. 

6  Leo's  original  is  "una  generazione  di  zingani"  (see  Carbou,  1,  118). 

7  For  further  remarks  on  the  I£ura'an  of  the  present  day  see  Chap.  4  of  this  Part. 


i.2.xliv.  AND  THE  LIBYAN  ELEMENT 


33 


A  strong  argument  for  the  hypothesis  is  also  provided  by  the  case, 
already  quoted,  of  Gebel  Midob,  where  we  have  a  negro-Hamitic 
population  claiming  relationship  with  the  Nubians  of  the  Nile  and 
speaking  a  language  akin  to  that  of  the  latter1. 

XLIII  Further  evidence  is  perhaps  to  be  found  in  the  rock-pictures 
at  Shalashi2  one  of  the  small  hills  composing  the  Haraza  range  on  the 
southern  fringe  of  the  meeting-ground  of  the  two  races.  These  are 
very  similar  in  type  to  those  which  occur  elsewhere  throughout  that 
portion  of  North  Africa  which  has  been  principally  subjected  to 
Libyan  influences3. 

XLIV  At  what  date  the  modified  Nuba  stock  in  northern  Kordofan 
was  replaced  in  the  plains  by  the  nomad  Arabs  it  is  hard  to  say,  but 
the  Kababish  insist  that  only  some  five  or  six  generations  ago  their 
grandfathers  were  still  engaged  in  extirpating  "Nuba"  from  the 
small  and  less  easily  defensible  hills.  The  country  is  so  eminently 
suitable  for  camel-breeding  that  the  Arab  is  not  likely  to  have  over- 
looked it  when  he  first  began  to  settle  in  the  Sudan.  The  orographical, 
hydrographical  and  climatic  conditions  and  the  vegetation  of 
northern  and  central  Kordofan  all  wonderfully  resemble  those  of 
the  Arabian  highlands :  it  is  a  land  of  steppes  and  pasture  with  suffi- 
cient water  obtainable  for  the  scanty  needs  of  the  nomad :  it  is  not 
given  over  to  the  agriculturist  and  there  are  no  great  mountain  chains 
to  impede  free  roaming.    But  in  Leo's  time,  early  in  the  sixteenth 

1  The  case  of  the  Birked  of  south-central  Darfur,  who  also  speak  a  language 
closely  akin  to  that  of  the  Barabra  will  be  dealt  with  in  Chap.  4  of  this  Part. 

2  Lejean  saw  them  and  gave  a  highly  fanciful  and  misleading  description  of 
them,  which  is  quoted  by  Hartmann  in  Die  Nigritier  (Berlin,  1876,  p.  41).  I  copied 
them  as  closely  as  I  could  in  1908,  and  published  the  result  with  some  notes  in 
Journ.  Anthr.  Inst,  xxxix,  1909.  They  are  quite  distinct  in  type  to  the  rudely  engraved 
(or  sometimes  painted)  "uncouth  outlines  in  shepherd's  ruddle"  which  occur  on 
other  hills  at  el  Haraza,  near  Foga  in  western  Kordofan,  at  G.  Daier  on  the  northern 
fringe  of  Dar  Nuba,  in  Somaliland,  in  Arabia,  and  all  over  the  Tuwarek  country, 
and  which  by  the  inclusion  of  the  camel  prove  themselves  not  earlier  than  the 
beginning  of  the  Christian  era,  and  may  be  much  more  recent  since  the  natives  of 
the  present  day  in  the  Sudan  draw  such,  e.g.  on  the  walls  of  rooms.  The  pictures 
at  Shalashi  are  full  of  life  and  movement  and  are  graceful  and  well  proportioned : 
they  are  in  red  and  white  pigment,  and  represent  men  on  horseback;  also  giraffes 
and  hyenas.  See  U  Anthropologic,  xn,  1901  (Flamand)  for  pictures  of  this  type; 
and  for  the  ruder  type  U Anthropologic,  vin,  1897  (Flamand);  xvn,  1906  (Carette- 
Bouvet);  xv,  1904  (Gautier) ;  Journ.  Anthr.  Inst,  xliv,  1914  (Zeltner);  etc. 

3  One  of  the  ancient  place-names  in  the  same  locality  is  also  curiously  suggestive. 
At  Kaga,  some  100  miles  west  of  el  Haraza,  is  a  large  outstanding  hill  called  Bakalai, 
a  name  which  recalls  a  passage,  following  on  mention  of  the  island  of  Meroe  and 
the  tribes  south  of  it,  in  Ptolemy's  Geography:  "In  the  rest  of  the  country,  but 
farther  west  of  the  Ethiopian  hills,  in  the  sandy  and  waterless  region,  dwell  the 
races  of  Phazania  [Fezzan]  and  Bakalitis."  See  Ptolemy,  Bk.  ill,  p.  783,  ed.  Miiller : 
to.  8e  Xot7rd  tt\%  x^Pas  8v<rfAix<^T£Pa  ^  T&v  AldioiriKuv  dpewv  ko.t€xovo~l  fxera  rrjv  8la.fj.fjt.ov  Kal 
ajipoxov  x<*>p°-v  oi  Kara  tt\v  $>a£ai>iav  /cat  Ba KaXlnv.  Barth  (iv,  580)  identifies  Ptolemy's 
Bakalitis  with  Wargela,  far  to  the  north. 

M.S.I.  3 


34  I-  2.  XLIV. 

century,  it  seems  to  have  been  still  held  by  the  darker  people  whose 
affinities  we  have  discussed.  In  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries  the  Arab  element  entered  the  country  from  two  sides.  In 
the  first  place  the  nomads  came  in  from  the  direction  of  Dongola 
and  soon  obtained  a  predominance  in  the  plains  north  of  the  latitude 
of  Kaga.  Here  at  the  present  day  the  so-called  Nuba,  whose  type 
ranges  from  the  negroid  to  the  debased  Arab,  and  a  smattering  of 
Danagla,  hold  only  the  largest  of  the  hills,  el  Haraza,  Kaga,  Katul, 
Um  Durrag,  and  Abu  Hadid,  which  alone  possess  a  water  supply 
sufficient  to  support  their  population.  They  live  in  comparative  amity 
with  the  nomads,  and  are  not  afraid  to  place  their  villages  at  the  foot 
of  the  hills  instead  of,  as  previously,  on  the  slopes,  and  to  cultivate 
and  graze  in  the  plain.  In  a  few  generations  they  seem  likely  to  be 
indistinguishable  from  the  sedentary  inhabitants  of  central  Kordofan. 
XLV  In  the  second  place,  in  the  sixteenth  century  the  allied  forces 
of  Fung  and  Arab,  having  taken  Soba  and  Kerri  from  the  'Anag  or 
Nuba  and  founded  the  kingdom  of  Sennar,  began  to  push  north- 
wards and  westwards.  By  the  middle  of  the  following  century  they 
had  begun  definitely  to  assert  themselves  in  central  Kordofan.  The 
population  there  in  all  probability  was  still  essentially  Nuba,  but  it 
may  already  have  become  to  some  extent  adulterated  with  the  negroid 
Darfurian  races1,  some  remnants  of  whom  still  exist  in  the  northern 
hills  and  further  south. 

1  Q.v.  Chap.  4.  For  an  account  of  the  people  of  el  Haraza,  Kaga,  etc.  see 
Chap.  VI  of  my  Tribes  of  Northern  and  Central  Kordofan.  They  are  still  known  as 
Nuba  and  the  common  people  call  themselves  so.  Their  subdivisions  shew  traces 
of  totemistic  origin:  five  of  them  are  named  respectively  (in  Arabic)  "  Cattlefolk," 
"Ratfolk,"  "Sheepfolk,"  "Woodfolk,"  "Horsefolk."  For  this  subject  refer  to 
Robertson  Smith,  pp.  186  ff.  and  217  ff.,  and  for  other  examples  see  p.  94  et  passim. 


[35] 


CHAPTER  3 
The  Bega,  the  Blemyes  and  the  Nuba  of  Meroe 

I  Let  us  now  turn  to  the  Eastern  Desert  between  the  river  and 
the  Red  Sea. 

II  Here  lived  in  the  seventh  century  the  Hamitic  Bega,  who  in 
the  far  distant  mists  of  antiquity  may  have  come  from  Arabia1,  and 
who  in  their  present  form  still  largely  resemble  the  pre-dynastic 
Egyptian  type. 

At  the  present  day  the  Bisharin,  Hadendoa  and  Beni  'Amir  are 
the  three  great  tribes  which  represent  the  Bega. 

The  two  former  still  speak  To-Bedawi;  but  the  latter,  who  live 
further  south  on  the  confines  of  Abyssinia,  speak  the  Semitic  Tigre, 
and  "from  the  national  standpoint... are  less  homogeneous  than  the 
Hadendoa  and  kindred  tribes,"  and  physically  differ  distinctly  from 
the  other  Bega.  There  is  a  "steady  rise  in  the  cephalic  index  from 
747  in  the  south  (Beni  Amer)  to  79  in  the  north  (Bisharin)."  The 
Beni  'Amir  are  shorter  and  shew  less  trace  of  Negro  and  Armenoid 
admixture  than  the  others.  They  are  "the  most  dolichocephalic  of 
modern  Bega2."  Professor  Seligman  considers  that  the  Hadendoa 
are  representatives  of  the  Beni  'Amir  stock  modified  chiefly  by 
miscegenation  with  the  tall  negroes  of  the  Nile  Valley,  and  also,  in 
all  probability,  with  the  quite  alien  long-bearded,  round-headed 
Armenoid  population  which  since  the  third  millennium  B.C.,  if  not 
earlier,  exerted  a  profound  influence  on  Egypt  as  the  immediate 
result  of  the  ever-increasing  intercourse  with  northern  Syria3.  He 
holds  that  the  Hadendoa  and  Bisharin  owe  the  fact  of  their  being 
more  round-headed  than  the   Beni   'Amir  to  their  subjection  to 

1  Seligman,  Journ.  Anthr.  Inst.  1913,  xliii,  595. 

2  Seligman,  loc.  cit.  pp.  598-610. 

s  Elliot  Smith,  The  Ancient  Egyptians,  pp.  60,  95,  135;  Seligman,  loc.  cit. 
p.  603.  The  various  Armenoid  groups  of  Asia  Minor  "are  all  descended  from  tribes 
belonging  to  the  great  Hittite  Empire"  (von  Luschan,  "The  Early  Inhabitants  of 
Western  Asia,"  Journ.  Anthrop.  Inst,  xli,  191 1,  p.  242).  Of  these  Hittites 
von  Luschan  {loc.  cit.  p.  243)  says  they  were  settled  in  Western  Asia  when  "about 
4000  B.C.  began  a  Semitic  invasion  from  the  south-east,  probably  from  Arabia,  by 
people  looking  like  modern  Bedawy.  Two  thousand  years  later  began  a  second 
invasion,  this  time  from  the  north-west,  by  xanthocroous  and  longheaded  tribes 
like  the  modern  Kurds,  half  savage,  and  in  some  way  or  other,  perhaps,  connected 
with  the  historic  Harri,  Amorites,  Temehu,  and  Galatians." 

3—2 


36  THE  BEGA,  THE  BLEMYES  I.  3. 11. 

Armenoid  influences  and  not  to  immigration  by  the  brachycephalic 
Arab  population  of  the  Hegaz  and  the  Yemen  because 

where  the  Semite  (Arab)  and  Hamite  have  mixed  the  latter  have  ever 
adopted  the  language  of  the  former,  and  when  mixed  people  have  arisen 
I  think  it  can  be  said  that  they  are  more  Arab  than  Hamite.  It  is  clear 
that  nothing  of  this  sort  has  happened  in  the  Red  Sea  Province  of  the 
Sudan.... It  is  obvious  that  while  the  Bisharin  have  been  most  modified 
by  the  foreign  round-headed  element,  the  Beni  Amer  are  the  least  in- 
fluenced, so  that,  broadly  speaking,  their  physical  characters  may  be  taken 
to  be  those  of  the  original  Bega  inhabitants  of  the  eastern  desert1. 

III  One  notes  in  this  conjunction  that  non-Bega  traditions,  as 
preserved  in  the  native  nisbas,  are  united  in  attributing  to  the 
Beni  'Amir  an  Arab  descent  which  is  denied  to  the  Bisharin  and 
Hadendoa  :  "  Beni  'Amir  "  too  is  a  purely  Arab  name.  If  the  greater 
brachycephaly  of  the  Bisharin  and  Hadendoa  were  due  to  Arab 
immigration  it  is  not  unlikely  that  the  fact  would  have  been  reflected, 
rather  than  tacitly  contradicted,  in  the  traditions. 

IV  A  comparison  between  the  physical  characteristics  of  the  Bega 
of  the  present  and  of  the  pre-dynastic  Egyptians  and  the  Nubian 
contemporaries  of  the  latter  shews  very  marked  resemblances  to  exist, 
and,  as  Professor  Seligman  says, 

it  seems... that  it  is  justifiable  to  regard  the  Beni  Amer,  the  least  modified 
of  the  Bega  tribes,  as  the  modern  representatives  of  the  old  pre-dynastic 
(and  Nubian)  stock,  and  it  further  appears  that  the  modification  under- 
gone by  the  latter  during  a  period  of  some  7000  or  more  years  is  extremely 
small2. 

V  Very  closely  related  to  the  Bega  tribes  are  the  'Ababda,  whose 
habitat  is  from  Aswan  and  Kena  to  the  Red  Sea  and  of  whom  a 
lesser  branch  live  east  of  Berber. 

Reisner  compares  them  with  the  Middle  Nubians  ("C  Group") 
on  the  one  hand  and  with  the  present-day  Beduin  of  Lower  Egypt 
on  the  other.  Like  the  former  they  have  been  "metamorphosed  by 
a  cross  with  the  negro  "  and  therefore  resemble  the  Barabra  in  race3 ; 
but  if  tradition  be  any  guide  they  have  more  Arab  blood  in  their 
veins  than  the  Barabra4. 

VI  One  may  say  then,  in  short,  that  when  the  Arabs  invaded  the 

1  Seligman,  toe.  cit.  pp.  603,  604. 

2  hoc.  czr  ^pp.  606,  607. 

3  GiuffridaT^uggeri,  loc.  cit.  pp.  51-54. 

4  See  Part  IV  (index),  and  cp.  G.  A.  Hoskins  quoted  by  Cameron  {Journ. 
Anthr.  Inst.  Feb.  1887,  "  On  the  Tribes  of  the  Eastern  Sudan  ")•  In  one  case  at  least 
a  whole  section  of  them  have  joined  a  nomad  Sudanese  Arab  tribe,  viz.  the  Kawahla 
in  Kordofan,  en  bloc  and  to  all  intents  become  an  integral  part  of  them.  (See 
Part  III,  Chap.  9.) 


I.  3.  viii.  AND  THE  NUBA  OF  MEROE  37 

eastern  desert  they  met  in  the  interior  a  race  of  Proto-Egyptian  origin 
which  was  more  modified  in  the  north  by  Negro  and  Armenoid 
influences  than  in  the  south  and  which  was  distinctly  akin  to  the 
riverain  peoples.  It  may  be  added,  and  further  justification  will 
appear  later  for  the  statement,  that  if  there  are  not  traces  of  Him- 
yaritic  infusion  to  be  found  among  the  more  southernly  of  these 
Bega  tribes,  it  is  a  very  remarkable  fact. 

VII  Now  in  the  classical  period  there  are  frequent  allusions  to 
a  people  called  the  Blemyes  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Nile.  These 
Blemyes  have  commonly  been  assumed  to  represent  the  same  people 
as  the  Bega,  but  hitherto  this  has  remained  "a  mere  theory,  at 
present  undemonstrated1." 

VIII  Claudian2  (born  c.  365  A.D.),  Ammianus  Marcellinus3  (c.  320- 
390  a.d.),  Sulpicius  Severus4,  Palladius5  and  Olympiodorus6  refer  to 
the  Blemyes  as  close  to  Syene  (Aswan)  and  the  cataracts. 

Olympiodorus  actually  visited  their  country  between  407  and 
425  a.d.:  he  specifies  Primis  (Ibrim,  60  to  70  miles  below  Haifa)  as 
their  last  city  on  the  Nile;  and  the  inscription  of  Silko,  who  warred 
with  them  in  the  sixth  century,  corroborates  this7.  It  is  also  clear 
that  they  were  a  race  of  invaders  holding  in  subjection  the  older 
Nubian  and  negro  population8,  and  practically  dominating  the  whole 
of  the  Thebaid9. 

The  name  of  Blemyes  was,  however,  also  applied  to  the  desert 
nomads,  presumably  Bega,  near  the  Red  Sea,  for  we  read  in  the  Acts 
of  the  Martyrs  of  Rai'the10  of  some  three  hundred  Blemyes  embarking 
about  378  a.d.  on  a  vessel  of  Aila  which  they  had  taken  near  the 
Ethiopian  coast  and  sailing  along  the  Red  Sea  to  attack  Rai'the.  But 
it  would  not  be  legitimate  to  insist  for  this  reason  that  the  nomads  of 

1  Crowfoot,  "The  Island  of  Meroe,"  Arch.  Surv.  Nubia,  xix,  35. 

2  Carmen  de  Nilo,  v,  19: 

"  Inde  vago  lapsu  Libyam  dispersus  in  omnem 
Aethiopum  per  mille  ruit  nigrantia  regna, 
Et  loca  continuo  Solis  damnata  vapore 
Inrorat,  populisque  salus  sitientibus  errat, 
Per  Meroen,  Blemyasque  feros,  atramque  Syenen." 

3  Bk.  xiv,  Ch.  iv,  sect.   3.     (Also  quoted  by  Quatremere,   II  {Mem.  sur  les 
Blemmyes),  from  Etymologicon  Magnum,  p.  13.) 

4  Vitae  Patrum,  p.  542  {ap.  Quatremere,  loc.  cit.,  and  Letronne). 

5  Hist.  Lausiac.  {ap.  Quatremere,  loc.  cit.,  and  Letronne). 

6  Ap.  Photium,  Bibliothec.  Cod.  lxxx,  p.  194  {ap.  Quatremere,  loc.  cit.). 

7  See  Chap.  1. 

8  H.  R.  Hall,  Review  of  the  Publications  of  the  E.  B.  Coxe,  Jnr.  Expedition 
to  Nubia,  Matt,  May  1912. 

9  See  Milne,  p.  81. 

10  Illustrium  Christi  Martyrum  lecti  triumphi,  pp.  107-109,  quoted  by  Letronne 
{loc.  cit.)  and  Quatremere,  11,  130  and  133.   Rai'the  is  near  Sinai. 


38  THE  BEGA,  THE  BLEMYES  1. 3.  vm. 

the  eastern  desert  really  bore  this  name  as  it  was  common  to  mis- 
apply some  known  name  to  any  unknown  folk  who  appeared  similar1. 

Eratosthenes2,  Theocritus3,  Ptolemaeus4,Procopius5  and  Vopiscus6 
refer  to  the  Blemyes  in  terms  which  would  make  their  main  habitat 
round  Aswan  extend  much  further  southwards  and  eastwards  towards 
the  territories  of  Axum  and  Adulis,  and  are  clearly  referring  to  the 
country  which  we  know  was  peopled  then  as  now  by  Bega7. 

The  inscriptions  of  Axum  and  Adulis,  though  enumerating  the 
peoples  between  Abyssinia  and  Egypt  who  were  conquered  by  the 
king  of  Axum,  make  no  mention  of  the  Blemyes  by  name,  but  speak 
instead  of  Tangaites  and  Bogaites  (Bega). 

IX  One  concludes,  therefore,  with  Letronne,  that  the  people  who 
called  themselves  Blemyes  lived  chiefly  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile 
below  Nubia  on  the  confines  of  Egypt,  and  the  people  of  the  east  and 
south-east  between  the  Nile  and  the  Red  Sea,  to  whom  the  historians 
mentioned  vaguely  gave  the  same  name,  called  themselves  something 
else.  In  fact,  early  Christian  writers  were  very  haphazard  in  their 
nomenclature  and  used  the  name  Blemyes  to  represent  the  Bega 
who  seemed  to  be  much  the  same  type  of  people. 

X  The  Bega  were  essentially  a  nomad  folk  and  the  Blemyes 
primarily  sedentary  and  riverain8,  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that 
the  Blemyes  were  originally  a  branch  of  the  Bega  who  had  settled 
on  the  river  and  abandoned  the  nomadic  life. 

A  similar  tendency  has  been  and  still  is  very  marked  all  along  the 
Nile  valley.  It  has  already  been  suggested  that  there  was  probably 
a  similar  connection  at  one  time  on  the  western  side  between  the 
riverain  Nubians  and  the  nomad  Nobatae;  and  in  more  modern 
times  the  forbears  of  many  of  the  "Arabs"  at  present  settled  on 
the  river  were  wont  a  few  generations  ago  to  lead  a  nomad  life  inland. 

This  is  not  to  deny  many  cases  of  a  movement  in  the  contrary 

1  Letronne  (loc.  cit.).  2  Ap.  Strabo,  p.  786. 

3  Idyll,  vii,  114: 

"  iv  de  dipei  TrvfiaTouri  Trap  AidibireacL  vofj-euois 
irirpQ  vtto  TSXe/jiuuv,  66ev  ovk^tl  NeiXos  Sparos." 

Theocritus  was  born  290  B.C.  and  died  very  old. 

4  Bk.  iv,  Ch.  vm.   He  follows  Eratosthenes.    His  date  is  about  500-565  a.d. 

8  De  Bella  Persico,  1,  19,  p.  59.  He  places  them  east  of  the  Nile  between  Axum 
and  Elephantine  (Aswan). 

6  In  Hist.  Augnstae  Scriptores,  pp.  220  and  239,  quoted  by  Quatremere,  loc. 
cit.,  and  Letronne,  loc.  cit. 

7  Letronne,  loc.  cit. 

8  Woolley  and  McIver  have  shown  that  the  old  ruin  called  Karan6g  near  Ibrim 
was  the  castle  of  a  Blemyan  chief.  See  Karandg:  the  Cemetery  (1910)  and  Karandg : 
the  Tozvn  (191 1)  in  the  Publications  of  the  E.  B.  Coxe,  Jnr.  Expedition  to  Nubia, 
Univ.  Museum,  Philadelphia  (reviewed  by  H.  R.  Hall  in  Man,  May  1912). 


I.  3.  xi.  AND  THE  NUBA  OF  MEROE  39 

direction :  the  two  tendencies  may  even  be  at  work  contemporaneously, 
and  the  movement  is  definitely  directed  one  way  or  the  other  at  any 
particular  period  by  the  political  conditions  of  the  moment. 

XI  Whenever  mention  is  made  of  Bega  or  Blemyes  by  classical 
or  mediaeval  historians  it  is,  I  believe,  always  in  connection  with  the 
eastern  bank  of  the  river  and  the  eastern  deserts.  There  is  hardly  a  sug- 
gestion that  there  were  also  Bega  or  Blemyes  to  the  west  of  the  river. 
A  passage  in  Pomponius  Mela  would  naturally  be  taken,  as 
Quatremere1  and  Letronne  apparently  do  take  it,  to  mean  that  the 
Blemyes,  or  rather  some  of  them,  were  west  of  the  Nile:  he  says: 

Above  those  parts  which  are  washed  by  the  Libyan  sea  are  the  Egyptian 
Libyans  and  the  Leucoaethiopes  and  the  large  nation  of  the  Getuli  with 
its  numerous  branches.  Beyond  these  is  a  vast  empty  region,  uninhabitable 
throughout  its  length.  Beyond  it  again  [are  other  races].  Beginning  from 
the  east  these  are  first  the  Garamantae,  then  the  Augilae  and  the  Troglo- 
dytae,  and  lastly  and  furthest  west  the  Atlantes.  Further  inland  are  people 
who,  if  one  may  believe  it,  are  scarcely  human,  but  rather  half-wild-beasts, 
the  Aegipanes  and  Blemmyae  and  Gamphafantes  and  Satyri,  who  wander 
about  without  any  settled  habitation  and  may  be  said  rather  to  occupy 
than  to  dwell  in  the  country  2. 

But  this  passage  does  not  necessarily  bear  the  interpretation  that 
the  Blemyes  were  west  of  the  Nile,  and  if  it  did  need  not  be  accepted 
as  strictlv  accurate,  for  as  we  have  seen  there  is  the  evidence  of  a 
perfect  host  of  writers  to  the  contrary.  If  Mela  thought  that  the 
bulk  of  the  Blemyes  were  west  of  the  Nile  he  was  certainly  wrong : 
if  he  did  not  the  passage  has  no  value  as  evidence  that  they  were 
there.  Strabo,  who  ascended  the  Nile  with  Aelius  Gallus  in  24  B.C., 
quotes  Eratosthenes  to  the  following  effect3: 

Lower  down,  on  either  side  of  Meroe,  along  the  Nile  [and]  towards 
the  Red  Sea,  are  Megabari  and  Blemyes,  subject  to  the  Ethiopians  and 

1  11,  128.  "Pomponius  Mela...les  place  dans  l'interieur  de  l'Afrique  au  dela 
les  Garamantes." 

2  "  Super  ea  quae  Libyco  mari  abluuntur  Libyes  Aegyptii  sunt,  et  Leuco- 
aethiopes et  natio  frequens  multiplexque  Getuli.  Deinde  late  vacat  regio  perpetuo 
tractu  inhabitabilis.  Turn  primos  ab  oriente  Garamantas,  post  Augilas  et  Troglo- 
dytas  et  ultimos  ad  occasum  Atlantas  audimus.  Intra  (si  credere  libet)  vix  iam 
homines  magisque  semiferi  Aegipanes  et  Blemmyae  et  Gamphasantes  et  Satyri 
sine  tectis  passim  ac  sedibus  vagi  habent  potius  terras  quam  habitent."  (Pomp. 
Mela,  de  Situ  Orbis,  Ch.  iv.) 

3  to.  8t  Karwrepw  eKartpudev  MepoTjs,  irapa  /J.iv  to"  XetXoc  irpbs  tt)v  ''Eipvdpav  2iley&f3apot 
Kal  BX^/xues,   Aidioiruv  VTraKovvres  AiyvTrriois  5'  o/J.opoi...e$  apurrepQit  5t...8cc.  (Strabo, 

XVII,  I,  53)- 

Budge  (II,  174)  says  of  the  "tribes  of  the  Eastern  Desert"  about  the  third  century 
"it  is  said  that  these  tribes  had  settlements  even  in  the  oasis  of  Kharga,"  but  no 
authority  for  the  statement  is  quoted.  Makrizi  (Khetdt,  561-571)  quotes  a  very 
full  description  of  the  Bega  from  Ibn  Selim,  who  lived  in  the  tenth  century,  but 
there  is  no  hint  in  it  of  any  Bega  west  of  the  Nile. 


4o  THE  BEGA,  THE  BLEMYES  i.  3.  xi. 

neighbours  of  the  Egyptians... but  on  the  left  side  of  the  course  of  the  Nile 
live  the  Noubai..."  (etc.,  as  quoted  in  Chap.  2). 

XII  Having  once  settled  on  the  river  the  Blemyes  were  strongly 
influenced  by  the  contemporary  Ethiopian  civilization  of  Meroe. 

"It  is  certain,"  says  Crowfoot,  "that  in  the  fifth  century  or  earlier 
Kinglets  of  the  Blemyes  used  the  Greek  tongue  and  aped  much  of  the 
complicated  ceremonial  of  a  Byzantine  court...  by  virtue  of  a  common  script 
and  mutual  indebtedness  to  Egypt  they  stand  in  close  relation  with  the 
rulers  of  Meroe1." 

XIII  The  account  given  by  Olympiodorus  at  the  beginning  of  the 
fifth  century,  the  terms  of  the  peace  recorded  by  Priscus  as  made  a 
few  years  later  between  them  and  the  Romans,  and  the  inscription 
of  Talmis  in  the  following  century  prove  that  they  were  still  pagans 
about  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century.  Apparently  they  worshipped 
Isis  at  Philae  previous  to  their  conversion2.  But  Procopius,  writing 
about  the  middle  of  the  same  century,  and  mentioning  this,  also  adds 
that  they  used  to  sacrifice  men  to  the  Sun3,  and  it  is  almost  certain 
that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  their  chief  religious  place  was  at  Talmis 
where  the  temple  is  known  to  have  been  sacred  to  the  Sun  worshipped 
under  the  name  of  Mandoulis,  and  that  for  that  reason  Talmis  was 
chosen  by  the  invading  Silko  as  the  site  for  his  inscription4. 

The  Blemyes  may  have  been  converted  to  Christianity  as  a  result 
of  Silko's  expedition,  or  perhaps  he  or  his  successors  so  crushed  them 
that  they  ceased  to  exist  as  a  separate  race.  In  any  case,  when  the 
Muhammadans,  less  than  a  century  later,  invaded  the  country  south 
of  Aswan  we  hear  nothing  of  "Blemyes,"  and  the  population  was 
simply  "Nuba"  and  Christian5. 

XIV  An  even  more  difficult  problem  is  presented  by  the  country 
which  lay  a  little  further  south.  As  already  mentioned  the  capital 
of  the  Libyo-Ntibian  kings  who  conquered  Egypt  in  the  eighth 
and  seventh  centuries  B.C.  and  of  their  immediate  successors  was  at 

1  Arch.  Surv.  Nub.  xix,  35,  36.  Cp.  Hall  (Man,  May  1912);  he  says:  "If  the 
people  of  Karanog  were  Blemmyes  the  Blemmyes  spoke  and  wrote  in  Meroitic." 

2  We  have  seen  (Chap.  2)  that  the  statement  of  Eusebius  to  the  effect  that  as 
early  as  the  reign  of  Constantine  Christianity  had  penetrated  to  the  Ethiopians  and 
Blemyes  refers  to  the  people  of  Abyssinia  and  the  Troglodytic  whom  Frumentius 
converted,  and  not  to  the  riverain  Blemyes  with  whom  Silko  fought. 

3  De  Bello  Persico,  1,  60  of  edn  1662,  quoted  by  Quatremere  (11,  133). 

*  Letronne,  loc.  cit.  There  were  also  at  Meroe  temples  sacred  to  Isis  and  to  the 
Sun  respectively,  dating  from  the  sixth  or  seventh  century  B.C.  (see  p.  9  above). 

5  It  may  be  noted  here  that  Herodotus  divided  the  Ethiopian  race  into  Eastern 
Ethiopians  with  straight  hair,  that  is  the  Bega  and  suchlike,  and  Western  Ethiopians 
("they  of  Libya")  with  curly  hair,  that  is  the  negroids,  each  group  speaking  a 
different  language.  (Bk.  vn,  70.  The  context  is  the  composition  of  the  army  of 
Xerxes.1* 


I.  3.  xvi.  AND  THE  NUBA  OF  MEROE  41 

Napata,  but  probably  by  440  B.C.  the  political  headquarters  had 
been  shifted  to  Meroe,  about  two  hundred  miles  away  to  the  south- 
east near  the  junction  of  the  Atbara  with  the  Nile,  the  religious 
capital  remaining,  as  before,  at  Napata. 

The  original  substratum  of  population  in  the  country  round 
Meroe,  or  at  least  to  the  south  and  east  of  it,  may  have  consisted  of 
that  same  red-brown  race  which  is  held  once  to  have  occupied  the 
banks  of  the  Nile,  the  south-western  littoral  of  Asia  and  the  Red  Sea 
coast1;  but  by  the  first  millennium  B.C.,  if  not  long  before,  this  race 
must  have  become  submerged  in  the  negro  hordes  which  had  surged 
up  from  the  south  and  acquired  predominance  in  the  Nile  valley. 

XV  The  earliest  extant  remains  at  Meroe  prove  that,  though  the 
population  was  predominantly  negro  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  century 
B.C.,  Egyptian  motives  in  art  and  manners  were  still  predominant, 
and  that  they  continued  so  until  about  the  third  century  B.C.  The 
account  of  Meroe  given  by  Herodotus2  (c.  450  B.C.)  is  evidence  lead- 
ing to  the  same  conclusion ;  but  before  we  deal  with  this  and  with  the 
scraps  of  information  left  us  by  later  Greek  and  Roman  geographers 
a  digression  is  necessary  to  point  out  that  there  was  apparently  another 
cultural  influence  at  work  besides  that  of  Egypt. 

XVI  We  have  already  had  occasion  to  note  the  continued  con- 
nection between  Abyssinia,  the  Nile  valley  and  the  Yemen  of 
Arabia,  which  probably  began  at  least  four  or  five  thousand  years 
before  the  Christian  era  and  became  intimate  in  the  second  and  first 
millennia  B.C.3  The  temples  of  Meroe,  the  Sun  Temple,  the  Lion 
Temple,  and  the  original  Temple  of  Isis,  all  of  which  belong  to  the 
"Early  Meroitic"  period,  and  the  sitting  stone  lions  of  Basa,  Naka, 
el  Musowwarat,  Um  Soda  and  Soba  are  certainly  connected  with 
the  Sun  Temple  of  Talmis4,  the  two  lions  before  the  great  pylon  of 
the  temple  of  Isis  at  Philae,  and,  one  supposes,  with  those  sitting 
"dogs"  which  Bruce  saw  in  Abyssinia  and  which  Heeren  and 
Crowfoot  unite  in  thinking  were  lions  of  the  same  type  as  those  at 
Basa  and  the  other  places  mentioned5. 

"In  Abyssinia,"  Bent  considers6,  " Christianity  must  have  succeeded  a 
form  of  Sabaean  sun-worship;  the  monoliths  and  altars  all  point  to  this; 
and  in  the  ritual  of  their  church  we  can  still  clearly  see  traces  of  this  cult. 
The  nightly  services  which  end  at  sunrise,  the  circular  churches  with  four 

1  Elliot  Smith,  Ancient  Egyptians,  pp.  61,  79. 

2  Bk.  11,  29.  3  See  Chap.  1. 

4  Sun  worship  was,  of  course,  prevalent  in  ancient  Egypt  from  the  time  of  the 
Old  Kingdom:  see  Breasted,  Hist.  pp.  59,  62,  etc. 

5  Crowfoot,  loc.  cit.  p.  23.    Stone  lions  of  this  type  are  rare  in  Egypt. 
0   The  Sacred  City...,  p.  83,  and  cp.  ibid.  pp.  138-197  and  231-293. 


42  THE  BEGA,  THE  BLEMYES  1. 3.  xvi. 

doors  orientated  to  the  four  points  of  the  compass,  the  sacred  groves 
surrounding  the  churches,  and  the  dancing  of  the  priests — all  recall  what 
we  know  of  Baal  worship,  which  was  closely  akin  to  the  sun-worship  of 
Southern  Arabia." 

He  remarks  in  this  connection  on  the  suggestiveness  of  Herodotus's 
statement1  that  "Ethiopia  borders  on  the  Southern  Sea  and  the 
table  of  the  Sun  in  Ethiopia  is  a  meadow  on  the  skirts  of  their  town 
full  of  the  boiled  flesh  of  all  manner  of  beasts."  The  ancient  Abys- 
sinian capital  of  this  Sabaean  or  Himyaritic  colonization  was  Ava 
(Yeha),  where  there  are  monoliths,  "a  mass  of  Himyaritic  inscrip- 
tions," and  a  sun-temple.  Its  founders  (the  "Avalitae"?)  are  sup- 
posed to  have  been  traders  in  the  first  instance,  but  as  they  increased 
in  numbers  and  strength  and  were  reinforced  by  their  kin  from  over 
the  Red  Sea  they  succeeded  in  imposing  their  language,  their  religious 
rites,  and  to  some  extent  their  racial  type,  upon  northern  Abyssinia. 
Its  name  of  Ava  is  presumably  connected  with  the  Sabaean  worship 
of  Baal- Ava.  The  capital  was  subsequently  removed  to  Axum,  also 
a  Himyarite  foundation  with  monoliths  and  "a  highly  perfected  form 
of  stone  worship  associated  with  sacrifices  to  the  Sun." 

Resemblances  between  the  later  Meroitic  architecture  of  elMusow- 
warat,  etc.,  dating  from  about  the  third  century  a.d.,  and  the  roughly 
contemporaneous  architecture  of  Axum  shew  that  the  links  of  con- 
nection between  the  main  valley  of  the  Nile  and  Abyssinia  held  fast 
in  the  generations  that  followed.  Crowfoot  notes  in  particular  "the 
exact  resemblance  of  the  plan  of  the  upper  storey  in  the  old  Dongola 
church  with  the  plan  of  Enda  Giorgis  near  Adowa2." 

XVII    Bearing  these  facts  in  mind,  we  may  now  revert  to  the 
descriptions  of  Meroe  left  by  the  classical  geographers. 

In  the  time  of  Herodotus  the  inhabitants  of  Meroe  itself  wor- 
shipped Jupiter  {i.e.  Amen-Ra)  and  Bacchus  {i.e.  Osiris)3. 

The  Ethiopian  tribes  in  the  vicinity,  however,  practised  circum- 
cision, wore  skins,  used  palm-branch  bows,  stone-headed  arrows, 
spears  tipped  with  horn  and  clubs  of  wood,  and  painted  their  bodies 
before  going  into  battle4. 

As  far  south  from  Meroe  as  Meroe  was  south  of  Aswan  lay  the 
country   in   which    had    settled    the    "Automoloi"    or   "Asmach" 

1  Q.v.  Bk.  in,  §7. 

2  hoc.  cit.  p.  40,  but  Crowfoot  is  inclined  in  the  case  of  el  Musowwarat  and 
Axum  to  regard  the  Axumites  as  the  borrowers. 

3  Herodotus,  II,  29,  144,  156. 

4  Herodotus,  vn,  69  (speaking  of  Xerxes's  army).  He  does  not  specifically 
mention  that  they  lived  round  Meroe  but  speaks  merely  of  the  "region  above 
Egypt." 


I.  3.  xx.  AND  THE  NUBA  OF  MEROE 


43 


('Aa/xax),  the  descendants  of  the  "240,000"  mercenaries1  who, 
having  been  sent  by  Psammetichus  I  (663-609  B.C.)  to  garrison 
Upper  Egypt  against  the  Ethiopians,  deserted  to  the  south  and  were 
granted  lands  there  by  the  ruler  of  Ethiopia2.  Of  these  Automoloi 
Herodotus  says:  "their  acquaintance  with  Egyptian  manners  has 
tended  to  civilize  the  Ethiopians." 

XVIII  Eratosthenes  in  the  third  century  B.C.  also  speaks  of  the 
Automoloi,  or  "Sembritae"  as  he  calls  them,  and  says  that  their 
sovereign  was  a  queen  but  they  recognized  the  overlordship  of  Meroe3. 

XIX  Artemidorus,  more  than  a  hundred  years  later4,  tells  of  a  dis- 
trict, probably  the  country  between  the  present  sites  of  Kassala  and 
Kallabat,  inhabited  by  the  Sembritae,  and  describes  them  as  ruled 
by  a  queen  "to  whom  Meroe  also  is  subject,"  a  statement  which,  if 
true,  implies  a  revolution  between  the  third  and  the  first  century  B.C. 
and  the  overthrow  by  the  southern  colonists  of  the  suzerain  power 
at  Meroe5.  Conceivably  the  drastic  measures  of  Ergamenes  had  not 
been  well  received  by  the  people  and  had  proved  the  cause  of  the 
downfall  of  his  house. 

XX  Now  Ptolemy  I  came  to  the  throne  of  Egypt  in  323  and  his 
accession  introduced  a  period  of  prosperity  there.  Some  portion  of 
this  was  reflected  in  Meroe  and  Hellenistic  ideas  began  to  pervade 
that  capital  and  to  supplant  the  older  Egyptian  influences.  This 
tendency  is  apparent  in  various  objets  cCart  that  have  been  unearthed 
and  in  the  altered  style  of  architecture.  Direct  evidence  of  it  is  also 
provided  by  Diodorus  in  his  story  of  Ergamenes. 

Diodorus6,  writing  in  the  time  of  Julius  Caesar  and  Augustus, 
speaks  of  the  Ethiopians  of  Meroe  as  the  earliest  of  mankind  and 
indigenous  to  the  country,  and  he  mentions  the  Ethiopian  custom 
whereby  the  king  at  Meroe  used  to  be  ordered  by  the  priests  to 
commit  suicide  when  they  became  tired  of  him7.  This  custom,  he 
states,  continued  until  the  time  of  the  enlightened  Ergamenes,  Arq 
Amen,  that  is8,  who  was  a  contemporary  of  Ptolemy  II  (284-247  B.C.) 

1  They  are  generally  called  Egyptians:  Maspero  thought  they  were  Libyans 
(Budge,  11,  55).  2  Herodotus,  II,  30. 

3  Ap.  Strabo,  p.  786.  4  Artemidorus  wrote  about  100  B.C. 

6  Cp.  Crowfoot,  Island  of  Meroe,  p.  33.  It  is  conceivable,  though  purely  hypo- 
thetical, that  it  was  these  southern  colonists  who  transplanted  to  Meroe  the  matri- 
archal system  which  gave  to  Ethiopia  the  line  of  Candaces.  The  matrilinear  system 
was  certainly  earlier,  as  is  proved,  e.g.  by  the  stele  of  Aspelut  (q.v.  Budge,  II,  65), 
and  "  mother  kin  very  rarely  carries  with  it '  matriarchy '  or  the  power  of  the  female  " 
(Farnell,  in  Quarterly  Review,  April  1915,  p.  482). 

6  He  depends  for  his  facts  to  a  large  extent  on  Agatharcides  and  Artemidorus. 

7  Diodorus,  ed.  Wesselingius,  Bk.  in,  177. 

8  See  Budge,  II,  109,  112,  115.  Apparently  Ergamenes  survived  the  second 
third  and  fourth  Ptolemies  also.  The  last  died  in  205  B.C. 


44  THE  BEGA,  THE  BLEMYES  I.  3.  xx. 

and  had  received  a  Greek  education1.  Ergamenes  declined  to  acknow- 
ledge the  authority  of  the  priests  and  put  them  to  death. 

Strabo2  gives  a  similar  account  of  Meroe,  based  largely  on 
Eratosthenes. 

To  these  and  the  rest  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  geographists  the 
Ethiopians  who  lived  not  in  Meroe  itself  but  in  the  surrounding 
country  were  no  more  than  wild  savages,  "wretched  Kush,"  as  the 
Pharaohs  would  have  called  them. 

XXI  Soon  after  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era  began  the  great 
days  of  Meroe  which  are  associated  with  the  Queens  Candace.  The 
first  of  these  who  is  a  historical  personage  and  not  purely  mythical3 
appears  to  have  ruled  from  Napata4.  She  was  powerful  enough  to 
capture  Syene  (Aswan)  with  its  Roman  garrison  of  three  cohorts  in 
24  B.C.;  but  in  the  following  year  Petronius  defeated  her  and  Napata 
was  destroyed5. 

About  60  a. d.  Nero's  centurions,  sent  to  explore  the  Nile,  found 
another  Candace  reigning  at  Meroe6.  They  reported,  too,  that  the 
kings  of  Ethiopia  were  forty-five  in  number,  and  that  the  country 
between  Meroe  and  Aswan  was  mostly  deserted,  little  trace  remain- 
ing of  all  the  towns  and  the  thriving  civilization  mentioned  by  the 
earlier  geographers.  In  fact,  a  period  of  decadence  in  Egypt  syn- 
chronized with  a  state  of  comparative  desolation  in  Ethiopia,  a  further 
proof  of  the  dependence  of  the  southern  state  upon  its  great  northern 
neighbour7. 

XXII  Meroe  did  not,  however,  cease  to  be  a  place  of  importance. 
The  state  of  its  fortunes  still  continued  to  reflect  those  of  Egypt,  and 

1  /j.eTa<rxvKus  'EWyviKr/s  aywyris  ko.1  <f>i\o<ro<p*q<Ta.s.  Mahaffy  (p.  140)  makes  Erga- 
menes a  contemporary  of  the  fourth  Ptolemy  (222-205). 

2  Born  between  64  and  54  B.C.    Died  after  21  A.D. 

3  See  Pseudo-Callisthenes,  ap.  Budge,  11,  108,  in  re  Alexander  the  Great. 

4  Crowfoot,  loc.  cit.  p.  33,  citing  Strabo,  p.  820. 

6  Petronius  chose  Primis  (Ibrfm)  to  be  the  Roman  boundary,  but  within  a  year 
it  was  abandoned  in  favour  of  Hierosykaminos  (Muharraka),  the  old  Ptolemaic 
frontier  town.  The  frontier  remained  at  Hierosykaminos  until  Diocletian  retired 
the  legions  to  Aswan. 

6  Pliny,  Hist.  Nat.  vi,  Ch.  35.  Griffith  {Arch.  Surv.  Nubia,  xrx,  80)  surmises 
that  "  possibly  this  dynasty  of  Candaces  is  identical  with  the  Natakamani-Amanitere 
series  of  royalties"  whose  remains  are  found  at  Meroe  and  Naka.  There  are  no 
records  in  history  of  any  Candace  living  after  the  first  century  A.D.  and  from  the 
pictorial  evidence  of  the  monuments  it  seems  that  kings  ruled  in  the  second,  third 
and  fourth  centuries  (see  Crowfoot,  loc.  cit.  p.  39).  In  the  note  to  para,  l  of  D  7 
is  given  a  quotation  from  Bruce  which,  if  the  facts  are  authentic,  shews  that  in  1619 
there  was  a  modern  Candace  ruling  at  Mundara  in  the  Isle  of  Meroe  and  deriving 
her  income  from  the  great  trade-route  between  east  and  west  as  her  prototype  no 
doubt  did. 

7  Crowfoot,  loc.  cit.  p.  36.  Pliny  says  {loc.  cit.)  that  warfare  with  Egypt  was 
responsible  for  the  desolation  of  Ethiopia,  but,  as  Crowfoot  says,  there  is  no 
warrant  in  history  for  this. 


1. 3.  xxiv.  AND  THE  NUBA  OF  MEROE  45 

in  the  first  part  of  the  fourth  century,  the  period  of  the  Flavian  and 
Antonine  Emperors,  a  revival  of  trade  occurred  in  both  countries. 
The  buildings  erected  at  this  period  at  Basa,  el  Musowwarat  and 
Naka  (the  Graeco-Roman  temple),  all  probably  the  work  of  a  single 
dynasty,  represent,  in  Crowfoot's  words,  "a  bye-product  of  the 
imperial  prosperity,  directly  due  to  the  overflow  of  Romano-Egyptian 
energy  and  wealth  beyond  the  imperial  boundaries1." 

XXIII  Thus  we  are  left  with  a  general  impression  of  the  outlying 
districts  of  the  Island  of  Meroe  as  peopled  during  the  centuries 
immediately  preceding  and  following  the  Christian  era  by  half- 
nomadic  half-sedentary  indigenous  savages  living  by  the  chase  and 
sparse  cultivation  of  the  soil.  To  the  south  was  the  colony  founded 
by  the  Automoloi.or  Sembritae,  who  were  probably  of  Egyptian,  but 
possibly  of  Libyan  origin.  To  the  north  lay  the  comparatively  highly 
civilized  town  of  Meroe  shewing  both  a  successive  predominance  of 
Egyptian,  Greek  and  Roman  influences  and  also  a  certain  measure 
of  indebtedness  to  the  Himyarites  of  southern  Arabia. 

There  seems  to  be  little  evidence  to  date  that  the  ruler  of  Meroe 
exercised  at  any  period  a  permanent  control  inland  and  southwards 
further  afield  than  Gebel  Kayli  and  Gebel  Moya2. 

XXIV  Meroe,  standing  at  the  meeting  of  several  great  trade  routes, 
owed  most  of  its  fame  and  prosperity  to  the  popularity  and  acces- 
sibility of  its  markets.  North  and  south  were  the  riverways,  west- 
wards the  road  to  Napata,  eastwards  the  great  caravan  route  which 
crosses  the  Atbara  and  runs  to  the  Red  Sea  ports,  and  southwards 
the  wddi  routes  which  tap  the  cornlands  and  grazing  areas  of  the 
Hawad  and  Abu  Delayk. 

Meroe  thus  formed  an  excellent  site  for  an  emporium  where 
slaves,  ivory  and  gold  might  be  obtained  by  exchange3. 

1  Crowfoot,  loc.  cit.  pp.  37-39. 

2  There  is  a  rock  at  Kayli  with  a  carving  representing  an  Ethiopian  king 
wearing  the  uraeus,  and  a  Sun  God  (see  Crowfoot,  loc.  cit.  p.  25) ;  and  in  a  cave 
close  by  I  found  in  191 2  a  drawing  which  Mr  Griffith  thinks  represents  the  lion- 
headed  Arsenuphis  or  Apizemak.  Upon  the  rock  with  the  carving  are  heaped  a 
number  of  stones.  This  may  illustrate  the  Arab  practice  whereby,  it  is  said,  the 
passer-by  signifies  his  detestation  of  something  abominable  (see  Jaussen,  p.  336), 
or  may  be  connected  with  the  ancient  beliefs  exemplified  in  a  similar  way  in  northern 
Dartur  (see  App.  5  to  Part  I,  Ch.  4). 

From  the  Nastasenen  stela  (298-278  B.C.)  it  appears  that  that  monarch  may  have 
invaded  Kordofan,  and  "operations  at  this  distance  from  Meroe  would  imply  that 
the  Gezira  or  a  large  part  of  it  was  permanently  occupied  by  the  Ethiopians." 
(Reisner  in  Sudan  Notes  and  Records,  Jan.  1919,  pp.  65,  66.) 

3  So  Crowfoot,  loc.  cit.  p.  7.  He  continues,  however,  in  agreement  with  Lepsius 
(Discoveries...,  p.  163),  "but  the  true  basis  of  their  prosperity  was  agricultural  and 
pastoral,"  and  this,  I  think,  is  something  of  an  overstatement.  In  a  year  of  good 
rains  the  wddis  produce  a  fair  crop  of  millet,  but  even  if  one  allow  that  the  rainfall 


46  THE  BEGA,  THE  BLEMYES  1. 3.  xxv. 

XXV  But  about  340-350  A.D.,  as  we  learn  from  one  of  the  Axumite 
inscriptions1,  an  expedition  was  made  by  Aeizanes  or  Aizana,  the 
powerful  king  of  Axum,  against  the  ruler  of  the  Nuba  in  the  Island 
of  Meroe  on  account  of  his  aggressions  on  the  frontier : 

2I  took  the  field  against  him,  and  arose  in  the  strength  of  the  Lord  of 
the  World,  and  I  smote  them  at  the  Takaze3  beyond  Kamalke.  And  then 
when  they  withdrew  themselves  to  a  distance,  then  followed  I  [during] 
three  and  twenty  days,  during  which  I  smote  him,  and  took  from  him 
prisoners  and  booty,  and  took  away  from  where  the  prisoners  dwelt,  booty, 
and  during  which  my  people  returned  who  had  gone  to  the  war,  and 
during  which  I  burnt  their  towns  of  mason  work  and  of  straw,  and  they 
plundered  his  crops  and  his  iron  and  his  ore  and  his  copper,  and  destroyed 
the  pictures  (or  statues)  in  his  temple,  and  the  provisions  of  heaped  up 
corn,  and  threw  them  into  the  river  Seda4.... There  were  of  leaders  who 
perished  five,  and  one  priest,  and  I  reached  to  the  Kasu  and  smote  them 
and  annihilated  them  at  the  confluence  of  the  rivers  Seda  and  Takaze. 
And  the  day  after  I  had  arrived  I  sent  out  a  marauding  party... and  they 
laid  waste  up  the  Seda  the  towns  of  masonwork  and  of  straw5... and  came 

was  rather  heavier  2000  years  ago,  there  would  still  have  been  no  great  surplus. 
Again,  as  regards  pastoral  wealth,  the  steppes  of  the  Island  of  Meroe  could  have 
supported  large  herds  for  most  of  the  year,  as  they  do  to-day,  but  the  savagery 
of  the  roaming  tribes  must  have  made  it  impossible  for  flocks  from  Meroe  to  be 
driven  for  grazing  as  far  afield  as  they  are  now,  and  though  " hafirs"  were  dug  to 
preserve  the  rain-water  supply  as  long  as  possible  the  grass  supply  would  have 
failed  if  large  flocks  were  concentrated  all  the  year  on  a  limited  area.  See  also 
Reisner  in  Sudan  Notes  and  Records,  Jan.  1919,  pp.  50  ff. 

1  I  follow  Bent,  pp.  263  et  seq.  where  Dr  D.  H.  Midler's  translation  and  notes 
are  given.  The  translation  followed  by  Crowfoot  (loc.  cit.  pp.  36-38)  is  that  of 
Littman  and  Krencker  (1906)  and  differs  in  several  particulars.  For  instance, 
Crowfoot  says  the  expedition  was  against  the  Nuba  "who  had  recently  conquered 
the  Island  of  Meroe.  It  seems  that  a  wave  of  Negro  aggression  had  lately  surged 
up  from  the  south  and  overwhelmed  the  '  Red '  races  on  the  Island  and  even  north 
of  it.  The  Blacks  had  captured  towns  of  masonry  belonging  to  the  Kasu,  occupied 
them  and  built  towns  of  grass  huts  near  them,  such  as  the  negroes  still  use;  they 
had  harried  their  neighbours  without  a  cause,  and  three  times  they  had  broken 
their  word  and  insulted  the  envoys  of  the  King  of  Kings,  confident  that  he  would 
never  cross  the  Atbara.  The  King  recounts  how  in  revenge  he  had  sacked  both 
towns  of  masonry  and  towns  of  grass  huts,  and  sent  expeditions  up  and  down  the 

Nile  from  the  point  of  its  junction  with  the  Atbara "    Muller's  translation  gives 

no  warrant  for  any  recent  conquest  of  the  Kasu  by  newly  immigrant  Nuba. 

2  The  following  quotation  omits  several  unimportant  lines  of  the  original  as  given 
by  Bent. 

3  I.e.  the  Atbara. 

4  I.e.  the  Nile. 

6  Of  the  towns  of  masonwork  'Aloa  (i.e.  Soba)  is  mentioned.  The  first  mention 
of  'Aloa,  I  believe,  is  in  the  stele  of  Nastasenen,  who,  according  to  Reisner's 
calculation,  ruled  from  298  to  278  B.C.:  "Amen  of  Napata...came  forth  from  the 
Great  House,  and  he  made  me  to  be  King  over  Ta-Kenset  and  Alut  and  the  Nine 
Tribes  who  fight  with  bows  and  the  country  on  both  sides  of  the  river  and  the 
Four  Quarters  of  the  World"  (Budge,  II,  98).    See  Para,  xxvin. 

Crowfoot  thinks  that  by  'Aloa  in  the  inscription  of  Aeizanes  is  possibly  meant 
Meroe  (see  following  note) ;  but  whenever  'Aloa  is  mentioned  in  any  context  that 
defines  the  locality  the  region  round  Soba  is  always  clearly  intended.  The  name 


1. 3.  xxvii.  AND  THE  NUBA  OF  MEROE  47 

in  good  condition  back... and  thereupon  I  sent  the  troop  Halen  and  the 
troop  Dakan  and  the  troop  Sabarat,  and  they  plundered  and  laid  waste 
down  the  Seda  the  Nuba  towns  of  straw  (houses)  four,  Naguso  1 .  Towns 
of  masonry  of  the  Kasu  and  Noba,  Naszato  1.  D.  v-r  tali  1,  and  reached 
as  far  as  the  district  of  the  red  Noba,  and  in  good  condition  returned  my 
people  back.... And  I  set  up  my  throne  within  the  confluence  of  the  river 
Seda  and  Takaze,  in  sight  of  the  town  of  masonry1... the  island,  which  the 
Lord  of  heaven  has  given  me... and  I  set  up  my  throne  here  at  the  Seda 
through  the  strength  of  the  Lord  of  heaven.... 

XXVI  Here  we  have  three  distinct  races  mentioned :  firstly,  the  Nuba 
in  the  Island  of  Meroe,  as  far  east  as  the  Atbara,  secondly,  the  Kasu 
to  the  north-west  near  the  junction  of  the  Nile  and  the  Atbara,  and, 
thirdly,  the  "Red  Nuba"  some  distance  further  downstream. 

Immediately  downstream  of  the  junction  of  the  rivers  the  Kasu 
and  the  Nuba  would  seem  to  have  been  dwelling  side  by  side.  It  is 
hard  to  avoid  hazarding  an  opinion  that  the  "Red  Nuba"  may  have 
been  southernly  colonies  of  Blemyes.  As  regards  the  difference 
between  the  "Kasu"  and  the  "Nuba"  of  the  inscription  much 
obviously  depends  on  whether  the  interpretation  of  Miiller  or  of 
Littman  and  Krencker  is  correct;  but  in  either  case  the  "Kasu" 
would  appear  to  be  the  more  civilized  and  Egyptianized  Meroitic 
type  and  the  "  Nuba  "  the  negro  tribes  of  the  out-districts.  The  matter 
must  simply  remain  doubtful. 

It  is  at  least  clear  that  by  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century  a.d. 
Meroe  had  fallen  on  evil  days  and  a  process  of  disintegration  had 
set  in.  From  now  onwards  we  know  nothing  to  speak  of  about  the 
history  of  the  people  living  south  of  the  confluence  of  the  Nile  and 
the  Atbara  until  the  time  of  el  Mas'udi  and  Ibn  Selim  el  Aswani 
who  wrote  their  descriptions  of  Nubia  in  the  tenth  century. 

XXVII  At  what  date  the  Meroitic  peoples  became  Christian  we  do 
not  know.  Abyssinia  was  converted  about  330  a.d.  and  northern 
Nubia  about  two  centuries  later ;  but  the  severance  of  friendly  rela- 
tions between  the  two  countries  which  occurred  in  the  middle  of  the 
fourth  century  militated  henceforth  against  the  spread  of  the  religious 
beliefs  of  the  one  to  the  other,  and  so  much  so  that  when  Christianity 

of  'Aloa,  be  it  noted,  is  also  applied,  both  in  the  Axumite  inscription  and  later 
by  Abu  Salih,  to  the  town  (Soba)  as  well  as  to  the  district.  The  name  seems  to 
survive  in  the  dual  form  of  "  'Alwan,"  the  name  of  a  district  inland  from  Soba. 

1  From  "Takaze"  to  "heaven  has"  forms  line  40  of  the  inscription. 

Crowfoot  remarks  that  it  is  curious  that  there  is  no  mention  of  Meroe  itself 
in  the  inscription,  although  we  know  that  it  was  still  the  largest  town  in  the  district. 
But  in  line  40  there  is  a  gap  after  the  words  "the  town  of  masonry"  which  might 
surely  have  contained  the  name  if  the  words  translated  "within  the  confluence  of" 
can  be  applied  to  a  site  which  is  in  the  angle  of  the  two  rivers  though  fifty  miles 
away  from  the  actual  junction. 


48  THE  BEGA,  THE  BLEMYES  ls.xxvii. 

was  finally  established  in  Nubia  in  the  sixth  century  it  was  by  way 
of  Egypt  that  it  came. 

XXVIII  In  all  probability  it  was  about  the  end  of  the  same  century, 
or  early  in  the  seventh,  that  the  faith  was  received  by  'Aloa. 

The  town  of  Soba,  or  'Aloa,  had  been  a  place  of  importance  even 
in  Meroitic  days,  for  a  temple  there  dates  from  that  period1;  and 
though  "Alut"  on  the  stele  of  Nastasenen  refers  no  doubt  to  the 
district,  it  is  natural  to  suppose  that  its  capital  was  the  town  subse- 
quently famous  by  the  same  name. 

When  'Aloa  was  converted  pagan  temples  were  turned  into  or 
replaced  by  churches.  With  Christianity  and  the  importation  of 
liturgies  and  holy  books  came  also  a  more  general  use  of  Greek 
writing  for  purposes  of  religion  and  ceremonial2,  and  a  line  of  com- 
munication was  opened  for  the  future  between  Alexandria  and  the 
villages  of  the  Blue  Nile3.  At  the  present  day  there  are  still  visible 
some  traces  of  an  ancient  civilization  even  beyond  Soba,  such  as  the 
old  red-brick  buildings,  probably  remains  of  churches,  near  Elti, 
Kutrang,  Kasemba,  Bronko  and  Hassa  Haysa4.  Their  date  is  not 
known,  but  they  appear  to  belong  to  the  same  period  as  the  Christian 
remains  found  at  Soba. 

XXIX  Further  north,  as  the  power  of  Meroe  declined  the  allegiance 
of  the  petty  meks  who  had  once  owned  its  overlordship  began  to 
be  drawn  to  the  one  side  by  the  magnet  of  Abyssinia  or  to  the  other 
by  that  of  the  rival  Nubian  kingdom  which  centred  upon  Dongola. 
Whenever  we  catch  a  glimpse  of  these  two  powers,  as,  for  instance, 

1  Budge,  II,  304.  The  name  "S6ba"  suggests  "Astasobas,"  the  name  by  which 
Strabo  denotes  the  Blue  Nile. 

2  The  same  probably  does  not  apply  to  Abyssinia,  where  the  use  of  Greek 
writing  was  chiefly  due  to  trade  influences  (see  Letronne,  loc.  cit.). 

3  'Aloa,  or  S6ba,  is  mentioned  ("  'Aloa")  in  the  treaty  of  652  a.d.  between  the 
Arabs  and  the  Nubians  (see  Part  II,  Chap.  2,  v),  and  by  the  tenth  century  it  was  the 
most  important  town  in  the  Sudan  south  of  Dongola  (see  Ibn  Selim's  account  in 
Part  II,  Chap.  2).  It  remained  so  for  some  two  or  three  hundred  years  and,  though 
with  the  fall  of  the  Christian  kingdom  of  Dongola  and  the  invasion  of  the  Arabs 
its  importance  no  doubt  diminished,  it  apparently  revived  somewhat  at  a  still  later 
date,  for  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  it  was  the  capital  of  the  'Anag 
or  Nuba  whom  the  Fung  dispossessed  (see  D  7,  1,  in  Part  IV). 

*  Cp.  Crowfoot,  loc.  cit.  p.  8 ;  and  see  note  to  MS.  D  7, 1.  Alvarez  mentions  these 
churches.  It  is  stated  locally  that  the  ancient  name  of  Elti  was  Anti.  Anti  and  Rudis 
are  said  to  have  been  sister  and  brother,  'Anag  by  race,  who  settled  one  (Rudis)  on 
the  east  bank  on  the  present  site  of  Bashakira  East  (or  Rodos,  Cailliand's  Rodess, 
11,  210),  and  the  other  (Anti)  on  the  west  bank. 

Ibn  Selfm  and  el  Mas'iidi,  it  is  true,  speak  of  the  tribes  south  of  Soba  in  much 
the  same  terms  as  do  the  classical  geographers,  and  call  them  worshippers  of  the 
moon,  stars,  fire,  trees  and  animals,  "blacks  naked  like  the  Zing,"  but  they  clearly 
refer  to  the  tribes  living  inland,  away  from  the  river,  or  else  to  those  who  dwelt 
considerably  farther  upstream. 


I.  3.  xxxi.  AND  THE  NUBA  OF  MEROE 


49 


in  the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries1,  they  appear  to  be  bickering 
and  the  lesser  princelets  who  were  wedged  between  the  two,  probably 
succeeded  in  maintaining  some  measure  of  local  independence,  what- 
ever nominal  allegiance  they  may  have  professed. 

XXX  It  is  indeed  difficult  without  further  scientific  data  to  get 
any  but  a  vague  impression  as  to  the  race  to  which  the  various  occu- 
pants of  the  country  round  Meroe  belonged  in  the  period  immediately 
preceding  its  conquest  by  the  Arabs.  Four  distinct  races  at  least  met 
thereabouts.  Inland  to  the  north  and  east  were  the  Bega  :  to  the  north- 
west were  the  Nuba  tribes;  to  the  south-east  was  Abyssinia:  to  the 
south  along  the  White  Nile  and  the  Sobat  were  the  people  of  whom 
the  modern  representatives  are  the  Shilluk. 

XXXI  As  regards  these  latter,  as  has  been  mentioned2,  they  display 
Bantu  affinities,  and  probably  they  moved  into  the  country  south  of 
the  Sobat  and  the  upper  reaches  of  the  White  Nile  during  or  rather 
later  than  the  second  millennium  B.C.  They  did  not  extend  their 
occupation  to  the  lower  White  Nile,  to  the  vicinity  of  Kawa  and 
Dueim,  until  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  a.d.,  the  period, 
that  is,  of  the  rise  of  the  Fung  kingdom3. 

Bruce  was  told  in  Sennar  in  the  eighteenth  century  that  these 
Fung  were  descended  from  the  Shilluk,  and  Westermann  has  lately 
adduced  proofs  of  the  correctness  of  the  tradition.  To  what  extent, 
if  any,  the  Nilotic  negroes  modified  the  racial  composition  of  the 

1  In  687  the  Patriarch  of  Alexandria  sent  a  message  exhorting  the  kings  of 
Nubia  and  Ethiopia  (Abyssinia  that  is)  to  concord  (Renandot,  Hist.  Patr.  Alex. 
178,  ap.  Letronne). 

In  737  A.D.  the  Patriarch  writes  to  Cyriacus  "King  of  Nubia"  to  cease  raiding 
Upper  Egypt,  and  the  biographer  speaks  of  the  king's  power  as  extending  over 
thirteen  other  kings  {ap.  Le  Quien  in  Orient.  Christian.,  II,  662,  for  which  see 
Letronne).  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  there  is  a  continual  confusion  in  the  ideas  of 
the  early  Christian  writers  between  Nubia  and  Abyssinia,  and  even  in  some  cases 
between  Abyssinia  and  India,  and  "Nubia"  should  probably  read  "Abyssinia" 
in  this  passage.  The  subject  of  this  confusion  will  be  further  dealt  with  later,  but 
one  may  quote  a  note  by  A.  J.  Butler  to  a  remark  by  Abu  Salih  (p.  285):  "Our 
author  here  seems  to  look  upon  South-west  Arabia  as  identical  with  or  forming 
part  of  Abyssinia  or  Ethiopia,  an  error  akin  to  the  confusion  of  Abyssinia  with 
India  which  appears  lower  down." 

In  the  thirteenth  century  we  shall  see  that  the  Sultan  of  Egypt  in  addition  to 
sending  an  embassy  to  the  king  of  Dongola  had  to  approach  ten  separate  meks  to 
the  south  (see  Part  II,  Chap.  2). 

2  P.  16. 

3  Westermann,  lii  ff.  In  1842  they  inhabited  the  islands  as  far  north  as  the 
fourteenth  degree  of  latitude  (Deherain,  Fig.  vn,  opp.  p.  262).  Cp.  Schweinfurth, 
I,  9-10:  "On  the  13th  of  January,  on  one  of  the  thronging  islands,  we  had  our 
first  rencontre  with  the  Shillooks.  This  tribe  of  negroes  formerly  extended  them- 
selves much  further  north  than  at  present,  having  settlements  on  all  the  islands ; 
but  now  [1869]  they  only  exceptionally  penetrate  to  this  latitude  (120  30')  in  their 

canoes In  a  few  days  we  lay-to  alongside  the  village  of  Kaka,  the  most  northernly 

place  inhabited  by  Shillooks  on  the  White  Nile." 

M.S.I.  4 


50  THE  BEGA,  THE  BLEMYES  1. 3.  xxxi. 

inhabitants  of  the  Island  of  Meroe  is  unknown,  but  some  indication 
of  connection  is  perhaps  furnished  by  the  existence  in  Meroe  until 
the  third  century  B.C.  of  the  custom  of  killing  the  king  when  he  was 
considered  to  be  no  longer  sufficiently  vigorous  to  rule.  This  con- 
stitutes presumably  one  more  example  of  the  ancient  belief  in  kings 
"believed  to  incarnate  the  divine  spirit... who  were  periodically  killed 
lest  that  spirit  should  suffer  from  its  retention  in  an  ageing  body1." 
If  so,  it  is  probably  to  be  connected  on  the  one  hand  with  the  "sed" 
festival  of  ancient  Egypt,  which  is  thought  to  have  originally  celebrated 
the  Osirification  of  the  king  through  death,  and  certainly,  on  the  other 
hand,  with  the  still-existing  custom  according  to  which  the  Nilotic 
Shilluk  and  Dinka  put  their  kings  to  death  before  their  bodily 
vigour  passes  away2. 

Traces  of  the  same  custom  existed  among  the  Fung  of  Sennar, 
at  whose  court  there  was  a  personage  who  combined  the  functions 
of  Master  of  the  Household  and  Executioner  of  the  Kings;  and,  it 
seems,  among  the  'Abdullab  of  Kerri3.  Of  the  former  Bruce  says4: 

It  is  one  of  the  singularities  which  obtains  among  this  brutish  people 
that  the  king  ascends  his  throne  under  an  admission  that  he  may  be  law- 
fully put  to  death  by  his  own  subjects  or  slaves  upon  a  council  being  held 
by  the  great  officers,  if  they  decree  that  it  is  not  for  the  advantage  of  the 
state  that  he  be  suffered  to  reign  any  longer.  There  is  one  officer  of  his 
own  family  who  alone  can  be  the  instrument  of  shedding  his  sovereign 
and  kinsman's  blood.  This  officer  is  called  Sid  el  Coom,  master  of  the 
king's  household  or  servants,  but  has  no  vote  in  deposing  him ;  nor  is  any 
guilt  imputed  to  him  however  many  of  his  sovereigns  he  thus  regularly 
murders. 

XXXII  But  until  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  Nilotic 
negroes  do  not  appear  either  racially  or  culturally  to  have  exercised 
any  influence  in  the  Island  of  Meroe  comparable  to  that  of  the  other 
three  groups  mentioned.  Of  these  the  most  important  was  probably 
the  Nuba.  The  ancient  inhabitants  of  Soba,  the  Island  of  Meroe  and 
the  hills  of   northern  Kordofan  are  still  commonly  spoken  of  as 

1  Seligman,  Journ.  Anthr.  Inst,  xliii,  1913,  p.  664.  The  locus  classicus  of  the 
subject  is  Frazer,  The  Golden  Bough,  Part  III.  Cp.  also  Man,  Feb.  1915,  "Killing 
the  Divine  King,"  by  Geza  Roheim,  for  some  Ural-Altaic  instances  of  the  custom. 

2  Seligman, loc.cit.  pp.  665,  666 ;  and  see,  in  particular,  Miss  Murray's  "  Evidence 
for  the  Custom  of  Killing  the  King  in  Ancient  Egypt,"  in  Man,  Feb.  1914.  For  the 
custom  in  Fazoghli  see  Lepsius,  Discoveries...,  p.  221. 

3  See  "D  5  (a)"  in  Part  IV. 

4  Bruce,  Bk.  vn,  Ch.  ix.  For  another  ancient  Egyptian  custom  which  survived 
among  the  Fung,  that  of  the  king  personally  hoeing  a  piece  of  land,  see  Part  I, 
Chap.  4,  xxvi.  The  connection  between  the  two  lies  in  the  typically  Hamitic  con- 
ception of  the  king  as  a  rainmaker  and  the  medium  whereby  the  yearly  renascence 
of  vegetation  is  ensured.    Cp.  Seligman,  loc.  cit.  pp.  681,  683. 


1. 3.  xxxii.  AND  THE  NUBA  OF  MERGE  Si 

'"Anag,"  and  this  term,  it  will  be  seen,  is  used  in  the  native  MSS. 
as  practically  synonymous  with  "Nuba,"  though  originally  it  seems 
to  have  denoted  one  particular  branch  of  Nuba  who  had  become 
semi-independent. 

The  Nuba  strain  was  the  most  potent  racial  element  in  the  Island 
of  Meroe  from  the  days  of  the  dynastic  Egyptians  until  the  coming 
of  the  Muhammadans,  though  one  would  of  course  concede  very 
considerable  local  modifications  due  to  admixture  with  the  Bega,  the 
people  of  Abyssinia  and,  to  some  slight  extent  in  the  south,  with  the 
Nilotic  negroes. 


I 


4—2 


[52] 


CHAPTER  4 

The  non-Arab  Races  of  Darfur 

I  The  consideration  of  the  races  who  inhabited  Darfur1  before  the 
Arabs  is,  on  the  one  hand,  rendered  more  difficult  by  the  lack  of 
modern  scientific  research,  and,  on  the  other,  made  more  easy  by 
the  fact  that  the  Arabs  have  coalesced  so  slightly  with  the  older  popu- 
lation that  it  is  still  easy  to  pick  out  the  non-Arab  elements.  Several 
intrepid  and  accomplished  travellers  have  visited  the  country  and 
brought  back  valuable  information,  but  anthropology  had  not  in 
their  days  made  such  giant  strides  as  now,  and  their  statements  are 
not  always  backed  by  scientific  data  of  the  type  available  for  Egypt 
and  Lower  Nubia.  It  is  the  researches  of  Barth  and  Nachtigal  and 
the  acute  observations  of  el  Tunisi  that  have  cast  most  light  on  the 
pre-Arab  element  in  Darfur. 

II  BedayAt.  The  northern  portion  of  Darfur  is  contained  in  that 
vast  unfertile  northernly  portion  of  Africa  which  is  set  aside  by  nature 
for  those  who  lead  a  pastoral  life.  Scattered  in  insignificant  numbers 
as  far  south  as  Kebkebia  and  Kuttum,  but  chiefly  roaming  further 
north  in  the  Ennedi  district  outside  Darfur  are  the  Bedayat,  a  wild 
and  entirely  nomadic  race  related  to  the  Zaghawa.  Their  geo- 
graphical position  between  the  Kura'an  (to  the  north)  and  the 
Zaghawa  (to  the  south)  roughly  represents  also  their  ethnographical 
status.  Barth2  calls  them  "Terauye"  and  says  the  Arabs  call  them 
"A'uwa."  The  Arabs  of  Kordofan  and  Darfur  speak  always  of 
"Bedayat,"  and  "A'uwa"  seems  to  be  the  Kura'an  name  for  them 
and  "Terauye"  or  "Terawa"  a  name  applied  to  them  by  the  Arabs 
of  Borku3.  Lieut.  Ferrandi  divides  the  Bedayat  into  (a)  a  northern 
group,  and  (b)  a  southern  group  called  Billia,  and  says  they  claim 
to  have  once  been  Christians4.  In  Barth 's  time  most  of  them  were 
pagans,  but  they  now  profess  Muhammadanism5.  Parties  of  these 
Bedayat  periodically  swoop  down  over  the  deserts  that  intervene 

1  "  Darfur"  means  "The  Country  of  the  Fur." 

2  Vol.  in,  App.  i,  p.  496. 

3  See  "  Renseignements  Coloniaux,"  p.  308,  in  L'Afrique  Frangaise  (Suppl.), 
Dec.  1914. 

4  Ibid.    On  this  point  see  App.  5  to  this  chapter. 

5  El  Tunisi  (Voy.  au  Ouaddy,  p.  17)  speaks  of  the  Bedayat  as  not  of  Arab  origin 
though  their  manners  and  way  of  life,  but  not  their  language,  are  those  of  the 
Arabs.    He  classes  them  (p.  25)  as  nomadic  negroes  or  "pseudo-beduins." 


1. 4.  ii.  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  53 

between  them  and  the  Arabs  and  raid  camels,  women  and  children 
from  the  latter,  and  they  even  venture  as  far  as  the  riverain  districts 
of  Dongola.  Their  hand  is  against  every  man's,  but  so  remarkable  is 
their  power  of  endurance  and  their  sense  of  direction  that  it  is  very 
difficult  to  overtake  them. 

Slatin  had  dealings  with  them  when  he  was  an  official  of  the 
Turkish  Government  in  Darfur  before  the  Mahdi'a.  After  mention- 
ing that  they  are  pagans  in  all  but  name,  he  adds1 : 

Under  the  widespreading  branches  of  an  enormous  heglik2  tree,  and 
on  a  spot  kept  beautifully  clean  and  sprinkled  with  fine  sand,  the  Bedayat 
beseech  an  unknown  god  to  direct  them  in  their  undertakings,  and  to 
protect  them  from  danger.  They  have  also  religious  feasts  at  uncertain 
dates,  when  they  ascend  the  hills,  and  on  the  extreme  summits,  which  are 
whitewashed,  they  offer  sacrifices  of  animals.  They  are  a  fine,  stalwart 
race,  very  dark  in  colour,  with  straight  features,  a  thin  nose  and  small 
mouth,  and  resemble  Arabs  more  than  Negroes.  The  women  are  famed 
for  their  long  flowing  hair,  and  there  are  some  great  beauties  amongst 
them,  as  one  often  finds  amongst  the  free  Arab  tribes.  They  generally  wear 
skins  of  animals  round  their  waists  and  loins ;  but  the  higher  class  and  their 
women  dress  in  long  flowing  robes  made  of  white  Darfur  cotton  cloth. 
Their  food  is  very  plain.  Corn  does  not  grow  in  their  country,  and  is 
almost  unknown  to  them.  They  take  the  seeds  of  the  wild  pumpkin,  which 
grows  there  in  abundance,  and  they  soak  them  in  wooden  vessels  made 
from  the  bark  of  trees.  After  taking  the  outer  shells  off,  they  leave  the 
seeds  to  steep  until  they  lose  their  bitterness,  and  then,  straining  them  off 
and  mixing  them  with  dates,  they  grind  them  into  a  sort  of  flour,  which 
is  cooked  with  meat,  and  forms  the  principal  food  of  the  country. 

They  have  also  most  strange  customs  as  regards  inheritance  and  suc- 
cession. The  cemeteries  are  generally  situated  at  some  distance  from  the 
villages;  and  when  a  father  dies,  the  body  is  taken  by  all  the  relatives  to 
be  buried.  The  ceremony  over,  on  a  given  signal  they  all  rush  together  at 
the  top  of  their  speed  to  the  deceased's  house;  and  he  who  arrives  first 
and  fixes  his  spear  or  arrow  in  it  is  considered  the  rightful  heir,  and  not 
only  becomes  possessor  of  all  the  cattle,  but  also  of  his  father's  wives  and 
other  women,  with  the  exception  of  his  own  mother.  He  is  at  perfect 
liberty  to  marry  them  if  he  wishes,  or  he  can  set  them  free.  A  man's 
female  household  is  entirely  regulated  by  his  financial  position.  It  is 
great  or  small  according  as  the  lord  and  master  is  rich  or  poor. 

As  I  before  remarked,  most  of  the  people  still  adhered  to  their  pagan 
customs,  and  it  amused  me  greatly  when  Saleh  Donkusa,  who  was  by  way 
of  being  a  good  Moslem  himself,  denied  to  me,  in  the  most  emphatic 
manner,  that  such  customs  were  still  in  vogue  in  his  tribe.  I  asked  him 
what  the  great  heglik-tree  was  which  I  had  passed  the  previous  day  when 

1  Bk.  1,  Ch.  3. 

2  Balanites  Aegyptiaca.  For  the  cult  connected  with  trees  and  stones  in  Darfur 
see  later  sub  Dagu  and  Fur. 


54  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  i.  4.  n. 

riding  through  the  Khor,  and  why  the  ground  underneath  was  sprinkled 
with  fine  sand.  The  question  surprised  him,  and  for  a  moment  he  was 
silent ;  he  then  answered  that  it  was  the  usual  meeting  place  in  which  tribal 
matters  were  discussed.  "The  Maheria  Arabs,"  said  I,  "wanted  to  graze 
their  cattle  near  the  tree;  but  when  I  saw  that  it  was  dedicated  for  some 
special  purpose,  I  prevented  them  from  doing  so."  He  thanked  me  most 
heartily,  and  I  could  see  that,  though  a  fanatical  Moslem  himself,  he  was 
determined  to  uphold  the  ancient  manners  and  customs  of  his  tribe,  and 
so  retain  his  hold  over  them.  I  subsequently  learned  that  it  was  entirely 
through  him  that  the  holy  tree  was  preserved. 

Among  the  subdivisions  of  the  Bedayat  in  Darfur  are  the  Birayra, 
the  Galligerki,  the  Kotierra,  the  Sar  and  the  Urdia. 

III  KURA'AN.  The  Kura'an  for  the  most  part  live  to  the  north  of 
the  Bedayat  and  also  outside  Darfur,  but  a  few  of  them  are  scattered 
among  the  latter  tribe  and  the  Zaghawa.  Their  possible  identity  with 
the  ancient  Garamantes  and  their  other  racial  affinities  have  been 
discussed  in  an  earlier  chapter.  I  may  add  here  that  such  of  them  as 
I  have  met  in  Darfur  identify  themselves  with  the  Daza  (they  say 
the  terms  are  synonymous)  as  a  branch  of  the  Teda  (or  Ankazza). 
They  admit  only  a  distant  relationship  with  the  Bedayat  and  an  even 
more  remote  one  with  the  Zaghawa  and  do  not  understand  the 
common  language  of  those  tribes.  The  Tibbu  to  the  north  of  them, 
they  say,  speak  a  language  similar  to  their  own,  but  not  identical 
with  it1.  They  disclaim  all  connection  with  the  Tuwarek  ("  Kenin  "). 
The  only  branches  of  Kura'an  I  have  heard  mentioned  are  the 
following : 

Bulta  Donza 

Gaida  Killia 

BlRRASA  DUDIRNIA 

KOKURDA  NOARMA 

Murdinga,  or  Murdia  Jigada  (in  the  west) 

IV  ZaghAwa.  Mixed  with  the  Bedayat,  but  mainly  to  the  south 
of  them,  in  northern  Darfur,  are  the  Zaghawa2.  This  large  tribe  is 
mainly  a  mixture  of  Hamitic  Tibbu  and  negro3,  and  has  Libyo- 
Berber  affinities.  They  were  known  to  the  mediaeval  Arab  geographers, 
but  the  bulk  of  them  in  the  middle  ages  appear  to  have  been  consider- 

1  Curiously  enough,  when  I  was  asking  some  Bedayat,  Kura'an  and  Zaghawa 
with  what  tribe  in  particular  they  connected  the  Tibbu  they  replied  that  the  Tibbu 
were  reputed  to  have  been  in  old  days  relatives  of  the  Hadendoa  of  the  Eastern 
Sudan.  The  strain  common  to  both  is  of  course  the  Hamitic. 

2  See  MacMichael  in  jfourn.  Anthr.  Inst,  xlii,  1912,  and  Tribes...,  Ch.  viu. 

3  Keane,  Encycl.  Brit.  art.  "Sudan,"  and  cp.  Cust,  1,  253,  and  Carbou,  II,  209. 
Nachtigal,  on  the  other  hand,  denied,  on  grounds  that  seem  insufficient,  that  they 
were  a  Tibbu  race.    See  Voy.  au  Ouaddi,  p.  73. 


1. 4.  iv.         THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  55 

ably  further  west  than  at  present,  on  the  same  latitude.  Their  native 
language  is  a  dialect  of  Tibbu1,  but  most  can  also  speak  Arabic  of  a 
kind. 

They  are  first  mentioned  by  that  "Herodotus  of  the  Arabs," 
el  Mas'udi,  about  943  a.d.2  He  speaks  of  the  descendants  of  "Kush 
the  son  of  Kana'an,"  whom  he  refers  to  in  general  terms  as  "  Habsha  " 
and  "Ahabish"  (i.e.  literally,  Abyssinians),  as  moving  westwards 
after  the  flood  and  then  dividing  into  two  main  branches.  The  Nuba, 
the  Bega  and  the  Zing  became  separate,  he  says,  from  the  others, 
who  continued  westwards  "towards  el  Zaghawa  and  el  Kanem  and 
Marka  and  Kaukau  and  Ghana  and  the  [s.c.  countries  of  the]  other 
kinds  of  blacks  and  Demadem."  Later  he  speaks  of  these  western 
migrants  themselves  as  containing  "Zaghawa  and  Kaukau  and 
Karaki'r  and  Madida  and  el  Melana  and  el  Kumati  and  Duwayla 
and  el  Karma3."  What  he  obviously  means  is  that  certain  Ethiopian 
races  at  a  very  early  period  pushed  westwards  to  those  countries 
bordering  on  the  Niger  west  of  Lake  Chad  which  were  subsequently 
known  as  Zaghai,  Ghana,  etc.4 

El  Idri'si,  who  wrote  his  Geography  about  1153  after  extensive 
travels  in  West  Africa,  in  dealing  with  the  desert  of  Tiser  and  the 
Zaghawa  and  Fezzan  describes  the  precarious  semi-nomadic  exist- 
ence of  the  people,  and  says5: 

Les  deux  residences  les  plus  considerables  du  Zaghawa  sont  celles  de 
Sakouat  (S^iw)  et  de  Chameh  (&*[$).  On  y  trouve  une  tribu  voyageuse 
appellee  Sadraiet  (ajIjJlo),  qui  passe  pour  etre  Berbere.  Les  individus 
qui  la  composent  ressemblent  aux  Zaghawiens;  ils  ont  les  memes  habitudes, 
ils  se  sont  identifies  a  leurs  races  et  ils  ont  recours  a  eux  pour  tous  les 
objets  qui  leur  sont  necessaires,  et  pour  leur  negoce.  Chameh  est  un  gros 
bourg,  aujourd'hui  mal  peuple,  dont  les  habitants  se  sont  transported  pour 
la  plupart  a  Koukou  ($£=>$£=>),  ville  situee  a  16  journees  de  distance.  Ils  boi- 
vent  beaucoup  de  lait,  leurs  eaux  etant  saumatres,  et  mangent  de  la  viande 
coupee  en  lanieres  et  sechee  au  soleil.  Ils  se  nourrissent  aussi  de  reptiles, 
dont  ils  font  une  chasse  abondante  et  qu'ils  font  cuire  apres  leur  avoir 
coupe  la  tete  et  la  queue.  Ces  peuples  sont  tres  sujets  a  la  gale,  en  sorte 
qu'a  ce  signe,  dans  tout  le  pays  et  dans  toutes  les  tribus  du  Soudan,  on 
reconnait  un  Zaghawien.  S'ils  s'abstenaient  de  manger  du  serpent,  ils  en 
seraient  totalement  exempts.    Ils  vont  nus  et  cachent  seulement  leurs 

1  Cp.  MacMichael's  vocabularies  in  Journ.  Anthr.  with  those  of  Carbou,  I, 
213  et  seq. 

2  Vol.  in,  Ch.  33,  pp.  1,  2,  37,  38. 

3  The  names  vary  in  different  MSS.  Kaukau  (Leo's  "Gago")  is  Kagho  (or 
Gao  or  Gogo)  on  the  Niger.    See  Cooley,  p.  32. 

4  Cooley  learnedly  discusses  the  exact  geographical  situation  of  these  western 
kingdoms  and  may  be  consulted  for  details. 

5  P.  in  in  Vol.  V  of  the  Recueil  de  Voyages 


56  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  i.  4.  iv. 

parties  honteuses  au  moyen  de  cuirs  tannes  de  chameau  et  de  chevre, 
qui  sont  couverts  de  diverses  sortes  d'incisions  et  d'ornements. 

II  y  a  dans  ce  pays  une  montagne  nommee  Loukia  (^iusjj)1,  tres 
haute  et  d'un  difficile  acces,  bien  qu'elle  soit  formee  d'une  terre  blanche 
et  molle.  Nul  ne  peut,  sans  perir,  approcher  des  cavernes  qui  se  trouvent 
sur  son  sommet,  attendu,  d'apres  ce  qu'on  assure,  qu'on  y  trouve  des 
serpents  d'une  grosseur  enorme  qui  s'elancent  sur  quiconque  se  dirige 
sans  le  savoir  vers  leurs  retraites,  ce  qui  fait  que  les  habitants  du  pays  les 

redoutent  et  les  evitent Les  habitants  de  ce  canton  sont  Zaghawiens  et 

leur  tribu  se  nomme  Sakouat ;  ils  sont  tres  sedentaires,  possedent  de  nom- 
breux  troupeaux  de  chameau  de  race  estimee,  fabriquent  leurs  vetements 
et  les  tentes  ou  ils  demeurent  avec  le  poil  de  ces  animaux,  et  se  nourrissent 
de  leur  lait,  de  leur  beurre  et  de  leur  chair.  Chez  eux  les  legumes  sont 
rare ;  cependant  ils  cultivent  le  dhorra,  qui  (comme  on  sait)  est  la  principale 
production  du  Zaghawa:  on  y  apporte  quelquefois  du  ble  de  Wardjelan 
et  d'ailleurs. 

Late  in  the  fourteenth  century,  it  is  said,  the  Zaghawa  came 
under  the  domination  of  the  Bulala2. 

Ibn  Khaldun  (1332-1406)  speaks  of  the  Tawarek  as  a  section  of 
Sanhaga  Berbers  who  include  the  kindred  tribes  of  Lamtuna, 
Zaghawa  and  Lamta  and  have  frequented  the  tracts  separating  the 
country  of  the  Berbers  from  that  of  the  blacks  since  a  time  long 
previous  to  Islam3.  But  he  also  quotes  Ibn  Sa'id  (1214-1287)  to  the 
effect  that  there  were  Zaghawa  living  next  to  the  Nubians,  i.e.  further 
east,  and  that  they  were  Muhammadans  and  included  a  section  called 
"Tagua4." 

Makrizi  (fl.  1400),  or  Ibn  Sa'id  from  whom  he  copies,  tells  us 
that  "all  the  nations  between  Abyssinia  on  the  south,  Nubia  on 
the  east,  Barka  on  the  north,  and  Takrur  on  the  west  are  called 
'Zaghai5.'" 

Leo  Africanus  (fl.  1528)  evidently  refers  to  the  Zaghawa  and  the 
cognate  Kura'an  when  he  speaks  of  the  journey  between  Cairo  and 
Bornu  as  dangerous  owing  to  the  depredations  of  "certaine  theeves 
called  Zingani,"  and  when,  in  the  passage  previously  quoted,  he 
says  "the  king  of  Nubia  maintaineth  continuall  warre  partly  against 
the  people  of  Goran  (who  being  descended  of  the  people  called 
Zingani,  inhabite  the  deserts  and  speake  a  kinde  of  language  that 

1  Or"Lounia"(a*33)). 

2  Barth,  in,  Ch.  LI,  p.  428,  quoting  Makrizi  and  Abu  el  Fida;  but  it  is  probable 
that  the  allusion  is  merely  to  the  Zaghawa  of  Kanem. 

3  Ed.  de  Slane,  Bk.  11,  64. 

4  Ibid.  p.  105,  and  ed.  ar.,  VI,  199;  Bk.  in.  A  variant  for  "Tagua"  (3^a»U>) 
reads  "Tagra"  (S^U). 

5  Cooley,  p.  98. 


1. 4.  iv.  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  57 

no  other  nation  vnderstandeth)  and  partly  against  certaine  other 
people1." 

The  Zaghawa  are  still  much  where  they  were  in  Leo's  time,  but 
the  nomad  Arabs  have  interposed  to  a  larger  degree  between  them 
and  Nubia,  and  the  only  colony  of  them  now  between  Darfur  and 
the  Nile  is  at  Kagmar  in  Kordofan.  This  settlement  was  probably 
made  early  in  the  eighteenth  century2  and  includes  the  "Zaghawa 
hills  "  of  el  Roy'ian  and  el  'Atshan :  it  is  now  in  gradual  process  of 
arabicization ;  and  the  same  applies  in  a  less  degree  to  the  semi- 
nomadic  Zaghawa  of  Darfur,  who,  though  they  do  not  call  them- 
selves Arabs  and  have  not  yet  faked  Arab  pedigrees,  speak  Arabic 
and  with  Muhammadanism  have  adopted  many  Arab  customs.  They 
still,  however,  retain  their  belief  in  rainmakers  (hogi3).  They  are 
a  lithe,  stalwart  and  active  folk,  of  the  same  cast  of  countenance  as 
the  Tibbu,  very  black-skinned4,  and  much  addicted  to  raiding  and 
blood  feuds. 

The  Fur  call  them  "Merida,"  the  Midobis  "Kebadi,"  the  Tama 
(and  Erenga)  "Kuyuk,"  and  they  call  themselves  "Berri";  but  in 
the  dialects  of  the  Dagu  and  others  they  appear  as  "Zagawa."  The 
Birked  use  the  form  "Zauge." 

El  Tunisi  gives5  a  number  of  details  concerning  the  Zaghawa  at 
the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Their  country,  a  very 
spacious  area  in  north-western  Darfur  was  ruled  by  a  tributary 
sultan  who  had  twelve  meliks  subject  to  him.  It  was  often  known 
as  "Dar  Tekenyaouy,"6  a  term  also  used  however  to  include  the 
Berti  country  immediately  east  of  it.  The  Zaghawa  and  Berti, 
though  living  as  neighbours,  "par  un  trait  frappant  de  la  sagesse 
divine,"  were  very  different  in  character,  the  advantage  both  in 
morals  and  appearance  lying  with  the  latter.  The  Zaghawa  were  at 
feud  with  the  M  ah  amid  Arabs. 

1  Cp.  Chap.  2,  xli,  of  this  Part.  The  reference  to  Leo  is  Bk.  vn,  826  and  828. 
Temporal  translated  "Zingane"  as  "Gypsies"  and  Dr  Brown  (Leo,  p.  828)  thinks 
this  correct.  On  p.  826  (loc.  cit.)  he  says  the  Zingani  cannot  be  classed  with  any 
known  people.  Sir  C.  Wilson  {Journ.  Anthr.  Inst.  Aug.  1887)  thought  the  Zingani 
might  be  Kababish  Arabs  "not  yet  arabicized."  The  Gypsies  in  Syria  and  Asia 
Minor  are  still  called  "tchingene"  (von  Luschan,  loc.  cit.  p.  227). 

2  See  MacMichael,  Tribes...,  p.  109. 

3  "Hogon"  is  also  the  word  used  on  the  Hombori  plateau  (Upper  Niger)  for 
a  rainmaker  or  sorcerer  (see  MacMichael,  loc.  cit.  114).  For  their  belief  in  certain 
holy  stones  and  trees  see  Para,  vm  of  this  chapter. 

4  Cp.  Carbou,  11,  209.       5  Voyage  au  Darfour,  pp.  128,  132,  133,  136-139,  297. 
6  The  term  is  said  by  el  Tunisi  to  mean  "  the  left  arm  or  wing  [of  the  Sultan]  " ; 

but  the  Fur  of  the  present  tell  me  it  denotes  the  loins  ("sulub").  "Tekenyaouy" 
was  the  title  of  its  ruler,  a  functionary  quite  distinct  from  the  local  Sultan  and 
apparently  a  kind  of  viceroy  of  the  Sultan  of  Darfur  (see  loc.  cit.  pp.  132,  133,  138). 
The  title  still  survives,  though  its  holder  has  neither  authority  nor  duties. 


58  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  i.  4.  iv. 

At  present  the  Zaghawa  are  divided  into  several  large  sections, 
of  which  the  chief  are  the  following1 : 

Arteyt. 

Mirra. 

Akaba. 

Kaitinga2.  This  large  community,  living  close  to  the  north  of 
Kuttum,  regards  itself,  and  is  regarded  by  others,  as  Tungur  by 
descent  on  the  male  side  and  Zaghawa  on  the  female  side.  They  are 
inclined  to  demur  to  the  appellation  of  Zaghawa,  though  not  flatly 
disowning  it,  and  to  speak  of  themselves  as  a  separate  tribe.  They 
never  call  themselves  Tungur. 

Kobbe.  (Including  the  Kubga.)  This  section  is  in  the  extreme 
north-west  of  Darfur  and  north-east  of  Wadai.  There  is  a  colony  of 
Kubga,  with  other  Kobbe  (Nas  Firti),  near  Kebkebia,  but  their 
habitat  proper  is  in  a  mountainous  district  north-west  of  Dar  Tama. 

The  Kobbe  are  subdivided  into  Ango,  Mirra,  Nowra,  Wayra, 
Baybela,  Kerayko,  Birriarra,  Bursu,  Sigerla  and  Gode;  the 
Kubga  into  Bigi,  Erla,  Hotillia,  Derbula  and  Birgabela3. 

Kaliba. 

Nikiri. 

Galigalgera,  or  Ganigalgera  (under  the  Kaliba). 

Awl  ad  Dikayn  and  Awl  ad  Doura.  Under  Akaba.  Until  the 
latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  however,  the  Akaba  were  under 
the  Awlad  Dikayn  nahds. 

Each  main  division  of  the  Zaghawa  now  has  its  own  melik, 
subject  to  no  single  Zaghawi  Sultan  or  overlord.  Their  habitat 
stretches  across  practically  the  whole  of  northernmost  Darfur  and 
part  of  northern  Wadai4,  and  in  its  more  southernly  districts  (in 
Darfur)  is  largely  peopled  by  Fur  and  Tungur. 

V  MiDOB.  Gebel  Midob  lies  about  400  miles  west  of  Khartoum 
or  350  miles  west-south-west  of  Debba,  in  the  north-eastern  corner 
of  Darfur,  and  mention  has  already  been  made  of  its  people  as  having  a 
Nubian  strain  and  speaking  a  dialect  that  resembles  that  of  the  Barabra5. 

1  The  Zaghawa  generally  add  the  Bedayat  to  the  list  of  their  subtribes. 

2  The  Kaitinga  brand  is  as  shown.  The  "crow's-foot"  at  the  base  is 
common  to  most  Fur  and  Tungur  brands  and  appears  to  be  borrowed  from 
the  royal  Kayra  section  of  Fur  (q.v.  in  Para,  xx,  and  cp.  Paras.  VII  and  xix). 

3  The  details  of  subdivisions  of  Kobbe  and  Kubga  were  supplied  to  me  by 
Mr  E.  G.  Sarsfield  Hall  of  the  Sudan  Civil  Service,  Inspector  of  Northern  Darfur. 

4  See  Carbou,  II,  209,  210. 

5  Part  I,  Chap.  2,  xxxm  and  xlii.  The  account  of  Mfdob  which  follows  is  partly 
identical  with  an  article  I  contributed,  under  the  title  "Nubian  Influences  in 
Darfur,"  to  the  first  number  of  Sudan  Notes  and  Records  (1918),  but  certain 
additions  have  been  made.  For  a  comparative  vocabulary  of  Mfdob,  Birked  and 
Barabra,  see  later  sub  Birked. 


£ 


I.  4.  v.  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR 


59 


The  range  itself  is  a  jumbled  mass  of  hills  of  volcanic  origin, 
between  ioo  and  200  miles  in  circumference,  divided  by  numberless 
small  valleys.  The  people  are  semi-nomadic:  for  the  greater  part  of 
the  year  they  are  constantly  shifting  camp  from  place  to  place  in 
and  about  their  hills  according  to  the  grazing  facilities,  and  in  the 
rains,  though  a  few  folk  remain  stationary  in  villages  for  the  sake  of 
cultivation  the  great  majority  are  away  with  the  flocks  in  the  great 
uninhabited  area  lying  east  of  the  range  and  west  of  the  Wadi  el 
Melik,  where  the  Kababish  Arabs  send  their  camels  and  sheep  at 
the  same  season  from  the  opposite  side.  They  are  primarily  herders 
of  sheep  and  goats  and  have  little  cultivation.  They  buy  most  of  their 
corn  from  the  Berti  to  the  south  and  there  is  a  small  but  long- 
established  colony  of  Midobis  living  in  the  northern  Tagabo  (Berti) 
hills. 

The  huts  which  compose  a  Mi'dob  village  are  of  a  curious — and 
to  me  unique — design.  As  having  no  permanent  value  they  are  built 
in  a  ramshackle  manner,  and  when  the  site  is  changed  they  are  simply 
abandoned.  In  shape  they  are  roughly  circular  and  in  appearance 
not  unlike  great  beehives :  in  content  they  slightly  exceed  the  ordinary 
village  tukl  of  Kordofan  and  Darfur. 

The  sides  are  formed  of  long  boughs  stuck  in  the  ground  so  as 
to  bear  slightly  inwards.  Their  tops  do  not  converge  so  as  actually 
to  meet — this  would  make  the  house  too  small — but  the  space  between 
their  tops  is  filled  by  interlacing  many  other  shorter  boughs  hori- 
zontally from  fork  to  fork  in  the  manner  of  a  rook's  nest.  Stability 
and  support  are  given  to  the  structure  by  two  or  more  stout  roof- 
trees,  forked  at  the  top,  which  are  planted  side  by  side  a  few  feet 
apart  near  the  centre  of  the  hut.  Smaller  boughs  and  sticks  are  thrust 
in  and  across  the  forks  of  the  larger  boughs  and  interstices  are  crudely 
plugged  with  bunches  of  grass  and  cornstalks.  The  doorway  opens 
to  the  south  and  is  low  and  formed  of  two  shaybas.  The  interior 
is  not  open  as  in  the  case  of  a  tukl.  On  entering  the  door  one 
advances  along  a  kind  of  gangway  which  extends  as  far  as  the  roof- 
trees.  This  gangway  consists  of  a  high  partition  of  grass-matting 
(sherkama)  on  either  side,  reaching  nearly  to  the  roof.  On  one 
side  the  partition  is  continued  at  a  right  angle  along  the  line  of  the 
roof-trees  to  the  outer  wall  in  such  a  way  as  to  form  a  private  room 
in  the  angle:  on  the  other  side  it  ends  near  the  centre  of  the  hut, 
thus  leaving  about  three-quarters  of  the  interior  open.  The  villages 
are  all  on  the  plain  but  usually  close  to  the  foot  of  the  hills. 

The  people  are  Muhammadans,  but  there  are  plentiful  traces  of 
more  ancient  manners  and  beliefs.   For  instance,  a  matrilinear  system 


60  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  1. 4.  v. 

of  inheritance  and  succession  is  still  followed,  and  on  the  death  of 
a  mek  he  is  succeeded  by  his  sister's  son.  There  are  two  meks 
in  Middb,  one  of  the  northern  portion  of  the  range  (Urti  section), 
the  other  of  the  southern  (Shelkota  section),  and  in  both  cases  the 
practice  is  the  same. 

In  the  matter  of  inheritance  it  is  usual,  in  order  to  conform  to 
Islamic  practice  while  preserving  the  ancient  custom,  for  a  man  before 
his  death  to  give  his  wealth  to  his  sons,  and  the  sister's  son  therefore 
finds  nothing  left  to  inherit.  The  well-to-do  carry  a  sword,  the  rest 
a  few  throwing  spears  or  a  knobbed  stick.  The  throwing  stick,  uni- 
versal in  the  rest  of  Darfur,  is  not  used  at  Midob. 

Circumcision  of  both  sexes  is  practised.  Marriage  with  the 
daughter  of  the  paternal  uncle,  usual  among  the  nomadic  Arabs,  is 
taboo  at  Midob,  but  the  same  does  not  apply  to  marriage  with  the 
daughter  of  the  maternal  uncle. 

A  very  interesting  annual  festival  is  held  by  the  Midobis  of  the 
north  and  south  alike.  It  begins,  it  is  said,  on  the  eighth  day  of  a 
lunar  month,  when  the  corn  is  ripe  and  the  first  few  heads  are  being 
cut,  but  before  the  general  reaping.  On  this  occasion  the  young  men 
and  the  girls  go  (in  the  case  of  the  southern  Midobis)  to  Khor  Odingar 
and  camp  there  for  fifteen  days,  enjoying  themselves  with  dancing 
and  horse-play.  The  elder  folk  merely  act  the  part  of  spectators  and 
bring  out  the  food  and  drink  for  the  others. 

A  month  later,  on  the  eighth  of  the  following  month,  that  is,  the 
young  men  go  (in  the  case  of  the  southern  Midobis)  to  Khor  Tat 
and  take  part  in  manly  sports,  running  and  riding,  etc.  The  women 
and  girls  look  on.  In  the  evening  each  young  man  has  to  jump  over 
the  Khor;  and  then  all  go  home. 

So  much — the  date  in  the  month  excepted — I  was  told  at  Midob, 
and  it  was  added  in  passing  that  the  young  men  had  their  heads 
anointed  for  the  festival.  But  in  191 8  I  was  travelling  with  some 
Midobis  and  noticed  that  one  of  them,  a  youth  aged  19  or  so,  wore 
his  hair  long  and  thickly  plaited  and  parted  down  the  middle — some- 
what after  the  fashion  of  the  Bedayria  youths — with  the  plaits  tied 
together  for  temporary  convenience  at  the  back  of  his  head.  This 
led  to  enquiries  and  the  following  additional  facts  transpired.  The 
whole  festival  described  above  is  known  as  the  bazza,  and  if  the 
year  is  a  bad  one  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  harvest  (bukkali, 
Arabic1;  urung'ul,  Midob)  it  is  not  held. 

The    plaited    hair    (dirwa,    or    tirwi,    Arabic1;    rafan,    Midob) 

1  The  Midobis  speak  of  this  as  an  Arabic  word,  but,  if  so,  it  seems  to  be  a 
corruption  of  some  sort. 


I.  4.  v.  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  6i 

is  an  important  feature  in  the  proceedings.  In  anticipation  of  the 
festival  the  lads  of  Mi'dob  allow  their  hair  to  grow  long,  and  about 
spring-time  they  begin  to  pay  special  attention  to  anointing  and 
plaiting  it.  Thus,  when  the  time  comes  for  the  celebration  of  the 
second  half  of  the  festival,  if  the  fathers,  judging  the  harvest  suffi- 
ciently good  to  warrant  it,  give  sanction  and  anoint  their  own  heads 
(which  are,  of  course,  close  shorn),  the  lads  dress  themselves  up  with 
women's  ornaments,  bracelets,  beads,  etc.,  and  take  a  drum  (nu- 
gdra)  and  form  a  procession  and  go  round  visiting  all  the  neighbour- 
ing villages,  beating  their  drum  and  inviting  contributions. 

In  a  good  year  there  will  be  some  fifty  to  a  hundred  youths  thus 
celebrating  the  bazza,  in  a  poor  year  perhaps  only  a  dozen  or  so ; 
and  evidently  it  is  a  matter  for  distinct  pride  in  after-life  to  have 
been  one  of  the  lads  of  a  good  year:  of  my  informants  one  boasted 
that  he  had  been  one  of  sixty-three  and  another  one  of  fifty-five.  If 
the  numbers  are  sufficiently  large  two  independent  processions  are 
formed  instead  of  one. 

Before  setting  out  on  their  series  of  visits  (which  may  extend  over 
a  week  or  a  fortnight  or  so,  according  to  the  number  of  villages  to  be 
visited  and  the  length  of  the  gaps  between  visits)  the  lads  select  from 
among  the  elders  of  their  tribe,  for  the  maturity  of  their  judgment, 
two  old  men  (" baraga  sirigi,"  i.e.  "rulers  of  the  young  men1")  as 
advisers:  it  was  explained  that  two  were  chosen,  and  not  one  only, 
because  in  human  affairs  "two  heads  are  better  than  one."  It  is  a 
matter  of  formality  that  these  two  elders  at  first  refuse,  and  only 
allow  themselves  to  be  over-persuaded  when  the  lads  engage  solemnly 
to  them  to  behave  themselves  and  lead  a  decent  orderly  life,  avoiding 
quarrels  and  irregularities  and  insubordination.  This  done,  the  two 
elders  consent  to  act,  and  instruct  the  lads  in  the  proper  ritual.  The 
same  elders  may  never  serve  more  than  twice. 

In  addition,  the  lads  select  from  among  their  own  number  two 
leaders2  for  each  procession,  or  for  the  single  procession,  as  the  case 
may  be;  but  for  this  privilege  only  those  are  eligible  whose  fathers 
and  mothers  are  still  alive  and  hale.  During  the  course  of  the  pro- 
cessional visits  all  the  lads  submit  to  the  orders  of  the  leaders  thus 
chosen. 

Then  the  procession  sets  out  and  visits  the  villages,  beating  the 
drum  and  collecting  whatever  is  offered  of  corn,  money,  sheep,  strips 
of  cotton  material,  etc.    Small  girls,  not  yet  come  to  puberty,  may 

1  The  word  "sirigi"  is  also  that  used  for  a  village  sheikh  at  Midob. 

2  Also  apparently  called  "baraga  sirigi,"  as  are  the  two  elders.  It  appears  to 
be  immaterial  which  of  all  the  youths  beats  the  drum. 


62  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  I.  4.  v. 

follow  in  the  train  of  the  procession,  but  it  is  not  customary  for  any- 
one else  to  do  so. 

At  the  end  of  the  festival  the  offerings  are  all  handed  over  to  the 
two  elders,  who  divide  up  one-third  of  the  total  among  the  lads  and 
keep  two-thirds  for  themselves.  The  leaders  of  the  procession  get  no 
more  in  this  distribution  than  their  companions. 

Then  the  lads  disperse  to  their  homes  and  the  father  of  each  (or 
in  default  the  father's  brother)  cuts  off  his  son's  locks  and  gives  them 
to  the  mother,  and  she  hangs  them  up  in  the  home  and  there  they 
remain  suspended  indefinitely. 

This  cutting  of  the  hair  is  the  final  consummation  of  the  whole 
affair,  and  every  male  Midobi  goes  through  the  process  on  the 
threshold  of  his  manhood,  and  once  for  all.  There  is  no  particular 
age  specified,  and  the  rite  has  apparently  no  connection  with  puberty, 
marriage,  etc.  One  simply  waits  for  a  reasonably  good  harvest  year. 
It  is  only  forbidden  for  sons  of  the  same  mother  to  go  through  the 
ceremony  in  a  single  year,  though  sons  of  the  same  father  by  different 
mothers  may  do  so.  Until  his  hair  has  been  shorn  it  is  improper  for 
a  boy  to  leave  the  mountain,  and,  in  the  case  of  the  one  with  unshorn 
locks  whom  I  encountered,  nothing  but  the  force  of  particular  cir- 
cumstances would  have  induced  him  to  do  it,  and  he  was  obviously 
ashamed  of  himself1. 

1  So  far  as  I  could  ascertain  no  other  neighbouring  Darfur  tribe  has  any  strictly 
analogous  rite.  The  somewhat  similar  practice  among  the  Kimr  (see  Para,  xxi)  is 
associated  with  circumcision  and  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  harvest. 

The  obvious  interest  in  the  Mfdobi  festival  is  the  resemblance  it  bears  to 
May-Day  festivals,  whether  that  associated  with  the  holy  bull  of  Magnesia  (Asia 
Minor)  in  pre-Christian  days,  or  that  still  held  in  Thuringia,  or  in  the  country 
districts  of  England  "where,"  as  Miss  Harrison  says,  "the  Queen  of  the  May 
and  the  Jack-in-the-Green  still  go  from  house  to  house.  Nowadays  it  is  to 
collect  pence;  once  it  was  to  diffuse  'grace'  and  increase"  (Ancient  Art  and  Ritual, 

P-  175)- 

Take  the  case  of  the  Thuringian  festival  first:  "As  soon  as  the  trees  begin 
to  be  green  in  spring,  the  children  assemble  on  a  Sunday  and  go  out  into  the  woods, 
where  they  choose  one  of  their  playmates  to  be  Little  Leaf  Man.  They  break 
branches  from  the  trees  and  twine  them  about  the  child,  till  only  his  shoes  are  left 
peeping  out.  Two  of  the  other  children  lead  him  for  fear  he  should  stumble.  They 
take  him  singing  and  dancing  from  house  to  house,  asking  for  gifts  of  food,  such 
as  eggs,  cream,  sausages,  cakes..."  (Art  and  Ritual,  p.  60). 

Even  more  striking  is  the  parallel  from  ancient  Asia  Minor:  "It  was  not  only 
at  Elis  that  a  holy  Bull  appears  at  the  Spring  Festival.  Plutarch  asks  another 
instructive  Question:  'Who  among  the  Delphians  is  the  Sanctifier?'  And  we  find 
to  our  amazement  that  the  Sanctifier  is  a  Bull.  A  Bull  who  not  only  is  holy  him- 
self, but  is  so  holy  that  he  has  power  to  make  others  holy,  he  is  the  Sanctifier; 
and,  most  important  for  us,  he  sanctifies  by  his  death  in  the  month  Bysios,  the 
month  that  fell...' at  the  beginning  of  spring,  the  time  of  the  blossoming  of  many 
plants.' 

"We  do  not  hear  that  the  'Sanctifier'  at  Delphi  was  'driven,'  but  in  all  prob- 
ability he  was  led  from  house  to  house,  that  every  one  might  partake  in  the  sanctity 


l.4.v.  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  63 

Just  before  the  rains  the  southern  Mfdobis  hold  a  quite  different 
ceremony  at  the  holy  rock  of  Udru,  a  broken  unshaped  block  of 
granite  some  2f  feet  high  lying  at  the  foot  of  Gebel  Udru  (called  by 
the  Arabs  "Mogran"),  a  large  and  conspicuous  detached  hill  on  the 
south  side  of  Mi'dob.  The  holy  rock  is  called  Telli  (northern  dialect) 
or  Delli  (southern  dialect)  and  the  same  word  in  the  Midobi  language 
means  God.  Over  it  is  built  a  rough  hut  of  boughs,  which  is  repaired 
yearly  before  the  ceremony,  but  left  in  bad  repair  for  the  greater  part 
of  the  year.  The  rock,  when  I  saw  it  in  July  19 17,  was  still  covered 
with  milk  stains.  Another  smaller  boulder  near  by  had  similar  stains 
upon  it  and  some  stones  and  cow-dung  on  the  top  of  it.  This  second 
boulder  was  referred  to  as  the  son  or  younger  brother  of  the  larger 
one,  and  the  reason  of  its  having  also  been  honoured  was  said  to  be 
that  the  hut  built  over  the  big  boulder  had  so  consistently  fallen  to 
pieces  that  the  people  thought  the  rock  was  perhaps  annoyed  at  the 
neglect  shown  to  the  smaller  boulder,  so  of  late  years  they  had  taken 
to  making  offerings  to  both.  The  stones  and  cow-dung  had  been 
placed  upon  the  smaller  boulder  by  the  children  in  play. 

The  ceremony  at  Udru  is  performed  by  certain  old  women  of 
the  Ordarti  section,  who  inherit  the  privilege  from  mother  to  daughter. 
The  offerings  of  milk,  fat,  flour,  meat,  etc.,  are  handed  by  the 
votaries  to  these  old  women  and  by  them  placed  on  the  rock.  The 
rest  of  the  people  stand  some  way  off  and  pass  the  time  jumping  and 
dancing  and  singing. 

There  is  said  to  be  another  holy  stone  at  which  similar  rain- 
that  simply  exuded  from  him.  At  Magnesia,  a  city  of  Asia  Minor,  we  have  more 
particulars.  There,  at  the  annual  fair  year  by  year  the  stewards  of  the  city  bought 
a  Bull,  'the  finest  that  could  be  got,'  and  at  the  new  moon  of  the  month  at  the 
beginning  of  seedtime  they  dedicated  it  for  the  city's  welfare.  The  Bull's  sanctified 
life  began  with  the  opening  of  the  agricultural  year,  whether  with  the  spring  or 
the  autumn  ploughing  we  do  not  know.  The  dedication  of  the  Bull  was  a  high 
solemnity.  He  was  led  in  procession,  at  the  head  of  which  went  the  chief  priest 
and  priestess  of  the  city.  With  them  went  a  herald  and  the  sacrificer,  and  two  bands 
of  youths  and  maidens.  So  holy  was  the  bull  that  nothing  unlucky  might  come  near 
him;  the  youths  and  maidens  must  have  both  their  parents  alive,  they  must  not 
have  been  under  the  taboo,  the  infection,  of  death.  The  herald  pronounced  aloud 
a  prayer  for  'the  safety  of  the  city  and  the  land,  and  the  citizens,  and  the  women 
and  children,  for  peace  and  wealth,  and  for  the  bringing  forth  of  grain  and  of  all 
the  other  fruits,  and  of  cattle.'  All  this  longing  for  fertility,  for  food  and  children, 
focuses  round  the  holy  Bull,  whose  holiness  is  his  strength  and  fruitfulness." 

The  bull  is  set  apart  and  fed  and  "it  is  good"  for  those  that  give  him  food. 
He  lives  on  through  autumn  and  winter  but  early  in  April  the  end  comes.  Again 
a  procession  is  formed,  senate  and  priests,  "children  and  young  boys  and  youths 
just  come  to  manhood"  take  their  part  in  it,  and  the  Bull  is  sacrificed  so  that  his 
strength  and  vigour  may  pass  to  his  people.  And  "'when  they  shall  have  sacri- 
ficed the  Bull,  let  them  divide  it  up  among  those  who  took  part  in  the  procession,"' 
that  each  "may  get  his  share  of  the  strength  of  the  Bull,  of  the  luck  of  the  State" 
{Art  and  Ritual,  pp.  86-89). 


64  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  i.  4.  v. 

making  ceremonies  are  held,  a  day's  journey  away,  at  Gebel  Abu 
Nukta.    It  also  is  called  Telli  (Delli). 

We  shall  see  that  elsewhere  in  Darfur  analogous  ceremonies  are 
held  with  the  object  of  ensuring  good  rains,  and  in  every  case  the 
medium  is  an  old  woman,  and  offerings  are  made  at  some  particular 
stone  or  tree;  but  in  the  case  of  Midob  there  is,  so  far  as  I  could 
discover,  no  suggestion  of  the  usual  serpent  or  other  demon  having 
its  lair  beneath1. 

The  three  main  sections  into  which  the  people  of  Midob  are 
divided  are  the  Urti  (in  the  northern  hills),  the  Torti  (or  Dorti), 
and  the  Shelkota  (in  the  southern  hills),  but  there  are  also  certain 
well-defined  subdivisions  such  as  the  Ordarti,  the  Genana — who 
are  reckoned  to  have  a  strong  Arab  strain  and  whose  name  is  familiar 
from  the  "nisbas"  (q.v.  in  Part  IV) — the  Turkeddi,  the  Usutti  and 
the  Kageddi.  All  alike  (the  Genana  excepted)  claim  to  be  Mahass 
from  Dongola  but  they  preserve  no  written  record  nor  oral  tradition 
as  to  the  time  at  which  thev  settled  at  Midob  nor  as  to  the  circum- 
stances  of  their  migration.  They  call  themselves  Tiddi2. 

The  old  burial  grounds  at  Midob  are  invariably  at  the  foot  of 
the  hills  and  the  sites  are  marked  by  rough  cairns  of  stone.  Exactly 
similar  cairns  occur  between  Midob  and  the  Wadi  el  Melik,  on  the 
Wadi  el  Melik,  at  Kaga  and  Katul,  on  the  Wadi  el  Mukaddam,  in 
the  hills  immediately  west  of  Omdurman  and  in  the  hills  between 
the  Blue  Nile  and  Abu  Delayk. 

VI  BERTI.  South  of  the  Midob  hills,  in  eastern  Darfur,  live  the 
Berti,  a  large  tribe  of  mixed  origin.  To  the  Fur  they  are  known  as 
Kurmu,  to  the  Birred  as  Sulgu,  to  the  Midob  people  as  Bayti. 
They  call  themselves  Sigato.  Their  upper  classes  put  forward  shadowy 
claims  to  be  related  to  the  Ga'aliin  of  the  Nile  valley  and  to  the 
Howara3  by  descent  and  to  the  Dar  Hamid  group  of  Kordofan  by 
intermarriage,  but  in  appearance  they  are  all  alike  negroid. 

The  true  home  of  the  Berti  is  in  the  Tagabo  hills  between  Midob 
and  el  Fasher,  but  in  recent  years,  owing  partly  to  the  oppressiveness 
of  the  Fur  Sultan's  rule  and  partly  to  the  local  failure  of  the  crops, 
large  numbers  of  them  have  settled  to  the  south-east  in  Gebel  el 
Hilla  and  Tawaysha  districts,  where  there  used  to  be  only  insignificant 
colonies  of  Berti,  and  in  western  Kordofan.  They  are  entirely 
sedentary  and  are  rightly  described  by  el  Tiinisi4  as  a  mild  and 

1  Compare  Ibn  Selfm's  record  of  the  vogue  of  a  sacred  stone  in  connection  with 
rainmaking  in  the  Soba  (Gezira)  region  in  the  tenth  century  (see  Part  II,  Chap.  2). 

2  "Tiddi"  in  the  Berti  language  means  "white" — probably  a  mere  coincidence. 

3  See  Part  III,, Chap.  8. 

4  See  Voy.  Darfour,  pp.  128,  133,  136,  297. 


1.4.  vi.  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  65 

good-natured  people.  In  fact  the  Arabs  despise  them  as  spiritless 
and  cowardly.  Apart  from  cultivation  their  only  industry  appears 
to  be  the  making  of  burmas,  or  jars  for  water  or  merissa. 
The  process  is  the  same  as  in  northern  Kordofan,  for  instance. 
The  ball  of  clay  is  placed  on  a  piece  of  rough  matting,  the  fist  is 
driven  into  it  and  the  walls  of  the  jar  are  driven  out  from  the 
inside.  The  mouthpiece  and  neck  are  made  separately  and  super- 
imposed. 

Iron-workers  are,  as  usual  throughout  Darfur,  held  in  detestation, 
but  both  the  Zaghawa  and  the  Berti  harbour  small  colonies  of  servile 
iron-workers  from  the  west1. 

There  are  two  or  three  holy  stones  and  trees  in  or  near  the  Tagabo 
hills2,  where  rites  are  performed  once  or  twice  a  year.  The  usual 
occasion  is  just  before  the  rains  are  due  to  commence,  but  it  is  not 
unusual  for  recourse  to  be  had  to  these  sites  ("mahalldt  'awdid" 
=" places  of  customs")  also  at  harvest  time,  immediately  before  the 
reaping,  in  the  hope  of  ensuring  a  good  crop  and  fat  kine.  As  at 
Midob,  the  intermediaries  are  old  women  who  hold  the  right  from 
mother  to  daughter,  but  the  daughter  does  not  practise  until  she  has 
had  children  or  is  advanced  in  years.  The  space  round  the  tree  or 
stone  is  carefully  swept  and  sheep  are  sacrificed  and  offerings  of 
meat,  milk,  fat  and  flour  are  made  and  "worship  is  rendered."  The 
families  of  the  old  women  officiating  are  allowed  to  sit  close  by  and 
watch  the  rites,  but  the  rest  of  the  populace  remain  afar. 

One  informant  denied  any  idea  of  a  spirit  or  animal  living  below 
the  sacred  tree  or  rock,  but  others  on  the  contrary  held  there  were 
afdrit  {sing,  afrit  =an  (evil)  spirit)  there,  though  they  had  no  notion 
of  their  shape  or  form  or  attributes.  The  old  women,  they  say,  talk  to 
these  and  stroke  and  soothe  the  stone. 

But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  those  Berti  who  have  acquired  some 
measure  of  civilization  by  contact  with  the  Arabs  are  inclined  to 
regard  the  whole  matter  as  a  superstition,  and  it  seems  to  be  only 
among  the  ruder  type  living  among  the  Tagabo  hills  that  the  rites 
are  still  practised. 

The  Berti  are  subdivided  into  innumerable  sections  and  the 
names  of  the  greater  number  of  these  correspond  to  the  names  of 
hills  in  or  near  Tagabo,  but  it  was  insisted  by  the  head  Shartdi 
{'omda)  of  the  tribe,  from  whom  I  obtained  the  following  list,  that 
it  was  the  hills  which  were  called  after  the  sections,  and  not  vice  versa. 

1  See  p.  89. 

2  One  is  at  Sayah,  one  at  the  small  hill  which  gives  its  name  to  the  whole 
Tagabo  range.  The  latter  of  these  is  the  most  important  site  of  all. 

m.s.i.  5 


66 


THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR 


I.  4.  VI. 


Wamato 
Kamdirto 

SlNFANTO 
DlBAYRTO 
BlSHINANTO 
WlDARTO 

'Abdinto 

DUKURTO 

FOBATO 

KUATO 

Aminkato 
Dadamarto 
Tofi'to 
Umbato 

KOLIAT 


Wamirto 

Masandiat 

Kaylinga 

Arm  ad  i  at 

Wadkeniat 

Kamarshowat 

Atabirto 

Kamalkua 

Musaba'at1 

KUDIL 

Umbato 

KlRATO 

Umzato 

Handilto 

Karaka 


MlNA 

Basinga2 

Warl 

Kamlinga 

Wizato 

Kashrito 

Kibranto 

BOBARTO 
MlSMARTO 
WlMARTO 
BURANTO 

(3dato 
Kadanto 

HOBATO 

Madinkirto3 


WlMATO 

Kadarinto 
Selbalto 

BURMATO 
MlRARTO 

Mangilto 
sowaranto 

WlRATO 

Sandilto 

Sambangato4 

Lababis5 

KlNATO 

Umzirarto 

Shokanto 


The  dialect  spoken  by  the  Berti  bears  marked  resemblances  to 
that  of  the  Zaghawa6. 

VII  TUNGUR.  The  Tungur  were  reported  to  Barth7  as  having 
come  originally  from  Dongola  "where  they  had  separated  from  the 
Batalesa,  the  well-known  Egyptian  tribe  originally  settled  in  Benese." 
Now  "Batalesa"  is  simply  a  regular  plural  formed  from  "Batlus," 
the  Arabic  form  of  Ptolemy  (Ptolemaeus)8,  and  the  legend  suggests 
that  the  Tungur  were  an  ancient  pre- Arab  tribe  from  Nubia.  From 
certain  customs  that  survive  among  them9  one  would  infer  that  they 
were  Christians  at  the  date  of  their  migration  to  the  west.  Carbou 
states10  "La  tradition  des  Toundjour  parle  aussi  d'un  sejour  de  leur 
tribu  sur  les  bords  du  bahr  Nil";  and  one  notes  in  confirmation 
that  their  name  survives  in  that  of  the  "  Tungur  "  Rapid  seventy- two 
miles  south  of  Wadi  Haifa.  On  reaching  Darfur,  probably  in  the 
fifteenth  or  sixteenth  century11,  they  took  up  their  abode  in  the 
northern  or  central  districts.  They  have  been  spoken  of  by  travellers 
as  dispossessing  the  Dagu  in  Darfur,  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  there 

1  Presumably  Fur  by  origin. 

2  The  headman's  own  section.    Cp.  p.  95. 

3  Cp.  "  Madargarkei "  among  the  Birked? 

4  Cp.  "  Sumbinange  "  and  "  Sambelange"  among  the  Dagu. 

b  Cp.  other  Lababfs,  claiming  to  be  Kababfsh  by  origin,  among  the  Fur. 

6  For  examples  see  Appendix  1  to  this  chapter. 

7  O.v.  Vol.  in,  Ch.  li,  p.  430. 

8  See,  e.g.,  Abu  el  Fida,  Hist.  Ant.  p.  104,  iLJUaJ!  >oUJI  u-^Vj  j-***  ^.A^ 
I  see  that  Dr  Brown,  editing  Leo,  calls  (p.  645)  the  "Batalises"  one  of  the  Zeneta 
(Berber)  tribes. 

9  See  Appendix  5  to  this  chapter.  10  1,  74. 

11  It  may  well  have  been  earlier  than  the  sixteenth  century,  but  the  Tungur  are 
not  mentioned  by  Leo  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century:  cp.  Barth,  ibid. 
pp.  429,  430.  Nachtigal  thought  they  entered  Darfur  in  the  fifteenth  century 
(see  Carbou,  1,  74). 


1. 4.  vii.         THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  67 

has  been  some  misapprehension  on  this  point.  It  is  true  that  natives 
will  tell  one  that  first  the  Dagu  ruled,  then  the  Tungur,  then  the 
Fur  ;  but  what  they  mean  in  the  case  of  the  first  two  is  that  each  in 
turn  was  the  most  powerful  tribe  in  the  country  and  not  necessarily 
that  one  subdued  the  other  or  even  occupied  the  same  part  of  Darfur. 
For  instance,  the  Dagu  never  had  any  shadow  of  power  or  influence 
in  northern  Darfur  or  Gebel  Marra,  and  the  Tungur  never  had  any 
connection  with  the  southernmost  districts  of  Darfur  or  Gebel  Marra. 
The  main  spheres  of  the  two  people  were  always  distinct,  except 
that  they  certainly  met  and  overlapped  in  central-eastern  Darfur,  that 
is  to  say,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  el  Fasher. 

I  incline,  too,  to  think  that  there  has  been  a  further  miscon- 
ception as  to  the  Tungur.  Nachtigal1  speaks  of  the  last  Tungur 
king,  Shau  Dorshid,  as  living  in  Gebel  Si,  and  it  has  been  inferred 
that  the  Tungur  (all  or  part)  lived  in  those  mountains  and  that  they 
had  the  seat  of  their  rule  there.  But  the  term  "Gebel  Si"  is  a  very 
wide  one.  It  does  not  include  only  the  rocky,  almost  impassable, 
range  which  forms  the  northern  prolongation  of  Gebel  Marra,  but 
all  the  cultivable  sandy  country  with  smaller  outcrops  of  rock  which 
flank  the  hills  for  a  day's  journey  or  so  to  east  and  west.  Even  in 
'Ali  Dinar's  time  and  at  the  present  day  the  head  Shartdi  of  Si,  which 
is  thus  a  district  as  well  as  a  range,  does  not  live  in  the  hills  but  on 
the  sandy  fertile  tract  to  the  east  of  it ;  and  there  is  no  local  record 
or  tradition  that  I  have  been  able  to  trace,  even  in  Si  itself,  that  the 
Tungur  ever  occupied  the  mountains  of  Si  proper  or  had  their 
headquarters  there.  Nor  is  it  in  the  least  likely  from  what  we  know 
of  their  history  that  they  ever  bothered — or  were  able — to  overrun 
these  inhospitable  crags  and  settle  there.  Why  should  they  when 
the  fertile  country  to  the  east,  and  perhaps  to  the  west  also,  was 
ample  for  them  ? 

The  truth  seems  to  be  simply  that  the  Tungur,  when  they 
arrived  in  northern  Darfur  made  their  headquarters  at  Ferra  in  Dar 
Furnung  to  the  north-west  of  Kuttum — all  local  tradition  agrees  as 
to  this — and  their  control  extended  over  the  eastern  plains  of  Gebel 
Si2.  That  the  savage  mountaineers  of  Si  were  overawed  by  them  and 
perhaps  paid  them  some  tribute  is  not  impossible,  but  there  is  no 
definite  evidence  of  it.  That  there  was  copious  intermarriage  between 
Fur  and  Tungur  in  this  neighbourhood  is  indubitable.  The  name 
of  Shau  Dorshid  is  familiar  in  Gebel  Si  itself  to  the  present  day, 
but  the  greatest  vagueness  prevails  as  to  details  and  opinion  is  even 

1  See  History  of  the  World  (Helmolt),  p.  585. 

2  For  a  description  of  their  remains  at  Ferra  see  Appendix  5  to  this  chapter. 

5—2 


68      THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR    i.  4.  vn. 

divided  as  to  whether  he  was  a  Tungurawi  or  a  Furawi  or  one  of  the 
To  Ra,  the  prehistoric  people  who,  according  to  tradition,  preceded 
the  Fur  both  in  the  mountains  of  Si  and  Turra  (the  northernmost 
portion  of  Marra,  immediately  south  of  Si).  For  this  confusion  the 
local  blending  by  marriage  of  Fur  and  Tungur  stocks  is  obviously 
responsible,  for  an  exactly  similar  doubt  surrounds  the  ethnical  status 
of  the  people  of  Dar  Furnung  themselves  at  the  present  day. 

The  Tungur  were  not  content  to  remain  for  long  in  Darfur.  In 
less  than  a  century  they  began  to  extend  their  conquests  over  Wadai 
and  up  to  the  borders  of  Bakirmi. 

In  proportion,  however,  as  they  moved  westwards  they  weakened 
their  hold  over  the  most  easternly  part  of  their  dominions  and  their 
place  was  taken  by  the  Kayra  section  of  the  Fur  with  whom  they 
had  intermarried1. 

In  the  west  they  were  overcome  in  the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth 
century  by  'Abd  el  Kerim,  the  founder  of  the  Muhammadan  empire 
of  Wadai2.  They  then  moved  into  Kanem  and  overcame  the  Bulala 
and  compelled  the  Arab  tribes  to  pay  tribute.  By  this  time,  if  not 
before,  they  had  been  converted  to  Islam.  Subsequently  they  were 
subdued  by  the  Bornuans,  but  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century 
regained  the  mastery  by  the  aid  of  the  Sultan  of  Wadai.  Shortly 
afterwards,  however,  the  Awlad  Sulayman  invaded  their  country 
and  made  them  tributary.  Since  then  they  have  been  of  little  account3. 

The  tradition  given  by  Slatin4  is  to  the  effect  that  the  Tungur 
came  from  the  north  from  Tunis  under  "Ahmad  el  Ma'akur"  (of 
the  Beni  Hilal,  the  commonly  reputed  ancestor  of  the  Kayra  Fur), 
but  this  story  is  so  obviously  intertwined  with  the  fabulous  "Abu 
Zayd"  or  "Beni  Hilal"  cycle  current  in  Egypt  and  the  Sudan5,  and 
there  may  so  easily  be  a  confusion  between  Tungur  and  Fur  tradi- 
tions, due  to  the  extent  to  which  they  intermarried  in  northern  Darfur, 

1  Note  that  the  mother  and  not  the  father  of  Dali,  who  is  spoken  of  as  the  first 
Kayra  Sultan,  belonged  to  the  Kayra  family:  the  father  was  a  Tungurawi  (Carbou, 
I,  77).  So,  too,  'Abd  el  Kerfm  (q.v.  next  paragraph)  is  said  to  have  married  the 
daughter  of  the  Tungur  king  (Carbou,  I,  78). 

2  Barth,  loc.  cit.;  Nachtigal,  Sah.  und  Sudan,  in,  449  ff.  and  Voy.  au  Ouada'i, 
pp.  72,  93;  Schurtz,  pp.  541-544,  and  Carbou,  1,  73-84,  25,  26.  The  last  two  are 
quoting  Nachtigal. 

3  Carbou,  1,  Ch.  in.  4  Chap.  11. 

5  The  subject  is  discussed  in  my  Tribes...,  pp.  56,  57.  See  also  Escayrac  de 
Lauture,  Le  Desert  et  le  Soudan,  and  Carbou,  1,  74,  84,  and  11,  17.  The  last-named 
also  refers  to  an  article  "Schoa  und  Tundscher"  by  Hartmann  in  Der  islamische 
Orient,  1,  29-31,  and  to  C.  H.  Becker's  "Zur  Geschichte  der  ostlichen  Sudan" 
(in  Der  Islam,  ire  annee,  fasc.  11),  pp.  161,  162.  Becker  brings  the  Tungur  from 
the  east.  Kampffmeyer  (Studien  der  arabischen  Beduinendialecte  Inner  Afrikas, 
p.  166),  ap.  Carbou,  1,  84,  brings  them  from  Tunis. 

For  an  account  of  the  Beni  Hilal  see  Part  II,  Chap.  1,  xiv. 


1. 4.  vii.         THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  69 

that  one  would  hesitate  to  accept  any  of  its  details  as  historically 
correct. 

The  Tungur,  however,  are  generally  regarded  as  having  some 
intimate  connection  with  the  Beni  Hilal,  and,  though  this  may  only 
be  an  echo  of  the  Kayra  tradition,  the  converse  may  equally  be  true, 
and  there  also  remains  the  possibility  that  about  the  fifteenth  or 
sixteenth  century  a.d.,  or  even  earlier,  some  Arabs  or  Arabo-Niibians 
with  a  Beni  Hilal  connection,  moved  westwards  from  .the  cataract 
region  of  the  Nile  to  Darfur,  mixed  with  the  native  races,  and  came 
to  be  generally  known  as  Tungur1,  a  theory  not  unsupported  by 
local  tradition2. 

There  is  also  the  bare  possibility  that  the  Tungur  may  have  been 
related  to  the  Berber  tribes  dispossessed  by  the  Beni  Hilal  in  North 
Africa,  and  perhaps  through  them  to  the  Beni  Hilal  themselves. 
Or  they  may  conceivably  present  a  parallel  to  the  case  of  the  Howara 
settled  in  and  near  el  Fasher :  these  latter  are  by  origin  Berbers  from 
Upper  Egypt  who  in  Dongola  and  Kordofan  are  represented  by  the 
nomad  Hawawir  and  the  negrified  Gellaba  Howara  respectively3. 

The  word  "Tungur"  in  Nubian  or  Barabra  means  "a  bow  for 
shooting4";  Nubia  was  known  to  the  Pharaohs  as  Ta-sety  (Land  of 
the  Bow),  and  "Les  Nubiens,  dit  Masoudy,...se  servent  d'arcs 
arabes  pour  lancer  des  fleches.  C'est  d'eux  que  les  peuples  du 
Hedjaz,  du  Yemen,  et  les  autres  Arabes,  ont  appris  a  tirer  de  Tare5.... 
Les  Arabes  les  nomment  les  archers  habiles*"  Their  traditions  con- 
nect them  with  Dongola  and  the  Beni  Hilal,  they  preserve  (as  may 
be  seen  in  Appendix  5)  the  custom  of  using  the  sign  of  the  Cross, 
their  name  survives  in  a  rapid  on  the  Nile,  and,  all  things  considered, 
one  may  say  that  such  evidence  as  there  is  clearly  indicates  a  Nubian 
origin  for  the  Tungur. 

If  this  is  correct,  a  parallel  is  provided  by  the  case  of  the  Birked 
which  will  shortly  be  discussed. 

The  Tungur  have  generally  been  referred  to  by  travellers  as 

1  This  seems  to  be  Carbou's  view  (q.v.  I,  74  note). 

2  Cp.  MS.  D  1,  cxliii,  and  cp.  Sir  H.  H.  Johnston's  views  in  Journ.  Anthr. 
Inst,  xliii,  1913,  p.  399.  He  considers  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  "Hilalian" 
invaders  found  their  way  from  the  cataract  region  of  the  Nile  "  across  Darfur  to 
Wadai,  Bornu  and  Baghirmi,  where  they  are  represented  at  the  present  day  by 
the  Shawia.  Others  again  mingled  with  Hamitic  and  negro  elements  and  founded 
the  powerful  Funj  dynasty  of  Senaar."  From  the  second  of  these  statements  I 
would  entirely  dissent. 

3  See  App.  to  Part  II,  Chap.  1. 

4  Reinisch,  Die  Nuba- Spr ache,  p.  165. 

5  Quatremere,  II,  28. 

6  Mas'udi,  11,  383  (and  cp.  II,  2,  xxm  above):  the  Arabic  is  wJjjOl^gy*^**. 

JjoJI  5Uj. 


70      THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR    i.  4.  vn. 

Arabs,  and  they  still,  after  the  debased  Ga'ali  manner,  make  per- 
functory claim  to  be  descended  from  the  Beni  'Abbas,  however 
difficult  it  may  be  to  reconcile  this  with  the  Beni  Hilal  connection. 

In  Darfur  and  Kordofan  it  is  not  uncommon  to  see  both  the 
distinctively  negroid  and  the  distinctively  dark  Arab  type  among  the 
Tungur;  but  in  Wadai,  on  the  other  hand,  Nachtigal  found  the 
Tungur  with  "a  skin  almost  white."  They  spoke  Arabic  and  had 
the  reputation  of  being  Arabs1. 

M.  Carbou  speaks  of  the  western  Tungur  as  a  population  inter- 
mediary between  the  Arabs  and  the  Kanembu  and  Tibbu,  and  mixed 
with  other  tribes  among  whom  they  have  lived.  As  regards  their 
appearance  he  says:  "On  trouve  chez  les  Toundjour  le  teint  clair 
des  Arabes  ('hamer':  rouge),  mais  la  nuance  'akhdher'  (litt.  vert: 
bronze  fonce)  est  la  plus  repandue.  Quelques-uns  d'entre  eux,  assez 
rares  d'ailleurs,  ont  le  teint  'azreq'  (noir-gris)." 

Their  chief,  he  says,  is  known  as  the  fougbou,  a  word  of  Kanem 
origin2. 

Most  of  them  are  in  Kanem :  others  are  in  Bornu  and  Wadai  (Dar 
el  Ziud,  etc.)  and  Darfur.  M.  Carbou  scouts  the  idea  that  they  came 
from  the  east  and  has  little  doubt  but  that  there  is  good  foundation 
for  their  claim  to  be  connected  with  the  Beni  Hilal  and  to  have 
come  from  Tunis3.  They  do  not  practise  female  excision  as  the  Arabs 
and  Wadayans  do4. 

The  Tungur  of  Darfur  are  mentioned  by  el  Tunisi  among  the 
minor  Sultanates  of  that  country,  neighbours  of  the  Birred,  living 
between  Gedi'd  Ras  el  Fil  and  Tubeldia5.  They  had  "une  certaine 
dose  de  religion  et  d'intelligence,  ce  qui  les  maintient  dans  les  limites 
d'une  conduite  plus  moderee."  Unlike  the  other  petty  sultans,  the 
ruler  of  the  Tungur  used  to  wear  a  black  turban,  and  he  told  el  Tunisi 
that  he  did  so  as  a  sign  of  mourning  for  the  glory  that  had  departed6. 

As  we  have  seen,  in  the  early  days  of  their  predominance  in 
Darfur  their  capital  was  at  Ferra,  north-west  of  Kuttum,  near  Si,  but 
they  pushed  southwards  thence  and  made  Gebel  Harayz,  south  of 
el  Fasher,  one  of  their  headquarters.  Moderately  large  colonies  of 
Tungur  still  exist  both  round  Kuttum  and  Harayz.  With  the  exception 
of  the  indeterminate  Tungur-Fur  of  Furnung  they  speak  Arabic  only 
and  are  known  by  no  other  name  than  Tungur  to  the  various  dialect- 
speaking  tribes  of  the  country.  They  are  divided  into  a  large  number 
of  sections,  mostly  small  and  negligible,  but  the  following  appear  to 

1  Voy.  au  Ouada'i,  p.  93.  2  Carbou,  I,  82-84  and  167. 

3  Ibid.  11,  17;  and  I,  73,  74.  i  Ibid.  11,  17,  22. 

5  Voy.  au  Darfour,  pp.  128,  133. 

6  Ibid.  p.  128.  The  custom  does  not  survive  now. 


1. 4.  viii.        THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  71 

be  the  most  important.  The  brands  which  each  most  commonly  uses 
for  its  animals  are  added,  but  of  course  many  of  the  subsections  use 
variants . 

A.   Kirati  (the  ruling  family  at  Harayz).  They  use    — . 
the  brand  (a)  or  (b)  and  call  it  (probably  by  error)  the    I J 


ankarib  ("bedstead").  a,        b 

B.  Dowlunga  (the  ruling  family  at  Kuttum).  They  use  .  . . 
the  dingar  {i.e.  nugdra  or  small  war-drum)  with  sticks  as  in  \J  \ 
the  figure. 

C.  Kirwa.    They    use    the    tukdi    ("reaping    J j  J      j-J— 

knife"),  (a),  or  vary  it  to  (b).  They  also  use  (<:).  ~T~ 

D.  Kurukuri.   They  use  the  ankarib,  as  (a),  or  as 

(b),  but  in  the  latter  case  call  it  a  nugdra.  "T~ 


E.    Niminga.  They  use  the  brand  as  shewn. 

1 


F.    Um  Kadarik.  They  use   the   rigl  el  ghordb  ("crows 
foot")  in  the  form  shewn. 


G.    Sukuri.      They    use    a    rigl    el  ghordb    in    the    form 
shewn. 

H.  Waringa.  They  are  said  to  be  a  branch  of  Sukuri. 
The  figure  shews  their  brand,  which  is  alleged  to  represent 
a  sword  hilt  with  an  extra  line  for  the  scabbard. 


J.    Ingunga.  They  are  said  to  be  a  branch  of  the  Kirati. 


At 


Their  brand,  round  Kuttum,  is  as  in  the  figure. 

VIII  DAGU.  One  of  the  most  ancient  Darfiirian  races,  one  which 
now  forms  with  the  Birked  and  Bayko1  a  distinct,  albeit  hetero- 
geneous, negroid  group  in  central  Darfur,  east  and  south-east  of  Gebel 
Marra,  to  the  north  of  the  Bakkara  country  proper,  is  the  Dagu. 

The  grounds  for  any  possible  identification  of  these  Dagu  with 
the  Tagua  branch  of  Zaghawa  mentioned  by  Ibn  Sa'id  as  living 
forty  days  eastwards  of  Tadmekka,  which  is  in  the  hilly  country 
north  of  Agades2,  would  be,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  nil,  and  neither 
Dagu  nor  Zaghawa  lend  any  support  to  such  theory  either  by  their 
own  traditions  or  by  obvious  physical  characteristics. 

Browne  states3  that  he  gathered  from  native  tales  in  Darfur  about 
1794,  that  "The  Dageou  race  came  originally  from  the  north,  having 

1  For  the  spelling  of  these  two  names  see  note  later  under  Birked. 

2  See  above  sub  Zaghawa,  and  Cooley,  p.  30.  The  occasional  spelling  of  Dagu 
as  "Tagu"  alone  leads  me  to  mention  the  possibility  of  the  identification  by  error 
of  Dagu  and  Tagua. 

3  p.  280. 


72  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR       1. 4.  vm. 

been  expelled  from  that  part  of  Africa  now,  nominally  at  least,  under 
the  dominion  of  Tunis."  This  story  also  has  nothing  to  recommend  it. 

Browne  refers,  too,  to  an  alleged  custom  practised  by  the  Dagu 
of  lighting  a  fire  on  the  inauguration  of  their  king  and  keeping  it 
burning  till  his  death.  A  similar  custom  appears  to  prevail  in  Uganda1. 

El  Tiinisi  mentions  the  Dagu,  the  Masalit,  the  Mima,  the 
Kashmara  and  the  Kura'an  as  the  five  aboriginal  tribes  of  Wadai2, 
and  of  the  first-named  says : 

Les  Dadjo  sont  au  sud  du  Dar-Seleih  [i.e.  Waddi],  voisins  des  Koukah. . . 
[ils]  sont  generalement  d'un  noir  fonce ;  leur  caractere  est  encore  sauvage. 
lis  sont,  aux  yeux  des  Ouadayens,  ce  que  sont  les  Berty  aux  yeux  des 
Foriens  [i.e.  people  of  Darfur].  Les  Berty  sont  au  nord  du  For,  et  les 
Dadjo  au  sud  de  Ouaday. 

El  Tiinisi  here  of  course  refers  not  to  the  Dagu  of  Darfur  but  to 
those  of  Dar  Sula  in  southern  Wadai.  The  former  group  he  mentions 
briefly  in  his  book  on  Darfur  as  living  next  the  Bayko  under  a 
tributary  "Sultan"  of  their  own3. 

Barth  speaks  of  the  Dagu  as  having  dominated  Darfur  in  the 
tenth  century  of  Islam  and  as  being  called  in  his  time  (1849-55) 
"Nas  Fara'on"  ("Pharaoh's  Folk"4).  He  regarded  them  as  entirely 
different  from  the  Zaghawa  and  thought  they  might  have  come 
from  the  mountains  of  Fazoghli  south  of  Sennar.  Their  traditions  lend 
colour  to  this  theory  and  their  customs  suggest  a  Bantu  connection. 

Nachtigal  (1872),  who  met  the  Dagu  on  the  frontier  of  Darfur 
and  Wadai,  speaks  of  them5  (the  western  or  Sula  branch,  that  is)  as 
"black  as  jet,"  strongly  built,  and  hideously  ugly.  As  regards  their 
state  of  culture  they  were  nominal  Muhammadans  with  numerous 
pagan  beliefs. 

1  Browne,  p.  306.  A  survival  of  this  custom,  now  forgotten,  may  lie  in  the  use  of 
the  word  "nar"  ("fire")  as  the  equivalent  of  "  sovereignty  ":  thus  it  is  said  that  such 
and  such  a  tribe  is  "in  the  fire  of"  ("fi  nar")  another  tribe,  meaning  it  is  subject 
to  it ;  or  again  that  so  and  so  has  been  appointed  "  to  the  fire  of"  ("  ff  nar")  a  tribe, 
meaning  he  has  been  made  chief  over  it.  When  I  directly  questioned  the  Dagu  as 
to  the  truth  of  the  story  told  by  Browne,  they  denied  it,  but  spoke  very  vaguely 
of  some  similar  custom  which,  they  believed,  had  prevailed  among  the  Dagu  of 
Dar  Sula.  One  man  vouched  for  the  fact  that  Sultan  Bakhit  Abu  Risha  of  Sula 
(deposed  by  the  French  in  1916)  had  six  times  caught  his  slaves  (probably  Fertit, 
q.v.)  lighting  some  such  fire  against  his  wishes  and  had  caused  it  to  be  put  out. 
Cp.  Roscoe  in  Harvard  Afr.  Stud.  I,  37,  38;  and  Baganda,  pp.  103  and  202. 

2  Voy.  au  Ouaday,  pp.  245,  248.  The  spelling  is  taken  from  the  Arabic  (q.v. 
pp.  728  ff.). 

3  Voy.  au  Darfour,  pp.  128-138. 

4  Vol.  in,  Ch.  li,  p.  426.  The  Tibbu  are  called  "Nas  Fara'on"  in  the  "Tarfkh 
el  Khamfs,"  a  native  MS.  of  Wadai  (see  Carbou,  1,  116).  Cp.  remarks  at  the  close 
of  this  chapter. 

8   Voy.  au  Ouada'i,  p.  68. 


1. 4.  viii.        THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  73 

They  have  a  shrine  for  their  deity  whom  they  supply  very  freely  with 
merissa,  and  the  ministers  of  the  sanctuary  do  not  fail  to  profit  by  this 
lucky  fact.  They  have  also  a  sacred  tree  which  they  similarly  water  with 
merissa,  and  a  holy  stone.  Death  is  seldom  attributed  to  natural  causes 
or  the  will  of  a  Supreme  Being,  but  as  a  rule  to  the  evil  eye  of  a  magician1. 
If  by  the  help  of  the  Gods  and  by  means  of  some  tricks  of  magic  some  of 
these  sorcerers  are  discovered  they  are  massacred  without  pity,  their  goods 
are  seized,  and  their  households  sent  in  slavery  to  Wadai. 

The  "sacred  tree"  and  the  "holy  stone"  at  once  recall  Bruce's 
description2  of  the  Nuba  slaves,  captives  from  Daier  and  Tekali  in 
Kordofan,  whom  the  traveller  met  in  Sennar  and  who  adored  the 
moon  and  trees  and  stones  "though  I  could  never  find  out  what  tree 
or  what  stone  it  was,  only  that  it  did  not  exist  in  the  country  of 
Sennar  but  in  that  where  they  were  born."  But  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
as  has  already  been  noted  in  dealing  with  the  Berti  and  the  people 
of  Midob,  this  cult  is  so  widespread  as  to  be  almost  universal  in 
Darfur.  Some  account  of  its  practice  by  the  Fur  is  also  given  later. 
With  them,  as  with  the  Zaghawa  it  is  associated  with  the  idea  of 
placating  some  evil  being,  generally  in  the  form  of  a  snake,  believed 
to  live  beneath  the  tree  or  stone.  The  spread  of  Muhammadanism 
has,  needless  to  say,  wrenched  the  ancient  superstition  from  its 
original  setting  and  re-set  it  in  a  modified  form  among  the  un- 
objectionable, if  not  quite  orthodox,  observances  of  the  local  True 
Believers;  and  the  latter  would  never  fail  to  represent  their  prayers 
as  directed  to  the  One  God,  however  much  their  fears  might  really 
centre  upon  the  hidden  demon  known  to  their  forefathers.  The 
position,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  educated  native  of  Darfur, 
is  perhaps  expressed  most  easily  by  repeating  the  gist  of  a  dialogue  I 
had  with  the  Makdum  Sherif,  lately  the  Sultan's  viceroy  in  northern 
Darfur  : 

Ques.  Have  the  Zaghawa  any  holy  places  in  their  country  ?  If  so  of 
what  kind  ? 

Ans.  Yes,  if  anyone  wants  anything,  or  is  undertaking  any  venture,  he 
visits  some  rock  or  tree  and  makes  the  usual  offerings  of  meat  and  dihn 
(grease)  and  voices  his  appeal. 

Ques.   Would  any  rock  or  any  stone  be  good  enough? 

Ans.  No.  There  are  certain  definite  ones,  three  or  four  in  Dar 
Zaghawa. 

Ques.   To  whom  does  he  appeal  ? 

Ans.   To  God,  of  course. 

Ques.   Does  he  have  no  local  demon  also  in  view? 

1  Cp.  Roscoe,  Baganda,  p.  98. 

2  See  Bruce,  iv,  420  ft. ;  and  cp.  Roscoe,  Baganda,  p.  271. 


74  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR       i.  4.  vm. 

Ans.  Well,  there  used  to  be,  but  nowadays  they  appeal  to  God  only. 

Ques.   Did  they  adopt  this  system  of  holy  sites  from  the  Fur? 

Ans.  It  is  general  in  Darfur.  The  Dagu  and  the  Birked  and  the  Fur 
and  the  Zaghawa  and  Bedayat  all  do  the  same,  and  the  practice  is  prac- 
tically universal  except  among  the  Arabs. 

Ques.   Is  there  a  medium  ? 

Ans.  Yes,  a  woman  generally.  Her  position  is  hereditary  from  mother 
to  daughter,  irrespective  of  age.  Among  the  Zaghawa  she  is  called  the 
bdda. 

Ques.   Is  there  any  particular  season  more  favourable  than  another  ? 

Ans.  No,  but  of  course  at  this  present  season  (June)  it  would  be  for 
rain  most  people  would  be  praying  and  making  their  offerings.  The  Dagu 
of  Dar  Sula  make  a  regular  festival  of  it.  The  Sultan  and  his  nobles  attend 
and  all  the  horsemen,  and  they  place  the  dihn  in  front  of  a  hole  in  a 
certain  rock  and  wait.  If  the  ants — the  big  black  battling  ants — come  out, 
it  is  a  good  sign  and  all  rejoice.  If  not  the  prospect  is  bad.  This  particular 
system  I  believe  to  be  confined  to  Dar  Sula.  Throughout  Darfur  it  is 
merely  a  question  of  making  offerings  at  certain  places  and  praying  for 
success. 

The  Dagu  in  Darfur  live  by  cultivation  and  breeding  cattle  in 
the  fertile  tracts  round  Nyala  and  Takala  to  the  west  of  Dara. 

They  have  a  hereditary  Sultan,  tributary  to  the  Sultan  of  Darfur 
of  course,  as  head  man,  and  his  right-hand  man  is  the  sambei 
— a  sort  of  president  of  the  tribal  sheikhs  or  damdlig1,  who  does 
most  of  the  work.  All  the  sections  of  the  tribe  are  subject  to  the 
sambei's  orders  except  the  Sultan's  own  and  one  or  two  others 
closely  related  to  it.  The  position  of  the  sambei,  however,  is  not 
hereditary,  but  almost  elective.  He  is  chosen  by  the  people  from 
among  the  body  of  the  tribe  by  a  consent  that  is  as  near  as  possible 
unanimous.  In  theory  he  can  be  dismissed  by  the  Sultan,  but  in 
practice  he  is  secure  so  long  as  he  commands  the  confidence  of  the 
people. 

In  addition  to  the  main  Dagu  settlement  in  Darfur  and  the  colony 
in  Dar  Sula  there  are  also  smaller  groups  of  Dagu  in  Dar  Messina, 
in  Kordofan,  on  the  north-west  fringes  of  the  Nuba  country  in  what 
are  known  as  the  Dagu  Hills,  and  even  a  few  small  and  scattered 
settlements  farther  east  near  el  Obeid2  and,  it  is  said,  east  of 
Tekali3. 

1  In  Darfur,  even  among  the  Arabs,  the  tribal  elders,  the  body  that  chooses 
or  deposes  the  head  sheikh  that  is,  are  known  as  "damalig"  (sing,  "dimlig"). 
See  para.  XXI  to  follow.  The  term  is  not  used  elsewhere  in  the  Sudan.  For  the 
position  of  the  "sambei"  among  the  Dagu  cp.  that  of  the  "dingar"  among  the 
Masalft  (Para.  xvi).  The  two  exactly  correspond. 

2  Cp.  MacMichael,  Tribes...,  pp.  51,  52.  See  also  Carbou,  1,  371,  and  11,  218-220. 
The  Dagu  in  Kordofan  are  regarded  locally  as  "Hamegs"  or  "Nuba"  by  origin. 

3  These  last  I  have  not  met  and  I  only  heard  of  them  when  in  Darfur. 


1. 4.  viii.        THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  75 

In  Darfur  the  Dagu  call  themselves  Fininga.  They  are  known 
to  the  Fur  as  Miringa,  to  the  B irked  as  Nishigi,  and  to  the  Mesalit 
as  Bereje. 

In  view  of  Barth's  theory,  quoted  above,  that  the  Dagu  may  have 
come  from  south  of  Sennar,  and  the  evidence  of  their  own  traditions, 
is  it  not  possible  that  there  is  a  connection  between  the  words 
''Fininga"  {sing.  "Finichei")  and  "Fung"?  It  will  be  noticed  that 
the  period  of  Dagu  ascendancy  in  Darfur  corresponds  to  the  time 
when  the  Fung,  having  founded  their  kingdom  in  1504,  were  extend- 
ing their  power  over  the  neighbouring  provinces. 

They  perfunctorily  claim  descent  from  the  Beduin  of  the  Hegaz 
and  say  that  their  ancestor,  who  brought  them  from  Arabia,  was  a 
certain  Kedir  who  gave  his  name  to  the  well-known  Gebel  Kedir1, 
one  of  the  Nuba  mountains  lying  west  of  the  upper  reaches  of  the 
White  Nile,  south  of  latitude  ii°,  east  of  Talodi.  From  Kedir,  they 
say,  the  Dagu  moved  westwards,  leaving  small  colonies  in  Kordofan, 
to  Darfur,  and  there  took  up  their  abode. 

The  successors  of  Kedir  were  in  turn  Mai,  Zalaf,  Kamteinyei2, 
'Omar,  'Abdullahi  Bahur  and  Ahmad  el  Dag.  Of  the  first  three 
nothing  is  recorded,  but  it  was  'Omar  who  finally  ejected  from  the 
Dagu  country  of  the  present  day  the  Foroge  or  Foroke  who  inhabited 
it  previously,  and  drove  them  back  south-westwards  to  their  original 
home  in  Dar  Fertit3.  Of  Ahmad  el  Dag  is  told  the  story,  not  peculiar 
to  him4,  that  his  pride  and  presumption  were  such  that  he  was  not 
content  to  ride  a  horse  or  any  other  animal  but  a  tiang,  and  that  his 
mount  ran  away  with  him  and  galloped  to  Dar  Sula,  and  he  was  never 
more  seen  in  Darfur.  They  explain  thus  the  foundation  of  the  western 
colony  of  Dagu5.  It  is  impossible  to  arrive  at  any  exact  date  for  this 
event,  but  the  Sula  colony  must  have  broken  away  from  the  main 

1  Gebel  Kedir  was  chosen  in  1881  by  the  Mahdi  as  the  starting  point  of  his 
campaign.  He  called  it  Gebel  Masa  because  the  Muhammadans  believe  that  the 
true  and  "Expected"  Mahdi  will  come  from  a  hill  named  Masa  (see  MacMichael, 
Tribes...,  p.  37). 

2  "Teinyei"  means  a  cow  in  the  language  of  the  Dagu  of  Darfur  and  of  those 
in  Sula. 

3  It  may  be  noted  that  the  Fur  are  known  to  the  people  of  Dar  Tama  by  the 
name  of  Forok.  Dar  For6ge  is  shown,  on  Nachtigal's  map,  for  instance,  in  Dar 
Abo  Dima,  north  of  the  Ta'aisha  country.  El  Tunisi  (Voy.  Darf.  p.  134)  calls  it 
"  Dar-Faraougueh." 

4  At  Turra  I  was  told  practically  the  same  story  of  the  Fur  Sultan  'Omar  Layla 
("Lele")  who  died  in  Wadai  in  1739.  It  was  added  that  whenever  "karamas" 
were  being  offered  in  memory  of  the  various  Sultans,  'Omar's  bull  invariably  gave 
much  trouble  and  refused  to  be  sacrificed  though  all  the  rest  came  quietly  to  the 
slaughter. 

6  The  Dagu  of  Sula  call  themselves  "Koska"  instead  of  "Fininga"  as  in 
Darfur. 


76 


THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR       I.  4.  viii 


stem  some  centuries  ago  since  the  language  of  the  one  is  all  but 
incomprehensible  to  the  other1. 

It  is  well  established  that  the  Dagu  were  at  one  time  the  pre- 
dominant race  in  central  Darfur,  the  earliest  known  founders  of  a 
monarchy  there,  and  that  they  were  supplanted  by  the  Tungur  about 
the  sixteenth  century2.  The  coming  of  the  Tungur  resulted  in  the 
restriction  of  the  Dagu  to  the  districts  where  they  still  live. 

The  main  divisions  of  the  Dagu  of  Darfur  are  the  following : 


A.  To  the  east — 

Tulindjigerke,  the  royal  house, 

holding  the  nahds 
Chortinenge,  closely  related  to 

the  TULINDJIGERKi 

Kalwake' 

B.  Round  Nyala  and  south  of  it — 

Tumbuge" 

Keiawarke 

Adajunge 


Sumbinange 

BUHARKE 

Dufuge" 
Damboge3 


Tarununge" 
Doruninge 


The  Dagu  use  either  of  two  brands  on  their  animals,    -p  |=| 
namely  the  "kindireV  or  the  "  lohonei"  The  former  is 
shaped  as  (a)  and  the  latter  as  (b). 


a 


1  The  following  list  of  common  words  collected  at  random  shews  the  extent 
of  the  difference.  The  corresponding  words  in  the  Bayko  dialect  are  also  added. 


English 

Darfur  Dagu 

Sula  DAgu 

Bayko 

one 

nuani 

ungun 

nuani 

two 

fadda 

biddak 

fidda 

three 

koddos 

koddos 

koddos 

four 

kashfe 

tishek 

teshwet 

five 

muddak 

muddak 

middik 

six 

arann 

arann 

arann 

seven 

fahtindi 

faktindik 

fatindi 

eight 

kosonda 

kohandak 

kosonda 

nine 

wishtanda 

bistandak 

tibishtenda 

ten 

assing 

assin 

assin 

man 

yohe" 

yogi 

fabang6 

grass 

niarte 

nierke" 

nierte 

head 

ass6 

fsi 

ise 

black 

gill 

gira 

udia 

red 

firr 

pirra 

kayle 

2  Schurtz,  p.  544;  Slatin,  n,  Ch.  2.  One  would,  however,  be  inclined  to  suppose 
from  the  authorities  that  the  Dagu  (and  cp.  the  case  of  the  Tungur  above)  ruled 
all  Darfur.  But  it  is  beyond  all  doubt  that  they  never  held  any  power  in  northern 
Darfur  (the  Tibbu  sphere),  nor  in  Gebel  Marra  nor  in  the  country  north-west  of 
it  (the  Fur  sphere).  They  do  not  even  advance  any  such  claim. 

3  Included  in  this  section  are  the  Sambelange"  (Sumbinang£?).  This  name  is 
said  to  be  the  Dagu  form  of  "Shenabla."  They  say  certain  Shenabla  at  a  remote 
period  became  incorporated  among  the  Dagu.  Cp.  "  Sambangato"  among  the 
Berti  (Para,  vi  above),  and  "  Sambellanga "  among  the  Tungur- Fur  of  Furnung 
(App.  5  to  this  chapter). 


1. 4.  ix.  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  77 

IX  BlRKED.  The  Birked1  live  north  and  east  of  the  Dago  and 
Bayko,  between  Gebel  Harayz  and  the  Rizaykat  country,  and  are  a 
much  larger  tribe  than  either.  They  have  also  a  small  colony,  a  day's 
journey  north-east  of  el  Fasher,  at  Turza  near  Sania  Kuldingyi. 
Others  are  in  Wadai,  and  these  el  Tunisi  called2  the  lowest  and  most 
despicable  of  folk,  "traitres,  brutaux,  pillards...la  honte  et  la  plaie 
du  Ouaday."  "C'est  de  cette  peuplade,"  he  added,  "que  sortent  les 
ouvriers  en  fer  et  les  chasseurs."  He  described  them  as  black  and 
slim  and  short.  In  speaking  of  the  Birked  in  Darfur  he  generally 
grouped  them  with  the  Tungur,  and  his  opinion  of  them  was  that 
they  were  "traitres,  voleurs  et  rapaces  a  l'exces,  sans  crainte  de  Dieu 
ni  du  Prophete3." 

Barth  merely  mentions  them4  ("Birkit")  among  the  negro  tribes 
on  the  Wadai-Darfur  frontier. 

Nachtigal  says5: 

This  tribe,  composed  of  the  slaves  of  the  Sultan  [of  Wadai]  has  remained 
free  of  all  racial  admixture.  The  Birguid  are  dark  grey  ("^m  fonces"), 
darker  than  the  Mabas,  and  are  of  a  negro  type  and  have  the  character 
and  customs  of  the  Central  Africans,  and  speak  a  language  entirely  peculiar 
to  themselves6. 

Their  main  divisions  in  Darfur  at  present  are  as  follows : 

Madargarke  7,  the  ruling  house  TuringE" 

Tudduge,  said  to  be  HilAliin  FileikE" 

Sirindike  'Eraykat  ,      i.e.     some      "Arab" 

Togonge,  said  to  be  HilAliin  'Eraykat  living  with  the  Birked 

Kamunga  Tongolke 

MlROWGE  KAGURTIGE 

Kulduke  Morolke 

Izmandike  Sasulke 

There  are  also  many  other  less  important  divisions.  The  com- 
ponent parts  of  all  are,  in  the  view  of  other  tribes  than  the  Birked, 
largely  adulterated  by  alien  elements. 

1  The  spelling  of  "  Birked"  and  "  Bayko"  is  taken  from  the  Arabic  of  el  Tunisi. 
The  words  are  pronounced  "Birged"  and  "Baygo"  respectively,  and  should 
perhaps  be  so  spelt. 

2  Voy.  au  Ouaday,  pp.  249,  250.  3   Voy.  an  Darfour,  pp.  133-136. 
4  in,  543  (App.  7).  5  hoc.  cit.  p.  67. 

6  They  now  speak  Arabic  as  well.  Their  "rotana"  is  distinct  from  that  of  the 
Dagu,  etc.    See  later. 

7  The  brand  of  this  section,  called  after  it  the  Madargarke,  is  as 
shewn,  representing,  as  a  comparison  with  the  royal  Fur  brand  and 

that  of  the  Tungur  will  show,  a  war-drum  and  sticks.    It  is  interesting    I  I  I 

in  view  of  what  follows  to  note  that  the  Serar  Bukker  ("Cattle  Folk") 

at  Gebel  el  Haraza  in  northern  Kordofan  also  use  a  brand  called  "  Bayt 

el  Nugara,"  which  represents  a  small  round  drum  and  stick,  as  in  the       I  /*~\ 

figure.    (See  MacMichael,  Camel  Brands,  p.  34.)  I  \^S 


78  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR         i.  4.  ix. 

In  the  palmy  days  of  the  Darfur  Sultanate  the  Birked  country 
was  the  appanage  of  the  Fur  dignitary  known  as  the  Urundulu1. 
The  latter  employed  four  muluk  (literally,  "kings")  as  farmers  of 
revenue  there2.  The  Birked,  unlike  the  Bayko,  Dagu,  Zaghawa, 
Borku,  Mima  and  Tungur,  had,  it  seems,  no  "  Sultan  "  of  their  own3, 
and  it  is  stated  at  the  present  day  that  they  only  had  a  Shartdi  or 
local  'omda  at  the  head  of  their  tribe.  Consequently,  it  may  be 
presumed  that  they  had  no  nahds,  and  certainly  they  had  no 
wakil  or  vizier  corresponding  to  the  dingar  of  the  Masalit  and 
the  sambei  of  the  Dagu,  but  only  a  number  of  damdlig  subject  to 
the  Shartdi. 

Their  country  was  known  by  the  name  of  Kajjar — a  term  said 
to  have  included  the  Dagu  and  Bayko  lands  also — and  the  Birked 
themselves  are  still  known  to  the  Fur  as  Kajjara,  to  the  Dagu  as 
Kagarugei  and  to  the  Bayko  as  Kajarge4.  They  call  themselves 
Murgi. 

A  few  Birked  live  in  Kordofan,  south  of  el  Obeid,  and  it  is 
traditionally  reported  in  northern  Kordofan  that  about  the  beginning 
of  the  eighteenth  century  they  were  the  ruling  people  in  the  hills  of 
Kaga  and  Katul  and  were  ousted  thence  by  the  Bedayria5. 

The  tendency  among  their  neighbours  near  el  Obeid  is  to  class 
the  Birked  with  the  Tom  am  and  Tumbab,  who  are  negroid  tribes 
with  pretensions  to  a  Nubian-Ga'ali  connection6,  as  of  Hamag  or 
Nuba  descent. 

Now  in  collecting  a  small  vocabulary  of  Birked  in  Darfur  in  19 17 
I  found  two  interesting  facts.  In  the  first  place,  the  Birked  of  Turza 
mentioned  that  the  people  to  whom  they  were  most  nearly  related  in 
Darfur  were  those  of  Gebel  Midob ;  and  in  the  second  place  the  dialect 
of  the  Birked  in  southern  Darfur7  bears  an  obvious  similarity  to  the 
Nubian  and  Kanzi  vocabularies  collected  by  Burckhardt8.  These  two 
facts  transpired  quite  independently  of  one  another  and  provide  a 
clue  to  the  origin  of  the  Birked.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the 
people  of  Midob  claim  to  be  an  ancient  colony  of  Mahass  and 

1  See  later  sub  Fur. 

2  El  Tunisi,  Voy.  Darf.  p.  137. 

3  Ibid.  138,  where  no  Birked  Sultan  is  mentioned. 

4  Their  name  probably  survives  too  in  that  of  the  great  wadi  Kajjar  (maps 
"Kaga,"  "Kajja,"  "  Kia,"  etc.)  which  runs  between  Dar  Masalit  and  Wadai. 

5  See  MacMichael,  Tribes...,  p.  66. 

6  See  Part  III,  Chap.  1,  and  the  genealogical  trees  of  the  "A"  group  in  Part  IV. 

7  The  Birked  of  Tarza  only  speak  Arabic.  They  say  their  fathers  all  spoke  a 
"rotana,"  as  the  southern  Birked  still  do.  The  latter  are  a  large  tribe,  and  not  a 
small  settlement  with  Arabs  living  round  them  as  is  the  case  at  Tarza. 

8  See  Appendix  2  to  this  chapter. 


1. 4.  ix.  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  79 

Danagla  from  Nubia  and  that  their  language  resembles  that  of  the 
Barabra  :  so  it  seems  that  the  Birked  too  found  their  way  into  Darfur 
from  Nubia. 

Their  connection  with  Midob,  the  similarity  between  the  names 
"Kajjara"  ("  Kagarugei,"  "Kajarge,"  etc.,  all  meaning  Birked)  and 
"Kaga"  (or  "Kaja1")  and  "Kageddi"  (a  subtribe  of  Midob),  the 
occurrence  of  old  ironworks2  at  el  Haraza  between  Kaga  and  Dongola 
coupled  with  the  fact  that  the  Birked  of  Wadai  are  ironworkers,  and 
the  local  tradition  at  Kaga  that  the  Birked  once  ruled  there  and  at 
Katul3,  all  suggest  that  it  was  by  way  of  northern  Kordofan  that 
the  Birked  came. 

There  are  also  indications  as  to  the  period  of  their  arrival.  It  has 
been  noticed  that  el  Tunisi  usually  groups  the  Birked  with  the 
Tungur  and  that  two  of  the  Birked  subtribes  call  themselves  Beni 
Hilal  by  origin.  The  traditional  connection  between  the  Tungur 
and  the  Beni  Hilal  is  strong,  however  difficult  it  be  to  define  its 
details,  and  the  Birked  are  evidently  implicated  in  this  ethnological 
imbroglio.  Since  there  is  no  trace  of  the  Tungur  having  ever  spoken 
any  tongue  but  Arabic,  whereas  the  Birked  still  speak  a  rotdna  as 
well  as  Arabic,  and  since  the  Birked  are  socially  indistinguishable 
from  the  Dagu,  who  preceded  the  Tungur  in  Darfur,  and  since  the 
Birked  have  forgotten  everything  about  their  Nubian  connection 
and  are  generally  regarded  as  having  lived  in  south-central  Darfur 
from  time  immemorial,  whereas  it  is  common  knowledge  that  the 
Tungur  immigrated  and  are  not  indigenous,  it  appears  likely  that 
the  Birked  reached  Darfur  before  the  Tungur  immigration.  The 
Tungur  came  in  the  fifteenth  or  sixteenth  century,  and  the  Birked 
may  have  left  Nubia  soon  after  the  dismemberment  of  the  Christian 
kingdom  in  the  fourteenth  century,  or  even  earlier.  The  so-called 
Hilali  sections  of  Birked  may  be  no  more  than  Tungur  who  joined 
them  in  Darfur,  or  may  represent  Beni  Hilal  elements  who  joined 
the  Birked  in  the  same  manner  as  others  joined  the  Tungur. 

There  is  even  extant  what  I  believe  to  be  a  seventh  century 
reference  to  the  Birked  ("Kajjara")  when  they  were  still  in  Nubia. 

1  The  name  of  Kaga  applies  to  the  broken  chain  of  hills  comprising  the  Gebels 
of  Katul,  Kaga,  Kaga  Surrug  in  north-western  Kordofan,  and  the  Lughud  hills 
near  Gebel  el  Hilla  in  Darfur.  From  it  the  term  Kagawi  is  formed  to  denote  an 
inhabitant. 

2  See  MacMichael,  Tribes...,  p.  240.  Iron  is  no  longer  smelted  at  el  Haraza, 
but  was  so  until  a  generation  ago.  I  lay  no  stress  on  the  argument  derived  from  the 
existence  of  ironworks  at  el  Haraza  since  such  are  common  in  Kordofan  and  may 
have  been  due  to  races  other  than  the  Birked. 

3  Curiously  enough,  in  MS.  D  1,  clxii,  it  is  the  Dagu  who  are  grouped  with  the 
people  of  Kaga  and  Katul. 


80  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  1. 4.  ix. 

Immediately  after  Ibn  Selim's  account  of  the  Sudan  Makn'zi  places 
the  following  passage : 

J'ai  vu  aussi  dans  une  lettre  adressee  par  certaines  tribus  a  l'emir  des 
croyants  'Ali  ben  Abou  Taleb1,  qu'il  etait  fait  mention  des  Bedjahs  et  des 
Kadjahs  lesquels  sont  tres  mechants,  mais  peu  pillards2.  Les  Bedjahs  sont 
ainsi;  quant  aux  Kadjahs,  on  n'en  connait  que  ce  qu'en  dit  'Abdullah  ben 
Ahmed  l'historien  de  Nubie3. 

'Abdulla  ibn  Ahmad  is  Ibn  Selim  el  Aswani,  who  wrote  between 
975  and  996  a.d.,  but  what  he  had  to  say  about  the  "Kajjara"  we 
do  not  know  because  the  extracts  from  his  work  quoted  by  el  Makrizi 
contain  no  mention  of  them. 

X  Bayko.  The  Bayko,  neighbours  of  the  Dagu  and  B  irked,  are 
said  by  Slatin4  to  belong  to  the  Monolke  family  and  to  have  emi- 
grated from  the  Bahr  el  Ghazal  in  ancient  days  and  to  have  been 
granted  lands  in  Darfur  on  condition  of  supplying  annually  a  maiden 
for  the  royal  harem.  But  the  mother  of  the  Sultan  Muhammad  Fadl 
(1800-1838)  was  a  Baykawia  and  he,  in  consequence,  declared  the 
tribe  free  for  ever,  and  forbade  the  buying  and  selling  of  them  under 
penalty  of  death.  The  Bayko  at  present,  as  is  natural,  deny  the 
implication  of  "slave"  {i.e.  negro)  origin  and  merely  point  with  pride 
to  the  fact  of  their  intermarriage  with  Fur  royalty.  As  a  tribe  they 
do  not  claim  to  be  Arabs  but,  as  usual  in  Darfur,  the  royal  house 
of  Bayko,  the  holders  of  the  nahds,  the  Terkit  Haggar  section  of 
the  Subhanin  that  is,  affect  a  Ga'ali  origin.  It  was  one  of  them,  by 
name  Um  Busa,  who  married  the  father  of  Muhammad  Fadl.  Of  their 
early  history  the  Bayko  know  little,  but  the  general  tradition  among 
them  is  that  their  ancestors  came  from  the  East  via  southern  Kordo- 
fan  and  the  Nuba  country  at  much  the  same  time  as  the  Bakkara. 
The  tradition  is,  however,  much  too  vague  to  have  any  real  value. 
Browne  identified  the  Bayko  ("Bego")  too  closely  with  the  Dagu  in 
speaking  of  "the  people  of  Bego  or  Dageou  who  are  now  [i.e.  1799] 
subject  to  the  crown  of  Fur  but  are  a  different  tribe  which  formerly 
ruled  the  country5 " ;  but  at  the  same  time  the  dialects  of  the  Bayko 
and  Dagu  are  almost  identical6  and  it  is  curious  that  when  I  asked 

1  The  letter  must  therefore  have  been  written  within  twenty  years  of  the  con- 
quest of  Egypt. 

2  Burckhardt  translates  (p.  509):  "Warlike  nations  who  do  not  make  much 
booty."   The  above  quotation  is  from  Bouriant's  translation  (11,  570). 

3  Burckhardt  translates:  "But  I  know  not  who  the  Kedja  are."  *  Ch.  II. 

5  Browne,  p.  285.  There  is  a  mention  by  Ibn  Sa'id  (ap.  Abu  el  Fida,  p.  158) 
of  a  people  called  the  Bajo,  connected  with  the  Zaghawa,  and  the  term  puzzled 
Barth  (q.v.  Vol.  in,  Ch.  Li,  p.  426).  It  is,  however,  very  unlikely  that  the  Bayko 
are  meant. 

6  E.g.  see  examples  given  above  when  speaking  of  the  Dagu. 


I.  4.  X. 


THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR 


81 


the  present  Sultan  of  the  Bayko  for  his  pedigree  he  traced  it  (as 
follows)  to  Ahmed  el  Dag,  whom  we  have  already  met  as  a  Dagu 
Sultan :  Muhammad  "  Kebkebe  "  son  of  Abukr  "  Naka  "  son  of  'Omar 
son  of  Husayn  son  of  'Ibba  son  of  Nafi'  son  of  Haggar  son  of  Ahmad 
el  Dag.  At  the  same  time  he  repudiated  all  relationship  with  the 
Dagu  and  attributed  the  similarity  of  dialects  to  the  fact  that  the 
tribes  had  long  been  neighbours  in  Darfur. 

It  seems  probable  that  the  Bayko  either  came  to  Darfur  from 
much  the  same  direction  and  at  much  the  same  period  as  the  Dagu 
— physically  the  two  are  indistinguishable — or  else  that  the  Dagu 
came  from  the  east  and  were  joined  in  Darfur  by  the  negroid  Bayko 
from  the  south-east,  and  that  the  latter  borrowed  the  language  of 
the  former  but  preserved  their  independence.  The  Dagu  dialect  bears 
resemblances  to  those  of  Nubia  but  in  this  respect  falls  far  behind  the 
Birked  dialect1. 

The  status  of  the  Bayko  in  el  Tiinisi's  day  seems  to  have  been 
much  the  same  as  it  is  now,  but  little  is  said  of  them  beyond  that 
they  were  ruled  by  a  petty  Sultan  of  their  own2.  The  tribal  wakil 
or  vizier  or  President  of  the  Council  of  Sheikhs  (Damdlig),  the 
sambei  of  the  Dagu,  is  among  the  Bayko  called  the  gindi  (plur. 
genddi).  His  chief  function,  outside  the  sphere  of  administration, 
is  said  to  be  that  of  performing  the  accession  ceremony3  for  a  newly 
succeeded  Sultan. 

Of  the  subdivisions  of  the  Bayko,  once  very  numerous,  only  a 
few  are  now  remembered.  These  fall  into  the  two  main  groups  of 
Subhanin  ("Easterners")  and  Gharbanm4  ("Westerners")  and 
include  the  following : 

Tirkit  Haggar5  (the  royal  house)    Tirkit  Marshut5 
Korobaiki5  Famaki5 


1  E.g.— 

English 
cow 
horse 
ass 


Bayko 
teinye 
murtanne 
katchine 


mouth    ikunga 


Dagu  of 

DarfCr 

teinye" 

murtani 

kachine, 

or  kakine 
akke 


Dagu 
of  Sula 

teinye 
murte 
katche 

uke 


From  Burckhardt's  Nubia 


(Mi'dob) 

(tur) 

(porrnyi) 

(utchi) 

(al) 


Nuba 

tyga 

mortyga 

kadja 

akka 


Kanzi 

tyg 

koky 

hanoub 


agilk 


The  percentage  of  Birked  words  that  resemble  Nubian  words  is  a  good  hundred 
per  cent,  higher,  I  should  say,  than  in  the  case  of  Dagu  or  Bayko  words.  The 
numerals  of  the  latter,  for  instance,  differ  entirely  from  those  of  Nubia. 

2  El  Tunisi,  Voy.  Darf.  pp.  128,  134,  138. 

3  "Yadarrag"  =(Ar.)  "gives  rank  to "  The  Sultan  himself  was  my  informant 

on  the  point. 

4  The  Bayko  cannot  pronounce  the  Arabic  "gh,"  so  they  call  this  group  the 
"  Harbanin." 

5  These  are  Subhanfn. 


m.s  1. 


82  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  1. 4.  x. 

TlRTUSHKI,  Or  TlRTEJKE1  MASEKE 

LUDUK^1  TlLANGE 

DfSAKE1  ShERMITKE" 

Nyogolgole1  Mahange" 

Kalakalika1 

Outside  Darfur  there  are  said  to  be  many  Bayko,  with  Dagu, 
between  Tekali  and  the  White  Nile  in  Dar  Kebi'r,  and  a  considerable 
colony  of  Nyogolgole  are  said  to  have  lived  for  many  generations  at 
Kafiakingi  in  the  Bahr  el  Ghazal2. 

The  Bayko  call  themselves  Beoge.  To  the  Fur  they  are  known 
as  Begonga,  to  the  Tama  as  Begukung,  to  the  Dagu  as  Beoge,  and 
to  the  B  irked  as  Beke. 

XI  There  are  also  in  Darfur  several  tribes  of  distinctively  western 
origin,  Fellata,  Takarir,  "Borku,"  "Bornu,"  Mima,  "Abu 
Sinun,"  and  Mararit.   Of  these  the  Mima  are  the  oldest  colony. 

MfMA. 

The  town  of  Mima  is  mentioned  by  Ibn  Batuta  in  the  middle  of 
the  fourteenth  century  as  lying  not  far  to  the  west  of  Timbuktu :  of 
the  latter  town  the  traveller  remarks  "most  of  its  inhabitants  are 
people  of  Mima,  or  of  the  tribes  called  el  Mulaththamun3 "  {i.e.  the 
Veiled  Ones,  the  Tuwarek  Berber). 

Apparently  they,  or  a  branch  of  them,  subsequently  moved  east- 
wards.  El  Tunisi  says  of  them  in  1803  : 

Les  Mymeh  constituent  une  population  qui  se  compose  de  plusieurs 
tribus  divisees  en  fractions.  lis  sont  d'un  noir  fonce  comme  de  l'encre. 
lis  habitent  au  sud  direct  du  Ouaday,  sur  la  meme  ligne  que  les  Dadjo 
et  les  Koukah4. 

He  also  alludes  to  a  branch  of  them  as  under  a  tributary  Sultan  in 
Darfur5.  Nachtigal  mentions  them  as  a  large  tribe  in  Wadai,  but 
most  of  them  had  scattered  in  the  south  of  that  country  and  lost  their 
racial  identity.  The  rest  of  them  preserved  their  language,  which  was 
akin  to  that  of  the  Zaghawa  and  the  Kura'an,  and  had  a  melik 
of  their  own6.  Their  social  reputation  was,  like  that  of  the  Zaghawa, 
unsavoury,  and  they  had  largely  intermarried  with  that  tribe. 

1  These  are  Gharbanin  and  can  be  referred  to  as  "genadi,"  i.e.  sections  subject 
to  the  "  gindi." 

2  Their  headman  is  spoken  of  as  "Makdum  Nasir." 

3  See  Cooley,  pp.  45,  84,  86.  Older  writers  than  Ibn  Batuta  used  the  form 
"Amima." 

4  Voy.  au  Ouaday,  p.  249. 

5  Voy.  au  Darfour,  pp.  128,  138,  297.  These  were  at  feud  with  the  Beni  'Omran 
Arabs. 

6  Voy.  au  Ouada'i,  pp.  65,  74,  75;  and  cp.  Carbou,  II,  199;  the  latter  calls  them 
"  Mimi  ou  Moutoutou." 


1. 4.  xiii.       THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  83 

At  present  there  is  a  colony  of  Mima  round  Fafa  and  Wada'a  in 
Darfur,  another  in  Abu  Daza  district  on  the  western  border  of 
Kordofan,  and  a  third  at  Magriir  north  of  Bara  in  central  Kordofan. 
As  a  rule  they  are  a  very  dark  coarse-featured  folk  and,  like  all  the 
"Borku"  group,  have  more  hair  on  their  faces  than  is  usual  among 
the  northern  negroid  tribes  of  the  Sudan.  The  main  subdivisions  of 
the  Mima  in  Darfur  and  Kordofan  are: 


Nunku  (the  "1 

royal  family") 

Bora 

Arme" 

Abke 

Dare 

Mahadi1 

FlRRA 

KUSTA 

AWLAD  ZAYT 

MUDRUNG 

KlRRATINDILO 

Baba 

Guru 
Baka 

TiLME 
GiLME 

All  are  Arabic-speaking. 

XII  MARARfT.  The  Mararit2  and  Abu  Sinun  are  small  colonies 
of  "Borku"  origin  near  the  western  frontier  of  Darfur,  but  nothing 
is  known  of  the  date  when  they  settled  there.  The  former  people  are 
settled  among  the  Erenga  and  the  Masalit.  The  Borku  proper, 
i.e.  Wadaians,  and  Bornu  have  many  settlements  in  eastern  and 
central  Darfur  but  most  of  these  date  from  no  more  than  a  few 
years  back  and  owe  their  existence  to  the  French  occupation  of 
Wadai.  Others  of  course,  like  the  Takarir3  settled  in  Kordofan 
and  eastern  Darfur,  have  been  for  several  generations  in  their  present 
positions. 

XIII  FellAta.  The  Fellata  are  very  largely  represented  in 
Darfur,  and  though  some  of  them  have  only  entered  the  country 
within  recent  generations  the  majority  have  been  there  for  a  con- 
siderable time.  Their  main  period  of  immigration  is  said  to  have  been 
during  the  reign  of  Sultan  Ahmad  Bukr,  that  is  towards  the  end  of 
the  seventeenth  century4.  They  have  a  ddr  of  their  own  at  the 
south  end  of  Gebel  Marra  and  have  intermarried  freely  with  the 
Bakkara  Arabs.  Some  are  sedentary  and  these  are  the  more  recent 
arrivals,  intending  pilgrims  for  the  most  part,  but  the  majority  are 
cattle-owning  nomads,  as  in  West  Africa,  living  under  a  regular 

1  These  Mahadi  or  Mahada  call  themselves  Arabs,  but,  if  so,  are  a  very  debased 
form  of  the  same.  They  are  not  found  as  a  tribe  anywhere,  but  only  as  sections 
of  other  communities.  Some  are  among  the  Masalft  and  others  among  the  Hab- 
bania  of  Darfur  and  other  Bakkara. 

2  Sing.  "  Mararti." 

3  Sing.  Takruri.    For  this  term  see  el  Tunisi,  Voy.  au  Ouaddy,  p.  6. 

4  So  Nachtigal,  quoted  by  Ensor  (p.  145). 


84      THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR   i.  4.  xm. 

tribal  organization,  speaking  Arabic,  and  divided  into  two  main 
groups,  the  'Ibba  and  the  'Ikka1. 

There  remain  the  western  frontier  tribes,  the  slave  tribes,  and 
the  Fur  themselves. 

To  take  these  in  turn: 
XIV  KlMR.  Dar  Kimr  lies  north  of  the  Masalit  country  and  east 
of  Dar  Tama.  To  the  north  and  east  of  it  is  open  country  sparsely 
populated  by  nomadic  Zaghawa  of  the  Kubbe  and  Kubga  sections. 
It  is  a  small  tract,  poor  in  natural  resources,  sandy  in  parts  and  stony 
in  others,  and  its  people  live  by  cultivating  dukhn  and  breeding 
sheep  and  cattle.  The  water  supply  is  moderate.  Iron  is  plentiful, 
especially  at  Babiri. 

The  population  claims  to  be  Arab,  Ga'aliin  from  Metemma  by 
origin,  but,  beyond  the  fact  that  it  is  Arabic-speaking  (with  the 
exception  only  of  the  Abu  Jokha  section,  who  speak  Tama)  and  has 
no  dialect  of  its  own,  there  is  no  reason  to  think  the  claim  has  much 
to  recommend  it. 

The  name  Kimr,  like  the  name  Ermbeli,  which  is  used  in  place 
of  it  in  Wadai,  means  "dove2,"  and  there  are  variant  traditions  that 
the  Kimr  were  the  original  inhabitants  of  Dars  Tama  and  Masalit3 
or,  as  the  Fur  say,  that  they  were  once  Temurka  (Fur)  who  could 
change  themselves  into  doves. 

The  Fur  call  the  Kimr  "Orang-a,"  the  Tama  and  the  Dagu 
call  them  "Gimruk"  and  "Gumerke"  respectively.  Not  being  a 
warlike  people  they  have  suffered  much  at  the  hands  of  the  more 
rapacious  Zaghawa,  Masalit  and  Fur4. 

Politically  they  formed  a  part  of  the  Darfur  Sultanate,  save  in  so 
far  as  they  could  maintain  their  independence,  and  from  time 
immemorial  they  have  had  a  petty  Sultan  of  their  own. 

Their  main  subdivisions  are : 


iggi  (the  ruling  section) 

2.  Abu  Jokha 

(a)  dhurriat  Tahir 

(a)  Effere 

(b)           „     Husayn 

(b)  Showa 

(c)           „     Nakhit 

(c)  Ligam 

(d)           „     Bulad 

(e)           „     Musa 

(/)           „     Harot 

1  El  Tunisi  (Voy.  au  Darfour,  pp.  129,  134,  etc.)  speaks  of  those  south  of  Marra 
as  "  Foullan,"  by  which  name  they  are  known  to  the  Arabs  and  Hausa  in  West 
Africa.  The  Kanuri  call  them  Fellata.  To  ethnologists  they  are  commonly  known 
as  Fulbe  or  Ful  or  "Poul":  see  Barth,  Vol.  iv,  Ch.  lvii,  p.  143.  In  the  Sudan  the 
term  Fellata  is  loosely  used  to  cover  the  Hausa  also. 

2  The  Arabic  is  i£j^3.  3  Cp.  Nachtigal,  ap.  Carbou,  II,  215. 

4  Cp.  Carbou,  II,  204,  205;  Nachtigal,  Voy.  au  Ouadai,  p.  73. 


5- 

Bagi 

6. 

Germuk 

7- 

Mo'uk 

8. 

Gennibaiuk 

9- 

TlLINGBAIUK 

IO. 

MlLLA 

ii. 

BULGERO 

12. 

Akermuk 

13- 

Lerik 

1. 4.  xvi.        THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  85 

3 .  KURBU 

(a)  Gidayrnuk 

(b)  Ownga 

(c)  Sabir 

(d)  Rimayla 

4.  Luk 

(a)  Awlad  Haggar 

(b)  ,,     Sikin 

(c)  „     Meddi 

(d)  „     Kera'a 

XV  TAMA.  Dar  Tama,  lying  to  the  west  of  Dar  Kimr,  on  the 
Wadai  border,  is  more  fertile  and  more  thickly  populated  than  either 
Masalit  or  Kimr.  It  has  always  been  a  bone  of  contention  between 
the  Sultans  of  Wadai  and  Darfur  and  has  been  temporarily  subjected 
by  both  at  different  times.  At  other  times  it  has  preserved  a  measure 
of  independence,  and  it  has  always  had  a  Sultan  of  its  own. 

Its  people  are  spoken  of  by  Matteucci1  as  "de  taille  elevee  (pres 
de  im,  80),  tete  brachycephale  (350),  angle  facial  tres  ouvert  (81  °)," 
and  Nachtigal  saw  in  them  a  close  resemblance  to  the  Dagu  (of  Sula, 
presumably),  a  mixture  of  whom  with  earlier  Kimr  inhabitants  they 
may  represent2. 

Nachtigal  says  their  dialect  is  similar  to  that  of  the  Sungur  of 
Wadai  and  of  the  Dagu  and  the  Birked3,  but  it  is  more  than  doubtful 
whether,  in  the  case  of  the  last  two  peoples  mentioned,  he  was  right. 
Their  dialect  is  quite  distinct  in  vocabulary  from  any  Darfur  tongue, 
if  one  except  only  that  of  the  Erenga  of  Dar  Masah't. 

XVI  MasAlit.  The  Masalit4  country  is  7000  to  7500  square 
miles  in  extent  and  is  bounded  to  the  west  by  Wadai,  to  the  south 
by  Dar  Sula,  to  the  north  by  Dars  Tama  and  Kimr,  and  to  the  east 
by  the  Fur.  The  central  districts  are  undulating  and  sandy  with 
numerous  small  rocky  outcrops;  the  south  is  mountainous.  The 
northern  districts,  those  of  the  Erenga  and  Gebel  Mun,  are  more 
stony  and  unfertile :  they  will  be  dealt  with  separately  in  the  following 
section.  The  great  wddis  Bare  and  Kajja,  on  the  east  and  west 
respectively,  provide  an  excellent  water  supply  at  a  shallow  depth, 
and  deeper  wells,  giving  a  more  precarious  supply,  are  also  dug 
inland  from  these  two  arteries. 

1  See  Carbou,  II,  207. 

2  See  Carbou,  II,  205. 

3  Voy.  au  Ouada'i,  pp.  66,  69,  74.  Perhaps  the  Sungur  are  to  be  identified 
with  the  Asung'ur  branch  of  Erenga  (q.v.  later).  The  Tama  dialect  and  that  of  the 
Erenga  are  practically  identical. 

*  They  call  themselves  Masalat  as  a  rule,  but  are  usually  known  to  others  as 
Masalit.  The  Tama  call  them  Masarak. 


86  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR       1. 4.  xvi. 

The  population  is  fairly  numerous  in  the  central  districts  and  is 
socially  on  about  the  same  plane  as  that  of  eastern  Darfur.  In  the 
south  it  is  more  numerous  and  less  civilized.  Cattle  and  sheep  form 
the  chief  wealth  of  the  Masalit,  and  dukhn  is  their  staple  food 
product.  Iron  is  found  in  plenty  throughout  the  country.  On  the 
whole,  however,  Dar  Masalit  is  distinctly  a  poor  country,  and,  but 
for  the  trade-route  from  Abesha  to  el  Fasher  which  bisects  it,  would 
be  a  mere  backwater. 

Like  Dar  Tama  it  has  always  been  a  bone  of  contention  as 
between  Wadai  and  Darfur,  but  the  former  power  never  held  any 
rights  in  it  and  merely  made  occasional  attacks  on  it  as  being  the 
nearest  part  of  Darfur. 

Previous  to  the  Egyptian  conquest  of  Darfur  Dar  Masalit  was 
a  part  of  the  western  district  and  subject  to  the  viceroy  {makdum) 
of  the  west.  The  Erenga  and  Mun  districts  in  the  north  were 
counted  a  part  of  the  Fur  district  of  Madi,  the  Masalit  living 
east  of  Wadi  Bare  were  under  Kerne,  and  all  the  rest  was  a  part  of 
Fia  and  subject  to  the  Shartdi  of  that  district.  At  this  period, 
whereas  the  Kimr  (also  under  Madi)  and  two  sections  of  Erenga 
had  petty  Sultans,  the  Masalit  had  only  firrash  {sing,  fersh) — 
who  are  dignitaries  of  distinctly  lower  rank  and  less  importance  than 
Shardti. 

It  was  only  in  the  Dervish  days  that  a  single  Masalati  amir 
united  under  his  rule  the  Erenga,  Mun  and  Masalit,  and  not  until 
the  close  of  the  Dervish  days  that  he  assumed  the  title  of  Sultan  and 
claimed  complete  independence.  At  present  the  firrash  of  the 
various  Erenga  and  Mun  groups,  and  the  Shartdi  who  is  over 
the  former,  are  all  placed  in  subjection  to  a  makdum  of  the 
Masalit  Sultan,  and  this  viceroy  is  simply  a  mamluk,  an  old 
Dinka  slave  who  has  attained  to  a  position  of  the  highest  trust.  The 
various  Masalit  sections  are  allotted  as  appanages  to  members  of 
the  royal  family  or  state  functionaries  and  administered  on  feudal 
lines.  The  Sultan  is  of  course  supreme  over  all.  To  assist  the  firrash 
(in  the  case  of  Masalit,  Erenga  and  Mun  alike)  there  is  a  body  of 
damdlig1. 

In  Fur  days,  they  say  in  Dar  Masalit,  each  fersh  had  also  a 
sambei  or  chief  executive  officer  and  representative,  attached  to 
him,  as  was  also  the  custom  in  the  case  of  the  Sultan  of  the  Dagu  ; 
but  since  the  chief  fersh  of  the  Masalit  has  become  a  "  Sultan,"  this 
has  been  dropped. 

1  See  p.  74. 


1. 4.  xvi.        THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  87 

The  following  are  the  chief  sub-tribes  of  Masalit  : 


FOKUNYUNG 

ASUMUNG 

Dagu   {i.e.   colonists   from 

MlSTERINN 

Abdurrag 

Dar  Sula,  no  doubt) 

ASUMUNG 

AjMUNG 

Amunung 

Serbung 

Keriung 

MUNDERA 

Mararit1 

KUSUBE 

Mangiri 

NlERNUNG 

FORUNG 

MlNGIRI 

All  speak  the  same  language,  which  is  distinct  from  any  Darfur 
dialect  and  said  to  belong  to  the  same  group  as  that  of  the  Mabas 
of  the  west2.  They  claim  a  vague  descent  from  Arabs  of  the  Beni 
Khuzam  and  Messiria  (Bakkara  both),  but  are  obviously  more  than 
half  negroes,  with  the  slightest  Arab  leaven3. 

They  are  a  warlike  people  of  fairly  good  physique  and  intelli- 
gence, but  they  are  regarded  askance  by  the  Darfur  and  Kordofan 
tribes  owing  to  the  power  of  metamorphosis,  chiefly  into  hyaenas, 
which  they  are  believed  to  possess4. 

Nachtigal  reported  them  very  "priest-ridden"  and  fanatical  and 
widely  suspected  of  cannibalism.  Nor  was  the  charge  entirely 
unfounded,  for  the  Masalit  have  themselves  admitted  to  me, 
though  only  with  regard  to  the  Um  Bus  section,  who  have  the  dis- 
tinction of  becoming  ghouls  after  death  and  emerging  as  "shadows 
of  the  dead"  from  the  tombs  to  prey  upon  the  unwary,  that  they 
believe  that  by  eating  raw  the  entrails  of  their  slain  foes,  they  gain 
courage  and  eliminate  soft-heartedness. 

Slatin  was  also  told  that  they  were  accustomed  to  use  the  skins 
of  their  slain  enemies  as  waterskins  and  their  headman,  the  fersh 
Haggam,  admitted  that  the  custom  "had  once"  existed5. 

At  the  present  day  most  of  these  horrible  customs  have  fallen 
into  disuse,  but  the  people  speak  of  them  as  having  flourished  "once, 
in  the  days  of  Haggam"! 

In  addition  to  these  Masalit  of  the  border-state  there  is  a 
considerable  independent  colony  of  Masalit  in  southern  Darfur  on 
the  northern  borders  of  the  Habbania  (Bakkara)  country,  who  have 
been  there  for  something  over  a  century  and  a  half. 

1  See  p.  83. 

2  Nachtigal,  Voy.  au  Ouada'i,  pp.  66,  76.  Cp.  Barth,  in,  App.  7,  p.  542.  A 
few  words  of  the  Masalrt  vocabulary,  as  a  guide,  are  given  in  Appendix  4  to  this 
chapter. 

3  There  are  a  few  small  encampments  of  Mahamid,  Tergam,  Ta'elba,  Darok, 
and  Mahada  in  Dar  Masalit  (for  all  of  whom  see  Part  III),  but  these  seem  to  keep 
quite  distinct  from  the  native  Masalit. 

4  Cp.  pp.  84  and  103,  and  see  Robertson  Smith,  p.  203,  re  totemism  in  Arabia. 
6  Slatin,  Fire  and  Sword...,  Ch.  in. 


88      THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR   i.  4.  xvi. 

In  el  Tunisi's  day  they  were  under  four  "kings"  {i.e.  meks) 
and  their  country  formed  a  part  of  Dar  Abo  Uma1. 

At  the  present  day  they  are  ruled  by  a  petty  Sultan  with  a  nahds, 
but  the  administration  appears  to  be,  in  fact,  in  the  hands  of  the 
wakil,  or  dingar — a  term  denoting  properly  a  small  drum  (nugdra) 
of  wood,  but  generally  applied  to  the  melik  or  fersh  who  holds  the 
same.  The  Sultan  conducts  business  and  issues  orders  through  the 
dingar,  who  is,  in  fact,  a  sort  of  vizier. 

The  royal  section,  that  of  the  nahds,  among  this  southern 
Darfur  colony  is  the  Serbung,  which  is  subdivided  into  Sugurbo, 
Kunderung,  Kaidung,  Bialung  and  other  subsections;  but  the 
remaining  subsections  are  reckoned  as  belonging  to  the  dingar: 
the  chief  of  these  are : 

Mungare  Umbertchung  Gunkung  Awnung 

Umbus  Fokanyung  Merkerinn 

The  dialect  spoken  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  western  Masalit,  but 
the  tradition  current  as  to  the  origin  of  the  tribe  is  different.  The 
colony  in  southern  Darfur  state  that  their  ancestors  came  from  the 
Yemen  via  northern  Darfur.  The  fact  is  that  neither  division  of  the 
tribe  has  the  remotest  idea  where  it  came  from  and  each  hazards 
a  guess  to  which  little  attention  need  be  paid. 

In  addition  to  the  two  main  settlements  described  there  are  some 
Masalit  in  Wadai,  and  others  in  Darfur  in  the  districts  south-west 
of  el  Fasher,  namely  Dobo,  Tawila,  Gebel  Harayz,  etc.,  living  among 
and  intermarried  with  the  Fur  and  Tungur.  Their  parents  were 
mostly  prisoners  of  war  deposited  here  and  there  as  colonists  by  the 
Fur  Sultans. 

XVII  Erenga  and  Mun.  These  two  peoples  have  already  been 
spoken  of  as  living  in  the  northern  part  of  what  is  now  Dar  Masalit. 
The  language  of  both  is  alike  and  to  all  intents  and  purposes  is  the 
same  language  as  that  spoken  in  Dar  Tama. 

The  Mun,  or  Mul,  are  a  very  small  community  and  have  not 
more  than  sixty  odd  villages.  The  Erenga  are  considerably  more 
numerous.  They  call  themselves  Birrung,  but  every  other  tribe  calls 
them  Erenga2.  The  Mun  are  called  Mun  or  Ahl  el  Gebel  by  Arabic- 
speaking  people,  and  Jebarok  {i.e.  Jebalok)  by  the  Erenga,  and 
Mun  or  Jebalta  by  the  Masalit. 

1  El  Tunisi,  Voy.  au  Darfour,  pp.  136,  137.  See  p.  98  and  note  on  p.  95. 

2  I  do  not  know  the  origin  of  the  word,  but  "Eringe"  is  the  Masalit  word  for 
"Arabs."  It  may  be,  and  probably  is,  pure  coincidence  that  "erunga"  is  the 
family  name  of  the  snake  people  at  Tira  el  Akhdar  in  southern  Dar  Nuba  (see 
Seligman,  Art.  "  Nuba  "),  and  that  the  Erenga  word  for  "  rain  "  (or  "  sky  ")  is  "  arr," 
while  at  Dilling  (northern  Dar  Nuba)  "rain"  is  "ara,"  and  at  Midob  it  is  "arri. 


■  >> 


1. 4.  xix.       THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  89 

The  main  subdivisions  of  the  Erenga  are  the  following: 

SHAL  MARARfT1  OWRA  DAROMI 

AsUNG'UR  DULA  GlRGA  NyUDUNG'UR 

The  Owra  and  Mararit  have  "Sultans"  of  their  own:  the  rest  only 
fir  rash. 

XVIII  HadAhId.  Scattered  here  and  there  in  Darfur,  but  particu- 
larly in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Tama  and  Masalit  border  are 
small  colonies  of  Hadahi'd  (or  "Hadadfn"),  that  is,  "Blacksmiths." 
These  have  been  in  the  country  for  many  generations  and  have  come 
to  be  looked  on,  in  some  cases, — rightly  or  wrongly — as  Fur;  but 
most  of  them  certainly  originate  from  Wadai  or  west  of  it  and,  when 
asked,  say  so.  As  is  usual  in  north-central  Africa  from  east  to  west 
they  are  held  in  general  contempt  and  the  rest  of  the  population  do 
not  intermarry  with  them.  This  feeling  of  aversion  towards  the 
workers  in  iron  is  strongest  among  the  Zaghawa,  who  so  far  from 
intermarrying  with  them  would  not  eat  or  associate  with  them.  They 
are  a  hereditary  caste  and  are  called  Miro  {sing,  mir)  by  the  Fur. 
From  casual  remarks  of  contempt  that  I  have  heard  used  in  speaking 
of  them  I  should  say  that  it  was  not  so  much  to  their  dealing  with 
iron  that  they  owe  their  inherited  unpopularity  as  to  their  employ- 
ment of  fire  for  the  purpose2. 

XIX  "Slave"  Tribes.  The  "slave"  tribes  of  Darfur  may  be 
divided  into  two  groups;  firstly,  colonies  of  negroes  from  outside 
Darfur  imported  by  successive  Sultans  en  bloc  and  settled  on  the 
land  during  the  last  century  or  two,  but  particularly  by  the  Sultan 

1  See  p.  83.  There  are  also  Mararit  among  the  Masalit  proper. 

2  Nachtigal  (Voy.  au  Ouadai,  pp.  80-81)  records  the  contempt  with  which  the 
blacksmith  is  held  in  Bornu,  Wadai  and  Darfur  "and  in  general  among  all  the 
Tibu  tibes"  and  that  in  Wadai  no  one  would  think  of  marrying  one  of  their  women 
or  eat  from  the  same  plate  as  a  blacksmith.  The  "Sultan  of  the  Hadadfn"  is  there 
a  kind  of  carnival  king.  Thus,  too,  in  Darfur  'Ali  Dinar  contemptuously  appointed 
as  "Sultan  of  the  Hadadin"  a  rival  to  the  Sultanate  whom  he  overthrew  as  a 
preliminary  to  his  own  succession. 

Compare  Carbou,  1,  p.  49  et  seq.  and  209:  " Hadddd  chez  les  Arabes,  dogod 
chez  les  Kanembou,  azd  chez  les  Toubou,  noegue  chez  les  Boulala,  Kabartou  chez 

les  Ouadai'ens,  les  forgerons  sont  toujours  profondement  meprises "    In  Kanem 

the  majority  of  the  workers-in-iron  are  of  Tibbu-Kura'an  origin. 

So,  too,  in  the  east:  cp.  Bent,  p.  212.  "The  Blacksmith  in  Abyssinia  is  looked 
upon  with  mingled  dread  and  superstition... he  is  supposed  to  have  the  power  of 
turning  himself  into  a  hyaena  and  committing  ravages  on  his  enemies." 

Compare  the  following  from  "The  Pre-Bantu  Occupants  of  East  Africa" 
(Beech),  in  Man,  March,  1915:  The  ancient  population  of  the  Kikuyu  country  in 
East  Africa  are  reputed  to  have  been  cannibal  dwarfs  called  Maithoachiana.  These 
latter,  according  to  the  District  Commissioner  of  Fort  Hall,  "  appear  to  be  a  variety 

of  earth-gnomes  with  many  of  the  usual  attributes Like  earth-gnomes  in  most 

folklore,  they  are  skilled  in  the  art  of  iron-working. ...It  is  a  Kikuyu  insult  to  say 
'You  are  the  son  of  a  Maithoachiana.'" 


90      THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR   1. 4.  xix. 

Tirab  towards  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century ;  secondly,  negroes 
whose  home,  so  far  as  is  known,  has  always  been  in  Darfur.  Apart 
from  these  two  groups,  of  course,  innumerable  Dinka,  Fertit, 
Nuba,  Niam-Niam  and  negroes  of  various  other  Bahr  el  Ghazal 
tribes  have  been  imported  singly  or  in  small  batches  into  Darfur  as 
slaves,  their  families  broken  up,  and  their  wives  and  daughters  used 
to  breed  children  for  their  captors  from  the  earliest  period  to  the 
present;  but  of  these  it  is  unnecessary  to  say  more  at  this  juncture. 

To  the  first  of  the  two  groups  specified  belong  such  people  as  the 
Turug,  who  are  by  origin  Nuba  from  Gebel  Tekali  in  Kordofan, 
imported  by  the  Sultan  Tirab,  the  'Abi'dia  round  Kebkebi'a  and 
Kuttum,  who  were  slaves  of  Kordofan  tribes  imported  by  the  same 
monarch,  and  the  Dadinga1,  who  are  said  to  have  been  in  Bornu, 
their  true  home,  until  about  two  hundred  years  ago  and  to  have 
sojourned  awhile  in  Dar  Tama  prior  to  their  removal  to  Darfur. 

The  second  group  is  in  the  extreme  south  and  falls  partly  within 
Darfur  and  the  Bahr  el  Ghazal  Province  and  partly  in  French 
Equatorial  Africa.  Among  these,  in  Darfur,  to  the  east  are  the 
Mandala  (or  Bandala)  and  the  Shatt,  living  in  the  Rizaykat 
country  and  the  northern  Bahr  el  Ghazal,  and  to  the  west  a  certain 
number  of  Kara,  Binga,  Banda,  Dayga  (Digga),  Foroke,  Funkur, 
etc.  This  latter  congeries,  however,  has  its  main  habitat  in  the 
western  Bahr  el  Ghazal  and  in  the  French  sphere  to  the  west  of  it. 
It  is  commonly  known  by  the  vague  generic  term  of  Fertit,  but  I 
believe  that  the  negroes  themselves  who  compose  it  distinguish 
between  a  western  division,  all  speaking  dialects  of  the  same  tongue 
and  consisting  of  Kara,  Sara,  Gula,  Medi,  Koio,  Vor,  Dudu, 
Binga,  Runga  and  Feri  and  known  in  general  as  "  Yer,"  and  a  loose 
eastern  group  of  "Fertit"  consisting  of  Digga,  Bea,  Keraysh, 
Shayre,  Bongo,  Belunda,  etc.  To  the  Arabs,  of  course,  all  alike  are 
"slaves  "  who  have  been  raided  by  themselves  from  time  immemorial, 
and  the  name  of  "Fertit"  in  common  parlance  embraces  all  or  any 
of  them.   They  appear  to  belong  to  the  Bantu  family. 

Now  in  Darfur  tradition  relates  sometimes  that  the  original 
habitat  of  these  Fertit  was  in  Gebel  Marra  and  that  the  Fur  race 
is  no  more  than  a  conglomerate  body  composed  of  them;  or  some- 
times— a  more  probable  theory — that  the  aboriginal  Fur  were  a 
distinct  race  though  it  has  amalgamated  with  the  Fertit  tribes  in 


1  Their  brand,  or  rather  that  of  their  chief,  the  Melik  Mahmud 
el  Dadingawi,  the  most  generally  respected  man  in  Darfur  in  'Ali 
Dinar's  time  and  one  of  his  chief  councillors  and  commanders,  is  as 
(a).    Others  use  such  variants  as  (b).    Compare  the  Fur  brand  (p.  95). 


ir 


1. 4.  xx.        THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  91 

the  districts  lying  west  and  south  of  Gebel  Marra,  and  even  in  the 
Gebel  itself,  and  as  far  north  as  Gebel  Si1. 

XX  FUR.  The  Fur,  from  whom,  whatever  their  origin,  Darfur 
takes  its  name2,  form  at  the  present  day  the  most  numerous  part  of 
the  sedentary  population  in  its  western  half,  and  they  are  well 
represented  in  all  but  the  open  rolling  sandy  country,  some  130 
miles  across,  which  marches  with  Kordofan. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  cradle  and  the  stronghold  of  their 
race  is  the  vast  range  of  Gebel  Marra,  the  main  watershed  of  Darfur. 
They  are  still  its  sole  inhabitants  from  its  southern  extremity  to 
Gebel  Si  in  the  north.  Now  the  Fur  of  Gebel  Marra  and  Si  and  the 
Fur  of  the  west,  in  fact  the  Fur  in  general  with  the  exception  of  the 
Kungara  branch,  are  socially,  physically  and  intellectually  inferior 
to  the  average  of  the  tribes  who  are  their  neighbours  to  the  east  and 
north.  But  it  is  the  Kungara  whose  virility  has  preserved  to  the 
race  the  predominance  which  was  gained  some  three  centuries  ago 
by  their  ancestors,  and  this  superiority  of  the  Kungara  is  evidently 
due  to  an  Arab  strain  which  they  have  acquired.  They  are,  generally 
speaking,  a  people  of  better  physique  and  higher  intelligence,  and 
in  their  habits  more  cleanly,  than  the  common  Fur,  and  they  are 
much  better  Muhammadans.  Most  of  them  now  live  east  of  the 
mountains,  though  many  of  the  debased  Fur  in  the  south  and  west 
lay  claim  to  be  wholly  or  half  Kungara.  For  the  maintenance  of 
their  power  from  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century  the 
Kungara  Fur  have  relied  very  largely  on  the  brute  force  of  a  slave 
army,  but  their  main  asset  has  been  the  Arab  cross  in  their  blood 
which  has  given  them  the  qualities  of  leadership.  An  extra  measure 
of  prestige  has  been  theirs  on  account  of  the  traditional  connection 
of  their  royal  house,  the  Kayra,  on  the  distaff  side,  with  the  Beni 
'Abbas  and  the  Beni  Hilal. 

The  facts  as  usually  given,  though  with  many  discrepancies,  are, 
briefly,  that  all  the  Fur  were  living  in  Gebel  Marra  (including  Turra, 

1  There  is  a  section  of  "Fur"  in  Gebel  Si  called  Karanga,  i.e.  "Kara  folk," 
who  admit  their  Kara  (Fertft)  origin.  A  Fur  custom  which  savours  of  the  negroes 
of  the  Bahr  el  Ghazal  is  that  of  spitting  three  times  on  the  head  by  way  of  expressing 
a  blessing.  This  was  done  to  me  by  Feki  Bahr  el  Din,  the  oldest  Fur  in  Gebel 
Marra,  aged  120,  in  return  for  a  much  desired  concession.  It  was  said  to  exemplify 
the  scattering  of  cool  water  on  the  hot  fires  of  vitality  in  order  to  preserve  the 
latter  for  as  long  as  possible.    For  the  Fertit  tradition,  too,  cp.  ABC,  xxiii. 

2  The  Fur  call  themselves  Furakang  (sing.  Furdongo).  The  Dagu  of  Darfur 
call  them  Onage  (sing.  Wadache),  the  Dagu  of  Sula  call  them  Yarge,  the  Birked 
call  them  Kadirgi.  To  the  people  of  Tama  they  are  known  as  Forok,  to  the  Masalit 
as  Furta,  to  the  Zaghawa  as  Korra,  and  to  the  Midob  people  as_Kurka.  The  Fertit 
tribes  also  have  different  names  for  them :  to  the  Digga  they  are  Ura  (i.e.  "slaves"), 
to  the  Banda  they  are  Poro,  to  the  Sara  they  are  Dum,  to  the  Kara  they  are  Dala 
and  to  the  Gula  they  are  Lali. 


92  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR        1. 4.  xx. 

Si,  etc.)  and  the  hills  south-west  and  west  of  it  in  a  state  of  savagery 
until  some  Beni  Hilal  Arabs  under  Ahmad  el  Ma'akur,  a  descendant 
of  Abu  Zayd  el  Hilali  who  was  himself  descended  from  the  Beni 
'Abbas1,  came  to  these  parts.  It  was  a  descendant  of  this  Ahmad 
named  Sulayman  and  surnamed  Solong — the  word  Solonga  means 
Arab  in  the  Fur  tongue — who  finally  established  an  overlordship 
over  the  Fur  and  welded  them  into  a  single  political  unit  and  became 
ancestor  of  the  royal  line2.    He  and  his  son  Musa  ruled  from  Turra, 

1  This  is,  of  course,  impossible.  The  Beni  'Abbas  have  no  connection  with  the 
Beni  Hilal  (see  Part  II,  Chap.  i). 

2  As  being  "Beni  'Abbas"  they  claim  a  kind  of  kinship  with  the  Ga'aliin,  and 
"  Idris  Ga'al"  or  "Edrisdjal"  appears  as  paternal  grandfather  of  Sulayman  Solong 
(see  Nachtigal,  ap.  Helmolt,  World's  History,  p.  585).  The  same  Ga'ali  connection 
is  implied  in  the  tradition  that  Sulayman  was  "son  of  a  Temurki  [Fur]  and  an 
Arab  woman  of  the  tribe  of  Bedayrfa  of  Kordofan"  (Escayrac  de  Lauture,  Bull. 
Soc.  Geogr.  Aug.-Sept.  1855,  p.  79),  the  Bedayria  being  generally  reckoned  Ga'aliin 
of  a  sort.  A  similar  claim  is  also  preferred  in  the  case  of  most  of  the  African 
kingdoms  west  of  Darfur.  For  instance,  in  Wadai,  a  Ga'ali  from  Shendi — a 
soi-disant  'Abbasi  that  is — by  name  'Abd  el  Kerfrn  ibn  "Yame"  (the  "Gama'i" 
of  the  Ga'aliin  pedigrees,  ancestor  of  the  Gawama'a)  is  the  traditional  ancestor 
(see  Nachtigal,  Voy.  au  Ouadai,  pp.  70  and  93  ;  and  Part  III,  Chap.  1  on  the  Ga'aliin- 
Danagla  group). 

The  details  of  Sulayman  Solong's  ancestry  are  extremely  vague  and  various. 
I  have  generally  heard  him  spoken  of  as  an  Arab  of  the  Beni  Hilal  who  married  a 
Fur  princess.  He  sometimes  appears  as  a  son  of  Ahmad  el  Ma'akur,  and  some- 
times as  descended  from  him  in  the  second  or  third  or  more  distant  generation. 
His  mother  is  variously  reported  as  an  Arab  or  a  woman  of  the  Masalft,  but  there 
is  no  sort  of  agreement  about  him  beyond  the  fact  that  he  was  "an  Arab"  and  con- 
nected with  the  Fur  by  marriage.  Both  the  Fur  (Kungara)  and  the  Tungur,  while 
admitting  they  are  entirely  different  from  one  another  in  race,  claim  to  be  descended 
from  Ahmad  el  Ma'akur  of  the  Beni  Hilal;  but  the  fact  is  likely  to  be  that  a 
combination  of  Fur  and  Arab  (the  Kayra  section),  reminding  one  of  that  of 
the  Bega  and  Arab  in  the  eastern  Sudan,  intermarried  with  the  Tungur  as  a 
preliminary  to  succeeding  them  in  northern  and  eastern  Darfur  at  the  end 
of  the  sixteenth  century.  Dr  Helmolt's  tree,  q.v.  The  World's  History,  p.  585, 
based  on  Nachtigal's  and  Slatin's  accounts,  shews  "  Fora,"  a  daughter  of  the  Kayra 
chieftain,  married  (a)  to  the  father  of  Shau  Dorshfd,  the  last  of  the  Tungur  Sultans 
of  Si  (for  whom  see  p.  67),  and  (b)  to  Ahmad  el  Ma'akur  the  "ancestor  of  the 
Tungur  in  Darfur."  To  her  first  husband  she  bore  Shau  and  to  her  second  Dali, 
the  ancestor  of  Sulayman  Solong.  To  pursue  the  matter  in  detail  is  a  waste  of  time, 
and  all  that  one  need  note  is  the  existence  of  an  ancient  Fur  stock,  connected  on 
the  one  hand  with  the  Islamic  Arabs  and,  on  the  other,  with  the  Tungur. 

That  the  succession  was  matrilinear  is  also  obvious.  As  each  dynasty  succeeds 
the  last,  tradition  seldom  fails  to  marry  the  founder  of  the  new  dynasty  to  the 
daughter  of  the  last  representative  of  the  old.  This  system  maintained  in  Egypt 
under  the  early  New  Kingdom,  and  almost  certainly  before,  and  in  the  Ptolemaic  era 
(see  Murray,  "Royal  Marriages  and  Matrilinear  Descent"  in  Journ.  Roy.  Anthrop. 
Inst,  xlv,  191 5),  among  the  Bega  and  in  the  Christian  kingdom  of  Dongola.  We 
shall  see,  too,  how  the  Arabs,  to  whom  the  practice  had  been  familiar  in  Arabia, 
readily  adopted  it  for  their  own  purposes  when  they  conquered  Dongola,  and  how  it 
was  in  vogue  among  the  Berber  princes  round  Asben  in  the  fourteenth  century. 
Fuller  details  and  references  will  be  found  in  a  note  to  Part  II,  Chap.  2,  xxxiii. 

So,  too,  Barth  (11,  273)  says:  "The  Kaniiri  even  at  the  present  day  call  people 
in  general,  but  principally  their  kings,  always  after  the  name  of  their  mother,  and 
the  name  of  the  mother's  tribe  is  almost  continually  added  in  the  chronicle  as  a 


1. 4.  xx.         THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  93 

between  Marra  proper  and  Si1.  The  aboriginal  population,  both 
here  and  in  Gebel  Si,  is  fabled  to  have  been  "To  Ra"  but  no  more 
is  known  of  them  and  they  are  not  differentiated  by  tradition  in  any 
way  from  the  original  Fur2. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  Fur  were 
sufficiently  powerful  to  leave  the  mountains.  The  Musaba'at,  a 
branch  of  the  Kungara,  had  already  found  their  way  into  Kordofan3, 
and  the  royal  capital  of  the  other  Fur  was  now  set  up  near  Tina  in 
the  fertile  country  at  the  eastern  foot  of  the  Turra  range.  From  here 
the  Fur  not  only  subdued  all  eastern  Darfur  but  by  the  second  half 
of  the  eighteenth  century  Tirab  had  overrun  Kordofan,  crushed  the 

circumstance  of  the  greatest  importance."  Again,  in  Bakirmi,  Barth  says  (in,  453): 
"  The  mother  of  the  Sultan,  or  the  '  Kufi-banga,'  is  greatly  respected,  but  without 
possessing  such  paramount  authority  as  we  have  seen  to  have  been  the  case  with 
the  'magira'  in  Bornu,  and  as  we  shall  find  exercised  by  the  Moma  in  Waday." 

A  relic  of  the  same  idea  no  doubt  survives  in  the  official  position  of  dignity 
until  lately  enjoyed  by  the  grandmothers  of  the  Sultan  of  Darfur  and  in  particular  the 
maternal  grandmother.  El'Tunisi  says  (Voy.auDarf our,  p.  184)  on  this  subject:  "Sile 
sultan  regnant  a  encore  son  mere  et  sa  grand'mere,  elles  ont  chacune  un  rang; 
bien  entendu,  ce  rang  n 'est  pas  une  dignite  toujours  presente  dans  1'F.tat;  il  meurt 
avec  celles  qui  en  sont  revetues." 

Thus  the  Tungur,  in  claiming  Ahmad  el  Ma'akur  as  their  ancestor,  marry  him 
to  the  daughter  of  the  last  Dagu  Sultan,  the  Dagu  having  been  predominant  until 
the  coming  of  the  Tungur;  and  Sulayman  Solong  is  allotted  an  Arab  mother 
(Slatin,  Ch.  11).  Similarly,  the  Musaba'at,  calling  Ahmad  el  Ma'akur  a  Hilali, 
marry  him  to  the  daughter  of  the  last  Tungur  Sultan  (see  MacMichael,  Tribes..., 
p.  56),  and  the  Dagu  of  Darfur  agree  with  them  in  this  tradition. 

1  Turra  is  part  of  the  same  range  as  Marra.  It  is  the  burial-place  of  the  Darfur 
Sultans  and  there  stand  the  tombs  of  Sulayman,  Musa,  Ahmad  Bukr,  Muhammad 
Dowra,  Abu  el  Kasim,  Tirab,  'Abd  el  Rahman  el  Rashid,  Muhammad  Fadl  and 
Husayn.  They  were  rebuilt  by  'AH  Dinar  about  19 10  in  red  brick  with  grass  roofs 
in  place  of  the  old  stone  and  mud  edifices.  The  graves  of  Sulayman  and  Musa 
his  son  are  in  a  single  tomb  standing  alone  to  the  north  of  the  rest.  'Abd  el  Rahman, 
Muhammad  Fadl  and  Husayn  have  a  single  large  tomb.  The  others  have  each  a 
separate  tomb.  The  five  tombs  containing  Musa's  successors  are  side  by  side  in 
a  single  walled  enclosure.  Near  by  the  tomb  of  Sulayman  and  Musa  is  a  large 
stone  mosque  built  by  the  Sultan  Ahmad  Bukr  (1 682-1 722)  which  is  still  in  good 
repair  but  for  the  roof.  There  is  a  similar  mosque  called  "Gama'i  Kurro"near 
Buldang,  between  Kebkebia  and  Kulkul  to  the  north-west  of  Marra.  This  is  said 
to  have  been  built  by  Abu  el  Kasim  (1739-52)  and  is  a  large  well-made  construction 
of  red  bricks,  morticed  with  earth  and  slips  of  stone  and  having  arched  doorways 
and  windows. 

2  The  people  of  Turra  say  the  To  Ra  were  called  after  the  giant  lizard  or 
"monitor"  (Ar.  "wiril,"  or  "warana"),  called  "to"  in  Fur  dialect.  Its  scientific 
name  is  Varanus  Niloticus.  The  same  name  "to"  or  "tow"  occurs  also  as  the 
nickname  of  the  present  "Shartai"  of  the  Birked. 

3  For  the  various  accounts  of  their  secession  see  MacMichael,  Tribes...,  pp.  60- 
62.  The  name  of  Tonsam,  the  traditional  Musaba'at  ancestor  and  (generally)  uncle 
of  Sulayman  Solong,  survives  in  Tunsum,  or  Tulzum  as  it  is  now  called,  a  site 
in  the  hills  between  Turra  and  Tina.  The  Musaba'at  in  Kordofan  have  twisted 
"Tonsam"  into  "Muhammad  Tumsah."  Practically  all  accounts,  though  differing 
in  details,  date  the  Musaba'at  secession  from  the  time  of  Sulayman  Solong.  The 
name  "Musaba'at"  is  derived  from  "sobaha,"  "to  go  east."  The  Arabic  h  is 
commonly  dropped  by  the  Fur  and  the  s  weakened  to  s. 


94  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR        i.  4.  xx. 

secessionist  Musaba'at,  and  advanced  as  far  east  as  the  Nile,  to 
Omdurman  and  Shendi1.  After  such  achievements  it  was  the  natural 
course  to  found  a  capital  in  a  more  central  position  and  'Abd  el 
Rahman  el  Rashid  (i 785-1 799)  chose  el  Fasher,  which  is  two  days' 
journey  east  of  the  Marra  range  in  a  sandy  open  country  suitable 
for  cultivation  and  endowed  with  a  good  supply  of  water.  Thus  the 
more  civilized  members  of  the  race,  Kungara  for  the  most  part, 
left  the  rough  and  rocky  fastnesses  of  the  hills  and  the  broken  country 
beyond  to  their  ruder  and  more  savage  brethren  of  the  other  branches 
of  the  Fur. 

El  Tunisi2  correctly  divides  the  race  into  Kungara,  Karakiri't 
and  Temurka.  Roughly  speaking,  the  first  named  are  in  the  east, 
though  they  are  to  be  found  intermarried  with  other  Fur  in  the  west. 
The  Karakiri't  are  properly  the  people  of  Gebel  Si,  and  the  Te- 
murka are  in  the  south-west  beyond  Gebel  Marra.  But,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  no  exact  lines  can  be  drawn  between  the  three  groups,  and 
elements  of  the  first  in  particular  are  scattered  far  afield.  Even 
though  there  may  be  an  original  substratum  which  is  of  distinctively 
"Fur"  origin,  there  are  the  traditional  grounds  quoted  for  sup- 
posing that  the  various  Fertit  tribes  have  become  grafted  upon  this 
stem  to  such  an  extent  that  the  Fur  of  the  present  have  quite  as 
large  an  element  of  Fertit  in  their  composition  as  of  true  Fur. 

It  is  at  once  obvious  as  one  travels  in  Darfur  and  enquires  as  to 
the  inter-relationships  and  groupings  of  the  Fur  that  their  sub- 
divisions, apart,  perhaps,  from  the  main  groups  of  Kungara,  Kara- 
kiri't and  Temurka,  are  local  or  totemistic  in  origin  rather  than 
linear3.  Their  names  are  taken,  not  from  a  common  ancestor,  but  either 
from  some  hill  or  valley,  or  some  bird  or  beast  or  grass4.  After  a  few 
general  remarks  on  the  Kungara  and  Temurka  it  will,  therefore,  be 
best  to  arrange  such  information  as  there  is  about  the  composition 
of  the  Fur  district  by  district  rather  than  to  try  to  trace  ramifications 
of  any  single  family  throughout  Darfur. 

The  Kungara  include,  beside  the  royal  Kayra  section,  the  great 
Musaba'at  group  which  broke  away  to  the  east  in  the  seventeenth 
century  and  conquered  Kordofan  and  remained  in  power  there  until 
ousted  by  the  Kungara  from  Darfur  in  1784-17855.  The  Kungara 

1  Both  Shendi  and  Metemma  are  said  to  be  Fur  names, 

2  Voy.  au  Darfour,  p.  134. 

3  When  enquiring  for  a  traditional  ancestor  among  Arabs  one  never  draws 
blank.  The  Fur,  however,  are  nonplussed  and  hazard  such  guesses  as  "that  fellow 
Adam,  was  it  not?"  or  "  Sulayman  Solong." 

4  Examples  are  given  later.  See  also  note  on  p.  34. 
s  See  MacMichael,  Tribes...,  Chaps.  1  and  n. 


I.  4.  xx.         THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR 


95 


remained  in  power  in  northern  and  central  Kordofan  until  the 
Turkish  conquest  of  1821,  and  it  has  been  mentioned  how  during 
the  preceding  period  of  the  decadence  of  the  Fung  kingdom  in  the 
Gezira  they  penetrated  as  far  east  as  the  Nile.  It  is  thus  that  we  have 
at  present  a  sprinkling  of  Kungara  and  Musaba'at  in  Kordofan, 
and  it  is  partly  on  the  same  account,  though  by  no  means  wholly, 
that  the  Gawama'a  show  marked  signs  of  Fur  influences1. 

The  Kayra  are  subdivided  into  Basinga  and  Telinga,  but 
neither  term  has  any  tribal  or  local  connotation.  The  Basinga  are  the 
immediate  relatives  on  the  father's  and  the  mother's  side  of  the  last 
reigning  Sultan  and  the  Telinga  are  remoter  branches  of  the  same  stock. 

The   former   use   the   camel   brand   as   (a), 


1 


calling  it  "the  Kayra"  and  the  Sultan  himself 

used  to  add  a  war-drum  and  sticks,  making  it    ^      AAA 

appear  as  (b)2. 

The  most  thickly  populated  part  of  the  Fur  country  proper  is 
that  lying  south-west  of  Gebel  Marra,  and  here,  in  so  far  as  any 
single  tribal  name  can  be  applied  at  all,  the  people  are  Temurka 
though  the  "upper  classes"  claim  a  Kungara  connection.  These 
parts,  in  the  days  when  the  Fur  ruled  from  Marra,  were  under  a 
viceroy  known  as  the  Dima  or  Abo  Di'ma.  His  sphere  was  known  as 
Dar  Abo  Dima3  and  the  people  subject  to  him  as  Di'manga.    A 

1  See  Part  III,  Chap.  1. 

2  Notice  the  resemblance  to  the  Birked  and  Dadinga  brands.  The  former  omits 
the  crows-feet:  the  latter  includes  one  of  them.  The  use  of  a  war-drum  and  sticks 
as  a  brand  both  at  G.  Haraza  and  among  the  Tungur  the  Birked  and  the  Fur  has 
already  been  noted  (see  sub  Birked).  The  crowsfoot  ("Rigl  el  Ghorab")  is  also 
the  commonest  brand  among  the  Bukkera  and  Derham  sections  at  el  Haraza  and  Kaga 
(see  MacMichael,  Camel  Brands...,  p.  34),  and  is  further  evidence  of  the  connection 
between  these  hillmen  of  northern  Kordofan  and  the  Darfur  tribes. 

3  Q.v.  on  Nachtigal's  and  Mason's  maps  of  Darfur  (second  half  nineteenth 
century).  Dar  Abo  Dima  includes  in  its  geographical  scope  much  of  what  is,  in 
fact,  the  country  of  the  Ta'aisha  and  the  Beni  Helba  Arabs  (Bakkara)  and  the 
Masalit  and  Fellata,  all  of  whom  have  obtained  their  rights  at  the  expense  of  the  Fur. 

The  Abo  Dima  in  the  south-west  corresponded  to  the  Abo  Uma  in  the  south- 
east, the  Abu  Dali  in  the  centre,  the  Tekenyawi  in  the  north,  etc.  The  name  Abo 
Dima,  or  rather  Dima  alone,  means  the  right  arm  [of  the  Sultan].  El  Tunisi,  who 
speaks  of  "Abadyma"  (loc.  cit.  p.  132,  etc.),  agrees  as  to  this,  saying  the  term 
denotes  the  right  arm  or  right  wing  and  that  the  Abo  Dima  used  to  march  with 
his  troops  on  the  Sultan's  right.  It  was  customary  to  name  all  the  chief  dignitaries 
of  the  state  after  various  parts  of  the  Sultan's  body.  El  Tunisi  gives  several  examples, 
e.g.  "Abo  Dima"  the  right  arm,  the  "Tekenyawi"  the  left  arm,  the  "Urundulu" 
the  head  [N.B.,  this  is  doubtful:  see  later,  p.  105],  the  "Abo  Uma"  the  dorsal 
vertebrae  (ibid.  pp.  172,  173);  but  all  accounts  do  not  agree  in  detail.  For  instance, 
that  given  to  me  by  reliable  people  in  Darfur  is  that  the  "Abo  Dima"  was  the  right 
arm,  the  "Abo  Uma"  the  left  arm,  the  "Tekenyawi"  the  loins  ("sulub"),  the 
"Abo  Dali"  the  trunk,  the  "Abo  Gebayin"  (in  charge  of  collecting  the  corn 
taxes)  the  stomach,  etc. 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  of  all  is  the  "Abo  FureY'  or  "Kamne,"  of  whom 
el  Tunisi  (loc.  cit.)  says:  "Son  nom  [Kamneh]  signifie:  le  col  du  sultan.    Le  sultan 


96  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR        1. 4.  xx. 

singular  Dimangowi  is  formed  from  this  word  and  the  head 
sheikh  (Shartdi)  of  the  district  is  still  known  as  the  Dimangowi 
or  Dumungowi. 

"Dimanga"  therefore  includes  all  the  Temurka  and  soi-disant 
Kungara  under  the  Dumungowi.  This  group  includes  several  sub- 
divisions, local  rather  than  lineal,  namely: 

Murginga,  or  Murkei,  the  Hagaranga 

Dumungowi 's  own  section  Suronga 

burna,  or  burnabatinga  mayringa1 

nuygonga  tebella2 
Mederinga 

Now  el  Tiinisi,  who  speaks  of  the  Dar  Abo  Dima  ("Dar  Aba- 
dyma")  as  the  Temurka  country  and  of  the  Abo  Dima  himself  as 
the  dignitary  "qui  a  le  Temourkeh  comme  apanage  attache  a  son 
rang3,"  describes  the  latter  as  living  in  a  less  mountainous  and  in- 
accessible country  and  as  being  more  civilized  than  the  rest  of  the 
Fur,  who  were  "une  population  a  peau  tres-noire,  ayant  les  yeux 
rouges  sur  la  sclerotique,  et  les  dents  naturellement  rougeatres... 
brutaux  et  coleres,  surtout  dans  l'etat  d'ivresse...d'une  grossierete 
et  d'une  brutalite  extraordinaires,"  but  he  is  either  making  a  com- 
parison with  the  Fur  of  Marra,  to  whom  the  words  quoted  admirably 
apply,  or  (more  probably)  he  refers  to  the  Kungara  element  which, 
as  personified  by  the  headman,  may  have  been  the  only  one  in  the 
Abo  Dima's  sphere  with  which  he  happened  to  have  been  brought  into 
contact.  The  name  Temurka4  at  present  is  used  to  designate  the  less 
civilized  element  in  the  far  south-west,  who  are  feared  on  account  of 
their  power  to  transmogrify  themselves  into  animals  and  to  come  to 
life  again  after  death,  and  is  almost  a  term  of  reproach.  Of  their 
customs  more  will  be  said  later.    Dar  Abo  Dima  extends,  roughly 

est-il  tu6  a  la  guerre,  le  Kamneh,  s'il  lui  survit  et  s'il  revient,  est  mis  a  mort;  on 
l'etrangle  en  secret.  Son  successeur  est  elu  par  le  sultan  nouveau.  Si  le  sultan 
meurt  dans  son  lit,  on  laisse  survivre  le  Kamneh.  Les  pays  du  Darfour  oil  on  ne 
parle  pas  arabe  appellent  encore  le  Kamneh,  aba-fory,  le  pere  du  Darfour  "—[This 
is  not  quite  accurate:  "Abo"  is  a  courtesy  title] — "...II  a...presque  la  meme  liberte 
de  conduite  et  d'action  que  le  Sultan..."  (p.  172). 

When  'Ali  Dinar  was  killed  in  1916  the  "Fur6"  of  the  day,  one  Sayfo,  a  Fur, 
survived  (having  deserted  a  week  or  two  before)  and  so  incurred  great  odium 
among  the  Fur.  I  heard  him  spoken  of  not  only  as  the  "neck"  but  "  the  half  of 
the  Sultan,"  i.e.  I  suppose,  his  "second  self."  El  Tunisi's  account  was  more  or 
less  borne  out  except  that  I  understood  that  however  the  Sultan  died  the  "  Fure" 
must  die  also  and  that  for  a  new  Sultan  there  must  necessarily  be  a  new  "Fure," 
but  of  the  same  family. 

1  Called  after  a  local  grass  named  "mayri." 

2  The  word  means  "pigeons"  in  Fur.  It  is  used  both  of  the  district  and  its 
inhabitants. 

3  Voy.  au  Darfour,  pp.  136,  141,  146,  148. 

4  In  Furian  dialect  "Tumurdongo." 


I.  4.  xx.         THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR 


97 


speaking,  as  far  north  as  the  wadi  'Azum,  which  rises  in  Gebel  Marra 
and  flows  west  to  Gebel  Murni  on  the  Masalit  border  and  thence 
south-westwards  until  it  becomes  the  Bahr  el  Salamat. 

North  of  the  Agum  lies  Dar  Kerne1,  subject  to  a  Fur  functionary 
called  the  Niamaton.  To  the  north  and  north-west  again  of  Dar  Kerne 
are  the  districts  of  Fi'a2  and  Madi3.  According  to  the  Niamaton  himself 
all  his  subjects  with  few  exceptions  are  Runga  and  other  kinds  of 
Fertit  settled  in  their  present  positions  by  past  Sultans  of  Darfur  as 
serfs.  He  even  speaks  of  his  chief  Shartais  as  Fertit.  Needless  to  say, 
he  claims  Arab  blood  for  himself,  though  calling  himself  a  Fur  and 
being  a  slave  to  all  the  local  superstitions  and  customs.  Of  tribal 
divisions  he  has  practically  no  conception  and  distinguishes  group 
from  group  on  purely  local  lines.  The  Temurka  of  Dar  Abo  Di'ma 
he  regards  as  half  Fur  and  half  Fertit,  the  Shartais  chiefly  the  former 
and  the  common  villagers  the  latter.  The  particular  type  of  Fertit 
commonest  in  Dar  Abo  Di'ma,  according  to  the  Niamaton,  are  the 
Foroke,  the  people,  that  is,  whom  the  Dagu  say  they  found  west 
of  Dara  on  their  first  arrival  and  ejected.  The  Tebella,  he  says,  are 
properly  Binga,  and  as  it  is  certainly  true  that  the  Tebella  are 
popularly  regarded  as  differing  in  some  way  from  the  rest  of  the 
Dumungowi's  subjects,  this  explanation  may  have  some  truth  in  it. 
In  fact,  if  the  Niamaton  is  in  any  way  to  be  trusted  all  Gebel  Marra 
and  western  Darfur  was  at  one  time  the  home  of  Fertit  tribes,  and 
they  were  only  partially  dispossessed  by  the  Dagu,  Tungur  and 
Arabs4.  How  they  came  to  be  called  Fur  and  why  they  speak  one 
single  language,  which  is  not  that  of  any  of  the  Fertit  tribes  I  have 
met,  both  in  Marra  and  the  east  and  the  west,  the  north  and  the 
south,  he  fails  to  explain,  and  one  hardly  sees  any  explanation  but 
that  the  Fur  were  a  distinct  race  at  some  early  period  however  much 
they  may  have  subsequently  amalgamated  with  the  Fertit5. 

Fia  district,  under  the  old  Sultans,  included  what  is  now  the 
northern  part  of  Dar  Masalit,  and  Dar  Erenga  which,  though  generally 

1  Kerne"  in  Fur  means  [the]  trousers  [of  the  Sultan] . 

2  Fia  means  a  hare. 

3  Madi  means  one  who  walks  in  front  [of  the  Sultan's  horse]. 

4  Speaking  of  the  Fur  outside  Dar  Abo  Dima  and  Kerne  the  Niamaton  affirmed 
the  people  of  Nurgnia  (western  slopes  of  Marra)  were  Banda,  those  under  Shartai 
'Ali  (eastern  slopes  of  Marra)  were  Binga,  those  of  the  Umungowi  (east  of  Marra 
and  in  it)  were  Makraka  (a  tribe  closely  affiliated  to  the  Azande)  from  Bahr  el 
Gebel,  and  even  the  Karakirit  of  Gebel  Si  were  "  Fertft"  also. 

5  Lepsius  {Discoveries...,  p.  260)  says  the  Kungara  language  is  quite  different 
from  Nubian  (i.e.  Barabra)  and  seems  to  have  strong  affinities  with  some  South 
African  languages.  The  Fur,  whether  Kungara  or  not,  all  speak  the  same  language 
at  present.  A  table  comparing  it  with  the  Fertit  dialects  is  added  in  Appendix  2 
to  this  chapter. 

M.S.I.  7 


98  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR        i.  4.  xx. 

included  in  Masalit,  is  really  a  separate  district  between  the  latter 
and  Dar  Kimr.  Numerous  Erenga  and  Masalit  now  live  among 
the  Fur  outside  their  own  ddrs. 

The  Fur  of  Fia  divide  themselves  into  Mogunga  (called  after 
Gebel  Mogu),  Andunga  (" anda"  in  Fur  means  a  scout),  Madringa, 
Abtunga  (called  after  Gebel  Abtu),  Elganga  (called  after  the  tonsils : 
it  is  said  the  Fia  people  were  once  expert  at  cutting  them  out  of 
children's  throats),  Mailunga  (called  after  Gebel  Mailo)  and  IsA- 
khung  (called  after  an  ancestor  'Isakha,  the  Darfur  form  of  'Ishak1). 
The  Shartdi  of  Fia,  like  the  Niamaton,  has  no  idea  of  tribal  sub- 
divisions as  distinct  from  local  groups  of  mixed  origin. 

On  the  eastern  side  of  Gebel  Marra  lives  the  Umungowi.  This 
name  is  formed  from  Abo  Uma  (the  Sultan's  "left  hand"),  as 
"  Dumungozvi"  is  from  Abo  Dima2,  and  his  people  may  be  referred 
to  as  Umunga.  His  country  seems  once  to  have  theoretically  in- 
cluded, as  the  old  maps  shew,  the  territories  of  the  Rizaykat  and 
other  Bakkara,  the  Bayko,  Birked  and  DAgu,  but  he  is  now  re- 
stricted to  a  very  limited  area  in  the  hills. 

As  would  be  expected  the  Umungowi  claims  that  he  and  the 
majority  of  his  people  are  KungAra,  and  they  do,  no  doubt,  contain 
a  Kungara  element,  especially  in  the  case  of  the  ruling  clan,  the 
Mayringa,  whom  we  have  already  met  in  the  Dumungowi's  country 
to  the  west. 

He  divides  his  people  into  nine  "wurrdri"  (a  word  used  among 
all  the  Fur  to  denote  their  various  groups),  namely: 

Mayringa  Turug 

Kungara  Miri 

Z6mi  Suni4 

SOmbi3  Wanna,  including  (a)  Nuygonga5 

Dullo  (b)  Turn 

All  the  above  are  subject  to  the  Mayringa.  As  regards  their  ante- 
cedents he  is  vague,  but  the  Dullo,  the  Suni  and  the  Wanna  (or 
Wannanga)  he  classes  as  "  Gebbala"  or  Hillmen,  and  for  the  Wanna 
he  admits  a  slave  origin6. 

1  There  is  also  a  Gebel  'Isakha  in  Fia,  but  it  is  denied  that  the  Isakhung  are 
named  after  it. 

2  His  territories  were  bounded  to  the  north  by  Dar  Dali,  or  Abo  Dali  (the 
Sultan's  "trunk"),  which  was  subject  to  the  Abo  Sheikh  and  extended  to  the 
eastern  frontier. 

3  The  word  means  a  spear. 

4  The  word  denotes  a  small  dark  species  of  dove  common  in  Darfur  and 
Kordofan. 

5  Cp.  the  Dumungowi's  list. 

6  A  certain  Gayta  ibn  Salab,  he  says,  was  their  ancestor.  Gayta  was  "a  slave 
of  Pharaoh  of  Egypt." 


I.  4.  xx.         THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR 


99 


The  names  of  all  three  groups  are  merely  those  of  local  hills. 
The  Mi'ri,  he  says,  are  properly  Dagu  who  have  coalesced  with  the 
Fur.  Of  the  Turug  mention  has  already  been  made  when  speaking 
of  the  "Slave  Tribes"  of  Darfur.  The  Zomi  are  said  to  differ  from 
the  rest  by  race,  but  the  Umungowi  could  not  say  in  what  way1. 
He  classes  them  and  all  the  rest,  however,  except  the  Wanna,  as 
Fur.  For  himself  and  all  the  Mayringa  he  claims  an  ancestor  Mayri, 
but  he  admits  mayri  to  be  only  a  kind  of  grass. 

The  Niamaton,  we  have  seen,  classes  the  Umungowi's  subjects 
as  Makraka  from  the  Bahr  el  Gebel. 

In  the  hills  of  Si,  the  northernmost  part  of  the  range  of  which 
Gebel  Marra  is  the  southern  and  main  portion,  the  population, 
though  Fur  and  speaking  precisely  the  same  language  as  the  rest  of 
the  Fur,  is  differentiated  by  the  name  of  Karakirit  (or  Korakirit, 
or  Korokoa)2.  They  are  subdivided  into  Karanga,  who  admit  being 
by  origin  Kara  from  the  south  (i.e.  Fertit),  Dugunga,  Urtunga3, 
Sayrfinga4  and  Kayra.  In  civilization,  or  the  lack  of  it,  they  are  on 
a  par  with  the  Fur  of  Marra,  and  they  appear  to  be  racially  identical 
with  them. 

The  story  that  Shau  Dorshid,  "the  last  of  the  Tungur  Sultans," 
ruled  from  Si  has  already  been  discussed. 

The  Fur  living  in  the  plains  east  of  the  mountains  of  Marra, 
and  even  in  the  outlying  hills,  nearly  all  claim  to  be  Kungara  and 
in  some  cases  Kayra.  In  Dobo  and  Kullu  districts,  for  instance, 
round  Murtafal  and  west  of  Tina  there  is  a  strong  ruling  Kayra5 
element,  and,  mixed  with  it,  some  Temurka6,  some  "Gebbala," 
some  Masalit,  and,  curiously  enough,  some  very  debased  Kababish 
called  Lebabis7. 

Of  the  soi-disant  Kungara  in  eastern  Darfur  who  live  at  some 
distance  from  the  Marra  range  perhaps  the  most  important  are  the 

1  The  name  " Zomi"  is  said  to  apply  to  one  who  keeps  very  silent  and  unobtru- 
sive. 

2  There  seems  to  be  no  singular  form,  though  one  man  suggested  "  Korodongo," 
and  another  "  Kerkerwai."  The  latter  added  that  the  name  Karakirit  was  onomato- 
poeic and  formed  from  the  noise  "koro,  koro,  koro"  made  by  the  hillmen  scratching 
about  in  the  stones  on  the  hillside  when  preparing  the  ground  for  cultivation. 

3  The  name  means  "melon  ('batikh')  folk." 

4  Derived  from  "serrayf,"  the  diminutive  of  "serraf,"  meaning  a  permanent 
sub-surface  flow  of  water  such  as  one  finds  in  the  beds  of  the  larger  "wadis"  in 
western  Darfur. 

5  Among  their  subdivisions  are  Gurji  and  Tomari. 

6  Subdivision  Murtal. 

7  The  Lababis  (sing.  Labasi)  claim  to  be  descended  from  a  Kabbashi  called 
'Om.  'Cm  seems  to  be  a  perversion  of  'On,  for  among  the  Kababish  Awlad  'On 
in  Kordofan  is  a  section  called  Lababis.  The  Awlad  'On  are  probably  of  Shaikia 
origin  (see  Part  III,  Chap,  i  (g)). 

7—2 


ioo  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR        i.4.xx. 

Kunyanga.  These  belong  properly  to  the  great  northern  district  of 
the  Tekenyawi,  now  inhabited  by  Zaghawa,  Tungur,  Arabs,  etc., 
but  they  have  also  colonies  farther  south,  especially  round  Beringil 
and  Dara.  Their  claim  to  be  Kungara  is  probably  a  good  one  since 
the  head  of  their  group  held  the  hereditary  rank  of  "  Melik  el  Nahds" 
("  King  of  the  War  Drums  "). 

XXI    Something  may  now  be  said  of  the  habits  and  customs  of  the 
Fur. 

In  the  first  place,  they  are  all  now  nominally  Muhammadans,  but 
so  they  were  in  el  Tunisi's  day,  a  century  ago1.  Previous  to  their 
conversion  "by  Sulayman  Solong"  they  are  popularly  supposed  to 
have  worshipped  "stones  or  trees,"  and  there  is,  so  far  as  I  have 
seen,  always  either  a  stone  or  a  tree  intimately  associated  with  the 
malignant  local  genii  whom  it  is  still  considered  advisable  to  placate. 
Certain  spots  are  "sacred "  to  these  genii,  and  are  known  as  " mahaldt 
'azvdid"  ("places  of  customs,  or  rites")  in  Arabic,  or  " ddingallo"  in 
Fur.  For  instance,  when  I  was  touring  in  western  Darfur  (Kerne 
district)  in  1916,  accompanied  by  the  Niamaton,  it  twice  happened 
that  our  road  passed  by  one  of  these  spots  and  nothing  would  induce 
the  Niamaton,  in  spite  of  his  "Arab  ancestry"  and  his  contempt  for 
his  Fur  subjects,  to  remain  with  me.  He  insisted  in  each  case  in 
making  a  detour  of  some  miles  to  avoid  the  "holy"  spot.  The  other 
Fur  who  were  with  me  were  unaffected  because  the  observance  of 
the  custom  applied  only  to  the  headman  of  the  district  and  to  no 
one  else.  Had  the  Niamaton  been  able  to  sacrifice  a  sheep  on  the 
spot  all  would  have  been  well  and  he  might  have  passed  it  in  safety, 
and  he  would  normally  have  sent  word  on  ahead  to  the  nearest 
village  to  meet  him  there  with  the  animal  for  slaughter;  but  the 
exigencies  of  travel  had  rendered  this  impossible  and  it  therefore 
only  remained  for  him  to  avoid  the  place.  He  firmly  believed  that 
the  alternative  was  sudden  death  for  himself  within  a  few  months. 

The  explanation  he  and  his  friends  gave  as  follows.  At  one  site, 
called  Sergitti2,  is  a  stone  under  which  lives  a  devil  (shaitdn  or 
gin).  The  headman  of  Kerne  district  must  never  pass  by  this 
stone  without  offering  a  sacrifice  to  the  devil,  but  the  prohibition 
applies  to  no  one  else  whether  he  be  the  Sultan  of  Darfur  or  a  village 
sheikh.  The  site  marks  no  boundary  and  it  makes  no  difference 

1  Voy.  au  Darfour,  p.  145. 

2  In  Gebel  Kongyo,  a  mile  west  of  Gulli,  at  the  foot  of  a  steep  incline,  in 
the  bend  of  a  small  khor,  where  the  track  crosses  it  and  where  the  villagers  draw 
their  water  (at  the  depth  of  a  few  feet)  throughout  the  year.  The  "stone"  referred 
to  was  an  ordinary  boulder  undistinguished  in  any  way  from  any  other  boulder 
near  it.  Cp.  p.  122  for  another  similar  case. 


1. 4.  xxi.       THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  ioi 

from  which  side  it  is  approached.  The  local  devil  has  the  form  of  a 
short  fat  white  snake  about  two  feet  long  with  a  large  black  woolly 
head  the  size  of  a  man's  fist  and  enormous  eyes.  An  old  woman 
living  at  Gulli,  near  by,  used  to  be  the  familiar  of  this  monster. 
Her  position  was  hereditary,  but  she  died  leaving  no  descendants 
and  her  functions  are  therefore  in  abeyance. 

The  Niamaton  on  reaching  the  stone  would  slaughter  a  sheep1 
in  such  a  way  that  its  blood  would  gush  over  the  stone  and  would 
drag  the  carcase  across  the  path  which  he  was  to  take.  The  old  woman 
would  remain  behind  after  he  had  passed  to  make  up  cakes  of  blood 
and  flour  and  cut  the  meat  into  strips  and  arrange  these  morsels  on 
or  by  the  stone  for  the  snake.  She  would  at  the  same  time  hold  con- 
verse with  the  snake  and  intercede  with  it  for  the  Niamaton's 
immunity  from  all  harm,  and  the  snake  would  appear  to  her  and  talk 
to  her  and  grant  her  request.  She  would  address  it  as  "ya  waladi" 
("my  child")  and  pet  it  and  place  it  in  the  shade. 

In  the  summer  offerings  are  made  to  this  same  snake  to  ensure 
good  rains  for  the  crops.  The  local  sheikh  and  elders  perform  this 
ceremony  in  lack  of  the  old  woman  familiar,  but,  of  course,  the  snake 
would  not  appear  to  them  or  hold  any  communication  with  them. 

In  another  case,  in  Kerne  district,  it  was  an  old  hardz  tree  by 
the  edge  of  a  khor  running  through  a  gap  in  some  low  hills,  and  not 
a  stone,  under  which  the  local  snake  lay  hid.  I  also  heard  of  other 
similar  sites  in  western  Darfur  and  at  Dobo  on  the  eastern  side  of 
Marra,  but  I  did  not  visit  them. 

Sacrificial  offerings  of  a  rather  different  nature  are  common  among 
the  Fur,  and  especially  at  Gebel  Si,  the  Karakirit  district.  These 
are  made  by  persons  about  to  start  on  a  journey  or  any  perilous 
venture  and  are  designed  to  placate  the  local  demons.  The  inter- 
mediaries in  all  such  cases  are  the  old  women  of  the  village. 

The  belief  in  the  "sacred"  snake  is  not  confined  to  Darfur. 
Professor  Seligman  and  I  found  traces  of  it  in  northern  Kordofan 
some  years  ago  at  Kaga,  where  the  local  "Nuba"  believed  a  great 
snake  to  live  in  the  hill  called  Abu  'Ali  and  had  once  been  accustomed 
to  send  their  women  to  placate  it2,  and  the  Abyssinian  Gregorius  in 
the  seventeenth  century  told  Job  Ludolfus,  the  Treasurer  to  the 
Elector  Palatine,  that  it  was  an  old  belief  in  Abyssinia  that  the  ancient 
"Ethiopians  worship'd  for  their  god  a  huge  serpent,  in  that  language 
call'd  Arwe-midre3."    The  same  cult  exists  in  southern  Kordofan 

1  As  a  rule,  the  sheep  must  be  "akhdar"  in  colour,  but  I  am  not  sure  if  this 
is  universal. 

2  For  details  re  this  and  re  the  cult  at  Kaga  see  Seligman,  Art.  "Nuba"  in 
Hastings's  Encyclopaedia.  3  Ludolfus,  Bk.  II,  Ch.  i,  and  Bk.  HI,  Ch.  VI. 


102  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR       1. 4.  xxi. 

among  the  Nuba,  e.g.  at  Gebels  Tekeim  and  Tira  el  Akhdar,  at  the 
present  day1. 

A  less  unattractive  type  of  sprite  in  Darfur  is  the  damzoga 
(pi.  damdzig).  These  are  mischievous,  and,  in  particular,  delight 
to  curdle  fresh  milk  and  break  household  utensils,  but  they  may  also 
be  conciliated  and  will  then  act  as  guardians  of  the  home  and  prevent 
any  pilfering  or  suchlike.  El  Tunisi  gives  a  long  and  substantially 
reliable  account  of  these  damzogas.  He  heard  of  them  rather  in 
the  role  of  guardian  genii,  to  whom  flocks  and  household  gear  were 
entrusted  for  protection.  He  also  relates  of  them  how  he  was  terrified 
at  Gebel  Marra,  on  calling  at  a  man's  house,  by  hearing  a  loud  cry 
of  " akibe"  meaning  "he  is  not  here,"  and  was  told: 

"C'est  le  genie  gardien  de  la  hutte.  Ici,  presque  chacun  de  nous  a  le 
sien;  et  nous  les  appelons  en  forien  damzog2."  He  was  told  later  in  Fasher 
that  damzogs  could  be  bought.  "J'entendis  souvent  raconter,"  said  his 
informant,  "que  les  Damzog  s'achetaient  et  se  vendaient;  que,  pour  s'en 
procurer,  il  faut  aller  trouver  quelque  proprietaire  de  Damzog,  et  lui  en 
acheter  un  au  prix  demande.  Une  fois  le  marche  conclu,  on  revient  avec 
un  cara3  de  lait  et  on  le  donne  au  vendeur,  qui  le  prend  et  le  porte  dans  le 
lieu  de  sa  demeure  ou  sont  ses  Damzog.  En  entrant,  il  les  salue,  et  va 
suspendre  le  cara  a  un  crochet  fixe  au  mur.  Ensuite  il  dit  a  ses  Damzog: 
'Un  de  mes  amis,  un  tel,  tres-riche,  craint  les  voleurs,  et  me  demande 
que  je  lui  fournisse  un  gardien.  Quelqu'un  de  vous  voudrait-il  aller  chez 
lui  ?  II  y  a  abondance  de  lait ;  c'est  une  maison  de  benediction ;  et  la  preuve 
c'est  qu'il  vous  apporte  ce  cara  de  lait.' "... 

The  damzogas  were  at  first  unwilling,  but  at  the  final  appeal : 

"Oh!  que  celui  de  vous  qui  veut  bien  aller  chez  lui  descende  dans  ie 
cara ! "  One  of  them  apparently  relented.  "  L'homme  s'eloigne  un  peu,  et 
aussitot  qu'il  entend  le  bruit  de  la  chute  du  Damzog  dans  le  lait,  il  accourt 
et  pose  vite  sur  le  vase  ou  cara  un  couvercle  tissu  de  folioles  de  dattier. 
II  le  decroche  ainsi  couvert,  et  le  remet  a  l'acheteur,  qui  l'emporte  chez 
lui.  Celui-ci  le  suspend  a  un  mur  de  sa  hutte,  et  en  confie  le  soin  a  une 
esclave,  ou  a  une  femme,  qui,  chaque  matin,  vient  le  prendre,  en  vide  le 
lait,  le  lave  parfaitement,  le  remplit  de  nouveau  lait  fraichement  trait,  et 
le  suspend  a  la  meme  place.  Des  lors  on  est  en  securite  contre  tout  vol 
et  toute  perte4." 

El  Tunisi's  comment  on  this  story  is  "Pour  moi,  je  traitais  tout 
cela  de  folie,"  but  it  is  none  the  less  interesting  and  it  seems  to  pro- 
vide additional  evidence  of  the  "sacred"  attributes  of  milk  to  which 
further  reference  will  be  made  in  the  note  at  the  end  of  this  chapter. 

1  For  details  re  this  and  re  the  cult  at  Kaga  see  Seligman,  Art.  "Nuba"  in 
Hastings's  Encyclopaedia.  Cp.  Roscoe,  Baganda,  pp.  320  and  321. 

2  El  Tunisi,  loc.  cit.  pp.  149,  150.  3  I.e.  a  gourd. 

4  El  Tunisi,  loc.  cit.  pp.  150,  151.  El  Tunisi  relates  a  further  story  about  a 
damzog  in  the  same  strain. 


1. 4.  xxi.        THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  103 

El  Tunisi  also  relates  how,  according  to  popular  belief,  the  Fur 
of  the  Temurka  division  and  the  Masalit  had  the  power  to  trans- 
mogrify themselves  into  animals,  the  former  into  lions  and  the  latter 
into  hyaenas,  cats  and  dogs.  The  Temurka,  too,  were  said  to  come 
to  life  again  three  days  after  death  and  leave  their  tombs  and  go  to 
other  countries  and  there  marry  and  live  a  second  life.  The  Sultan 
had  a  band  of  these  magicians  under  his  orders  and  used  them  as 
envoys:  they  were  under  a  "king"  who  was  called  " Kartab."  The 
chief  of  the  Temurka  himself  warned  el  Tunisi  against  attacking  any 
lions  in  their  country  "car  tous  ceux  que  vous  verrez  dans  ces  con- 
trees  sont  de  nos  compagnons  et  amis  metamorphoses1." 

Popular  belief,  however,  throughout  Darfur  still  attributes  to  all 
the  Fur  a  power  of  metamorphosis,  and  the  word  nabdti  there  is 
a  common  expression  of  abuse  implying  that  the  person  to  whom  it 
is  addressed  is  in  his  second  existence,  that  he  had  died,  that  is,  and 
instead  of  dwelling  in  Paradise,  has  come  back  to  lead  a  second 
existence  upon  earth2. 

Of  the  political  system  in  vogue  in  Darfur  under  the  Sultanate, 
and  the  various  ranks  and  privileges  enjoyed  at  the  court,  el  Tunisi 
gives  a  full  and  generally  trustworthy  account,  which  need  not  be 
retailed  here.  He  saw  little,  however,  of  the  out-districts  and  does 
not  describe  their  internal  economy.  Their  organization  at  present 

1  These  "lion "-Fur  (Ar.  "usudda,"  or  Fur  "murunga,"  sing.  "muru"  =  a  lion) 
are  known  at  present  as  "ahl  el  'awaid"  ("the  folk  of  the  customs"),  a  respectful 
euphemism,  and  in  the  Temurka  country,  south-western  Dar  Abo  Dima,  that  is, 
they  collect  each  year  varying  sums  from  the  villagers,  paid  in  consideration  of 
the  members  of  the  guild,  if  it  may  be  called  so,  engaging  not  to  ravage  their  herds 
in  the  form  of  lions.  The  Fur  themselves  do  not  admit  that  any  of  their  number 
ever  change  into  animals  other  than  lions,  and  even  the  power  to  become  lions  is 
confined  to  particular  families  among  the  Temurka. 

The  only  people  in  Darfur  (excluding  Masalft)  who  are  believed  at  the  present 
day  to  change  into  hyaenas  are  the  Awlad  Mana,  who  are  debased  Gawama'a 
living  among  the  Fur. 

2  In  this  connection  the  remarks  of  Dr  Felkin  are  worthy  of  notice  (Notes  on 
the  For  Tribe,  1884-1885),  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  he  is  speaking  of  the 
district  round  Dara  only  and  that  many  of  the  inhabitants  thereabouts  are  Dagu 
and  Birked  as  well  as  Fur.  He  says :  " '  Kilma'  is  what  seems  to  correspond  to  our 
idea  of  'soul.'  It  is  called  'the  power  of  the  liver,'  for  believing  that  the  liver  is 
the  seat  of  the  soul  it  is  considered  that  an  increase  of  a  man's  soul  may  be  obtained 
by  partaking  of  an  animal's  liver."  When  an  animal  is  killed,  he  says,  the  Fur  eat 
the  liver  raw  but  avoid  touching  it  with  the  hands  as  it  is  sacred.  "Women  are  not 
allowed  to  eat  liver,  and  are  believed  not  to  possess  a  '  Kilma. '...When  a  man  dies 
his  '  Kilma '  is  supposed  to  go  to  Accra  and  there  he  is  told  whether  he  has  been 
good  enough  to  go  to  Molu.  Molu  is  the  ancient  native  name  for  God."  Felkin 
adds  that  Molu  lives  in  Jouel  (the  sky),  that "  Uddu"  similarly  corresponds  to  Hell, 
and  that  women  have  no  life  after  this  one.  The  ghosts  of  departed  spirits,  he  says, 
are  called  "malal." 

As  regards  the  beliefs  concerning  the  liver  there  is  evidence  in  support  to  be 
found  in  el  Tunisi's  book,  where  there  is  a  description  of  the  ritual  eating  of  liver 
at  the  inauguration  of  a  Sultan. 


104  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR       i.  4.  xxi. 

— and  there  is  no  evidence  of  recent  change  in  this  respect — is 
simple.  At  the  head  of  the  affairs  of  each  district  is  a  Shartdi  {pi. 
Shardti)1,  corresponding  roughly  to  the  'omda  of  the  rest  of  the 
Sudan.  An  important  Shartdi  has  under  him  several  lesser  Shardti, 
each  of  whom  controls  a  particular  group  of  villages2,  and  all  alike 
are  purely  secular  officials  of  the  same  tribe  or  sub-tribe  as  the  people 
to  whom  their  district  belongs. 

Each  Shartdi  has  also  under  him  a  varying  number  of  damdlig 
{sing,  dimlig)  or  tribal  elders3. 

A  Kursi  is  a  kind  of  president  of  the  council  of  damdlig. 

In  dividing  tribal  dues  (in  Gebel  Si)  the  Shartdi  takes  two 
shares  (one  for  himself  and  one  for  the  Sultan),  while  the  Kursi 
takes  one  share,  which  again  is  subdivided  in  similar  proportions, 
the  Kursi  getting  two-thirds  of  it  and  the  rest  of  the  dimligs  one- 
third.  The  functions  of  the  Kursi  are  executive,  viz.  to  carry 
out  the  behests  of  the  Shartdi,  collect  taxes,  etc.  His  position  is 
customarily  hereditary,  passing  to  the  brother  or  son,  but  in  cases 
of  personal  unsuitability  some  other  dimlig  is  chosen.  Below  the 
above  in  rank  are  the  village  sheikhs,  commonly  called  muluk  {sing, 
melik)*. 

There  is  also,  however,  an  interesting  and  somewhat  shadowy 
figure  still  to  be  accounted  for — the  Urundulu.  In  the  Fur  country 
proper  every  Shartdi  has  his  Urundulu,  and  the  Sultan  at  el 
Fasher  always  used  to  have  one  also.  As  to  what  exactly  were  his 
functions  there  is  some  difference  of  opinion.  In  Dar  Abu  Dima  and 
Kerne  his  functions  appeared  to  approximate  to  those  of  a  Kadi  and 
to  have  been  primarily  religious.  If  there  is  a  criminal  or  civil  case 
to  be  decided  and  the  facts  are  not  in  dispute,  the  judgment  is  simply 
given  by  the  Shartdi.  But  if  proofs  are  needed  or  witnesses  are 
called  the  matter  goes  before  the  Urundulu  who  reports  his  finding 
to  the  Shartdi  to  enable  the  latter  to  give  judgment  or  sentence.  If 
a  fine  is  imposed  it  is  shared  between  the  two. 

1  The  word  is  regarded  as  of  Arabic  derivation  though  whether  this  is  really 
so  seems  doubtful.  The  proper  Fur  term  for  a  Shartai  is  "Kfso,"  or  "Kisong" 
{pi.  "Kisong-ong"). 

2  A  head-Shartai  is  called  "  Kisong-ong  Kirri"  (Chief  of  the  Shartais). 

3  El  Tunisi,  p.  176:  "Les  simples  gouverneurs  secondaires  de  districts  ou  de 
communes  sont  appeles  '  chartay '  (au  pluriel '  cheraty ')•  Les  inspecteurs  des  tribus 
portent  le  nom  de  '  damalidj '  (singulier  de  '  doumloudj ')  qu'ils  prononcent  '  doum- 
ledj."'  As  el  Tunisi's  editor  notes,  the  term  "dimlig"  is  of  Arabic  derivation  and 
means  "  a  sort  of  bracelet  worn  above  the  elbow."  The  proper  Fur  term  for  "  damd- 
lig "  is  "kilmo,"  and  a  single  "dimlig"  is  usually  called  by  them  "dilmong" 
when  they  talk  in  Fur.    Cp.  note  to  p.  74  above. 

4  "Melik"  is,  of  course,  a  purely  Arabic  term  meaning  "king."  The  proper 
Fur  term  for  a  "melik"  is  "sagal"  {pi.  "sagla"). 


1. 4.  xxi.       THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  105 

At  Gebel  Si,  on  the  other  hand,  I  could  find  no  hint  of  any 
religious  functions  pertaining  to  the  Urundulu  and  he  was  spoken  of 
as  simply  a  vizier  to  the  Shartdi. 

As  regards  the  Sultan's  Urundidu,  or  the  "  Urundulu  of  el 
Fasher,"  the  term  is  said  by  el  Tunisi  to  denote  "the  head  of  the 
Sultan,"  and  the  Urundulu  was 

un  haut  et  puissant  dignitaire,  qui  possede,  comme  prerogatives,  plusieurs 
grands  domains.... On  porte  devant  lui  un  tapis,  comme  devant  le  Sultan. 
Quand  celui-ci  va  a  la  chasse  ou  en  voyage,  la  fonction  de  l'orondolon  est 
de  marcher  avec  ses  soldats,  en  tete  des  troupes;  c'est  lui  qui  ouvre  la 
marche. 

But  the  interpretation  of  the  name  as  "  head  of  the  Sultan  "  is  contra- 
dicted by  what  the  people  of  Abu  Dima,  Si  and  Kerne  alike  state, 
namely,  that  the  term  means  "  the  threshold  of  the  door."  It  is,  they 
all  explained,  through  the  Urundulu  that  anyone  desirous  of  approach- 
ing the  Sultan  or  Shartdi  must  prefer  his  request1. 

When  Darfur  was  reoccupied  in  19 16  there  was  still  a  nominal 
Urundulu  at  el  Fasher,  but  his  privileges  and  powers  were  nil, 
and  the  Sultan  seemed  to  have  taken  no  notice  of  him  whatever  and 
merely  to  have  allowed  him  to  exist  as  a  sort  of  traditional  survival. 
Similarly,  but  to  a  much  slighter  extent,  in  the  out-districts  peopled 
by  Fur  there  has  evidently  been  some  change,  and  with  the  wider 
spread  of  Islamic  manners  the  fekis  have  increased  and  it  is  now 
usual  for  them  to  be  consulted  as  much  or  more  as  the  Urundulus, 
and  the  latter  have  lost  much  of  their  distinctive  character.  Local 
Kadis  have  also  arisen,  appointed  by  the  Sultans,  and  among  the 
non-FuR  tribes  perform  the  same  functions  as  the  Urundulus  among 
the  Fur,  but  with  the  aid  of  a  greater  smattering  of  Muhammadan 
law  than  the  latter  possess. 

In  Dar  Abu  Dima  if  a  man  die  a  natural  death  he  is  buried  free 
of  charge ;  but  if  he  is  killed  in  a  quarrel  or  murdered  a  sum  equiva- 
lent to  about  a  pound  or  so  has  to  be  paid  as  a  burial  fee  by  his 
relatives  to  the  Urundulu,  who  shares  it  with  the  Shartdi.  This  is 
called  "buying  a  grave,"  but  no  purchase  of  land  is  implied,  since 
the  money  would  have  to  be  paid  even  if  the  deceased  owned  the 
land  on  which  he  was  buried2.  The  fee,  which  is  entirely  distinct 

x_The  Fur  word  for  "a  door"  is  "wurre"  or  "urre."  The  word  for  a  "fiki" 
is  "ur."  The  same  word  ("ur")  also  means  "flour"  (made  by  grinding  grain  on  a 
"murhaka"). 

2  Some  feeling  was  caused  in  1916  when  during  the  disturbances  that  accom- 
panied the  reoccupation  some  Arabs  were  killed  by  the  Fur  and  the  latter  were 
not  only  averse  to  paying  "dia"  (blood-money)  but  crowned  their  impudence  by 
demanding  a  "burial  fee"  from  the  Arabs  before  they  would  consent  to  let  the 
Arabs  bury  their  dead. 


106  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR       1. 4.  xxi. 

from  blood-money  or  fines,  is,  nevertheless,  alleged  to  have  been 
originally  devised  as  a  deterrent  to  quarrelsomeness;  but  this 
explanation  is  unconvincing  and  the  fee  is  charged  irrespectively  of 
there  having  been  a  quarrel  at  all  (e.g.  if  a  man  is  murdered  in  his 
sleep)  and  whichever  party  may  have  been  to  blame.  If  an  Urun- 
diila  were  killed,  his  relatives,  it  was  held  by  the  Shartdis  of 
whom  I  enquired,  would  pay  the  fee  to  his  successor.  Blood-money 
is  paid  in  the  usual  manner  by  the  relatives  of  a  murderer  as  com- 
pensation to  the  relatives  of  the  murdered  man,  but  in  addition  a 
fine  of  six  head  of  cattle  has  to  be  produced  by  the  people  of  the 
district  (hdkord)  in  which  the  murderer  resides  and  given  to  the 
Shartdi  of  the  district  of  the  murdered  man.  This  is,  no  doubt, 
correctly  explained  as  a  measure  to  deter  evildoers  by  making  it  to 
the  interest  of  their  neighbours  to  prevent  them  from  offending. 

A  well-known  feature  of  savage  etiquette,  that  of  the  avoidance 
by  a  man  of  his  mother-in-law  and  by  a  woman  of  her  father-in-law 
maintains  in  Darfur,  as  in  Kordofan  among  the  Arab  nomads  and 
the  sedentary  population,  and  in  the  Gezira,  if  not  universally  in  the 
northern  Sudan.   El  Tunisi  says  of  this  subject1 : 

Lorsqu'un  individu  est  fiance  a  une  fille,  s'il  frequentait  precedemment 
le  pere  et  la  mere  de  sa  future,  et  si  celle-ci  frequentait  aussi  le  pere  et  la 
mere  du  pretendant,  les  relations  des  deux  families  sont  interrompues  du 
jour  raeme  de  la  demande  en  mariage;  ils  se  deviennent  tous  absolument 
etrangers.  Alors,  si  le  fiance  apercoit  de  loin  le  pere  ou  la  mere  de  sa 
future,  il  prend  un  autre  chemin  que  celui  ou  il  les  voit :  le  pere  et  la  mere 
en  font  de  meme  a  son  egard.  La  fille  evite  egalement  la  rencontre  du 
pere  et  de  la  mere  de  son  futur  epoux....Il  est  de  regie,  ainsi  que  nous 
1'avons  dit,  que  lorsqu'un  individu  est  amoureux  d'une  jeune  fille,  et  que 
la  mere  de  celle-ci  a  consenti  a  l'accepter  pour  gendre,  il  ait  soin  d'eviter 
la  rencontre  de  sa  future  belle-mere,  qui,  a  son  tour,  doit  aussi  eviter  de 
se  trouver  face  a  face  avec  son  futur  gendre.  Si  done  elle  le  voit  venir 
de  son  cote,  et  qu'etant  trop  pres  de  lui  elle  ne  puisse  pas  ou  ne  veuille 
pas  s'eloigner  assez  vite,  elle  s'accroupit  a  terre,  ramene  un  pan  de  ses 
vetements  sur  sa  tete,  se  voile  la  figure,  et  reste  ainsi  cachee  jusqu'a  ce 
que  l'amant  de  sa  fille  soit  passe. 

The  above  is  still  correct.  In  particular,  it  is  taboo  for  a  man  to 
eat  Avith  his  mother-in-law,  or  a  woman  with  her  father-in-law.  If 
the  parties  were  forced  by  circumstances  to  speak  with  one  another 
they  would  do  so  briefly  and  rapidly  with  bent  heads. 

There  seems  to  be  also  some  reluctance  on  the  part  of  a  man  to 
speaking  or  eating  with  his  father-in-law,  but  it  is  very  slight  and  not 
universal.  He  would  even  have  qualms  about  speaking  to  the  brothers 

1   Voy.  au  Darfour,  pp.  219,  236. 


1. 4.  xxi.        THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFIJR  107 

and  sisters  of  his  wife's  mother,  though  none  to  fraternizing  with 
those  of  his  wife. 

The  wife  would  have  a  distinct  reluctance  to  conversing  with  her 
mother-in-law  or  with  the  brothers  and  sisters  of  her  husband's 
father.  This  superstition  is  common  both  to  the  Arab  and  the  non- 
Arab  population,  though  its  observance  is  often  slack.  The  only 
explanation  I  have  heard  vouchsafed  is  that  of  "the  respect  due  to 
the  parents  of  one's  spouse."  A  father  and  a  paternal  uncle  is  almost 
the  same  thing  among  the  non-Arab  tribes  and  the  latter  is  spoken 
of  as  a  "lesser  father1." 

It  is  often  in  connection  with  this  curious  belief  that  one  sees  by 
the  roadside,  generally  by  a  rough  stony  track  leading  to  a  well,  a 
little  cairn,  or  several  cairns,  made  chiefly  of  stones,  but  with  pieces 
of  cow-dung  and  sticks  added.  These  are  called  "  Um  Ball"  in 
northern  Darfur  and  denote  a  mishap  of  some  sort.  The  usual 
mishap  is  a  meeting  between  son-in-law  and  mother-in-law,  one 
going  to  and  the  other  coming  from  the  wells.  The  former,  in  this 
case,  would  at  once  crouch  down  on  his  hams,  with  hands  on  the 
ground  before  him,  till  his  mother-in-law  had  passed,  and  then  make 
a  little  heap  of  stones  on  the  site.  Similarly,  a  cairn  is  begun  if  one 
trips  in  walking  or  breaks  wind  by  accident2,  and  subsequent  passers- 
by  occasionally  add  a  stone  to  the  heap  "for  luck."  The  idea  seems 
to  be  that  an  evil  spirit  must  haunt  the  spot  and  cause  the  mishap, 
and  the  stones  are  either  intended  to  "keep  him  under"  or,  as  the 
addition  of  cow-dung  and  sticks  suggest,  to  placate  him  by  a  small 
emblematical  (not  to  say  invidiously  perfunctory)  offering. 

Circumcision  of  males  was  universal  in  Darfur  in  el  Ttinisi's 
time:  the  circumcision  of  females,  either  partial  or  entire,  was  not 
uncommon,  but  the  Fur  proper  did  not  practise  it3. 

1  Among  the  Bisharfn  "A  man  may  not  speak  to,  or  come  in  contact  with,  his 
mother-in-law,  though  his  first  child  should,  if  possible,  be  born  in  her  house. 
After  two  or  three  children  have  been  born  he  gives  her  a  present  and  may  then 
speak  to  her.  A  man  may  speak  to  his  father-in-law,  but  will  never  eat  with  him, 
i.e.  out  of  the  same  dish  at  the  same  time"  (Prof.  Seligman,  "Note  on  Bisharin," 
Man,  June,  1915).  An  interesting  article  on  this  widespread  superstition,  common 
to  Africa,  America,  Australia  and  the  Oceanic  Isles,  though  not  to  Asia  or  Europe, 
was  published  by  Andrew  Lang  in  the  Morning  Post  of  March  8,  1912.  For  the 
custom  among  the  'Ababda  see  Belzoni  (Narrative...,  pp.  304-313),  and  for  the 
same  among  the  Rubatab  and  Kababfsh  see  Crowfoot,  Sudan  Notes  and R.,  Apr.  1918, 
p.  128,  and  Harvard  Afr.  Stud.  11,  126,  respectively.  Cp.  Roscoe,  Baganda,  p.  129. 

2  This  last  was  the  explanation  I  heard  given  at  Gebel  Katul  (N.  Kordofan) 
in  1910. 

3  Voy.  au  Darfour,  pp.  216,  217.  Cp.  Browne,  pp.  347  et  seq.:  he  adds,  con- 
cerning excision,  "  In  Dar-Fur  many  women,  particularly  among  the  Arabs  never 
undergo  excision.. .  .Thirteen  or  fourteen  young  females  underwent  i^j&ks*.  [excision] 
in  an  house  where  I  was." 


108  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR        i.4.xxi. 

A  custom  connected  with  circumcision  which  came  to  my  notice  on 
one  occasion  may  be  quoted  here.  The  incident  happened  at  a  village 
of  Kimr  near  Kebkebia,  but  it  was  said  to  be  common  to  all  Darfiir, 
Arabs  and  others.  When  a  boy  has  been  circumcised  his  parents  trick 
him  out  in  the  gayest  apparel  possible,  even  with  women's  trinkets 
and  a  man's  sword  in  the  particular  case  under  notice,  and  for  a  period 
of  fourteen  days  after  the  circumcision  the  boy  demands  from  any 
wealthy  visitor  to  the  village,  and  from  his  relatives,  a  customary 
gratuity  as  by  right.  He  is  also  for  a  period  of  forty  days  from  the 
circumcision  sent  to  visit  neighbouring  villages  and  it  is  incumbent 
upon  the  person  visited  to  sacrifice  a  fowl  in  his  honour.  The  fowl  may 
be  cock  or  hen,  and  no  animal  or  bird  but  a  fowl  is  acceptable. 

XXII  All  the  villages  of  the  Fur  that  I  have  seen  are  as  dirty  and 
badly  built  as  those  of  the  other  inhabitants  of  Darfiir.  The  present 
generation  when  living  at  any  distance  from  the  gebels  usually  build 
a  conical  tukl  of  straw  or  grass  with  a  rakuba  attached;  but  when 
there  is  a  supply  of  rocks  handy  they  often  place  a  layer  or  two  of 
them  at  the  base  of  the  sides  of  the  tukl  as  a  protection  against  white 
ants  and  prowling  beasts  of  prey,  and  superimpose  the  straw,  or  else 
make  all  the  wall  of  stone  and  only  the  roof  of  straw.  In  the  past 
the  population  must  have  been  quite  ten  times  what  it  is  now :  whole 
mountains  that  are  now  utterly  deserted  may  be  seen,  as  one  travels, 
to  be  " terrassed"  for  cultivation;  their  sides,  that  is,  are  banded 
horizontally  up  to  a  considerable  height  with  narrow  ridges  made 
by  so  arranging  the  stones  that  the  side  of  the  hill,  instead  of  being 
a  continuous  slope  is  a  series  of  short  steps.  On  these  banked-up 
steps,  which  would  hold  the  rain-water,  the  corn  was  planted,  and 
the  utilization  of  every  available  foot  of  ground  for  this  purpose 
testifies  to  the  previous  density  of  the  population. 

Similarly,  remains  of  old  stone  villages  litter  the  whole  country- 
side in  the  vicinity  of  Gebel  Marra  and  its  countless  foot-hills.  The 
houses  were  round  or  square  and  the  walls  fairly  well  built  of  rough 
unshaped  slabs  and  rocks,  but  in  some  cases  there  was  a  solid  founda- 
tion of  stones  built  up  above  the  ground-level,  upon  which,  it  is  said 
with  probability,  some  sort  of  grass  hut  was  erected. 

In  plan  the  villages  were  mere  rabbit-warrens  with  the  houses 
built  close  together  on  high  ground  suitable  for  defence.  The  poorer 
man  would  apparently  have  no  more  than  a  single  hut,  but  the  better- 
to-do  would  have  an  enclosure  containing  a  number  of  rooms  or  else 
a  group  of  several  huts  built  contiguously  to  one  another.  The  chief's 
enclosure — as  one  assumes  it  to  be — generally  occupies  a  central 
position  on  the  highest  ground  and  is  larger,  better  built,  and  more 


I.  4.  xxii.       THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR 


109 


intricate  in  design.  Figs.  1,  2,  3  will  serve  to  give  a  rough  impression 
of  the  curious  designs  of  some  of  these  enclosures  so  far  as  I  could 
reconstruct  their  ruins.  The  first  represents  a  chief's  house  some 
seventy  feet  up  on  a 
ledge  of  Gebel  Kowra. 
(This  gebel  forms  a  con- 
necting-link between 
Gebel  Si,  to  which  it 
belongs,  and  Gebel 
Marra.  The  road  from 
el  Fasher  to  Kebkebia 
passes  through  it.)  The 
other  two  figures  are  of 
large  houses  at  the  old 
village  of  Deriblayn  on 
the  western  edge  of 
Gebel  Si,  to  the  north 
of  Kowra. 

The  date  of  none  of 
these  villages  is  known 
for  certain,  but  so  far  as 
can  be  ascertained  they 
were  inhabited  until 
Zubeir  Pasha  devastated 
Darfur  late  in  the  last 
century.  The  most  curi- 
ous feature  of  the  build- 
ings is  certainly  the  little 
closet-like  recesses  built 
into  the  walls.  In  some 
cases  (as  in  the  figures 
portrayed)  these  closets 
were  single,  generally 
about  two  and  a  half  or 
three  feet  high,  with  a 
concave  roof,  and  an 
entry  barely  big  enough 
to  admit  a  small  human 
being.  In  other  cases  they  were  double,  the  smaller  closet  leading 
by  a  tiny  doorway  into  a  rather  larger  closet  of  similar  design. 

Whether  these  rocky  holes  were  built  for  warmth  in  the  cold  weather 
or  as  female  apartments,  or  for  some  other  purpose,  one  cannot  say. 


Fig.  1  (from  Gebel  Kowra).  A  =  small  closets.  B  =  cir- 
cular upper  chamber  standing  on  platform  built 
to  same  height  as  walls.  Other  similar  but 
smaller  houses  stand  back  to  back  with  that 
pictured.   Wall,  CC,  about  2  feet  thick. 


Fig.  2  (from  Gebel  Si).  Diameter  of  rooms  about 
3  yards.  Walls  about  3  feet  high.  A,  door 
with  stone  slab  as  lintel. 


no 


THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFIJR      i.  4.  xxn. 


The  majority  of  the  enclosures  contained  only  single-storey 
buildings  of  simple  circular  design,  but  in  the  more  important  ones 
one  often  finds  an  upper-storey  room  built  over  the  closets  or  on  the 
top  of  the  wall,  which  is  broadened  sufficiently  to  support  it. 

I  have  not  personally  visited  any  of  the  present-day  villages  in 
the  most  inaccessible  and  undisturbed  portions  of  the  range,  namely, 
the  heart  of  Gebel  Si  and  the  peaks  above  Kalokiting,  at  the  south 


Fig.  3  (from  Gebel  Si).  Diameter  of  circles  about  n  yards.  Rooms  about 
2JX3J  yards.  B  and  eastern  half  of  A  stand  on  crest  of  small  rocky  hill. 
Western  half  of  A  is  on  down  gradient.  Walls  about  -z\ — 3  feet  high  except 
on  western  half  of  A  where  they  were  probably  about  5  feet.  B  contained  no 
rooms.  C  is  a  raised  platform  of  same  height  as  walls.  D,  possible  position  of 
entrance.  D — E,  wall  completely  ruined.  F,  possibly  a  path.  GG,  sheer  drop 
down  hillside.    H,  boulders. 

end  of  Gebel  Marra,  near  the  great  mountain  lake  of  Deriba;  but  the 
following  extract  from  a  report  made  and  kindly  lent  to  me  in  191 8 
by  Captain  H.  F.  C.  Hobbs  of  the  West  Yorkshire  Regiment,  who, 
with  Mr  J.  A.  Gillan  of  the  Sudan  Civil  Service,  has  the  distinction 
of  being  the  first  white  man  to  visit  the  latter  portion  of  the  range, 
suggests  that  some  at  least  of  the  Fur  still  take  some  care  in  the 
building  of  their  huts  and  the  management   of  their   crops   and, 


1.4.  xxii.       THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  hi 

because  more  segregated,  have  deteriorated  less  than  their  brethren 
in  the  more  accessible  regions.  The  account  given  of  the  lakes  of 
Deriba1  is  also  of  interest. 

It  was  not  until  we  had  risen  to  some  1700  feet  above  the  plain  that 
we  encountered  any  signs  of  present  day  occupation:  here  the  nature  ot 
the  country  changes,  numerous  rock  plants,  bracken  and  short  mountain 
grass  making  their  appearance  with  villages,  areas  of  wheat  cultivation  and 
tomato  and  onion  patches ;  the  latter  being  irrigated  by  the  natives  by  means 
of  the  many  small  running  streams  with  which  the  Jebel  abounds.  The 
two  lakes  at  Deriba... lie,  at  an  altitude  of  1700  feet  above  the  plain  and 
4704  feet  above  sea  level,  in  the  arena  of  what  may  best  be  described  as 
a  vast  amphitheatre,  from  three  to  four  miles  in  diameter,  formed  by  a 
continuous  circular  (or  slightly  oval)  range  of  steeply-sloping  heights, 
varying  from  about  800  to  2000  feet  above  the  surface  of  the  lakes2. 

The  salt  lake  (termed  by  the  natives  the  "female"),  which  is  the  larger 
of  the  two,  occupies  the  north-east  corner  of  the  amphitheatre.  It  measures 
approximately  1050  yards  in  length,  1350  in  breadth,  and  about  3^  miles 
in  circumference.  The  water  is  very  salt,  dirty,  and  greenish  in  colour 
and  has  an  unpleasant  acrid  smell.  There  is  a  heavy  deposit  of  salt  all 
round  the  perimeter  of  the  lake  clearly  defining  its  high- water  mark. 
Except  at  the  northern  end,  the  banks  shelve  very  gradually  into  soft, 
oozing,  strongly  smelling  mud. ...It  would  appear  that  the  lake  is  of  no 
great  depth,  except  possibly  at  its  extreme  northern  end.... 

The  second  lake  (the  "male")  lies  about  §  mile  to  the  south-west  of 
the  salt  lake  and  contains  more  or  less  fresh  water.  It  is  approximately 
I55°  yards  long,  900  broad,  with  a  circumference  of  about  2  miles.  It 
forms  the  centre  of  a  large  crater,  undoubtedly  volcanic  in  origin,  the 
sides  of  which  rise  almost  perpendicularly  out  of  the  water  to  heights 
varying  from  about  400  to  700  feet.... The  water,  like  that  of  the  salt  lake, 
is  greenish  in  colour,  but  clean  and  clear,  and  smells  and  tastes  slightly 
of  sulphur.... The  banks  shelve  very  abruptly  and  the  lake  appears  to  be 
of  great  depth.... This  lake  is  regarded  with  much  superstition  and  fear 
by  the  inhabitants  of  Jebel  Marra,  to  whom  its  mystic  properties  are  well 
known.... The  Furs  of  the  Jebel  say  it  is  haunted,  regard  it  as  an  oracle, 
and  ask  it  questions,  the  answers  to  which  they  deduct  from  the  various 
colours  which  the  waters  of  the  lake  assume  in  the  early  morning  or  late 
afternoon  when  there  is  considerable  reflection,  or  when  the  surface  of 
the  water  is  ruffled  by  the  wind.... There  is  no  outlet  of  any  kind  from 
either  of  these  lakes,  unless  it  be  a  subterranean  one.  They  are  fed  by 
numerous  khors  from  the  surrounding  mountains — 

The  Fur  build  quite  good  "tukls,"  or  circular  huts,  with  walls  of  loose 
stone  and  roofs  well  thatched  with  grass.  The  villages  are  in  every  case 
surrounded  by  loose  stone  walls  of  considerable  strength  and  thickness, 
about  six  feet  high  and  usually  topped  with  a  breastwork  of  faggots.  These 

1  The  "See  Daribe"  of  Nachtigal's  map  of  Wadai  and  Darfur  (Gotha,  Justus 
Perthes,  1875). 

2  All  these  heights  have  since  been  found  to  be  very  considerably  under- 
estimated. The  peaks  are  quite  10,000  feet  above  sea-level. 


ii2  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR       i.  4.  xxn. 

villages  are  very  much  better  and  more  strongly  built  than  any  others  I 
have  yet  seen  in  Northern  or  Southern  Darfur,  and  are  in  striking  con- 
trast to  the  miserable  ill-built  hovels  of  the  Beni  Helba  Baggara  Arabs 
who  inhabit  the  plain  to  the  south-west  of  the  mountain.... The  Jebel 
Fur... are  distinctly  in  advance  of  the  other  tribes  of  Darfur  as  builders 
and  cultivators.... 

The  burial-places  of  the  old  inhabitants  are  frequently  met  with. 
They  are  oval  circumferences  of  random  stone  slabs  stuck  up  on 
end  and,  in  Dar  Abo  Dfma,  were  spoken  of  as  the  work  of  "Abu 
Um  Gonan,"  a  term  which  must  be  the  same  as  the  "Abu  Gonaan" 
(or  Kona'an)  who  are  fabled  to  have  once  lived  in  the  northern 
"Nuba"  hills  of  Kordofan,  and  whose  name  again  may  be  connected 
with  Kana'an,  i.e.  Canaan,  son  of  Ham,  the  traditional  progenitor  of 
pagan  tribes1. 

The  system  adopted  in  the  Fur  villages  for  storing  grain  is  dis- 
tinctive from  that  in  Kordofan  or  the  east  to  the  best  of  my  knowledge. 
It  is  as  follows:  A  number  of  poles  with  short  forks  are  put  in  the 
ground  so  as  to  form  a  rough  square.  The  fork  is  at  the  lower  end 
and  remains  a  foot  or  so  above  ground.  In  the  forks  other  poles  rest 
horizontally,  and  brushwood  and  matting  are  laid  from  pole  to  pole 
to  form  a  bed.  The  heads  of  corn,  when  cut,  are  heaped  on  this  bed 
and  are  contained  by  long,  broad  sheets  of  matting  {sherkdniay 
pi.  sherdkna)  which  are  stretched  all  round  the  uprights  and  bound 
to  them,  thus  forming  an  enclosure.  The  matting  is  made  of  ndl 
grass  worked  in  a  criss-cross  pattern.  The  object  of  having  the  corn- 
store  thus  raised  above  the  ground  is  to  avoid  the  ravages  of  the 
white  ants. 

For  the  storage  of  grain  inside  the  house  the  Fur  use  the  Suayba, 
a  large  cylindrical  vessel  formed  of  cow-dung  and  mud,  some  four 
feet  high  and  two  and  a  half  in  diameter.  For  water  or  merissa 
they  employ  the  common  circular  burma  of  burnt  clay,  usually  with 
two  or  three  tiny  ornamental  false  handles  placed  at  the  angle  formed 
by  the  belly  and  the  neck  of  the  vessel.  The  burmas  are  made 
locally  and  in  the  same  manner  as  in  northern  Kordofan,  namely, 
by  placing  a  lump  of  clay  on  a  mat  and  driving  the  fist  downwards 
into  the  middle  of  it  and  then  working  outwards. 

The  only  art  in  which  the  Fur  shew  any  particular  proficiency 

is  that  of  basket-work.  The  neatly  made  baskets  of  coarse  strong 

plaited  grass,  dyed  in  various  colours  and  resembling  an  ordinary 

waste-paper  basket  in  shape,  with  their  large,  flat,  slightly  convex 

lids  worked  in  every  conceivable  fantastic  coloured  design  of  line 

1  See  MacMichael,  Tribes...,  pp.  88,  241.  The  jungle-fowl  is  also  known  in 
Kordofan  as  "gidad  Abu  Kona'an." 


1.4.  xxiii.     THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  113 

and  cube,  which  are  often  seen  for  sale  in  the  Omdurman  bazaars, 
are  essentially  a  Darfur  manufacture. 

For  measuring  grain,  or  carrying  it  in  smaller  quantities,  the 
Fur  make  an  uncoloured  rayka  of  basket-work.  This  is  in  shape  a 
wide  circular  bowl  about  a  foot  high  and  one  and  a  half  in  diameter 
at  the  top.  The  latitudinal  bands  are  formed  of  strips  of  bark  of 
laot  {Acacia  nubica),  etc.,  an  inch  broad  and  immediately  con- 
tiguous. Horizontally  intersecting  these,  in  and  out,  are  strips  of 
cane,  immediately  contiguous.  The  intersection  is  the  simplest 
possible.  The  rim  is  formed  of  a  larger  strip  of  cane,  and  the  base  of 
two  concentric  rings  of  stout  cane.  The  interior  is  plastered  with 
cow-dung  to  prevent  leakage. 

The  Fur  usually  carry  a  quiver  full  of  barbed  throwing-spears 
and  a  knife,  but  their  most  distinctive  weapon  is  the  safarog  (pi. 
safdrig),  or  throwing-stick,  shaped  as 
(a)  or  (b),  or,  even  less  commonly, 
as  (c),  and  cut  from  the  roots  of  the 
inderdb  or  kitr  bush.  Practically  every 
Fur  carries  one  of  these,  and  they  are 
very  expert  in  their  use.  They  chiefly 
employ  them   for  killing   hares   and  a  ^  " 

guinea-fowl,  but,  when  occasion  arises,  for  injuring  the  legs  of  the 
horses  ridden  by  their  foes. 

The  Nilotic  negro  does  not  use  the  throwing-stick,  but  the 
negroes  who  invaded  Nubia  and  Upper  Egypt  under  the  eighteenth 
dynasty  did,  and  so  also  did  the  Bega1. 

XXIII  In  person  the  Fur  of  Marra,  Si  and  the  west  are  small  and 
skinny  with  thin  legs,  small  bones  and  egg-shaped  heads.  All  have 
a  peculiarly  rancid  smell2.  The  young  men  wear  bracelets  of  brass 
and  hang  a  few  beads  and  cowries  in  their  hair — more  especially  the 
Tebella — but  on  reaching  years  of  discretion  they  give  up  these 
vanities. 

Their  character  is  marked  by  stupidity  and  low  cunning  in  com- 
bination. They  are  suspicious  and  deceitful  and  they  instinctively 
lie  about  even  the  most  trivial  subject  rather  than  speak  a  word  of 
the  truth.  They  are  very  ignorant  and  credulous  of  the  wildest 
rumours,  hot-tempered,  idle  and  drunken;  but  they  are  easily 
amused  and  have  a  distinct  sense  of  the  ludicrous.  Their  one  am- 
bition in  life  is  to  acquire  more  cattle. 

1  "  In  numerous  xvm  dynasty  paintings  Negroes  are  represented  with  bows 
and  arrows  and  throwing  sticks  (boomerangs)."  Seligman,  Address  to  the  Anthrop. 
Section... Manchester,  B.  A.  Rep.  1915,  pp.  10,  12. 

2  This  was  noticed  also  by  Dr  Felkin  (see  Bibliography). 

M.S.  I.  8 


ii4  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR     1. 4.  xxm. 

As  one  goes  farther  away  from  the  mountains,  and  particularly 
in  the  east,  where  the  population  is  more  crossed  with  Arab  and  other 
strains,  an  obvious  improvement  is  noticeable  in  physique  and  mental 
and  ethical  standards  alike.  Among  the  Kungara  it  is  not  uncommon 
to  see  an  extremely  well-built  man  of  massive  proportions,  dark  in 
complexion — even  to  coal-black — but  with  the  coarse  negro  features 
reduced  to  some  kind  of  regularity. 

XXIV  Until  recent  years  the  Sultan  of  Darfur  used  to  appear  with 
the  lower  half  of  his  face  veiled,  and  it  was  counted  the  height  of 
offensiveness  for  any  of  his  subjects,  even  his  chief  men,  to  look  at 
him  straight  in  the  face.  One  addressed  him  only  with  bowed  head 
and  eyes  abased,  half  kneeling  and  half  sitting  on  the  ground.  The 
Sultan  of  Masali't  still  appears  in  public  with  face  veiled  to  the 
eyes1.  Here  we  probably  have  a  tradition  of  royalty  derived  from  the 
Berber  element  in  the  western  states2;  but,  of  course,  the  veiling 
custom  is  most  familiar  to  the  world  in  the  case  of  the  picturesque 
"veiled"  (" mulaththamin")  Tuwarek  of  the  northern  deserts — 
known  in  Darfur,  where  there  is  a  large  colony  of  them  close  to  el 
Fasher,  as  "Renin" — who  are  largely  Berber. 

Similarly,  the  seven-days'  sequestration  of  a  newly  chosen  king, 
mentioned  by  Barth3  as  practised  by  the  (Berber)  Muniyoma, 
closely  corresponds  to  the  similar  custom  related  by  el  Tunisi4  of 
the  Sultans  of  Darfur. 

XXV  Now  the  above  disjointed  items  of  information  about  the 
various  people  with  whom  the  more  distinctively  Arab  stock  com- 
mingled in  Darfur  obviously  form  too  slender  a  foundation  to  sup- 
port any  conclusions  of  scientific  finality,  but  they  do  give  certain 
indications  of  a  general  nature  as  to  the  directions  from  which  came 
the  ethnic  influences  that  have  been  at  work  in  the  country. 

Apart  from  the  Arab  strain  it  seems  that  the  two  main  ethnic 
elements  in  Darfur  are  the  Negro  (Bantu  ?)and  theHamitic.  The  former 
is  the  most  ancient  and  survives  more  strongly  in  the  south  and  in  the 
range  of  Gebel  Marra.  The  latter  is  partly  due  to  the  continuous 
pressure  exerted  by  the  Arabs  in  north  Africa  upon  the  Berber  races, 
compelling  them  to  move  southwards  and  encroach  upon  the  lands 
of  the  darker  races,  a  process  which  began  at  least  as  early  as  the 
seventh  century  a.d.  and  affected  every  state  from  the  Atlantic  to 
the  Nile  in  a  greater  or  less  degree. 

1  March,  1918,  was  the  date  I  met  him. 

2  See,  e.g.  Browne,  p.  211,  and  cp.  frontispiece  to  Denham,  Clapperton  and 
Oudney's  Travels.  For  the  ancient  custom  of  covering  the  mouth  see  Barth,  11, 
270.    It  also  appears  in  Abyssinia  (see  Bent,  p.  39). 

3  11,  271.  4   Voy.  au  Darf.  p.  160. 


1. 4.  xxv.       THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  115 

The  earlier  waves  of  the  southward-flowing  tide  were  composed 
almost  entirely  of  Berbers,  but  as  the  Arabs  fused  with  the  Berbers 
in  the  north  and  converted  them  to  Islam  its  composition  was  pro- 
portionately modified,  and  by  the  tenth  century  there  were  Arabs 
as  well  as  Berbers  definitely  established  in  the  more  westernly  king- 
doms1 and  beginning  to  work  their  way  eastwards.  A  Berber  or 
Arab  origin  is  claimed  for  the  ruling  house  in  each  of  the  states  that 
border  on  the  southern  fringe  of  the  Sahara2  to  the  west  of  Lake 
Chad. 

But  from  the  fusion  of  Libyo-Berber  and  negro  farther  north 
had  already  arisen  the  Tibbu  stock3  which  had  become  all  powerful 
in  the  Tibesti  hills  long  before  the  Arabs  began  to  force  the  Berbers 
southwards.  They  had  also  established  themselves  in  northern  Wadai 
and  Darfur,  and  the  later  Berber- Arab  congeries,  though  their  social 
influence  may  have  been  not  inconsiderable,  never  supplanted  them 
there4. 

Thus  one  might  describe  the  general  ethnological  aspect  of 
Darfur  as  distinctively  Tibbu  in  the  north  and  negro  in  the  south. 
In  addition,  however,  to  the  Tibbu  and  the  negro  element  and  to 
the  numerous  Arab  tribes  which  will  be  dealt  with  in  a  later  chapter, 
there  are  scattered  over  the  country  various  debased  tribes  which, 
though  blended  with  negro  from  the  south  or  Tibbu  from  the  north, 
are  at  the  same  time  connected  on  the  one  side  with  the  ancient 
peoples  of  the  Nile  valley  or,  on  the  other,  with  the  old  kingdoms 
lying  west  of  Lake  Chad. 

1  Cp.  Johnston  injourn.  Anthr.  Inst,  xliii,  1913,  p.  398,  and  for  some  general 
account  of  the  Berber  movement  see  Part  II,  Chap.  1,  Appendix. 

2  Thus  Leo  Africanus,  speaking  of  Bornu,  says  (p.  832):  "They  have  a  most 
puissant  prince  being  descended  from  the  Libyan  people  called  Bardoa";  and 
again  (p.  133),  "Some  writers  are  of  opinion  that  the  king  of  Timboto,  the  king 
of  Melle,  and  the  king  of  Agadez  fetch  their  originall  from  the  people  of  Zanaga 
[i.e.  Sanhaga]  to  wit,  from  them  which  inhabite  the  desert."  Makrfzi  and  Sultan 
Bello  similarly  trace  the  Bornu  dynasty  to  a  Berber  origin.  (See  Dr  Brown's  note 
to  Leo,  loc.  cit.  and  cp.  Orr,  The  Making  of  Modern  Nigeria,  p.  60,  and  App.  to 
Part  II,  Chap.  1.) 

3  See  above,  Part  I,  Chap.  2. 

4  It  is  noticeable  in  this  connection  that  whereas  the  western  states  had  been 
converted  to  Islam  centuries  before  Leo  wrote  his  travels  in  the  first  half  of  the 
sixteenth  century — and  Ghana  as  early  as  1076  (see  Cooley,  pp.  42-86,  Brown  in 
Leo,  p.  838),  Bornu  was  still  pagan  in  Leo's  day  (see  Leo,  loc.  cit.).  According  to 
Ahmad  Baba's  History  (q.v.  Barth,  iv,  407)  Tiliitan  the  great  Lamtuna  (Berber) 
chief  who  died  in  837  a.d.  had  been  the  first  of  his  people  to  adopt  Islam  and  con- 
vert the  negroes,  and  Za-Kasi,  King  of  Songhay,  was  converted  in  1009  by  mission- 
aries from  Egypt. 


i—2 


u6  THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR      i.4.xxvi. 

Note  on  certain  Egyptian  or  Hamitic 
survivals  in  darfur 

XXVI  Sir  H.  Johnston1  speaks  of  "a  wave  of  late  Egyptian  cul- 
ture" being  borne  "across  the  Sudan  along  the  southern  fringe  of 
the  Sahara  Desert  to  the  Upper  Niger."  This  he  dates  "immediately 
prior  to  the  Christian  era."  At  Agades  arose  the  Songhay  people 
who  "adopted  accidentally  or  by  influence  an  imitation  of  ancient 

Egyptian  architecture  in  clay  and  wood  instead  of  stone "    After 

subduing  the  Mandingo  of  Melle  they  made  their  headquarters  for 
a  time  "the  city  of  Jenne  at  the  confluence  of  the  Niger  and  the 
Bani.  From  Jenne  was  radiated  over  all  the  Western  Sudan  an 
apparent  Egyptian  influence  in  architectural  forms,  in  boat-building, 
and  other  arts." 

Professor  Seligman,  however,  objects  to  the  stress  laid  on  Egypt: 
he  would  prefer  to  speak  of  the  "Hamitic  influence  (of  which  the 
Egyptian  civilization  was  only  a  special  development)  which  was 
leavening  dark  Africa,  perhaps  for  thousands  of  years  before  Egypt 
herself  emerged  into  the  light  of  history2." 

In  this  connection  three  facts  may  be  cited.  El  Tunisi  relates 
as  follows3 : 

Autre  exemple  de  bizarrerie.... Autrefois,  on  ne  permettait  pas  au 
Sultan  du  Ouaday  de  boire  du  lait  frais.  "  Car,"  disaient  les  Ouadayens, 
"si  le  sultan  boit  du  lait,  qu'est-ce  que  boiront  les  sujets?"  Or  il  advint 
qu'un  Sultan  se  procura  une  vache  laitiere.  On  le  sut  dans  le  public ;  on 
s'ameuta,  et  on  alia  dire  au  sultan:  "tu  vas  te  defaire  de  ta  vache,  nous 
promettre  de  ne  plus  boire  de  lait,  ou  bien  nous  te  tuons."  II  fallut  obeir. 
Aujourd'hui  cette  coutume  est  abolie,  et  les  sultans  boivent  du  lait  comme 
tout  le  monde. 

Superstitions  concerning  milk  are  prevalent  among  the  tribes  of 
the  eastern  Sudan  and  East  Africa  and  the  Nilotic  negroes,  being 
characteristic  of  a  Hamitic  stock  or  culture4.  Whether  the  one  quoted 
necessarily  reached  Wadai  from  the  Nile  across  Darfur  or  whether  it 
may  have  come  in  from  the  north  with  other  Libyo-Berber  influences 

1  hoc.  cit.  p.  387. 

2  Journ.  Anthr.  Inst,  xliii,  1913,  p.  420.  See  also  "Address  to  the  Anthrop. 
Section  of  the  Brit.  Assoc,  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,"  1915.  Barth  thought 
he  found  various  linguistic  analogies  between  Tibbu  and  ancient  Egyptian,  and  the 
"Tarikh  el  Khamfs"  (q.v.  supra,  p.  72)  appears  to  derive  the  Tibbu  from  Egypt  (see 
Carbou,  II,  116),  but  M.  Rene  Basset  notes  (Carbou,  1,  117)  the  matter  is  extremely 
doubtful  and  "Si  le  toubou  est  apparente  a  l'egyptien,  il  Test  par  consequent  au 
berbere  qui  appartient  au  groupe  chamitique,  appele  aussi  proto-semitique." 

3  Voy.  au  Ouaday,  p.  393. 

4  Seligman,  loc.  cit.  p.  654,  and  in  Man,  March  1915  (re  the  Bisharin).  Cp. 
Browne,  p.  466,  for  one  striking  instance. 


1. 4.  xxvi.      THE  NON-ARAB  RACES  OF  DARFUR  117 

is  a  question  to  be  decided  by  experts,  but  we  have  lately  seen  that 
certain  milk-superstitions  did  exist  in  Darfur. 

The  second  fact  to  which  I  would  draw  attention  is  as  follows: 
Browne  states  that  in  Darfur  at  the  beginning  of  the  rainy  season 
the  king  accompanied  by  the  lesser  chieftains  (meleks)  goes  out 
into  the  fields  while  the  people  are  sowing  and  makes  several  holes 
with  his  own  hand1.  The  same  custom  is  said  to  apply  in  Bornu,  etc. 
It  has  its  counterpart  (as  Browne  notes)  in  ancient  Egypt. 

"  The  great  mace-head  of  Hierakonpolis ,  dating  back  some  six  or 
seven  thousand  years... shews  his  majesty  inaugurating  irrigation  works 
with  a  hoe  of  the  pattern  still  in  use."'2 

"  The  central  figure  is  the  king  standing  with  a  hoe  in  both  hands. 
Before  him  is  a  man  holding  a  basket  for  the  earth,  and  beyond  that 
there  has  been  another  man  holding  a  bunch  of  ears  of  corn."3 

The  same  practice  used  to  obtain  among  the  Fung.  Bruce  relates 
that  the  name  "  Badi,"  which  he  considered  generic  to  the  Fung  kings, 
meant  "the  peasant,"  and  was  given  because  of  the  custom  whereby 
the  king  always  ploughed  and  sowed  with  his  own  hand  a  plot  of 
land  once  in  his  reign4. 

Thirdly,  when  'Amr  ibn  el  'Asi  conquered  Egypt  he  found  and 
abolished  the  annual  rite  of  sacrificing  a  virgin  to  ensure  the  rise 
of  the  Nile5. 

That  the  same  custom  lingered  in  Bornu  down  to  modern  times 
appears  from  the  story  which  negro  pilgrims  told  Burckhardt  in 
18 16-18 17  at  Cairo:  they  related  that  "at  the  time  of  the  inundation, 
which  is  regular  there  as  in  Egypt,  it  [s.c.  the  river  Tsad  which  'flows 
through  Bornou  at  a  short  distance  from  the  capital  of  Birney ']  flows 
with  great  impetuosity.  A  female  slave  richly  dressed  is  on  this 
solemn  occasion  thrown  into  the  stream  by  order  of  the  king6." 

1  Browne,  pp.  283-284.  El  Tunisi  confirms  the  truth  of  Browne's  account  as 
regards  Darfur.  "Le  sultan  possede,  en  propriete  speciale,  des  terres  labourables. 
...A  l'epoque  des  semailles...il  sort  en  grande  pompe,  escorte  de  plus  de  centjeunes 
femmes — Le  prince,  une  fois  arrive  en  pleine  campagne,  descend  de  cheval, 
prend  differentes  graines,  et,  a  mesure  qu'un  esclave  pioche  la  terre,  il  les  jette  et 
les  seme.  C'est  la  premiere  semence  qui  tombe  sur  le  sol,  dans  la  contree  ou  est 
alors  le  sultan...."    (Voy.  au  Darfour,  p.  169.) 

2  Seligman,  Journ.  Anth.  Inst,  xliii,  1913,  p.  667. 

3  Flinders  Petrie,  Hierakonpolis,  1,  9-10,  quoted  by  Seligman,  loc.  cit.  Cp, 
Reisner,  The  Egyptian  Conception  of  Immortality  (Ingersoll  Lecture,  191 1),  §vu. 

4  Bruce,  iv,  469  (Bk.  vn,  Ch.  ix).  According  to  MS.  "  D  7"  there  were  six  Fung 
kings  called  Badi. 

5  Butler,  Arab  Conquest...,  p.  437. 

6  Burckhardt,  Nubia,  App.  11,  p.  489;  and  cp.  Hornemann's  Travels,  p.  103. 


[u8] 


APPENDIX 


A  tabular  comparison  of  the  Berti  and  Zaghawa  dialects 


English 

Berti 

Zaghawa 

mouth 

a 

a 

boy 

merr 

burr 

water 

mi 

bi 

cow 

no- 

hirri 

hand 

may 

ba 

arm 

abi 

t[d]ebbir 

horse 

burto 

hirrte" 

camel 

derri 

di 

donkey 

di 

adde" 

dog 

murr 

birri 

meat 

nf 

enni 

star 

mar 

bar 

rainy  season 

gi 

ge 

hut 

be 

be-a  [be'] 

name 

tirr 

ter  [tirri] 

road 

gundur 

garrdi 

white 

tiddi 

terri 

brother 

barra 

kerrbari 

one 

sang 

lakoi 

two 

su 

swe  (shw£) 

three 

soti 

we" 

four 

sitti 

ishte" 

five 

pi 

hu6 

six 

duti 

deshte 

seven 

tayti 

dishte  (dishti) 

eight 

kuzi 

wotte"  (otte) 

nine 

kiddasi 

distl  (dishti) 

ten 

mussang 

timm  (timmi) 

a  hundred 

ommar 

— 

APPENDIX  2 


119 


A  tabular  comparison  of  the  dialects  of  the  people  of 
Midob,  the  Birked  and  the  Bardbra1 


English 


Midob 


Birked 


Barabra 

werum  (K),  werum  (D),  wera  (FM) 
awum  (K),  owun  (D),  uwo  (FM) 
toskum  (K),  toskin  (D),  tiisko  (FM) 
kemsum  (K),  kemsin  (D),  kemso  (FM) 
dijum  (K),  dijin  (D),  dija  (FM) 
gorjum  (K),  gorjin  (D),  gorjo  (FM) 
kolladum  (K),  kolladin  (D\  kolloda  (FM) 
iduum  (K),  iduwin  (D),  fduwo  (FM) 
iskodum  (K),  iskodin  (D),  oskoda  (FM) 
dimnum  (K),  diminun  (D),  dim  (FM) 
fmil  (KDFM) 
sarti  (KD) 

dilti  (KD),  singirti  (FM) 
kullu  (D) 
kulu  (KD) 
en  (KD),  iden  (FM) 
tendi,  tod  (KD) 
dessi 
gel 
urum 
aro  (KD) 
en 

ambab  (KD),  abo  (FM) 
agil  (KD),  ak  (FM) 
ter  (KD),  tar  (FM) 
tir  (KD),  ter  (FM) 
kusu  (KD) 
eri  (KD) 
? 

murti  (MF),  kaj  (KD) 
kis  (KD) 

fji  (KD),  ingissi  (FM) 
wissi  (KD),  winji  (FM) 
essi  (KD),  aman  (FM) 

?      (N.B.  Burckhardt  gives  "amanga" 
as  ="river"  inNuba,and"essig" 
in  Kanzi.) 
ur(KDFM) 

kaj  (FM).    (N.B.  The  Dagu  use  "  katche" " 
and    "kachin^,"    the    Bayko 
"katchine.") 
wel,  oruel(KD) 
ogid,  or  ogij,  or  id 

(N.B.  The    word    for   "man"    in    the 
Dilling  hills  resembles  "kortog^.") 
fu  (KD),  iw  (FM).    (N.B.  Tama"iwit.") 

tl.  (N.B.  Tama"tei"') 
am  (KD),  awu  (M),  olli  (F).  (N.B.  Tama 
"arr.") 

1  Taken  from  Leo  Reinisch's  Die  Nuba-Sprache  (Vienna,  1879).  K  =  Kanzi, 
M=Mahass,  D  =  Dongolowi,  F="Fadidsha"  (i.e.  Sukkot). 

2  Dagu  "murteV'  Tama  "firrat,"  Fur  "murta,"  Berti  "burto,"  Zaghawa  "hirrt^," 
Tekali  "murda,"  Golo  "mroto,"  Fertit  (ap.  Reinisch)  "murta,"  Digga  (Fertft)  "murta," 
Banda  (Fertit)  "berta,"  Kara  (Fertit)  "mutta,"  Kamamil  (S.  Sennar)  "murta,"  Galla 
"farda." 


one 

pirrki 

meirti 

two 

uddi 

ullu 

three 

tasi,  or  dasi 

tizzit 

four 

egi 

keimzi 

five 

techi,  or  d£chi 

tishi 

six 

korrchi 

korshi 

seven 

ollotti 

koldi 

eight 

iddi 

ittu 

nine 

ukuddi 

ijmoldi 

ten 

timmigi 

timmun 

a  hundred 

immil 

mia  (Ar.)  meirta 

iron 

tessi 

sirti 

hair 

tedi 

tille 

mountain 

or 

kur 

a  stone 

ulli 

kuldi 

woman 

iddi 

ein 

boy 

'utchi 

otonti 

green 

tesse 

? 

red 

kayli 

kayl£ 

black 

uddi 

udia 

white 

adde 

ayle 

mother 

iya 

ennon 

father 

abba 

embabon 

mouth 

al 

enagul 

he 

on 

ter 

they 

ung-a 

tir 

meat 

osongye 

kozi 

name 

urri 

einere 

what  is 

na  urri  negoda 

einere  nenta 

your  name 

? 

horse 

porrnyi 

kisi 

winter 

itchi 

kizidi 

milk 

itchirri 

eshi 

star 

ongyedi 

weindi 

water 

urtchi,  or  ushi 

eigi 

watercourse 

3 

mantiti 

("khor") 

head 

orr 

urr 

donkey 

utchi 

kusuldi 

dog 

pewrl 

meil 

man 

ett,  or  irr 

kortoge 

corn 

urti,  or  urdi, 
or  u'di 

uzze 

cow 

tur 

tei 

rain 

arri 

ali 

120 


A  TABULAR  COMPARISON  OF  THE 


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122  A  VOCABULARY  OF  THE  MASALI'T  LANGUAGE  [app. 


APPENDIX  4 

A  short  Vocabulary  of 

the  Masdlit 

language 

one 

tio 

sister 

mumbe 

two 

barra 

brother 

mir'mbe 

three 

tang 

child  (fern.) 

kimambe 

four 

as 

„     (male) 

kimamba 

five 

toro 

ancestor 

ua 

six 

itti 

"wddi" 

mandaldi 

seven 

murri 

"khor" 

idda 

eight 

aid 

"gebel" 

koma 

nine 

adde" 

a  stone 

dittera 

ten 

uttu 

horse 

berre" 

twenty 

iddo'mbara 

camel 

dirri 

thirty 

iddo  kang 

donkey 

leri 

forty 

iddo  as 

dog 

ingi 

fifty 

iddo  toro 

cow 

de    . 

a  hundred 

mia  (Ar.) 

bull 

murgi 

Arabs 

Eringe" 

meat 

nyugu 

Fur 

Furta 

milk 

gl 

Dagu 

Bereje" 

"metissa" 

nyunguru 

corn 

asse 

salt 

ango 

hair 

kfji 

I 

ama 

head 

kujjo 

thou 

mam 

mouth 

kanna 

he 

igi 

eye 

kogo 

man 

kumba 

the  two  eyes 

kosimbara 

woman 

mutcho 

hand 

koro 

God 

Mala  (Ar 

leg 

joinyo 

star 

kte 

arm 

kuru 

moon 

aia 

father 

baba 

sun 

unge 

mother 

da 

APPENDIX  5 

The  Tungur-Fur  of  Ddr  Furnung 

I  A  day's  journey  west-north-west  of  Kuttum  lies  the  district  of  Dar 
Furnung.  To  the  east  it  is  bounded  by  Berre  district,  inhabited  by 
Kaitinga  (a  blend  of  Tungur  and  Zaghawa)  and  Fur,  and  to  the  west  by 
Serayf  (Awlad  Mana).  To  the  south-west  of  Furnung  is  the  range  of 
Gebel  Si,  the  home  of  the  still  savage  KarAkirit  Fur. 

Dar  Furnung  itself  consists  of  a  group  of  desolate  high  sun-blackened 
peaks,  with  low  hills  between  them  intersected  by  narrow  watercourses 
that  flow  from  springs,  and  surrounded  by  cultivable  lands  where  the 
Tungur  and  Fur  have  their  villages  and  semi-nomadic  Zaghawa  come  to 
graze  their  flocks.  It  takes  its  name  from  the  holy  stone  of  Furnung,  at 
which  the  headman  of  the  ddr  has  to  make  sacrifice  if  he  would  avoid 
death  or  disaster1. 

1  Cp.  pp.  ioo,  ioi  above  for  another  of  these  holy  stones,  in  Kerne"  district 
west  of  Gebel  Marra.  At  Furnung  it  is  only  the  "hakim"  (the  "Shartai"  of  the 
"Dar")  who  sacrifices.  The  villagers  and  lesser  sheikhs  do  not,  but  if  one  of  them 
aspires  to  be  "  Shartai"  he  goes  privately  to  the  holy  rock  and  throws  a  stone  onto 
it.  If  the  stone  holds,  the  omen  is  good;  but  if  it  rolls  off,  the  omen  is  bad  for  his 
project. 


4,  5]         THE  TUNGUR-FUR  OF  DAR  FURNUNG  123 

II  Ferra  is  a  site  among  the  Furnung  hills,  near  the  centre  of  their 
southern  fringe,  and  is  locally  famous  as  being  the  ancient  capital  of  the 
Tungur  and  the  headquarters  of  their  last  independent  Sultan  Shau 
Dorshid  (or  Dor  el  Sid  as  he  is  sometimes  called). 

As  one  winds  one's  way,  from  the  open  country  lying  to  the  south, 
towards  Ferra  in  the  dry  summer  months,  over  foothills  of  sandstone  and 
blackened  rocks  that  remind  one  of  the  country  round  Korosko  and  Ibrim, 
nothing  could  seem  more  wild  and  arid  than  the  prospect  on  every  side 
of  high  broken  plutonic  peaks  mottled  with  dry  thorny  kitr,  but  suddenly, 
as  one  enters  the  circle  of  the  larger  hills,  the  ground  dives  steeply  down 
and  at  the  foot  one  sees  a  deep  narrow  gorge  like  a  miniature  Valley  of  the 
Nile.  In  places  it  is  twenty  or  thirty  yards  wide,  in  places  it  is  no  more  than 
a  sharp  cutting  in  the  rock,  and  here  and  there  is  a  tiny  glade  carpeted 
with  green  grass  and  watered  from  a  bubbling  spring. 

The  sides  of  the  gorge  are  half  hidden  by  the  luxurious  foliage  of  a 
variety  of  trees,  and  below  runs  a  perennial  stream  of  sweet  spring  water, 
'Ayn  Ferra,  which  gives  its  name  to  the  locality.  Here  and  there  are  little 
cascades  and  below  them  deep,  silent  pools  fringed  by  high  reeds  and 
alive  with  small  minnow-like  fish. 

The  cliffs  rise  in  steep  tiers  on  either  side  and  now  and  then  one  sees 
a  family  of  baboons  cautiously  eying  one  as  one  picks  one's  way  on  foot 
along  the  shelves  of  sandstone  or  forces  a  path  through  the  reeds  by  the 
water's  edge. 

The  stream  flows  winding  from  south  to  north  towards  the  heart  of 
the  hills,  and,  about  a  mile  from  its  source,  on  the  left,  rises  sheerly  the 
rocky  hill  of  Ferra. 

III  Here,  overlooking  the  gorge  from  a  height  of  some  200  feet  was  the 
capital  of  Shau  Dorshid,  who,  it  is  said,  when  threatened  by  the  rising 
power  of  the  Fur  under  Sulayman  Solong  fled  northwards  to  the  Bedayat 
country  and  was  never  seen  again  in  Darfur1. 

Shau's  fortress  and  palace  are  perched 

Like  an  eagle's  nest 
Hangs  on  the  crest 
Of  purple  Apennine 

on  the  very  top  of  the  highest  eminence  of  the  hill  and  command  a  fine 
view. 

Standing  here  one  sees  towering  above  one  in  the  distance  on  all 
sides  rugged  inhospitable  peaks;  far  below  one  to  the  east  winds  the 
narrow  stream  clothed  in  evergreen  verdure,  and  to  the  north  and  west 
some  fifty  feet  below  the  fort  is  a  stony  plateau,  the  site  of  the  ancient 
settlement. 

1  In  view  of  the  traces  of  Christianity  that  will  be  described  as  existing  here- 
abouts, there  may  be  some  connection  with  this  flight  of  Shau  to  the  Bedayat  and 
the  story  (see  p.  52  above)  that  the  southern  Bedayat  were  once  Christians. 

"Shau"  is  said  to  have  had  another  fort  and  palace  at  Gebel  Mutarrak,  on  the 
north-eastern  fringe  of  the  Furnung  hills,  some  20  miles  from  Ferra,  but  I  did 
not  visit  the  site. 


124  THE  TUNGUR-FUR  OF  DAR  FURNUNG         [app. 

Beyond  the  gorge,  to  the  east,  where  a  few  square  miles  of  hillside 
shelve  less  steeply,  the  ground  is  all  ribbed  with  ancient  cultivation 
"  terrasses"  Now  all  is  overgrown  with  stunted  kitr  bush  and  the  lines 
of  the  stones  have  been  broken  by  the  rains,  but  at  one  time  all  must  have 
been  cleared  and  every  foot  of  ground  levelled  into  successive  ledges,  each 
a  foot  or  so  above  the  other. 

The  main  entrance  to  the  fort  is  from  the  west,  that  is,  from  the  side 
of  the  settlement,  and  the  great  gateway,  three  and  a  half  yards  broad,  is 
flanked  by  stone  walls  not  less  than  12  feet  high.  Entering  here  the  outer 
line  of  the  defences  one  mounts  along  the  broad  sloping  pathway  between 
the  outer  and  the  inner  walls  to  the  fort  which  crowns  the  peak. 

The  foundations  of  the  fort,  like  the  outer  and  inner  defensive  lines 
beyond  it,  are  well  built  of  rough  unhewn  boulders,  but  the  upper  stories 
of  the  structure,  and  the  inner  rooms  and  dividing  walls,  are  of  magnificent 
red  brick,  hard  as  iron,  metallic  in  ring  and  slightly  glazed.  The  labour 
involved  in  bringing  the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  bricks  required  from  the 
kilns,  which  lie  a  mile  or  more  away  to  the  south,  must  have  been  enormous, 
for  the  intervening  ground  is  inconceivably  rough,  cut  and  scarred  by 
ravines  and  littered  deep  in  jagged  rocks.  The  actual  plan  of  the  fort  is 
like  nothing  but  a  rabbit  warren:  galleries  run  in  and  out  and  chamber 
leads  to  chamber  in  bewildering  manner.  All  is  partly  ruined,  but  the 
outlines  can  easily  be  traced.  Near  the  centre  is  a  deep  square  pit,  with 
lower  sides  and  bottom  of  rock,  and  upper  sides  of  brick.  Higher  up,  in 
fact  at  the  topmost  point  of  all,  one  enters  a  small  brick  room,  perhaps  a 
guardroom,  and  from  it  descends  spirally  down  steps  through  a  series  of 
doorways,  each  at  right  angles  to  and  below  the  last  one,  to  what  appears 
to  be  a  dungeon  in  the  rocky  foundations  of  the  fort.  The  steps  are  made 
of  huge  burnt  bricks  2 J  spans  long  by  ij  broad1.  The  doorways  have 
lintels  of  wood,  long  since  decayed  and  crumbling,  and  small  windows 
open  at  intervals  to  the  outer  air.  The  entrance  to  the  dungeon  itself,  if 
such  it  be,  is  just  large  enough  to  admit  a  man,  and  beyond  is  the  horrible 
cavity  itself,  too  low  for  a  man  to  stand  in  and  with  a  floor  space  of  not 
more  than  three  square  yards.  Some  50  yards  to  the  north  of  the  fort  and 
about  20  feet  below  it  stands  the  Sultan's  (?)  house,  a  medium-sized 
oblong  building  of  red  brick.  The  only  remarkable  feature  of  it  was  the 
ingenious  manner  in  which  the  inside  surface  of  the  walls  had  been 
plastered  with  red  earth  of  the  exact  kind  used  for  making  the  bricks  and 
then  subjected  to  intense  heat  by  the  lighting  of  enormous  fires  inside  the 
room,  so  that  the  plaster  itself  had  become  hard  brick. 

Below  the  fort  and  the  Sultan's  house,  about  200  yards  to  the  south- 
west, stands  the  mosque,  a  square  building  of  thick  walls,  with  mihrdb 
to  the  east  and  four  interior  pillars.  To  the  casual  eye  there  was  nothing 
to  distinguish  the  architecture  from  that  of  the  red  brick  and  stone  mosques 

1  These  large  bricks  are  also  found  here  and  there  in  the  ruins  of  the  larger 
houses  and  the  fort  and  mosque — they  have  also  been  noticed  near  Foga  in  western 
Kordofan  on  Gebel  Zankur,  a  site  lying  on  the  ancient  highroad  from  Nubia  to 
Darfur — but  the  vast  majority  of  the  bricks  used  in  all  the  buildings  were  of  the 
usual  size  and  shape. 


5]  THE  TUNGUR-FUR  OF  DAR  FURNUNG  125 

of  Gama'i  Kurro,  on  the  Wadi  Bare  between  Kebkebia  and  Kulkul,  and 
of  Turra  in  Gebel  Marra.  But  the  making  of  the  mihrdb  had  evidently 
given  some  trouble,  for,  though  the  face  of  the  arch  had  been  negotiated 
successfully,  the  concave  back  had  been  formed  by  building  up  a  straight 
surface  of  large  bricks  and  then  hewing  them  into  concavity  as  one  would 
hollow  out  a  trough.  The  houses  of  the  common  folk  were  of  stone  in  their 
lower  courses,  and  presumably  roofs  of  straw  were  superimposed.  Some 
of  them  were  unusually  large;  the  diameter  of  one  close  to  the  mosque 
— the  Imam's  probably — was  eleven  yards. 

IV  No  implements  or  ornaments  were  found,  but  I  had  not  the  time  or 
the  means  to  dig  for  them.  Broken  shards  were  not  infrequent.  The 
pottery  was  of  three  kinds.  The  common  burmas  were  obviously  of  the 
same  shape  and  made  in  the  same  way,  i.e.  kneaded  outwards  on  a  mat, 
as  the  ordinary  burma  of  Darfur  and  Kordofan,  with  wide  mouth, 
short  neck  and  round  belly.  The  inside  and  outside  surfaces  are  brick-red 
and  the  intervening  material  burnt  black.  In  texture  they  are  very  hard 
and  thicker  than  the  usual — a  very  necessary  precaution  when  one  con- 
siders the  rough  treatment  they  were  likely  to  receive  in  being  carried 
some  200  feet  up  a  sheer  slope,  littered  with  rocks,  from  the  stream  below. 

There  were  also  larger  receptacles,  presumably  for  storing  liquid  in  the 
houses,  and  these  were  of  coarser  and  even  harder  fibre  almost  indistinguish- 
able from  brick,  with  quite  large  pebbles  embedded  in  them,  generally  an 
inch  or  more  thick. 

The  third  kind  of  pottery  was  of  the  shape  of  the  present-day  didang, 
with  long  graceful  neck  (slightly  bulbous  in  the  middle)  and  red,  glazed 
surface.  On  the  only  large  fragment  I  picked  up  were  very  roughly  incised 
markings,  on  the  belly  of  the  jar,  which  in  form  were  similar  to  the  brand 
still  used  by  the  Fella  (or  Fellanga)  section  of  the  Tungur-Fur.  The 
markings  are  thus : 


The  brand  is  thus1 :   ^  y° 

v    At  the  present  day  there  are  no  villages  in  the  Furnung  hills:  all  are 

1  This  Tungur  brand  bears  obvious  resemblances  to  the  "caracteres  a  lunettes" 
pictured  by  Doutte  (q.v.  p.  158).  These  latter,  as  used  by  the  Muhammadans  of 
North  Africa,  are  said  to  be  derived  from  Jewish  magic,  and  may  represent  eyes, 
to  symbolize  Providence  and  counteract  the  evil  eye.  The  brand  may  have  been 
brought  by  the  Tungur  to  Darfur  from  Nubia,  but,  in  the  lack  of  any  evidence  of 
the  use  of  "caracteres  a  lunettes"  in  Nubia,  it  is  more  probable  that  they  borrowed 
them  at  a  subsequent  date  from  the  Tibbu  tribes  living  to  the  north  of  Darfur, 
whose  brands  are  not  dissimilar. 


126  THE  TUNGUR-FUR  OF  DAR  FURNUNG        [app. 

outside,  where  the  grazing  and  cultivable  soil  are  better,  but  within  reach 
of  the  water  supply1. 

The  villagers  themselves  are  a  blend  of  Tungur  and  Fur,  black  but 
with  less  distinctively  negroid  features  than  the  Fur  of  Marra  and  Si. 
They  talk  among  themselves  in  the  Fur  dialect  but  all  seem  to  know 
Arabic  as  well.  Such  of  them  as  I  questioned  called  themselves  Tungur, 
no  doubt  because  of  the  aristocratic  associations  of  the  name,  and  pre- 
served a  tradition  that  they  came  originally  from  Dongola,  but  they  ad- 
mitted that  many  of  their  fellow- villagers  were  Fur  and  that  the  two  races 
had  intermarried  freely  and  on  no  particular  system  for  generations.  They 
regarded  the  Tungur  as  being  the  real  owners  of  the  ddr.  Of  the 
criterion  whereby  they  decided  whether  a  child  of  mixed  origin  was 
Tungur  or  Fur  I  could  extract  no  coherent  account.  There  was  some  talk 
of  the  "mother's  mother"  ^haboba"),  but  when  pressed  for  details  they 
always  fell  back  on  the  normal  Muhammadan  Arab  custom  obtaining  in 
such  matters.  Their  Shartdi,  Hasan  Kanjok,  they  called  a  Tungurawi, 
but  when  I  met  him  some  days  later  and  questioned  him  in  the  presence 
of  the  Fur  Shartdi  of  Si  and  the  Tungurawi  Shartdi  of  Kuttum,  he 
evidently  felt  himself  in  a  quandary,  and  the  other  two  fidgetted  uneasily : 
if  he  called  himself  a  Tungurawi  he  risked  a  smile  at  his  pretentiousness 
and  a  sneer  at  his  pusillanimity,  so  he  hesitated  and  tried  "Tungur- Fur" 
and,  when  pressed,  decided  for  "Fur."  As  a  matter  of  fact,  "Tungur- 
Fur"  is  the  term  which  would  best  describe  the  people  of  Furnung.  They 
fall  into  three  groups,  Fella  (Fellanga),  Sambella  (Sambellanga)  and 
Dumua.  All  of  these  the  Tungur  proper  and  the  Fur  proper  alike  regard 
as  Fur,  they  themselves  seem  to  regard  the  Fella  as  Tungur  rather  than 
Fur,  and  the  Sambella  as  Fur  rather  than  Tungur. 

The  name  of  the  Sambella  would  appear  almost  certainly  to  be  con- 
nected in  some  way  with  that  of  the  Sambelange  section  of  Dagu,  who 
consider  it  to  be  a  corruption  of  "  Shenabla  "  (sing.  "  Shambali "),  and  with 
that  of  the  Sambangato  section  of  Berti2. 

1  The  Tungur  round  Furnung  and  Kuttum,  like  the  Berti  and  most  of  the  rest 
of  the  population  who  cultivate  on  soft  sand  in  eastern  Darfur, 
use  for  hoeing  the  ground  the  "gilmoia"  (or  "nagara"  as  the 
Tungur  call  it,  and  one  notes  the  word  is  formed  from  the 
same  root  as  "Tungur").  This  implement  is  of  rough  local 
wood  and  shaped  as  shewn.  The  bend  at  B  is  a  natural  one. 
It  is  rather  larger  than  a  right  angle.  The  length  from  A  to  B 
is  about  27  inches,  from  B  to  C  about  18.  The  head  is  of 
hammered  iron  and  shaped  with  slightly  concave  surface  as 
shewn.  For  hoeing  the  implement  is  held  with  the  two  hands 
at  A  and  used  from  above  downwards  and  inwards  between 
the  legs.  For  making  holes  into  which  to  drop  the  seed  it  is 
also  held  in  both  hands,  but  the  cultivator,  as  he  walks  along, 
at  each  step  makes  with  it  a  short  jab  into  the  ground  on  his 
left  side. 

For  hoeing  in  a  garden  on  one's  knees  a  much  shorter 
instrument  of  the  same  shape  but  with  a  very  much  shorter 
shaft  (B  to  C  being  only  an  inch  or  two)  is  used. 

2  See  paras,  vui  and  vi  of  this  chapter.   Compare  too  the     .R„  ,        ,    , 

Dagu  brands  with  those  of  the  Fella  and  of  the  semi-Tungur  „'  .         ,       , 

-v  r  •        ,.   ■  .,     rj     ,,  L,  iron  head. 

Kaitinga  living  among  the  Zaghawa.  ' 


5]  THE  TUNGUR-FUR  OF  DAR  FURNUNG  127 

The  mark  (called  "  sambella")  with  which  they  brand  their  cattle    III 
and  donkeys  is  distinctively  Furian  in  character1.  The  Fella  brand, 
on  the  other  hand  (see  above)  is  probably  of  Tungur  origin2.  /TV 

VI  The  customs  of  the  Fur  and  the  Tungur  appear  also  to  have  dove- 
tailed in  some  respects  in  Furnung.  For  instance,  the  holiness  of  the  rock 
of  Furnung  is  probably  a  Fur  conception,  adopted  by  the  ruling  Tungur. 

Similarly,  at  'Ayn  Sirra,  a  few  miles  from  'Ayn  Ferra  and  also  in  the 
Furnung  hills,  we  seem  to  have  two  ceremonies  which  have  gradually 
become  joined  into  a  single  observance. 

'Ayn  Sirra  is  a  delightful  little  oasis  with  a  rich  water-spring  and  palm- 
grove  3,  lying  just  inside  the  circle  of  the  hills  and  approached  by  a  narrow 
pass.  At  the  entrance  to  this  pass  stands  a  large  boulder  called  "haggar 
el  'arils "  ("  the  Bride's  Stone ")  or  "haggar  el  'dda "  ("the  Custom  Stone "), 
and  on  the  top  of  it  are  heaped  some  hundreds  of  loose  stones  interspersed 
with  bits  of  dry  cow-dung.  The  explanation  of  this,  given  by  soi-disant 
Tungur,  was  as  follows : 

There  are  certain  spirits  who  reside  here  and  protect  the  entrance  to 
the  grove,  and  any  stranger  desiring  to  enter  without  mishap  would  need 
to  be,  so  to  speak,  introduced  to  them  by  the  proper  people  (for  whom 
see  later). 

At  the  time  when  the  rains  first  begin  Fur  and  Tungur  alike  join  in 
making  offerings  in  the  stereotyped  manner  at  this  stone  to  ensure  a  good 
rainfall. 

This  "rain-making"  rite  may  be  of  Darfur  orign,  but  there  are  other 
features  which  certainly  are  not,  and  the  heap  of  stones  on  the  top  of  the 
rock  at  once  calls  to  mind  the  exactly  similar  phenomenon  to  be  seen  at 
Gebel  Kayli  east  of  the  Blue  Nile4. 

Apart  from  the  rain-making  properties  of  the  stone  it  is  used  on  four 
different  occasions,  viz.  on  marriage,  on  circumcision  of  a  child,  on  a  birth 
and  when  a  hakim  (ruler)  visits  'Ayn  Sirra.  From  its  name  the  stone 
would  seem  to  be  chiefly  associated  with  the  occasion  of  marriage. 

The  rites  performed  on  that  occasion  were  said  to  be  as  follows :  after 
the  fdtha  has  been  read  and  the  couple  thereby  wed — for,  needless  to 

1  See  note  on  the  Kaitinga  brand  in  para,  iv  of  this  chapter.  _____ 

2  Another  so-called  Tungur  brand  used  in  Dar  Furnung  is  as  shewn.  A  f 
man  who  belonged  on  his  father's  side  to  the  Fella,  e.g.,  and  had  a  Sambella  '  I 
mother  would  use  both  his  own  Fella  brand  and  the  "Sambella,"  i.e.  most  of  his 
animals  would  be  marked  with  the  Fella  brand,  but  the  minority  would  carry  the 
"  sambella."  In  case  of  their  straying  there  would  thus  be  a  chance  of  their  being 
recognized  and  claimed  by  two  parties  instead  of  only  one.  The  Fella  explained 
more  animals  would  carry  the  paternal  than  the  maternal  brand  because  "  the 
meat  only  is  from  the  mother,  the  bone  is  from  the  father" — which  is  apparently  a 
popular  quotation,  since  I  also  heard  it  at  Midob. 

3  The  Tungur  who  own  the  site  say  their  ancestors  brought  the  palm  from 
Dongola.  Their  only  cultivation,  dates  excepted,  is  cotton  and  "bamia."  Neither 
red  pepper  nor  onions  are  grown,  though  the  soil  is  ideal  for  both  and  one  expects 
to  see  them  here  as  at  Kuttum,  Mellit  and  other  oases  where  the  population  is 
similar.  Utter  inertia  is  the  only  explanation,  and  the  people  admitted  "they  just 
felt  too  tired  "('"igizu")! 

*  A  rather  different  explanation  from  that  which  follows  is  also  suggested  in  the 
case  of  I£ayli  (see  note  on  p.  45). 


128  THE  TUNGUR-FUR  OF  DAR  FURNUNG     [app.  5 

say,  Fur  and  Tungur  alike  call  themselves  good  Muhammadans — they 
are  escorted  to  the  stone  by  the  sheikh  of  the  village  or,  in  his  absence, 
by  one  of  his  family,  or,  failing  both,  by  the  Imam  of  the  village  mosque, 
and  there  they  each  smear  some  dihn  (or  blood,  if  an  animal  has  been 
sacrificed)  in  the  form  of  a  cross  with  their  forefingers  on  the  side  of  the 
boulder,  and  each  deposits  a  stone  or  a  piece  of  green  grass  from  the  grove 
on  the  top  of  it.  If  the  couple  are  too  poor  to  have  afforded  a 
sheep  or  any  dihn  they  make  instead  the  offering  of  a  piece  of 
cow-dung.  This  done,  the  couple  are  led  on  to  the  water-spring 
in  the  palm-grove  and  there  the  presiding  priest — if  one  may  call 
him  such — takes  a  piece  of  mud  from  the  pool  and  dabs  it  on  the 
foreheads  of  the  couple,  on  the  tips  of  their  shoulders  (in  front),  on  their 
middles1,  on  the  points  of  their  knees  and  in  the  small  of  their  backs. 
He  then  binds  a  twist  of  green  grass  from  the  fringe  of  the  pool  round 
each  of  four  ankles  and  wrists  and  round  both  necks,  and  the  ceremony 
is  over. 

Mutatis  mutandis  precisely  the  same  is  done,  it  is  said,  on  the  occasion 
of  a  circumcision  or  a  birth,  but  in  the  latter  case  it  is  the  mother  and  not 
the  child  who  is  the  object  of  the  rite.  In  the  case  of  a  hakim  visiting 
'Ayn  Sirra  he  is  similarly  expected — or  rather  used  to  be,  for  these  customs 
are  falling  into  disuse — to  sacrifice  a  sheep  and  smear  its  blood  in  the  form 
of  a  cross  on  the  stone,  or  else  to  mark  it  with  dihn,  and  to  make  his 
offering  of  a  stone  or  a  piece  of  green  grass,  and  to  go  to  the  spring  and  be 
marked  as  described  above,  but — the  only  difference — a  twist  of  grass 
was  placed  round  his  right  wrist  only. 

The  Fur  proper  (so  the  "Tungur"  say)  have  no  part  or  lot  in  these 
rites,  and  the  reason  would  not  seem  far  to  seek.  The  Tungur,  one  supposes, 
brought  with  them  from  Christian  Nubia  the  recollection  of  certain  church 
rites,  in  particular  the  Sign  of  the  Cross,  and  though  the  Fur  were  never 
converted  to  Christianity  their  holy  stone  was  utilized  by  the  new-comers. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  Tungur  in  time  became  Muhammadans,  witness 
the  mosque  at  Ferra,  but  both  they  and  the  Fur  still  preserve  super- 
stitiously  some  relics  of  their  ancient  faiths. 

1  My  informant  described  this  by  placing  his  finger  just  above  his  navel,  but 
called  it  his  "heart." 


PART  II 

THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  ARAB  TRIBES 
THROUGH  EGYPT 


M.  S.  I. 


[I31  ] 


CHAPTER  1 

The  Progress  through  Egypt  in  the  Middle  Ages  of 
certain  Arab  Tribes  now  represented  in  the  Sudan 

I  At  the  time  of  the  rise  of  the  prophet  Muhammad  in  the  first 
half  of  the  seventh  century  a.d.  the  tribes  of  Arabia  were  considered 
to  fall  into  two  great  main  groups,  the  one  descended  from  Kahtan 
("Joctan")  the  son  of  'Abir  and  the  other  from  his  brother  Falig, 
the  biblical  "Peleg,  in  whose  days  the  earth  was  divided." 

The  first  of  these  groups  formed  the  "  Arab  el  'Ariba,"  the  older 
and  more  exclusive  Kahtanite  or  Yemenite  stock :  they  were  counted 
the  true  Arabs,  and  their  original  home  was  the  southern  portion  of 
the  peninsula.  They  consisted  of  two  branches,  one  descended  from 
Himyar  and  one  from  Kahlan1. 

The  second  and  more  northernly  group,  the  "Arab  el 
Must'ariba,"  traced  their  descent  through  Adnan  to  Isma'il,  that 
is  Ishmael  the  son  of  Abraham,  and  in  consequence  are  generally 
known  as  the  Isma'ilitic  or  Adnanite  stock2. 

II  The  most  important  division  of  the  Himyaritic  branch  of  Kahtan 
was  that  descended  from  Kuda'a:  it  included  such  important  tribes 
as  the  Beli,  the  Beni  Kelb  and  the  Guhayna3. 

The  Kahlan  branch  also  contained  several  famous  tribes.  The 
best  known  of  these  were  Tai,  including  Gudham  and  Lakhm, 
Mudhhig,  Hamdan,  Bagila  and  el  Azd.  The  last-named  again 
contained  the  two  great  Ghassanite  tribes  of  el  Aus  and  el  Khazrag, 
who  were  later  to  be  known  as  "el  Ansar,"  the  "Helpers"  [of  the 
Prophet] . 

III  The  chief  Isma'ilitic  tribes  were  those  of  Kays  Aylan,  Rabi'a, 
Kenana,  Wail  (a  section  of  Rabi'a),  Sulaym,  Hawazin,  Ghatafan, 
Tami'm,  and  the  Prophet's  own  tribe  of  Kuraysh.    Kuraysh,  itself 

1  The  term  "Himyarite"  is,  however,  used  frequently  as  though  it  were  co- 
extensive with  "Kahtanite." 

2  Robertson  Smith  casts  the  gravest  doubts  upon  the  whole  system  of  Arab 
genealogies  (see  Kinship  and  Marriage... Chap,  i).  It  is  not  at  all  improbable  that 
he  is  right,  but,  even  so,  though  many  of  the  assertions  of  the  genealogists  may  be 
incredible  as  literal  statements  of  fact,  yet  they  have  considerable  value  if  understood 
in  a  figurative  sense— if,  in  other  words,  they  are  taken  as  parables.  It  is  in  this 
liberal  sense  that  the  statements  made  categorically  in  these  chapters  must  often 
be  taken. 

3  Robertson  Smith  points  out  that  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  Himyaritic  origin  of 
Kuda'a,  though  generally  accepted  by  later  Arab  historians,  is  extremely  doubtful, 
and  that  the  older  authorities  refer  to  them  as  Isma'ilitic. 

9—2 


1 32  THE  PROGRESS  THROUGH  EGYPT  II.1.111. 

a  section  of  Ken  ana,  contained  among  others  the  Beni  Makhzum, 
the  Beni  'Abbas,  and  the  Beni  Ommayya. 

The  ancient  capital  of  the  Kahtanite  Arabs  was  at  Sana'a  in  the 
Yemen,  but  a  century  or  so  after  the  Christian  era1  large  numbers 
of  them  migrated  northwards  in  consequence,  tradition  has  it,  of  the 
bursting  of  the  great  dam  of  Marib,  and  settled  there. 

Thus  the  Beni  Lakhm  came  to  found  the  Monadira  dynasty  at 
Hi'ra,  near  the  ancient  site  of  Babylon,  and  ruled  the  Arabs  of  'Irak 
as  vassals  of  Persia2. 

The  Ghassan  took  up  their  abode  near  Damascus  and  from 
about  37  to  636  a. d.  maintained  a  control,  under  the  aegis  of  the 
Byzantine  emperors,  over  a  considerable  portion  of  Syria3. 

The  Kuda'a  group,  particularly  the  Guhayna  and  Beli,  settled 
in  the  northern  half  of  the  Hegaz  having  all  but  extirpated  the  ancient 
tribes  of  Thammud4  and  Ad,  who  had  previously  lived  there  and 
who  are  likely  to  have  been  cognate  to  the  Hamitic  tribes  inhabiting 
the  opposite  African  coast5. 

IV  Previously  to  Islam  the  difference  between  the  Kahtanite  and 
Isma'ilitic  tribes  had  been  to  some  extent  accentuated  by  a  difference 
of  language,  for  the  more  southernly  group  spoke  Himyaritic;  but 
the  tribal  movements  that  took  place  in  Arabia  after  the  Christian 
era  resulted  in  a  spread  of  Arabic,  and  with  the  acceptation  of 
Muhammadanism  that  language  became  completely  paramount. 

We  shall  see  later  that  the  distinction  between  Kahtanite  and 
Isma'ilitic  survives  under  a  rather  different  guise  in  the  Sudan  at 
the  present  date. 

V  Let  us  now  pass  to  the  conquest  of  Egypt  by  the  Arabs  in  the 
seventh  century. 

The  profuseness  of  details  we  possess  concerning  the  conquest 
is  only  equalled  by  their  inconsistency.  The  chief  reason  for  this  is 
to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  earliest  writers  of  all  were  Copts, 
who  were  chiefly  concerned  with  matters  of  church  history ;  and  the 
records  of  the  earliest  Arab  historians,  between  whom  and  the  Copts 
there  is,  in  any  case,  a  sad  gulf,  are  either  lost  or  only  partially 
extant  in  the  extracts  preserved  by  later  writers6. 

1  Caussin  de  Perceval  (i,  85-87)  puts  the  bursting  of  the  dam  about  I20A.D.( 
but  shews  that  there  is  considerable  divergence  of  opinion  as  to  the  exact  date. 

2  Abu  el  Fida,  pp.  122  et  seq.  and  Van  Dyck,  p.  24. 

3  Abu  el  Fida,  pp.  128  et  seq.  and  Van  Dyck,  pp.  28-31. 

4  Diodorus's  Thamudeni. 

5  Cp.  Burton,  Land  of  Midian,  II,  220  et  seq.;  Sale,  Prel.  Disc. 

6  See  Butler,  Arab  Conquest...,  pp.  vi-xxi.  The  difficulties  are  also  increased 
by  the  inaccessibility  of  several  important  MSS.  and  the  general  scarcity  of  adequate 
translations. 


II.  i.  vi.  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


133 


The  Futuh  el  Bulddn  of  el  Baladhuri,  written  about  868  a.d.,  is 
the  earliest  complete  extant  record  of  the  conquest  from  the  pen  of  an 
Arab,  and  the  author  makes  it  clear  that  even  in  the  ninth  century 
there  was  the  greatest  difference  of  opinion  concerning  the  subject.  As 
regards  the  question  of  the  tribal  composition  of  the  forces  which 
either  achieved  the  conquest  or  immigrated  in  the  years  immedi- 
ately following  it  the  record  is  particularly  scanty. 

A  certain  amount  of  disjointed  information  is  however  to  be 
gleaned  from  various  sources1,  and  of  these  the  most  fruitful  is  the 
treatise  written  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century  by  el  Makrizi 
on  the  subject  of  the  Arab  tribes  settled  in  Egypt2. 

By  this  time  many  of  the  tribes  who  had  taken  part  in  the  conquest 
of  'Amr  ibn  el  'Asi  had  become  merged  in  others  who  had  arrived 
at  subsequent  periods,  or  had  been  borne  westwards  or  southwards 
on  the  tide  of  conquest. 

VI  GudhAm.  One  notable  exception  appears  to  have  been  the 
great  Kahtanite  tribe  of  Gudham,  of  whom  a  large  portion  had  in 
1400  a.d.  been  occupying  the  Eastern  Delta  ["el  Hauf"]  for  some 
750  years3.  They  and  the  Beni  Lakhm  were  the  chief  rivals  of  the 
Kaysite  tribes  in  that  locality4. 

They  were  originally  a  branch  of  the  Beni  Tai  from  the  Yemen, 
but  they  had  so  completely  broken  away  from  the  parent  stem  that 
they  may  be  considered  as  entirely  separate.  In  the  era  preceding 
Islam  they  were  settled  with  some  Beni  Lakhm  and  branches  of 
Kuda'a  in  the  northern  Hegaz  from  the  Red  Sea  inland  to  the  terri- 
tory of  the  Beni  Kelb5. 

The  tribe  was  originally  divided  into  two  great  branches,  the 
Beni  Hishm  and  the  Beni  Haram6,  each  with  numerous  subdivisions. 
Few  of  the  former,  but  practically  all  the  latter,  seem  to  have  been 
settled  in  Egypt7. 

Those  in  the  Hauf  in  the  fifteenth  century  fell  under  two  main 

1  See  the  chapter  which  follows. 

2  This  treatise,  which  was  found  at  the  time  of  Napoleon's  expedition  and 
taken  away  from  Egypt,  has  been  summarized  by  Quatremere  in  his  Memoires 
Geographiques . . . ,  and  supplemented  from  other  MSS.  He  calls  his  precis  Memoire 
sur  les  tribus  Arabes  etablies  en  figypte.  Wiistenfeld  has  also  made  considerable  use 
of  it  in  his  Register  zu  den  genealogischen  Tabellen  der  Arabischen  Stdmme  und 
Familien :  he  refers  to  it  as  Abhandlung  iiber  die  in  Aegypten  eingewanderten  arabischen 
Stdmme. 

3  Makrizi's  Memoire...,  ap.  Quatremere  (11,  195). 

4  E.g.  in  813  A.D.;  see  following  chapter. 

5  Caussin  de  Perceval,  n,  232. 

6  Wiistenfeld,  5  (for  which  see  Tree  1  at  the  end  of  this  Part,  p.  191).  In  Quatre- 
mere's  Memoires,  "Haram"  (^j.^.)  appears  as  "Garam"  (j>j*?.). 

7  I.e.  nearly  all  the  sub-tribes  of  Beni  Haram  mentioned  by  Wiistenfeld  are 
included  in  Makrizi's  list  of  tribes  in  Egypt. 


i34  THE  PROGRESS  THROUGH  EGYPT  ii.i.vi 

denominations,  the  Zubayb1  and  the  Beni  Kumayl2,  and  held  many 
towns  in  fief3. 

It  appears  from  el  Makrizi 's  treatise  that  the  subsections  known 
collectively  as  the  Zubayb  were  the  Beni  Kurra4,  the  Beni  Zayd, 
the  Beni  Bu'ga5,  and  the  Beni  Suwayd6.  Among  the  Beni  Kumayl 
Makrizi  includes,  firstly,  the  "Beni  Sa'ad,"  the  descendants,  that  is, 
of  the  five  Sa'ads  mentioned  in  Wiistenf eld's  tree7;  secondly,  the 
Beni  Rashid8;  thirdly,  the  Halaba9;  fourthly,  the  Beni  'Ukba10; 
fifthly,  the  Aidh11;  sixthly,  the  Beni  Zayd  Menat. 

Of  the  Beni  'Ukba  some  were  in  Syria,  round  about  Damascus12 
and  others  round  Aila13.  The  rest  were  in  the  Hauf. 

It  seems  that  some  of  these  latter  at  some  time  or  another  joined 
the  Beni  Hilal14,  and  others,  we  shall  see,  eventually  found  their  way 
to  northern  Kordofan  and  became  the  nucleus  of  the  Kababish 
tribe. 

Another  section  of  Gudham,  closely  related  to  the  Halaba  and 
the  Beni  'Ukba  and  represented  in  Egypt,  were  the  Beni  Rudayni15. 

Now  the  term  Beni  Kumayl,  it  seems,  properly  applied  only  to  all 

1  Wiistenfeld,  "Dhobeib";  Quatremere,  "Dabib."  Wiistenfeld  follows  a 
definite  system  of  orthography,  which  Quatremere  does  not.  In  quoting  the 
former  I  alter  the  spelling  to  suit  the  orthography  I  have  followed  throughout. 

2  Quatremere,  "  Kemil." 

3  See  Makrizi,  ap.  Quatremere  (il,  193,  194). 

4  We  shall  meet  with  Beni  Kurra  again  as  a  branch  of  Beni  Hilal  settled  at 
Barka  among  the  Ketama  Berbers  prior  to  the  Beni  Hilal  invasion  of  N.  Africa. 
It  is  useless  to  speculate  as  to  whether  there  is  any  connection  between  the  two  or 
not.  Probably  there  was.  (See  later,  sub  Beni  Hilal,  and  compare  the  case  of 
the  Beni  'Ukba.) 

6  Quatremere,  "  Badjah."  6  Quatremere,  "  Souid." 

7  Makrizi  obviously  means  that  the  term  Beni  Sa'ad  had  five  different  connota- 
tions according  to  the  particular  Sa'ad  referred  to.  It  is  clear  from  the  tree  that 
some  of  the  five  included  others.  There  are  some  slight  discrepancies  between 
Wiistenfeld  and  Makrizi  here:  e.g.  the  latter  {ap.  Quatremere)  speaks  of  Sa'ad 
ibn  Afsa  instead  of  Sa'ad  ibn  Malik  ibn  Afsa,  and  Sa'ad  ibn  Malik  ibn  Malik 
instead  of  Sa'ad  ibn  Malik  ibn  Zayd  Menat. 

8  There  were  three  descendants  of  Suwayd  called  Rashid,  and  "Beni  Rashid" 
was  probably  used  in  the  same  way  as  was  "  Beni  Sa'ad." 

9  These  Makrizi  divides  into  Halaba  ibn  Suwayd  and  Halaba  ibn  Bug'a.  If 
Wiistenfeld  is  correct  the  former  should  be  Halaba  ibn  Malik  ibn  Suwayd. 

10  Quatremere,  "Akabah." 

11  They  lived  between  Cairo  and  Aila  (Makrizi,  ap.  Quatremere,  11,  194).  Aidh 
('Aids)  does  not  occur  in  Wiistenfeld  as  a  section  of  Gudham. 

12  So,  too,  Ibn  Khaldun,  9-1 1.  They  reached  as  far  south  as  Medina.  There  are 
still  a  few  families  of  them  round  Muwayla. 

13  Aila,  or  'Akabat  Aila,  was  the  mediaeval  name.  It  is  the  Elath  of  ancient 
times,  the  'Akaba  of  the  present.  (See  Muir,  Life  of  Mahomet,  p.  lxxviii,  and 
Burton,  Land  of  Midian,  I,  231.) 

14  Makrizi  {ap.  Quatremere,  11,  201)  speaks  of  the  Beni  'Ukba  among  the  Beni 
Hilal  sections  and  as  living  at  'Asfun  and  Esna.  By  Leo's  time  the  Beni  'Ukba  had 
become  a  main  section  of  Beni  Hilal  {q.v.  later). 

15  Quatremere,  "  Benou  Radiny." 


ill  vii.  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  135 

or  some  of  the  Beni  Kurra  section1,  and  neither  the  Beni  Sa'ad  nor 
the  other  five  subsections  were  really  descended  from  Kumayl  at  all. 

It  is  therefore  probable  that  the  Beni  Kumayl  had  obtained  the 
headship  over  a  large  number  of  closely  related  sections  of  Gudham, 
and  that  these  were  generally  known  as  Beni  Kumayl  for  that 
reason.  It  is  clear  also  that  among  the  Beni  Kumayl  were  numbers 
of  alien  tribesmen,  for  Makrizi  speaks  of  the  Zayd  Menat  sub- 
section as  including  Kenana,  Beni  'Urwa2  and  Beni  Kelb,  and 
certainly  none  of  these  were  Gudham. 

In  addition  to  the  ?ubayb  and  Beni  Kumayl  there  were  other 
branches  of  Gudham  near  Alexandria3. 

In  the  time  of  Saladin  (Salah  el  Din),  when,  that  is,  the  Kurdish 
dynasty  of  'Ayyubites  had  supplanted  the  Fatimites  in  Egypt  in 
1 171  a.d.,  the  tribe  of  Gudham,  who  had  been  very  powerful  under 
the  previous  dynasty,  suffered  something  of  a  reverse,  and  their  place 
was  to  some  extent  taken  by  the  Beni  Tai  proper4,  and  in  particular 
by  the  Tha'aliba  branch  of  that  tribe. 

VII  Tai.  These  Beni  Tai  had  entered  Egypt  at  a  later  date  than 
the  Beni  Gudham.  When  Makrizi  wrote  they  had  been  largely 
represented  in  Egypt  only  for  a  period  of  rather  more  than  three 
centuries.  The  Awlad  Sinbis  branch  had  increased  in  numbers  in 
southern  Palestine  to  an  alarming  extent  and  caused  considerable 
trouble  to  the  local  government.  So  in  1050  a.d.  the  vizier  Muham- 
mad el  Yaziiri  turned  them  out5  and  they  moved  to  the  Bahira 
province  in  the  north  of  Egypt  and  settled  there  among  the  Gudham- 
ite  Beni  Kurra.  These  Awlad  Sinbis  consisted  of  Awlad  Labi'd 
(including  Awlad  Hazm6  and  Awlad  Mahzab),  Awlad  'Amr, 
Awlad  'Adi  (including  Awlad  Aban),  and  Awlad  Fatah7. 

The  power  of  the  Tai  increased  under  the  Fatimites,  and  when 
the  'Ayyubites  conquered  Egypt  a  fresh  posse  of  the  tribe  came  in 
with  them.  These  were  the  Garm  and  the  Tha'aliba  sections,  who 
had  previously  been  settled  in  Syria8. 

Throughout  the  'Ayyiibite  period  (11 71-1249)  these  Beni  Tai 
maintained  their  power  but  the  feud  with  the  Gudham  did  not  die 

1  The  only  Kumayl  mentioned  by  Wustenfeld  was  son  of  Kurra. 

2  Quatremere,  "Arwah."  3  Makrizi,  ap.  Quatremere  (n,  197). 

4  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  Gudham  were  themselves  originally  a  branch 
of  Tai. 

5  Quatremere,  11,  191.  6  Wustenfeld,  "  Hizmir." 

7  Quatremere,  11.  191 ;  Wustenfeld,  1,  422  and  11,  6. 

8  Quatremere,  loc.  cit.\  Wustenfeld,  I,  183.  The  name  Garm  was  a  surname 
applied  to  a  certain  Tha'aliba  ibn  'Amr  on  account  of  a  woman  whom  he  brought 
up,  but  there  was  another  separate  branch  of  Tai  also  called  Tha'aliba,  viz.  that 
referred  to  in  Part  iv  (D  1,  vn),  in  speaking  of  the  Messiria. 


136  THE  PROGRESS  THROUGH  EGYPT         n.  1.  vn. 

out,  for  we  read  of  a  sanguinary  encounter  between  the  Tha'aliba 
and  the  Gudham  in  Sharkia  Province  about  1237  A. d.,  and  this  battle 
was  only  the  culminating  point  of  a  long  series  of  attacks  and  counter- 
attacks which  had  been  taking  place  for  years.  The  Gudham,  it 
appears,  were  partizans  of  the  Governor  of  Syria  and  in  league  with 
the  Mezata  and  Zenata  Berbers  of  Bahira  Province,  while  the 
Tha'aliba  supported  the  Sultan  of  Egypt.  After  the  fight  in  1237 
a  treaty  of  peace  was  arranged1. 

An  attempt  by  Saladin  in  the  first  year  of  his  reign  to  reduce  the 
number  of  Tai  horsemen  caused  such  resentment  that  it  was  aban- 
doned. The  cavalry  of  Gudham,  however,  were  reduced  from  7000 
to  3002. 

When  Mu'izz  'Izz  el  Din3,  the  first  of  the  Bahrite  Mamluks, 
supplanted  the  'Ayyubites,  many  of  the  Arabs  at  once  rose  in  resent- 
ment against  the  rule  of  a  barbarian  "slave,"  and  in  125 1  formed  a 
league  of  rebellion4. 

The  Beni  Tai  took  a  prominent  part  in  this  revolt,  and  they  were 
joined  by  some  Awlad  'Udhra,  who  were  also  Kahtanites5,  and 
many  Kenana,  including  such  branches  of  that  great  tribe  as  the 
Awlad  Mudlag  and  the  descendants  of  'Adi  ibn  Ka'ab 6.  The  rebels 
were,  however,  signally  defeated,  and  compelled  to  scatter  into 
Gharbia  Province7. 

The  Tha'aliba  branch  appear  to  have  been  powerful  in  Morocco 
in  13608.  Several  tribes  in  the  Sudan  are  descended,  according  to 
tradition,  from  them ;  and  some  of  the  Bakkara  may  claim  a  certain 
degree  of  probability  for  the  pretension. 

Two  other  large  Kahtanite  tribes  represented  at  the  conquest  of 
Egypt  are  the  Beli  and  the  Guhayna.  Both  were  main  branches  of 
Kuda'a9,  that  is  descended  from  Himyar,  whereas  the  Tai  were 
descended  from  Kahlan  the  brother  of  Himyar. 

1  Makrizi,  Selilk...,  p.  443. 

2  Makrizi,  loc.  cit.  p.  106.  Blochet  reads  "  Djoudamls,"  but  I  assume  this  to 
be   a  misreading   of  the    Arabic   text,    viz.   ^-.^j^h.,   or  ^-^o^efc,   instead   of 

3  Muir's  "Emir  Eibek,"  "Ai-beg,"  etc.  4  Quatremere,  11,  192 

5  Quatremere,  "Adhrah";  Wustenfeld,  '"Odsra."  Wustenfeld  gives  four 
"  'Odsras,"  all  Kahtanite  tribes. 

6  From  Makrizi  (q.v.  ap.  Quatremere)  one  might  suppose  the  Awlad  'Adi  and 
the  Kenana  and  the  Mudlag  were  separate  tribes.  Reference  to  Wustenfeld  (q.v. 
N  and  P)  shews  they  were  all  of  the  same  great  Isma'ilitic  family,  though  no  doubt, 
as  often  happens,  a  certain  portion  of  it  had  the  right  par  excellence  to  the  use  of 
the  name  Kenana. 

7  Makrizi,  Khetdt,  1,  210.  8   Ibn  Khaldun,  I,  147. 

9  The  Kuda'a  succeeded  the  ancient  Gurhumite  dynasty  in  the  Hegaz  and  were 
the  guardians  of  the  Ka'aba  until  they  were  replaced  about  406  A.D.  by  the  Kusai 
section  of  Kuraysh  (Van  Dyck,  pp.  34,  35). 


ill  viii.  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  137 

VIII  BELL  The  Beli  in  the  Days  of  Ignorance  had  been  settled  in 
Syria1,  but  at  the  time  of  the  conquest  'Omar  ibn  el  Khattab  trans- 
ferred a  large  number  of  them  to  Egypt,  and  one  of  the  quarters  of 
Fostat  was  set  aside  for  them2.  That  they  were  one  of  the  most 
numerous  of  the  tribes  that  immigrated  at  this  period  is  shewn  by 
the  fact  that  they  were  included  with  the  Ghafik3  and  one  other 
tribe4  as  "the  three  tribes  of  Egypt."  'Amr  himself  is  said  to  have 
used  this  phrase,  and  of  the  Beli  he  added  "They  have  mostly  been 
Companions  of  the  Prophet  and  their  principal  quality  is  that  they 
are  excellent  cavaliers5." 

Disputes  soon  arose  in  Egypt  between  them  and  their  kinsfolk 
the  Guhayna,  but  an  agreement  was  finally  reached  whereby  the 
Beli  settled  in  the  country  lying  between  Egypt  and  the  port  of 
'Aidhab6  on  the  Red  Sea,  that  is  in  the  northern  part  of  the  Bega 
country  which  was  later  inhabited  by  the  'Ababda7.  In  Makrizi 's 
day  there  were  numerous  branches  of  them  in  Egypt8  and  with  them 
were  commingled  certain  smaller  communities  drawn  from  the 
Isma'ilitic  tribes  of  Beni  Ommayya,  Thakif  (a  branch  of  Kays 
'Aylan),  and  Hudhayl.  Other  Beli  were  further  south  in  the 
Akhmi'm  district  with  the  Guhayna9. 

At  present  they  are  a  large  tribe  on  the  Arabian  coast  round 
Wegh,  neighbours  of  the  Guhayna,  and  there  are  others  settled  in 
Egypt  round  Girga10. 

1  They  had  previously  been  in  southern  Arabia.    See  Burton,  Land  of  Midian, 

I,  296,  and  11,  141,  etc. 

2  Ibn  Dukmak,  ap.  Butler,  p.  279;  el  Kindi,  ap.  Evetts  (Abu  Sdlih...),  p.  109. 
Other  quarters  were  occupied  by  Beni  Bahr,  Beni  Salamat,  Yashkur  (a  section  of 
Lakhm),  Beni  Hudhayl  ibn  Mudraka,  Beni  Naid,  Beni  el  Azrak,  etc. 

3  See  p.  156,  note. 

4  Bouriant  gives  "Maharrah"  (d^a*«o  ?)  as  its  name.  There  was  no  such  tribe. 
It  is  probable  that  "Mudr"  (  j-a-o)  is  meant. 

5  Makrizi,  Khetdt,  11,  469.   Burton  gives  an  account  of  them  in  Land  of  Midian, 

II,  141  et  seq. 

6  'Aidhab  lay  practically  due  east  from  Aswan,  near  the  ancient  Berenice:  see 
Makrizi,  Khetdt,  I,  pp.  41  and  43,  and  Wustenfeld,  sub  Bali  ben  'Amr. 

7  See  Makrizi,  ap.  Quatremere  (11,  202),  and  Wustenfeld,  1,  106.  The  boundaries 
of  the  Beli  were  on  the  north  the  bridge  of  Shuhai  and  on  the  south  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Kamula  (q.v.  in  Makrizi,  Khetdt,  I,  209). 

8  E.g.  B.  Hani,  B.  Harm,  B.  Sowad,  B.  Nab,  etc.  (Makrizi,  ap.  Quatremere,  11, 
202;  Wustenfeld,  loc.  cit.). 

9  Both  are  included  by  Makrizi  among  the  most  powerful  tribes  of  Upper  Egypt 
(see  Part  II,  Chap.  2). 

10  The  ruling  section  in  both  cases  is  the  Ma'akla.  It  is  possible  the  name  sur- 
vives in  the  Ma'akla  of  Kordofan  and  Darfur  (q.v.  in  Part  III).  The  Sheikh  of  this 
branch  at  Girga  gave  me  the  name  of  ten  sections  of  Beli  known  to  him  and  living 
round  Wegh  and  Girga :  they  were 

Ma'akla  Mowahib         Sahama  Wahashsha      Hilban 

Rumuth  H°mran  Beraykat  Ferei'at  Rubidda 

Burton  (loc.  cit.  II,  141)  specifies  twenty-three  principal  sections. 


138  THE  PROGRESS  THROUGH  EGYPT  ii.lix. 

IX  GUHAYNA.  The  Guhayna,  prior  to  their  immigration  into 
Africa,  had  been  settled  in  the  Hegaz  from  south  of  Yanbu'  to  north 
of  el  Haura,  and  their  chief  neighbours  were  Beli,  Gudham,  and 
Kenana1.  Many  never  left  these  parts,  and  at  the  present  day  the 
headquarters  of  the  Guhayna  are  still  at  Yanbu',  and  the  Beli  are 
still  their  neighbours  to  the  north2. 

They  were  among  the  first  of  the  Beduins  to  accept  Islam3. 
Some  600  of  those  who  crossed  to  Africa  took  part  in  647  a.d.  in  the 
first  Libyan  expedition4;  and  in  869  numbers  of  them  joined  the 
Beni  Rabi'a  in  their  invasion  of  the  Bega  country5. 

About  1400  a.d.  Makrizi  speaks  of  them  as  the  most  numerous 
tribe  in  Upper  Egypt.  They  had  been  in  Ashmunayn  district,  but  were 
ejected  thence  by  the  Kuraysh  in  the  Fatimite  era  and  had  settled 
round  el  Siut  and  Manfalut6. 

It  is,  however,  more  important  for  our  purpose  to  note  that  by 
the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century  they  had  penetrated  far  into  Nubia. 
Ibn  Khaldun  (1332-1406)  tells  us: 

In  Upper  Egypt  from  Aswan  and  beyond  it  as  far  as  the  land  of  the 
Nuba  and  that  of  Abyssinia  are  numerous  tribes  and  scattered  sections,  all 
of  them  belonging  to  Guhayna,  one  of  the  branches  of  Kuda'a.  They 
filled  those  parts  and  conquered  the  lands  of  the  Nuba  and  swarmed  over 
those  of  Abyssinia  and  shared  their  countries  with  them7. 

Elsewhere8  the  same  author,  speaking  of  events  that  occurred 
only  a  decade  or  two  before  his  own  birth  and  therefore  within 
common  recollection,  says: 

And  with  the  conversion  of  the  Nubians  the  payment  of  tribute  ceased9. 
Then  the  tribes  of  the  Guhayna  Arabs  spread  over  their  country  and 
settled  in  it  and  ruled  it  and  filled  it  with  rapine  and  disorder.  At  first 
the  kings  of  the  Nuba  attempted  to  repulse  them  but  they  failed:  then 
they  won  them  over  by  giving  them  their  daughters  in  marriage10.  Thus 
was  their  kingdom  disintegrated,  and  it  passed  to  certain  of  the  sons  of 
Guhayna  on  account  of  their  mothers  [s.c.  being  Nuba  of  the  blood-royal], 

1  See  Wiistenfeld,  1,  186-7,  su0  "  'Goheina  ben  Zeid." 

2  The  boundary  between  the  two  is  nearly  50  miles  north  of  Haura  (Burton, 
loc.  tit.  11,  133). 

3  Caussin  de  Perceval,  in,  217. 

4  El  Nuwayry,  ap.  Ibn  Khaldun,  Hist.  Berb.  1,  pp.  313  ff.  Some  700  Ghatafan 
and  Fezara,  etc.,  accompanied  them. 

6  Makrizi,  Khetdt,  11,  569. 

6  Ibid.  11,  710.  Sir  C.  Wilson  mentions  them  among  the  semi-nomadic  tribes 
north  of  Aswan  (loc.  tit.  p.  4). 

7  Ed.  de  Slane,  pp.  9-10;  ed.  ar.  vol.  6,  p.  5. 

8  Ed.  ar.  vol.  5,  p.  429.  This  passage,  not  having  been  translated  by  de  Slane, 
has  generally  escaped  notice. 

9  See  Part  II,  Chap.  2.  The  Arabic  is  ^fr^^^U  ^j-sj-M  C-adaltl. 

10  j-^cd\j  ^v^uLa^  ^J\  l^jl-w^J. 


II.  i.  x.  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  139 

according  to  the  custom  of  the  infidels  as  to  the  succession  of  the  sister  or 
the  sister's  son1.  So  their  kingdom  fell  to  pieces  and  the  A'rab2  of  Guhayna 
took  possession  of  it3.  But  their  rule  shewed  none  of  the  marks  of  states- 
manship because  of  the  inherent  weakness  of  a  system  which  is  opposed 
to  discipline  and  the  subordination  of  one  to  another.  Consequently  they 
are  still  divided  up  into  parties  and  there  is  no  vestige  of  authority  in  their 
land,  but  they  remain  nomads  following  the  rainfall  like  the  A'rab  of  Arabia. 
There  is  no  vestige  of  authority  in  their  land  since  the  result  of  the  com- 
mingling and  blending  that  has  taken  place  has  merely  been  to  exchange  the 
old  ways  for  the  ways  of  the  Bedouin  Arab4. 

The  most  important  mention  of  the  Guhayna  in  the  Sudanese 
nisbas  is  to  the  effect  that  they  reached  a  total  of  "fifty-two  tribes 
in  the  land  of  Soba  on  the  Blue  Nile  under  the  rule  of  the  Fung,  but 
most  [of  them]  are  in  the  west,  [namely  in]  Tunis  and  BornuhV 
Of  the  movement  of  the  Guhayna  south-westwards  into  Kordofan 
and  Darfur  more  will  be  said  in  the  chapters  that  follow. 

X  Lakhm.    The  tribes  of  Lakhm  were  kinsfolk  of  the  Beni  Gud- 
ham,  and,  like  them,  strictly  speaking,  a  branch  of  Tai. 

We  have  seen  how  they  came  originally  from  Yemen  and  settled 
on  the  confines  of  Persia.  They  founded  a  dynasty  there  in  268  a.d.6 
and  its  records  are  chiefly  of  warfare  against  the  tribes  to  the  west  of 
them  in  Syria,  Ghassan,  Beni  Bukr,  Beni  Tamim7  and  others. 

In  old  days  they  and  Gudham  had  both  been  worshippers  of  the 
planet  Jupiter8,  but  by  the  end  of  the  fifth  century,  if  not  earlier, 
Christianity  had  made  considerable  strides  to  the  east  of  Syria  and 
many  of  the  Arab  tribes,  including  Lakhm,  had  been  converted 
to  it9. 

The  rule  of  the  Lakhm  at  Hi'ra  ended  with  the  rise  of  Islam. 

1  The  Arabic  of  this  passage  is  as  follows : 

See  notes  on  pp.  92,  93  and  178,  re  matrilinear  descent.  Cp.  Quatremere, 
II,  38:  "Chez  les  Nubiens,  dit  Abou-Selah,  lorsqu'un  roi  vient  a  mourir  et  qu'il 
laisse  un  fils  et  un  neveu  du  cote  de  la  soeur,  celui-ci  monte  sur  le  trone,  de  pre- 
ference a  l'heritier  naturel." 

2  wjljfil,  the  word  used  exclusively  for  nomad  Arabs. 

3  The  reference  is  evidently  to  the  southern  "kingdoms."  The  Beni  Kanz,  etc., 
were  still  all-powerful  farther  north. 

5  See  "BA"  cxxm  in  Part  iv. 

6  See  Van  Dyck,  pp.  24-28.  Butler  (p.  214  note)  quotes  Ibn  Dukmak  as  denying 
their  right  to  be  called  Arabs.  This  denial  is  unreasonable. 

7  These  wars  took  place  between  473  and  576  a.d. 

8  Caussin  de  Perceval,  1,  349. 

9  The  Lakhmite  king  el  Na'aman  Abu  Kabus  (588-611  A.D.)  was  a  great  builder 
of  churches  (Van  Dyck,  loc.  cit.). 


i4o  THE  PROGRESS  THROUGH  EGYPT  11. 1.  x. 

At  the  conquest  of  Egypt  the  Yashkur  section  of  the  tribe  estab- 
lished themselves  upon  the  hill  called  after  them,  the  site  of  Ibn 
Tulun's  mosque1.  Many  other  sections  of  the  tribe  also  entered 
Egypt  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries  and  settled  round  Alex- 
andria2. In  798  a.d.  some  15,000  Andalusian  refugees,  who  had  been 
banished  from  Spain  by  the  Ommayyad  prince  el  Hakam  and  had 
landed  at  Alexandria,  entered  into  a  league  with  the  Beni  Lakhm; 
but  the  two  parties  soon  quarrelled  and  in  815  the  Andalusians  suc- 
ceeded in  taking  the  town3. 

During  the  same  half-century  the  Beni  Lakhm  were  involved  in 
the  civil  war  that  followed  the  death  of  Harun  el  Rashi'd  and  evinced 
great  turbulence  at  intervals4. 

In  Makrizi's  time  they  were  very  numerous  in  Upper  Egypt  and 
some  thirty  of  their  sections  are  mentioned  by  name.  There  were 
also  some  of  them  still  settled  round  Alexandria5. 

Among  other  Kahtanite  tribes  portions  of  which  are  known  to 
have  entered  Egypt  at  the  time  of  the  conquest  or  soon  after  it  we 
may  note  the  Beni  Hamdan,  the  large  Himyaritic  family  of  Dhu 
Asbah  to  which  belonged  Malik  ibn  Anas  the  founder  of  the  Maliki 
sect6,  and  a  section  of  Azd,  all  of  whom  settled  at  Giza7. 

Let  us  now  take  the  best  known  of  the  Isma'ilitic  or  'Adnanite 
tribes  who  took  part  in  the  invasion  of  Egypt.  The  most  famous 
are  the  Ken  ana  and  the  Kuraysh. 

XI  KenAna  and  KlJRAYSH.  The  eponymous  ancestor  of  the 
Kenan A  may  have  lived  about  100  a.d.8  The  home  of  his  descendants 
for  successive  centuries  had  been  in  the  Hegaz  and  Tihama  round 
Mekka9.  The  great  sub-tribe  of  Kuraysh  became  separate  from  the 
parent  stock  some  time  before  the  rise  of  the  Prophet  and  their  most 
famous  family,  that  of  Kusai,  obtained  the  guardianship  of  the 
Ka'aba  about  440  a.d.10 

1  Makrizi,  Khetdt,  1,  361.  There  was  also  a  section  of  Rabi'a  called  Yashkur 
(Caussin  de  Perceval,  II,  270). 

2  One  of  their  number  was  Governor  of  Egypt  in  750  a.d.  (Lane-Poole,  Hist. 

P-  49)- 

3  Makrizi,  loc.  cit.  11,  493,  494.  Alexandria  was  retaken  in  827  and  the  Anda- 
lusians were  expelled  to  Crete:  see  Lane-Poole,  loc.  cit.  p.  36,  quoting  Dozy,  11, 
68-76,  and  Quatremere. 

4  Lane-Poole,  loc.  cit.  p.  38;  Makrizi,  loc.  cit.  1,  269. 

5  Makrizi,  ap.  Quatremere  (11,  197). 

6  Wiistenfeld,  3. 

7  Vide  Makrizi,  Khetdt,  11,  606  and  607,  and  Abu  Salih  (p.  173).  The  latter 
speaks  of  Giza  as  built  exclusively  for  the  Hamdan :  a  note  by  Everts  gives  a  refer- 
ence to  el  Siuti's  Husn  el  Muhadira,  1,  81  (Arabic).    Cp.  Butler,  p.  431. 

8  Caussin  de  Perceval,  loc.  cit.  Table  VIII. 

9  Ibid.  1,  193,  and  Wiistenfeld,  1,  268. 

10  Caussin  de  Perceval,  1,  235. 


II.  i.  xi.  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  141 

At  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century  both  they  and  the  bulk 
of  Kenana  still  worshipped  the  idol  Uzza1,  and  the  two  tribes  were 
accustomed  to  act  in  unison  in  time  of  war2. 

When  the  Prophet  proclaimed  his  mission  he  met  with  the  most 
serious  opposition  from  his  own  tribesmen  of  Kuraysh,  and  it  was 
they  and  other  Kenana  who  signally  defeated  him  in  625  at  Ohod 
and  attempted  in  the  following  year  to  besiege  him  at  Medina3. 

In  630  Muhammad  took  Mekka  and  the  idol  of  Uzza  was  broken 
to  pieces  by  Khalid  ibn  Walid4.  The  Kuraysh  then  submitted. 

The  date  and  extent  of  the  Kenana  immigration  into  Egypt  are 
both  uncertain,  but  in  the  time  of  the  Patriarch  Shenudi's  biographer, 
at  the  end  of  the  seventh  century,  the  Beni  Mudlag  section  were 
strong  enough  to  besiege  Alexandria,  sack  monasteries,  and  refuse 
to  pay  taxes  until  an  army  was  sent  against  them5. 

In  818  a.d.,  and  again  thirteen  years  later,  we  find  the  Kenana, 
and  in  particular  the  Beni  Mudlag  section,  which  appears  to  have 
been  more  or  less  independent  of  the  main  tribe,  and  to  have  been 
very  prone  to  rebellion,  taking  part  in  the  Coptic  revolts6. 

In  1249,  when  Louis  IX  of  France  besieged  Damietta,  the 
garrison  consisted  of  Kenana.  They  fled,  however,  on  the  first 
approach  of  the  enemy,  and  in  consequence  the  Sultan  hung  as 
many  of  them  as  he  could  catch7. 

By  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century  the  Kenana  proper  in 
Egypt  were  divided  into  three  main  divisions,  the  Damra8,  the  Layth 
and  the  Firas  :  their  headquarters  were  round  Sakia  Kolta. 

The  Kuraysh  included  the  Awlad  'Adi  ibn  Ka'ab,  the  Beni 
Makhzum,  the  Beni  Ommayya,  the  Beni  'Abbas  and  many  others, 
and  may  be  assumed  to  have  been  well  represented  at  the  conquest 
of  Egypt  since  both  'Amr  ibn  el  'Asi  and  el  Zubayr  ibn  el  'Awwam, 
who  reinforced  him,  and  several  others  of  the  more  famous  chieftains 
were  tribesmen  of  Kuraysh9.   Many  more  immigrated  with  succes- 

1  Caussin  de  Perceval,  I,  269.  Other  Kenana  worshipped  the  Moon  and  Alde- 
baran  (ibid.  1,  349,  and  cp.  Van  Dyck,  p.  38). 

2  E.g.  in  580  a. d.  broke  out  the  famous  "Holy  Wars"  between  the  Kuraysh 
and  other  branches  of  Kenana  on  the  one  hand  and  the  Beni  Hawazin  on  the 
other:  these  lasted  for  about  ten  years  (Caussin  de  Perceval,  loc.  cit.  1,  296  ff.). 

3  Ibid.  Ill,  90.  4  Caussin  de  Perceval,  in,  241  ff. 

5  MS.  Arab  140,  pp.  33  ff.,  ap.  Quatremere,  11,  198.  Shenudi  died  in  451.  His 
biography  was  written  in  685  or  690  (Butler,  Arab  Conquest...,  pp.  87  and  88). 

6  E.g.  see  Makrizi,  Khetdt,  n,  494,  495,  496. 

7  Makrizi,  Seluk,  p.  512;  Lane-Poole,  Hist.  p.  232. 

8  Wiistenfeld  (N),  "Dhamra";  Quatremere,  "  Damrah." 

9  Ibn  'Abd  el  Hakam,  as  quoted  by  Abu  el  Mahasin,  gives  a  list  of  the  "  Ashab  " 
who  accompanied  'Amr.  Nearly  all  of  these  were  Kurayshites,  and  of  them,  again, 
the  majority,  including  'Amr  and  Zubayr,  belonged  to  the  Beni  Ka'ab  section 
(see  Butler,  p.  229  note). 


142  THE  PROGRESS  THROUGH  EGYPT  n.  i.  xi. 

sive  Ommayyad  and  'Abbasid  governors1,  and  we  shall  see  that  at 
least  one  party  of  them  crossed  the  Red  Sea  into  the  Sudan  in  the 
eighth  century2.  Early  in  the  tenth  century  the  branch  descended 
from  Ga'afir  ibn  Abu  Talib  was  expelled  from  Mekka  by  the  Beni 
Husayn  and  from  the  country  north  of  it  by  the  Beni  Harb,  and 
took  refuge  in  Egypt.  In  Ibn  Khaldun's  time  they  were  settled 
between  Aswan  and  Kus  with  the  Beni  Kanz,  and  were  known  as 
the  Shurafa  el  Ga'afira:  they  were  chiefly  employed  in  trade3.  The 
Ga'afira  of  the  present  day  are  their  descendants. 

In  1400  the  Kuraysh  were  mostly  settled  round  Ashmunayn 
whence  they  had  ousted  the  Guhayna  ;  others  lived  side  by  side  with 
the  Guhayna  in  el  Shit  and  Manfalut  districts,  or  scattered  through- 
out Upper  Egypt4. 

Among  their  chief  subdivisions  Makrizi  mentions  the  Beni 
Ga'afir,  the  Beni  Talha,  the  Beni  Zubayr,  the  Beni  Shayba,  the 
Beni  Makhzum,  the  Beni  Ommayya,  the  Beni  Zahra,  and  the  Beni 
Sahm  (the  family  of  'Amr  ibn  el  'Asi)5. 

XII  KAYS  'AylAn.  About  727  a.d.  a  portion  of  the  great  tribe  of 
Kays  'Aylan  was  brought  from  the  Upper  Negd  of  Arabia  by  the 
treasurer  'Obaydulla  ibn  el  Habhab  and  settled  in  the  eastern  Hauf 6. 
In  that  year  a  Kaysite,  el  Walid  ibn  Rifa'a  el  Fahmi,  was  Governor 
of  Egypt7. 

According  to  Makrizi  only  a  few  individuals  of  the  Fahm  and 
'Ad wan  sections  of  the  tribe  had  previously  been  in  Egypt,  but  this 
statement  seems  inaccurate,  for  we  know  that  between  709  and  727,  not 
counting  el  Walid,  there  had  been  no  less  than  three  Kaysite  Governors 
of  Egypt,  two  of  the  Fahm  and  one  of  the  'Abs  section,  and  these 
would  not  have  come  unattended  by  numbers  of  their  own  tribesmen. 
El  Kindi,  too,  mentions8  that  at  the  time  of  the  conquest  a  part  of 
el  Fostat  was  laid  out  by  the  tribe  of  "Kinana  ibn  'Amr  ibn  el  Kibr 
ibn  Fahm9,"  i.e.  by  a  section  of  Kays.  We  shall  also  see  that  other 
sections  of  Kays  were  well  represented  before  727  a.d. 

1  For  the  number  of  these  see  following  chapter,  para.  vm. 

2  See  following  chapter,  para.  xi. 

3  Ibn  Khaldun,  ed.  de  Slane,  I,  9-1 1 ;  ed.  ar.  vol.  6,  pp.  5,  6,  Bk.  1.1;  cp.  Makrizi, 
Khetdt,  11,  710. 

4  Makrizi,  Khetdt,  11,  710. 

5  Quatremere,  II,  17. 

6  See  Makrizi,  Khetdt,  1,  229.  Lane-Poole  (Hist.  p.  28)  gives  the  date  as  "about 
732."  Caussin  de  Perceval  puts  the  date  of  the  tribe's  eponymous  ancestor  Kays 
at  about  68  a.d.  There  were  only  four  generations  between  him  and  'Adnan 
(Caussin  de  Perceval,  Vol.  1,  Table  VIII). 

7  Lane-Poole,  Hist.  p.  48. 

8  El  Khetdt...,  ap.  Abu  Salih,  p.  no. 

9  See  Wustenfeld,  D,  where  "el  Qein"  is  read  for  "el  Kibr." 


II.  i.  xii.  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  143 

Ibn  el  Habhab  at  first  collected  one  hundred  families  of  Kays: 
these  were  given  lands  near  Balbays  on  the  south-east  side  of  the 
Delta  and  bought  camels  and  horses  and  engaged  in  the  transport 
trade  between  the  sea-coast  and  the  interior  so  successfully  that  the 
news  of  their  prosperity  led  five  hundred  more  families  of  Kays  to 
immigrate  and  join  them.  This  process  continued,  and  within  a  year 
of  the  original  immigration  there  were  fifteen  hundred  families  of 
the  tribe,  chiefly  members  of  the  great  Beni  Sulaym  branch,  settled 
round  Balbays.  By  750  a.d.  the  number  had  been  doubled. 

They  soon  turned  their  hand  to  brigandage  and  in  779  had  to  be 
severely  repressed  by  the  governor  Ibn  Mamdud1. 

In  the  first  half  of  the  next  century  they  revolted  every  few 
years2.  Makrizi  speaks  of  a  rebellion  in  the  Hauf  in  802  caused  by 
the  oppressive  land  tax,  and  the  identity  of  the  rebels  is  indicated  by 
the  fact  that  "twenty-four  heads  of  Kaysite  chiefs"  were  sent  to 
el  Fostat  by  the  government  representative. 

In  807  a  similar  rising  took  place  and  was  suppressed  by  the 
treacherous  seizure  of  the  chief  sheikhs  in  the  Hauf,  who, it  is  specified, 
were  originally  Yemenites  and  Beni  Kays. 

Twenty-two  years  later  the  same  causes  led  again  to  the  same 
result,  and  all  the  Hauf  and  most  of  the  rest  of  the  Delta  rose  in  arms : 
it  was  only  after  a  year  of  fighting,  in  which  the  rebels  had  distinctly 
the  advantage,  that  some  sort  of  order  was  restored.  Even  so,  in  831 , 
the  whole  of  Lower  Egypt,  and  not  merely  the  Beni  Kays  and  their 
neighbours,  was  in  revolt. 

The  result  of  these  insurrections  was  certainly  not  to  weaken  the 
power  of  the  Beni  Kays,  for  they  remained  sufficiently  powerful  to 
be  recognized  as  the  protagonists  of  the  Isma'ilitic  tribes  against  the 
rival  Yemenites  or  Kahtanites  in  Egypt 3,  and  when  Harun  el  Rashid 
died  in  808  and  both  of  his  sons  claimed  the  Khalifate,  one  of  them 
astutely  nominated  the  chief  of  the  Beni  Kays  to  be  Governor  of 
Egypt  and  owed  his  success  there  entirely  to  this  manoeuvre.  The 
opponents  of  the  Beni  Kays  on  this  occasion  were  chiefly  Lakhm 
and  Gudham4. 

In  Makrizi 's  day  the  term  Kays  was  used  practically  to  denote 
not  only  the  descendants  of  Kays  'Aylan  but  also  those  of  his  grand- 
father Mudr  and  of  the  latter's  father  Nizar5. 

1  Lane-Poole,  Hist.  p.  33. 

2  Makrizi,  Khetdt,  1,  230-232. 

3  Makrizi,  ap.  Quatremere,  11,  497. 

4  Makrizi,  Khetdt,  11,  508,  509.    Cp.  Lane-Poole,  Hist.  p.  35. 

5  The  badge  of  "I£ays"  was  a  red  flag:  that  of  "Yemen"  a  white  one  (see 
Quatremere,  he.  cit.). 


144  THE  PROGRESS  THROUGH  EGYPT         n.  1.  xn. 

They  must,  too,  have  largely  intermarried  with  the  Berbers  in 
Egypt,  for  we  have  the  great  Luata  branch  of  the  latter  about  1400  a. d. 
actually  calling  themselves  descendants  of  Kays  'Aylan1. 

Now  some  of  the  main  branches  of  Kays  had  at  an  early  date 
become  sufficiently  independent  to  be  no  longer  spoken  of  under 
that  denomination  in  common  parlance. 

About  563  a.d.,  for  instance,  the  bloody  "  War  of  el  Dahis  "  broke 
out  between  the  Beni  Fezara  and  the  Beni  'Abs,  both  independent 
sections  of  the  Ghatafan  branch2. 

XIII  FezAra.  These  Fezara  in  the  Prophet's  day  were  to  all 
intents  an  independent  tribe  and  lived  near  Mekka.  They  and  the 
Beni  'Abs  submitted  to  Islam  in  629,  but  revolted  for  a  time  against 
Abu  Bukr  in  632  s. 

From  el  Nuwayry4  we  learn  that  some  Ghatafan  and  Fezara 
took  part  with  Guhayna  and  others  in  the  expedition  which  'Abdulla 
ibn  Sa'ad  made  to  the  west  of  Egypt  in  647. 

This  would  not  be  compatible  with  the  statement  of  Makrizi  that 
there  were  no  Kays  in  Egypt  till  727  a.d.  were  it  not  assumed  that 
the  Fezara  had  become  so  independent  that  their  Kaysite  origin  had 
been  forgotten5. 

Subsequently,  other  Fezara  accompanied  the  Beni  Hilal  when 
the  latter  entered  Egypt  in  the  eleventh  century,  and  the  remarks  of 
Idrisi  in  n  54  and  of  Ibn  Sa'id  a  century  later  lead  one  to  think  that 
this  or  an  earlier  group  of  Fezara  coalesced  with  the  Berbers  to  such 
a  degree  as  hardly  to  be  distinguishable  from  them6. 

Other  Fezara  remained  in  Egypt.  Makrizi  speaks  of  them  as 
settled  in  Upper  Egypt,  Kaliub  Province  and  Cairo7.   Even  more  of 

1  Quatremere,  11,  207. 

2  It  lasted  till  608  a.d.:  see  Caussin  de  Perceval,  11,  429  and  499;  Abu  el  Fida, 
pp.  140  et  seq. ;  Van  Dyck,  p.  38 ;  and  Wiistenfeld,  H.  The  war  arose  out  of  a  horse- 
race in  which  foul  play  took  place. 

3  Caussin  de  Perceval,  III,  218,  345,  362. 

4  Ap.  Ibn  KhaldOn,  1,  313-447.  See  also  MSS.  A  11,  liv,  and  D  6,  xm  in 
Part  iv,  from  which  it  seems  some  of  them  may  have  accompanied  'Abdulla  ibn 
Sa'ad's  expedition  of  641-642. 

6  Caussin  de  Perceval  (Table  X  b)  puts  the  date  of  the  eponymous  ancestor  of 
the  Fezara  at  about  300  a.d.  There  are  three  generations  between  him  and  Ghatafan 
the  grandson  of  Kays. 

6  Ibn  Sa'id  {q.v.  ap.  Ibn  KhaldQn,  pp.  9-1 1)  says:  "Among  the  descendants 
of  Ghatafan  there  are  at  Barka  the  Hayb,  the  Ruaha,  and  the  Fezara."  Idrisi 
(p.  290,  ap.Carette,Recherches...,pp.  I26ff.)  speaks  of  the  territories  of  Old  Ptolemais 
as  inhabited  by  Zenata  and  Fezara,  and  alludes  to  them  as  Berber  tribes  arabicized. 
The  Zenata  were  of  course  Berbers.  Some  Fezara  remained  in  North  Africa  and 
preserved  their  tribal  integrity:  M.  Carette  (loc.  cit.  p.  445)  mentions  them  in  1853 
as  among  the  tribes  in  the  province  of  Constantine. 

7  Quatremere,  11,  207.  There  are  still  Fezara  in  Egypt  (Klippel,  p.  9;  and  cp. 
Sir  C.  Wilson,  p.  4). 


II.  i.  xiv.  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  145 

them  must  have  found  their  way  to  the  Sudan,  for,  though  the  name 
is  now  seldom  heard,  it  was  used  previous  to  the  Mahdia  almost 
generically  to  denote  the  camel-owning  tribes  of  Kordofan  and 
Darfur1,  and  a  perusal  of  the  nisbas  that  follow  will  make  it  clear 
that  a  great  number  of  the  Sudanese  Arabs  who  do  not  aspire  to  call 
themselves  Beni  'Abbas  claim  descent  from  the  Fezara,  Ghatafan, 
Beni  Dhubian  and  other  tribes  of  Kays  'Aylan. 

XIV  Beni  HilAl  and  Beni  Sulaym.  Another  great  sub-tribe  of 
Kays  was  the  Beni  Hilal.  These  were,  genealogically  considered, 
a  section  of  the  Hawazin  who,  like  the  Beni  Sulaym,  were  a  branch 
of  that  main  division  of  Kays  called  the  'Ikrima2. 

That  portion  of  the  'Ikrima  which  was  generally  known  by  the 
name  will  be  met  with  later  in  speaking  of  the  Awlad  Kanz  at 
Aswan3.  The  Beni  Hilal  at  some  fairly  early  period4  had  become 
separated  from  the  main  tribe  in  the  same  way  as  had  the  Fezara, 
and  their  home  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century  was  with 
their  relatives  the  Beni  Sulaym  near  Tayf  in  the  plains  which  lie 
east  of  the  mountains  that  separate  Tihama  from  Negd5.  When  the 
Islamic  movement  began  a  number  of  them  moved  permanently  to 
Syria. 

Now  in  the  tenth  century  the  Fatimites  having  become  supreme 

1  Cp.,  too,  el  Tunisi. 

2  'Aylan 

I 
Kays 

I 
Khasafa 

I 
'Ikrima 

I 
Mansur 


1  [ 

Sulaym  Hawazin 

I 

Bekr 

I 

Mu'awia 

I 
Sa'sa'a 

'     I 
'Amir 

I 
Hilal 
(See  Wustenfeld,  F,  and  Caussin  de  Perceval,  Table  X  A.) 
*  See  p.  187. 

4  Caussin  de  Perceval  estimates  that  Hilal  ibn  'Amir  himself  lived  about  414  A. D. 
(Table  X  a). 

5  Ibn  Khaldun,  I,  25  ;  Caussin  de  Perceval,  11,  410.  Cp.  Quatremere,  11,  212-215. 
The  Sherarat  of  Arabia  are  said  to  be  descended  from  them :  see  Doughty,  Arabia 
Deserta,  1,  125.  Doughty  speaks  of  the  B.  Hilal  as  the  "fabled  ancient  heroic  Aarab 
of  Nejd  " :  almost  any  antiquarian  remains  of  unknown  origin  were  locally  attributed 
to  them:  seeAr. Des.loc.cit.  andi,  387,  and  Wanderings...,  1,  36,  38,  138;  11,  211,  259. 

M.S.I.  10 


146  THE  PROGRESS  THROUGH  EGYPT        II.  1.  xiv 

along  the  North  African  coast-line  pushed  their  conquests  eastwards 
over  Egypt  and  Syria,  and  by  991  a.d.  they  had  brought  under  their 
rule  all  the  country  lying  between  the  eastern  border  of  Morocco 
and  the  Syrian  desert  and  the  Orontes1. 

Almost  immediately  after  the  conquest  of  Syria  the  Khalifa  el 
'Aziz  Abu  Mansur  (975-996  a.d.)  moved  the  Beni  Sulaym  and  Beni 
Hilal  to  Upper  Egypt  and  settled  them  there2.  The  chief  divisions 
of  the  latter  were  the  Athbeg,  the  Riah,  the  Zoghba,  the  Ma'akl, 
the  Gishm  and  the  Kurra3. 

About  fifty  years  later,  in  1045,  when  the  power  of  the  Fatimites 
was  beginning  to  decline,  Mu'izz  the  chief  of  the  Sanhaga  Berbers 
at  Kairuan  became  disaffected,  and  the  Khalifa  el  Mustansir  Abu 
Tamim  (1036-1094)  eventually  sent  word,  in  1049,  to  the  Beni 
Hilal  saying  "I  make  you  a  gift  of  Maghrab  and  the  kingdom  of 
Mu'izz  son  of  Balkin  the  Sanhagi,  the  runaway  slave4." 

Thus  was  ushered  in  the  period  of  permanent  Arab  domination 
in  that  part  of  North  Africa  which  lies  west  of  Egypt5.  The  tribes  of 
Beni  Hilal,  accompanied  by  other  Beni  Kays,  chiefly  Beni  Sulaym 
and  Fezara6,  under  their  leadership7,  swarmed  "like  locusts"  to  the 
north-west  in  105 1,  joined  forces  with  their  kinsfolk  the  Beni  Kurra 
who  with  the  aid  of  the  Ketama  Berbers  had  already  established 
themselves  about  forty-six  years  before  at  Barka,  and  overran  the 
provinces  of  Tunis  and  Tripoli8.  Mu'izz  enlisted  the  aid  of  the 
Zenata  Berbers,  but  his  resistance  was  weak,  disaffection  was  rife, 
such  of  his  troops  as  accepted  battle  were  defeated,  and  the  country 
passed  under  the  denomination  of  the  Beni  Hilal.  This  great 
expedition  and  the  desultory  warfare  with  the  Zenata  that  followed 
it  gave  rise  to  the  famous  cycle  of  legends  in  honour  of  the  hero 
"Abu  Zayd  el  Hilali"  which  was  rife,  at  least  until  lately,  all  over 

1  Van  Dyck,  p.  150. 

2  Some  of  the  Beni  Sulaym  appear  also  to  have  entered  Egypt  some  seventy 
years  earlier  (109  A.H.)  and  to  have  been  settled  round  Balbays,  where  subsequently 
they  were  joined  by  others  of  their  tribe.  These  all,  at  a  later  date,  moved  with  the 
main  tribe  to  the  Berber  country  in  the  west.    (Quatremere,  II,  212-215.) 

3  Ibn  Khaldun,  1,  28  (ed.  de  Slane),  and  ed.  ar.  Vol.  6,  p.  15,  Bk.  11. 

4  Ibn  Khaldun,  ed.  ar.  Vol.  6,  p.  14. 

6  Previous  to  this  of  course  the  Arabs  had  made  numerous  expeditions  west- 
wards from  Egypt  and  no  doubt  some  permanent  settlements  had  been  made, 
but  there  had  been  no  general  arabicization. 

6  The  bulk  of  the  Fezara  were  still  in  Arabia  at  this  time  (see  Ibn  Khaldun,  ed. 
de  Slane,  1,  118  note). 

7  Several  of  the  sub-tribes  mentioned  by  Ibn  Khaldun  were,  as  he  particularly 
points  out,  and  as  Wustenfeld's  table  shews,  not  Beni  Hilal  proper,  though  they 
were  of  kindred  origin  in  nearly  every  case,  e.g.  Ghatafan  (including  Fezara)  and 
other  branches  of  Kays  'Aylan.   (See  Ibn  Khaldun,  ed.  ar.  Vol.  6,  pp.  5,  16,  17.) 

8  Cp.  Lane-Poole,  Hist.  p.  128. 


II.  i.  xiv.  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  147 

Egypt1,  and  which  in  various  more  or  less  garbled  forms  is  still 
frequently  met  with  in  the  Sudan. 

The  Beni  Hilal  thus  transplanted  to  Tunis  and  Tripoli  very 
soon  took  to  intermarriage  with  the  Libyo-Berber  tribes  who  had 
previously  occupied  the  country,  and  the  process  of  alternate  fighting 
and  miscegenation  continued  persistently  under  the  various  dynasties 
that  rose  and  fell  in  northern  Africa  during  the  ages  that  followed. 
The  alleged  Yemenite  origin  of  the  powerful  Sanhaga  and  Ketama 
branches  of  Berber  is  probably  authentic2,  and  if  so  largely  explains 
the  readiness  with  which  Arab  and  Berber  fused  their  stocks  into  the 
race  known  now  as  Moors3. 

Within  a  hundred  years  of  their  arrival  in  Libya  the  Sanhaga 
and  most  of  the  Beni  Hilal  were  leagued  together  in  revolt  against 
the  Almohades  (El  Muwahhidin).  Numbers  of  them  also  pushed 
westwards  to  Spain4. 

From  now  until  the  time  of  Ibn  Khaldun  (1332-1405)  and  Leo 
(d.  1552)  one  loses  sight  of  the  Beni  Hilal  in  the  west;  but  in  the 
south  one  hears  of  some  of  them  among  the  troops  sent  by  Kalaun 
in  1287  to  invade  Dongola5.  Ibn  Khaldun  mentions  them  in  Upper 
Egypt  in  his  day8,  and  Makrizi  speaks  of  them  about  1400  a.d.  as 
very  numerous  in  the  district  of  Aswan,  in  the  eastern  desert  as  far 
as  'Aidhab,  and  in  fact  all  over  the  Sa'id7. 

It  also  appears  that  some  of  the  Ga'afiria  settled  between  Esna 
and  Aswan  may  be  Beni  Hilal  by  origin8. 

There  is  evidence  that  some  of  the  Beni  Hilal  also  settled  in  the 
Sudan9:  it  would  be  a  remarkable  thing  if  they  did  not. 

As  regards  the  Beni  Sulaym,  though  most  of  them  left  Egypt 
for  the  west  at  the  time  of  the  great  migration  of  1051,  by  no 
means  all  of  them  did  so.  At  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century  they 
were  very  powerful  in  Bahira  Province,  and  very  many  of  them  were 
also  settled  in  the  Fayum  and  Upper  Egypt10. 

1  See  Lane-Poole,  Manners  and  Customs...,  Ch.  21 ;  Huart,  p.  405,  etc. 

2  See  above,  p.  8. 

3  Moghrabi,  pi.  Mogharba  (or  Moghrabfn).  Doughty  writes  in  1888 :  "  Moorish 
Arabs  are  well  accepted  by  the  Arabians  who  repute  them  '  an  old  Hegaz  folk  and 
nephews  of  the  Beni  Hilal'"  {Wanderings...,  I,  36  ff.). 

4  Ibn  Khaldun,  1,  25  and  118.  The  Zoghba  section  threw  in  their  lot  with  the 
Almohades.   {Ibid.  11,  90.) 

5  Quatremere,  II,  101  ff. 

6  Ibn  Khaldun,  ed.  de  Slane,  1,  9-1 1.  7  Quatremere,  11,  201. 

8  Lane,  Manners  and  Customs...,  p.  405,  mentions  "Ga'afireh"  as  a  sub-tribe 
of  Beni  Hilal.    See  also  remarks  under  Gawama'a  in  Part  III. 

9  See  pp.  68,  69  and  79. 

10  At  the  same  period  the  Howara  in  Libya  were  subject  to  the  Beni  Sulaym, 
and  the  two  tribes  pastured  their  herds  together.  (See  Ibn  Khaldun,  I,  197,  and 
cp.  Makrizi,  ap.  Quatremere,  II,  207,  212-215.) 

10 — 2 


148  THE  PROGRESS  THROUGH  EGYPT        11. 1.  xiv. 

Leo  Africanus  (c.  1495-1552)  gives  us  details  concerning  the 
Beni  Hilal  in  the  north.  "The  Arabians  which  inhabit  Africa1," 
he  says,  "are  diuided  into  three  parts,  one  part  whereof  are  called 
Cachin2,  the  second  Hilell,  and  the  third  Machill3."  Of  the 
"Hilell,"  or  Beni  Hilal,  he  tells  us  that  they  were  a  rich  powerful 
tribe  with  6000  horsemen  dwelling  "upon  the  frontiers  of  the  king- 
dom of  Tremizen  and  Oran4." 

The  Awlad  Ukba  section  lived  on  the  borders  of  Meliana  in 
Algeria5  and  were  in  receipt  of  allowances  from  the  ruler  of  Tunis: 
"they  are  a  rude  and  wild  people,  and  in  very  deade  estranged  from 
all  humanitie:  they  have  (as  it  is  reported)  about  1500  horsemen." 

XV  RABI'A  and  Beni  Kanz.  One  of  the  largest  divisions  of  the 
Isma'ilitic  stock  in  Arabia  was  that  of  Rabi'a,  who  included  the 
great  Bukr  and  Taghlib  sections,  known  together  as  Wail,  the 
'Abd  el  Kays  and  many  others 6. 

The  early  home  of  the  Rabi'a  was  in  the  Hegaz,  the  Negd  high- 
lands and  Tihama,  but  towards  the  end  of  the  fifth  century  a.d. 
violent  internal  dissensions  broke  out  and  in  the  sixth  most  of  the 
tribe  migrated,  the  Taghlib  from  Negd  north-westwards  to  Meso- 
potamia and  the  'Abd  el  Kays  from  Tihama  eastwards  with  the 
Bukr  to  Bahrayn7.  Early  in  the  seventh  century  a  great  part  of  the 
Rabi'a  accepted  Christianity8. 

In  854  a.d.  occurred  an  extensive  migration  of  Rabi'a  to  Egypt9. 
They  dispersed  into  the  various  cantons,  but  chiefly,  it  would  appear, 
to  the  Aswan  district  and  northern  Nubia.  Thence,  in  869,  in  com- 
pany with  many  Kahtanite  Guhayna  and  others  the  Rabi'a  poured 

1  Meaning  the  country  west  of  Egypt  and  the  Nile. 

2  "Cachin,"  or  "Schachin"  (Leo,  p.  150),  are  called  "Esquequin"  by  Marmol 
(p.  76).  They  were  of  Isma'ilitic  origin  according  to  both  authors. 

3  Leo,  trans.  Pory,  pp.  142  and  150.  Both  Leo  and  Marmol  Caravajal  (c.  1520) 
derive  their  information  as  to  the  past  history  of  the  tribe  of  Beni  Hilal  from  Ibn 
el  Rakik  (see  Leo,  ed.  Brown,  p.  211  note).  By  "Machill"  are  probably  intended 
the  Ma'akl  (or  Ma'akla)  mentioned  (see  p.  146)  by  Ibn  Khaldun  as  a  branch  of 
Beni  Hilal  and  represented  at  the  present  among  the  Beli  sub-tribes  (see  p.  137, 
note).  Marmol  (p.  76)  calls  them  Mahequil.  Both  he  and  Leo  attribute  to  them  a 
Himyaritic  origin. 

4  Leo,  p.  144. 

5  "The  kingdom  of  Hucban  are  next  neighbours  unto  the  region  of  Melian" 
(ibid.  loc.  cit.). 

6  Including  the  'Anaza,  the  great  tribe  which  lived  at  first  in  Tehama  and  now 
between  the  Euphrates  and  the  Syrian  mountains  (Caussin  de  Perceval,  1,  191). 
There  was  also  a  section  of  I£ays  called  Rabi'a. 

7  C.  de  Perceval,  loc.  cit.  The  settlements  of  Bukr  were  known  as  Diar  Bukr, 
the  modern  "Diarbekir."  Cp.  Wustenfeld,  1,  378,  sub  "Rabi'a  ben  Nizar,"  quoting 
Yakut  and  el  Bekri.  8  Ibid.  1,  348;  11,  392~3- 

9  Quatremere,  11,  84-85,  quoting  Makrizi's  treatise  on  the  Arab  tribes  settled 
in  Egypt.    Cp.  Lane-Poole,  Hist.  p.  29. 


II.  i.  xv.  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  149 

into  the  Bega  country  to  the  east1.  The  lures  to  them  were  the 
emerald  and  gold  mines:  the  spur  was  the  oppression  of  the  tax- 
gatherer  on  the  Nile.  In  these  early  days  the  chief  of  the  Rabi'a  was 
Ishak  ibn  Beshr,  but  before  long  a  split  occurred  and  the  Beni  Yunis 
section  who  had  taken  up  their  abode  at  'Aidhab  embroiled  them- 
selves with  the  Beni  Beshr2  section  and  were  forced  to  retire  to  the 
Hegaz.  Then  the  Beni  Beshr  quarrelled  among  themselves,  Ishak 
was  killed  and  his  cousin  Abu  'Abdulla  Muhammad  "Abu  Zayd" 
succeeded  him.  "Abu  Zayd"  had  lived  at  Balbays,  but,  on  being 
chosen  to  lead  the  tribe,  he  took  up  his  headquarters  at  Aswan. 

Meanwhile  considerable  cordiality  had  arisen  between  the  Rabi'a 
and  the  Bega  in  the  east  and  also  between  the  other  Rabi'a  and  the 
Nubians  on  the  Nile. 

The  Bega  chieftains  gave  their  daughters  to  the  Rabi'a  in  marriage 
and  helped  them  to  eject  from  the  islands  of  the  Red  Sea  the  other 
Arabs  who  had  settled  there  earlier.  As  a  result  the  Bega,  who  had 
been  distinctly  inferior  in  strength  to  the  Nubians,  became  in  alliance 
with  the  Rabi'a  more  than  a  match  for  both  the  riverain  tribes  and 
such  Kahtanite  Arabs  as  had  succeeded  in  establishing  themselves 
in  the  eastern  deserts.  By  943-4,  Mas'udi  relates3,  Bashir  ibn 
Marwan  ibn  Ishak  (or  "Abu  Marwan  Bishr")  of  the  Beni  Rabi'a 
had  under  his  sheikhship  3000  tribesmen  of  Rabi'a  and  Mudr  and 
the  Yemen  and  30,000  Bega  warriors.  These  latter  were  all  Hadareb, 
dwellers  on  the  coast  and  converts  to  Islam. 

The  Rabi'a  who  had  remained  round  Aswan4  and  never  moved 
eastwards  similarly  imposed  their  influence  on  the  natives  and  founded 
a  modified  Arab  aristocracy  ruling  by  consent  over  a  less  virile, 
though  still  unsubjected,  population  of  autochthons.  About  1020, 
or  rather  earlier,  their  chief,  Abu  Mukarram,  son  and  successor  of 
Abu  'Abdulla  Muhammad  "Abu  Zayd,"  was  invested  by  the  Fatimite 
Khalifa  Hakim  with  the  hereditary  title  of  Kanz  el  Dowla  as  a  reward 
for  having  defeated  and  taken  prisoner  (in  1006)  the  rebel  Abu 
Rakwa5.    By  the  end  of  the  next  century,  and  probably  sooner,  the 

1  See  Makrizi,  Khetdt,  n,  569  and  575.  The  Rabf'a  had  been  employed  in 
Nubia  on  a  punitive  expedition  (see  p.  166). 

2  Possibly  the  name  Bisharin  is  connected  with  the  name  of  this  section. 

3  See  Mas'udi,  in,  33.  Bouriant  (11,  570)  hopelessly  mistranslates  the  last 
part  of  Makrizi's  quotation  from  Mas'udi.  The  Arabic  is  as  follows: 

etc.  (,>^*3'j  j^ac  ^j.>c  l^s*}^^ 

4  See  Mas'udi  (ap.  Makrizi,  Khetdt,  11,  572) ;  Abu  Salih,  p.  276 ;  Quatremere,  n, 
84,  etc. 

5  Quatremere,  n,  85.   Cp.  Beckett,  p.  196. 


150  THE  PROGRESS  THROUGH  EGYPT         n.  1.  xv. 

holder  of  this  title  was  also  called  "Amir  of  Aswan,"  chief,  that  is, 
of  the  Arabs  in  that  vicinity1. 

After  the  granting  of  the  title  Kanz  el  Dowla  these  western 
Rabi'a  and  such  alien  elements  as  they  had  assimilated  came  to  be 
known  as  Beni  Kanz2. 

About  1171-1175  they  were  in  rebellion  against  Saladin3. 

In  1287  we  find  them  taking  part  in  the  Nubian  expedition  of 
Kalaun4.  By  this  time  they  were  virtually  supreme  from  Kus  to  south 
of  Aswan  on  both  sides  of  the  river,  and,  having  allied  themselves 
by  marriage  with  the  kings  of  Nubia,  were  in  the  position  of  being 
recognized  on  either  side  of  the  frontier  of  Egypt  as  forming  an 
almost  independent  state5.  Succeeding  centuries  failed  to  oust  them 
from  their  position  and  they  are  represented  at  the  present  day  by 
the  Kenuz  who  live  from  Aswan  to  Korosko6. 

In  the  thirteenth,  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  they  were  a 
perpetual  thorn  in  the  side  of  Egypt,  being  generally  allied  with  the 
'Ikrima,  the  branch  of  Kays  'Aylan  to  which  the  Beni  Hilal  also 
belonged7,  and  employing  themselves  largely  in  raiding  from  'Aidhab 
on  the  one  side  to  the  oases  on  the  other. 

In  1366  they  openly  defied  the  government  and  actually  pillaged 
the  military  post  of  Aswan.  For  this  exploit  they  paid  dearly,  and  in 
1378  the  heads  of  eleven  of  their  chiefs  were  sent  to  Cairo  by  the 
Amir  of  Aswan.  Their  repression  was,  however,  carried  out  with 
too  heavy  a  hand  and  in  consequence  they  were  reduced  to  despera- 
tion and  revolted  en  masse  in  1385  and  captured  Aswan  itself.  They 
then  resumed  their  career  of  brigandage  and  terrorization,  and  for 

1  See  following  chapter.  The  term  "Governor  of  Aswan"  which  is  sometimes 
used  is  misleading.  Kanz  el  Dowla's  position  is  made  clear  by  Ibn  Khaldun's 
description  of  him  as  "amir  of  the  Arabs  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Aswan": 

p 

(Ibn  Khaldun,  ed.  ar.  Vol.  5,  p.  288,  Bk.  11).  His  position  was  analogous  to  that  of 
the  'Abdullah  "Mangil"  in  Fung  days. 

2  Ibn  Khaldun  (ed.  ar.  Vol.  6,  p.  5)  says:  "The  people  living  next  to  Aswan 
are  known  as  the  Awlad  Kanz:  their  ancestor  was  Kanz  el  Dowla."  Unless  therp 
is  any  pre-Fatimite  mention  of  Awlad  Kanz,  which,  so  far  as  I  know  there  is  not, 
though  Mas'udi  and  Ibn  Selim  both  wrote  in  the  tenth  century,  it  seems  certain 
that  the  tribe  did  in  fact  only  take  the  name  of  Awlad  Kanz  after  the  granting  of  the 
title  of  Kanz  el  Dowla  {Treasure  of  the  State).  Mas'udi  (q.v.  in  Khetdt,  II,  572  ff.) 
could  hardly  have  omitted  to  mention  the  name  otherwise. 

3  See  following  chapter.  4  See  following  chapter. 

5  Ibn  Khaldun,  ed.  de  Slane,  pp.  9-1 1 ;  Lane-Poole,  Hist.  pp.  29  and  308. 

6  See  Beckett.  The  singular  of  Kenuz  is  Kanzi.  Alternative  derivations  that 
have  been  suggested  for  the  term  Kanz  are  Kenes  (the  hieroglyphic  name  of  an 
island  of  the  first  cataract)  and  Ta  Kenz  ("land  of  the  bow"),  the  old  Egyptian 
name  for  the  country  (Beckett,  p.  196). 

7  Wustenfeld,  F;  Caussin  de  Perceval,  Table  X  A. 


ill  xv.  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  151 

the  rest  of  the  fourteenth  century  continued  in  intermittent  possession 
of  Aswan,  flouting  the  authority  of  the  Sultan  of  Egypt. 

Though  they  lost  Aswan  in  1412  a.d.  to  the  Howara  Berbers1, 
who  destroyed  it  and  laid  waste  its  confines,  they  remained  the  most 
powerful  tribe  on  the  Sudan-Egyptian  border  until  the  Turks  under 
Selim  I  conquered  the  country  in  15172. 


APPENDIX 

On  the  penetration  of  the  Sudan  by  Berber  Tribes. 

We  have  seen  that  innumerable  Arabs  pushed  westwards  and  coalesced 
with  the  Berber  tribes,  of  whom  the  best  known  were  the  Sanhaga,  the 
Ketama,  the  Luata,  the  Masmuda,  the  Howara,  the  Lamta,  the  Zenata, 
the  Mughi'la,  the  Nafza  and  the  Ghomara3.  But  it  will  also  have  been 
noted  that,  though  the  main  body  of  the  Berber  race  remained  in  occupation 
of  the  country  lying  between  Egypt  and  the  Atlantic,  founding  a  series  of 
powerful  dynasties4,  and  sending  offshoots  southwards  towards  the  Niger5, 
many  of  them  continued  to  settle  as  their  ancestors  had  done  in  Egyptian 
territory,  or  to  raid  it,  as  seemed  most  convenient6.  It  will  be  noted  in 
particular  that  the  so-called  Fatimite  conquest  of  Egypt  in  969  a.d.  was 
effected  almost  entirely  by  Berber,  Ketama  for  the  most  part,  and  un- 
doubtedly marked  the  beginning  of  a  period  of  increased  Berber  immi- 
gration7. 

1  Makrizi,  Khetdt,  II,  575,  and  Burckhardt,  Nubia,  p.  517.  In  1394  the  Howara 
had  been  in  league  with  the  Awlad  Kanz  in  one  of  the  latter's  periodical  attacks 
on  Aswan  and  had  joined  them  in  pillaging  it. 

2  For  their  distribution  in  the  Sudan  at  the  present  day  see  Appendix  to  ABC  in 
Part  iv. 

3  See  Ibn  Khaldun,  ed.  ar.  Vol.  6,  pp.  93  ff.,  Bk.  Ill;  or  Mas'udi,  Vol.  in, 
Ch.  xlvi. 

4  The  "Almohades"  (El  Muwahhidfn)  were  chiefly  Masmuda  and  Lamtuna, 
the  "  Almoravides  "  (El  Merabitin)  Sanhaga. 

5  By  el  Bekri's  day  (1067  A.D.)  Audaghost  on  the  southern  border  of 
the  Great  Desert,  on  the  boundary  of  Ghana,  was  peopled  chiefly  by  Zenata 
(Cooley,  pp.  1-29),  and  the  "Almoravides"  converted  Ghana  to  Islam  in  1076 
(Cooley,  pp.  42-86).  Barth  agrees  with  Sultan  Bello  and  Makrizi  as  to  the  close 
connection  between  the  Berber  and  Bornu  (Barth,  11,  269-272),  and  we  have  had 
occasion  in  dealing  with  the  tribes  of  Darfur  to  note  some  Berber  survivals  in  that 
country. 

6  After  they  had  ruined  and  burnt  fifty  flourishing  Christian  monasteries  near 
Giza,  Abu  Salih  (c.  1208)  speaks  of  them  with  feeling  (ed.  Evetts,  p.  192)  as  a 
people  "who  do  not  know  the  truth  or  obey  the  law  or  distinguish  between  right 
and  wrong." 

7  Makrizi,  Khetdt,  1,  269. 


152        ON  THE  PENETRATION  OF  THE  SUDAN       [app. 

Having  once  settled  in  Egypt  the  Berber  intermarried  with  the  Arabs 
and  native  Egyptians  to  such  an  extent  that  their  Berber  origin  was  almost 
forgotten.  The  case  of  the  Luata  who  named  themselves  Kays  has  been 
already  cited,  and  that  of  the  HowAra  will  follow. 

In  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  we  hear  of  large  numbers  of 
nomad  Mezata,  Howara  and  Zenara  (a  section  of  Luata)  between 
Alexandria  and  Old  Cairo1,  and  many  sections  of  Luata,  the  tribe  which 
had  been  in  occupation  of  Barka  at  the  time  of  Amr's  conquest2,  are 
similarly  mentioned  by  Makrizi3  (1365-1441)  in  Giza,  Bahnasa4,  Manuf 
and  Upper  Egypt  generally,  and  with  them  Mezata,  Howara  and  others. 
The  two  sections  last  mentioned  had  also  settled  to  the  north  in  Bahira 
and  Gharbia  provinces  and  between  Alexandria  and  Akaba5.  About  1382 
a  colony  of  Howara  was  transplanted  to  Girga  province  by  Barkuk,  the 
first  of  the  Circassian  dynasty,  and  by  assiduous  cultivation  they  reclaimed 
it  from  the  desert6.  These  partly  arabicized  Howara,  generally  in  company 
with  the  Zenata,  were  largely  represented  in  the  middle  ages  in  Algeria, 
Tripoli  and  the  Fezzan7,  warring,  intermarrying,  making  treaties  and 
quarrelling  with  the  Arabs,  but  more  than  any  other  tribe  of  Berber  origin 
the  Howara  succeeded  in  establishing  themselves  firmly  in  the  Nile  valley. 
Their  settlement  in  Girga  by  Barkuk  marked  the  beginning  of  this  process, 
and  about  the  end  of  the  century,  as  we  have  seen,  they  first,  in  company 
with  the  Awlad  Kanz,  attacked  and  pillaged  Aswan,  and  then  some  years 
later  seized  it  from  the  Awlad  Kanz  and  put  it  to  the  sword. 

These  Howara  made  Upper  Egypt  their  final  habitation.  Pococke, 
visiting  the  Nile  in  1737,  speaks  of  Akhmim  as  under  a  Berber  amir8;  and 
Norden,  who  travelled  up  the  Nile  in  1737-8,  says9: 

A  little  above  the  town  of  Siuut  begin  the  habitations  of  the  Arabs,  known  under 
the  name  of  Havarra.  They  possess  likewise  lands  on  the  other  side  of  the  Nile. 
They  call  them  natives  of  the  kingdom  of  Maroc.  They  are  the  best  kind  of  Arabs. 
They  are  governed  by  a  shech;  and  they  are  all  gentlemen,  pretty  much  like  the 
Polanders. 

Burckhardt,  early  in  the  next  century,  found  the  Howara  settled  in  villages 
from  el  Siut  to  Farshiut  on  the  west  bank  and  to  near  Kena  on  the  east10. 
He  regarded  them  as  Arabs,  and  they  had  posed  as  such  since  the  fourteenth 
century  at  the  latest11.  He  relates  in  full12  how  in  the  eighteenth  century 
they  had  controlled  Upper  Egypt  and  the  northern  Sudan  as  far  south  as 
Mahass  and  had  compelled  the  Mamluks  to  cede  these  parts  to  them  by 

1  Ibn  Khaldun,  ed.  de  Slane,  1,  9-1 1 ;  ed.  ar.  Vol.  6,  p.  5.  Quatremere  wrongly 
reads  "Mezana"  throughout  for  "Mezata." 

2  Butler,  p.  430.  They  submitted  to  'Amr  in  642  a.d.  In  el  Mas'udi's  day  they 
occupied  the  oasis  of  Kharga  (see  Makrizi,  Khetdt,  11,  697). 

3  Quatremere,  11,  201  and  207-208. 

4  In  Bahnasa  the  bulk  of  the  population  were  Luata. 

5  Quatremere,  loc.  cit.  6  Ibid.  11,  209. 

7  Their  strain  is  also  believed  to  survive  very  strongly  in  the  Shawia  Arabs  of 
West  Africa.    See  Carette,  pp.  126  ff. 

8  Quatremere,  11,  200. 

9  Travels  in  Egypt  and  Nubia,  11,  24.  10  Nubia,  App.  1. 

11  Ibn  Khaldun  (ed.  de  Slane),  1,  273. 

12  For  further  details  see  Part  III,  Chap.  8. 


app.]  BY  BERBER  TRIBES  153 

treaty.  In  spite  of  subsequent  reverses  at  the  hands  of  the  Mamluks  their 
power  was  not  broken  finally  till  1813,  when  Ibrahim  Pasha  inflicted  upon 
them  a  crushing  defeat1. 

These  Howara  are  represented  in  the  Sudan  by  two  quite  distinct 
groups,  namely,  the  nomad  Hawawir  of  Dongola  and  the  Howara,  or 
Gellaba  Howara,  who  have  colonies  in  Kordofan  and  Darfur2. 

Of  the  other  Berber  tribes  there  are  fewer  representatives  in  the  Sudan, 
but  we  shall  see  that  on  the  Blue  Nile  there  is  a  tribe  of  "Mogharba" 
who  are  of  distinct  Berber- Arab  ancestry3,  and  that  in  northern  Darfur 
and  farther  west  the  ancient  Berber  strain  is  strongly  marked.  If  Ibn 
Khaldun4  is  to  be  believed,  as  Barth  thinks  he  is,  it  was  the  branch  of 
Howara  who  returned  westwards  that  gave  their  name  in  the  perverted 
form  of  Hogar  to  the  all-powerful  Tuwarek  tribe  generally  known  as 
Azkar,  the  owners  of  all  the  country  round  Ghat. 

1  Burckhardt,  App.  in,  531-533;  cp.  Hamilton,  p.  257. 

2  For  these  see  Chapter  8  in  Part  III. 

3  Note,  too,  the  "Zenara"  who  occur  among  the  Bedayria  and  the  Hawazma 
(q.v.  Part  III),  and  the  occurrence  of  such  names  as  Gebel  el  Zenati  and  Khor 
Nakhnukha  (a  Berber  name)  in  central  Kordofan,  north  of  Bara,  in  the  Khayran. 

4  Ed.  de  Slane,  Vol.  1,  275,  ap.  Barth,  Vol.  1,  Ch.  x,  p.  228. 


[J54] 


NOTE  TO  GENEALOGICAL  TREES  i,  2,  3 

To  illustrate  Part  II,  Chapter  1,  three  genealogical  trees  are  given1.  They 
also  serve  to  some  extent  to  illustrate  Part  IV.  The  first  shews  the  Kahtanite 

•        •    • 

tribes,  the  second  the  Isma'ilitic  tribes  (and  their  connection  with  the 
descendants  of  Kahtan),  and  the  third  the  'Abbasid  and  Omayyad  families 
and  that  of  the  Prophet. 

The  following  points  require  to  be  noted  with  regard  to  these  trees : 

1.  They  are  (with  the  exception  of  the  inset  to  Tree  1)  entirely  com- 
piled from  Wiistenfeld's  Register  zu  den  genealogischen  Tabellen....  Other 
authorities  of  course  give  many  of  the  details  differently. 

2.  Tree  1  is  compiled  from  Tables  I-XXIII  in  Wiistenfeld.  Trees 
2  and  3  are  compiled  from  Tables  A-Z  in  Wiistenfeld. 

(Throughout  Wiistenfeld's  work  figures  refer  to  Kahtanite  tribes  and 
letters  to  Isma'ilitic  tribes.) 

3.  I  have  altered  Wiistenfeld's  German  orthography  to  that  used 
throughout  this  book. 

4.  A  vast  number  of  names  given  by  Wiistenfeld,  which  are  either 
quite  unimportant  in  themselves  or  which  are  irrelevant  to  my  subject, 
have  been  omitted.  My  object  has  been  to  provide  reasonably  compact 
skeleton  trees  for  ready  reference,  as  Wiistenfeld's  work,  though  frequently 
quoted  in  this  book,  is  not  easily  accessible. 

At  the  same  time  many  apparently  unimportant  names  are  inserted 
(still  on  Wiistenfeld's  authority)  since  they  bear  suggestive  resemblances 
to  proper  names  found  among  the  Arab  tribes  of  the  Sudan — whether 
there  is  actually  any  connection  or  not. 

5.  The  dates  given  are  generally  only  approximate  and,  unless  the 
contrary  is  stated,  refer  to  the  year  in  which  the  man  named  was  born. 
These  dates  (excepting  the  later  historical  ones)  are  adopted  from  Caussin 
de  Perceval's  Essai  sur  Vhistoire  des  Arabes...,  Vol.  I. 

6.  The  names  of  the  eponymous  ancestors  of  the  most  famous  tribes 
are  shewn  in  capitals.   Names  of  tribes  are  shewn  in  italics. 

1  See  end  of  Part,  after  p.  190. 


[i55] 


CHAPTER  2 

The  General  Progress  of  the  Arabs  through  Egypt 
and  their  Invasions  of  Dongola 

I  We  have  now  taken  certain  of  the  more  notable  of  the  Arab  tribes 
and  followed  the  early  fortunes  of  each  in  turn,  beginning,  where 
possible,  from  the  time  of  their  immigration  to  Africa  and  breaking 
off,  as  a  rule,  with  the  temporary  disappearance  of  some  of  their 
branches  into  Libya  or  the  Sudan,  and  the  merging  of  others  into 
the  permanent  population  of  Egypt. 

Before  turning  to  the  more  recent  history  of  the  Arab  tribes  now 
represented  in  the  Sudan  and  endeavouring  to  trace  precisely  the 
links  that  connect  each  with  the  more  famous  immigrants  of  the 
earlier  age  let  us  briefly  record  the  general  progress  of  the  latter  in 
Africa  considered  as  a  racial  whole.  This  historical  summary  will 
also  afford  an  opportunity  for  the  passing  mention  of  such  con- 
temporary events  in  Nubia  as  have  not  been  completely  lost  in 
obscurity. 

II  Amr  ibn  el  'Asi1  invaded  Egypt  in  December  639  a.d.  with  no 
more  than  3500  to  4000  men,  chiefly  cavalry;  but  he  was  reinforced 
almost  at  once  by  4000  others,  and  in  June,  640,  Zubayr  ibn  el 
Awwam  also  arrived  with  an  army  of  some  12,000  men2.  Alexandria 
fell  in  November,  641,  and  the  conquest  was  complete3. 

Such  losses  as  were  suffered  during  these  few  years  were  con- 
tinually being  made  good  by  fresh  contingents  of  Beduins4.  All 
these  troops  were  probably  drawn  more  or  less  indiscriminately  from 
the  various  tribes  of  Arabia,  for  they  are  generally  spoken  of  by  the 
historians  by  such  general  terms  as  "the  Muslims"  and  are  grouped 

1  'Amr  was  a  Kurayshite  on  his  father's  side:  his  mother  was  an  'Anazia  (see 
Butler,  p.  202).  For  the  exact  date  of  the  invasion,  see  Butler,  p.  xxvii  et  seq.  For 
the  general  course  of  events,  see  Lane-Poole,  Hist.  pp.  1-3. 

2  See  Butler,  pp.  225  and  226.  Lane-Poole  thinks  Zubayr's  contingent  only 
brought  up  the  total  to  12,000.  Butler  speaks  of  Zubayr  as  bringing  4000  men  and 
being  followed  very  shortly  by  two  other  contingents  of  4000  each.  Ibn  el  Hakam 
says  4000,  el  Balddhuri  10,000  or  12,000,  and  Yakut  and  el  Siuti  12,000:  Makrizi 
quotes  from  el  Kindi  a  statement  of  Yezi'd  that  'Amr's  force  was  15,500,  i.e.  an 
original  3500  plus  12,000  reinforcements:  Abu  Salih  (p.  74),  on  the  authority  of 
The  Book  of  el  Gandh,  says  'Amr  came  to  Fostat  with  3005  [3500?]  men,  and  was 
afterwards  joined  by  Zubayr  with  12,000. 

3  Lane-Poole,  Hist.  p.  13  ;  Butler,  p.  xxviii. 

4  Butler,  pp.  213  and  427. 


156  THE  PROGRESS  THROUGH  EGYPT  n.2.n. 

merely  according  to  their  various  leaders  and  not  tribe  by  tribe. 
There  is  no  doubt,  however,  that  the  leaders  would  naturally  be 
followed  by  more  of  their  own  respective  tribes  than  others,  for 
instance,  'Amr  and  Zubayr  by  Kuraysh,  and  we  also  know  that 
when  'Amr  laid  out  a  town  he  apportioned  separate  streets  and 
quarters  to  separate  tribes1.  A  very  remarkable  lack  of  information 
exists  as  to  the  names  of  the  tribes  that  conquered  Egypt,  though 
there  is  an  enormous  mass  of  literature  dealing  with  this  era,  and  the 
explanation  lies  partly  in  the  heterogeneous  nature  of  the  force2. 

Two  tribes  which  were  certainly  represented  to  a  large  degree 
were  those  of  Lakhm  and  Gudham. 

Considerable  toleration  was  at  first  displayed  towards  the  Copts, 
to  whom  'Amr  guaranteed,  in  return  for  their  paying  the  taxation 
imposed,  "their  religion,  their  goods,  their  churches  and  crosses, 
their  lands  and  waters";  and  no  doubt  it  was  partly  in  consequence 
of  this  policy,  and  not  merely  on  account  of  the  weakness  of  the 
Roman  garrisons,  that  Egypt  was  so  rapidly  subdued3. 

Before  the  end  of  641  the  whole  country  from  the  Red  Sea  to 
Barka  and  from  the  Mediterranean  to  Aswan  had  become  a  province 
of  the  Muslim  Khalifate4. 

Ill  In  this  same  year5  or  the  next  20,000  men  were  sent  under  the 
command  of  'Abdulla  ibn  Sa'ad  ibn  Abu  Sarh6  to  invade  Christian 
Nubia.  This  constitutes  the  first  Muhammadan  invasion  into  the 
Sudan7.  Details  of  it  are  lacking,  but  the  result  was  apparently  not 

1  See  Yakut,  ap.  Butler,  p.  339,  and  the  remarks  concerning  the  foundation  of 
Fostat  on  p.  137  above. 

2  Butler  states  (p.  198):  "Most  of  'Amr's  following  belonged  to  the  tribe  of 
'Akk,  although  Al  Kindi  says  that  one-third  were  of  the  tribe  of  Ghafik."  This 
does  not  help  us  much.  In  the  first  place,  though  this  is  not  certain,  there  were, 
it  seems,  two  quite  separate  'Akks.  One  was  a  son  of  'Adnan  (^JJ^),  and  as  such 
would  be  an  ancestor  of  half  the  whole  Ismd'ilitic  stock;  the  other  was  son  of 
'Odthan  (^)Uj^fi,  and  hence  the  confusion),  i.e.  a  Kahtanite.  In  the  second  place, 
Ghafik  was  grandson  of  'Akk  the  son  of  'Adnan,  i.e.  the  Beni  Ghafik  were  a  section 
of  Beni  'Akk.  (See  Wustenfeld,  1,  55  ;  11,  Table  A,  and  Kay,  p.  3.)  'Amr  himself 
apparently  thought  little  of  them,  as  he  summed  up  their  achievements  in  the  words 
"The  Ghafik  [Bouriant  reads  '  'Afeq']  are  smitten  and  smite  not"  (Makrfzi,  Khetdt, 
II,  469).  The  sort  of  confusion  mentioned  is  very  rife  and  prevents  our  making 
full  use  of  even  the  scanty  mentions  of  definite  tribes  which  are  extant.  To  make 
things  worse  we  know  that  the  Arabs  very  commonly  took  advantage  of  coincidences 
of  nomenclature  among  their  ancestors  to  claim  identity  with  tribes  with  whom 
they  had  no  real  connection  at  all  (so  el  Hamdani,  q.v.  in  Kay,  p.  214). 

3  Lane-Poole,  Hist.  pp.  5,  6,  quoting  el  Tabari  (1,  2588). 

4  Lane-Poole,  p.  14. 

5  Lane-Poole,  p.  15;  Makrizi,  Khetdt,  11,  581. 

6  A  Kurayshite;  see  Wustenfeld,  O. 

7  The  Arabs  are  said,  however,  to  have  come  into  contact  with  the  Nubians  and 
Bega  already  at  Bahnasa  (Oxyrhinchus) — (see  Budge,  11,  184,  and  Burckhardt, 
p.  528) — but  the  story  is  of  doubtful  worth. 


II.  2.  v.  AND  THE  INVASION  OF  DONGOLA  157 

altogether  unsuccessful,  for  the  Nubians  paid  the  tribute  (bakt)  of 
slaves  imposed  upon  them  for  some  years1. 

IV  Meanwhile  in  Egypt  'Amr  was  busying  himself  with  problems 
of  administration,  his  general  policy  being  to  accept  the  pre-existing 
Roman  system  as  a  whole  and  slightly  modify  it  to  suit  the  change 
of  circumstances2.  Among  the  cardinal  tenets  of  Muhammadan 
policy  in  these  early  days  was  the  prohibiting  of  the  acquisition  of 
land  by  the  Arabs.  This  is  an  important  point,  and  must  have  largely 
affected  the  emigration  question.  "The  idea  was  that  they  should 
remain  soldiers,  and  not  engage  in  agriculture  as  settlers3." 

Later,  however,  this  restriction  became  practically  inoperative. 
The  Khalifa  'Omar,  who  being  no  financier  regarded  Egypt  exactly 
as  Muhammad  'Ali  Pasha  at  a  subsequent  epoch  regarded  the  Sudan, 
soon  became  dissatisfied  with  the  revenue  which  was  sent  him  from 
Egypt  and,  thinking  to  augment  it,  first  divided  the  province  into  two 
halves,  giving  'Amr  control  of  the  Delta  and  'Abdulla  ibn  Sa'ad  of 
the  long  riverain  stretch  running  thence  to  the  first  cataract4,  and 
later  appointed  'Abdulla  ruler  of  the  whole  and  recalled  'Amr. 

V  In  651-2  'Abdulla  ibn  Sa'ad,  as  governor  of  the  whole  country, 
made  his  second  expedition  against  Nubia,  in  consequence  of  the 
frequent  raids  made  into  Egypt.  The  account  of  this  which  is  extant 
we  owe  to  the  description  of  Nubia  written  between  975  and  996  a.d.5 
by  'Abdulla  ibn  Ahmad  ibn  Seh'm  (or  Sulaym)  el  Aswani  and  partly 
preserved  in  extracts  by  el  Makrfzi6. 

'Abdulla  pushed  as  far  south  as  Dongola,  the  capital  of  the  king- 
dom7, and  bombarded  the  town  with  catapults  and  destroyed  the 
church.  The  Nubians  then  sued  for  peace,  and  the  terms  granted 
them  are  sufficiently  interesting  to  be  given  in  full8: 

In  the  name  of  God,  etc. ...This  is  a  treaty  granted  by  the  amir  'Abdulla 
ibn  Sa'ad  ibn  Abu  Sarh  to  the  chief  of  the  Nubians  and  to  all  the  people 
of  his  dominions,  a  treaty  binding  on  great  and  small  among  them,  from 
the  frontier  of  Aswan  to  the  frontier  of  'Aiwa.  'Abdulla  ibn  Sa'ad  ordains 
security  and  peace  between  them  and  the  Muslims,  their  neighbours  in 
the  Sa'id,  as  well  as  all  other  Muslims  and  their  tributaries.  Ye  people  of 
Nubia,  ye  shall  dwell  in  safety  under  the  safeguard  of  God  and  his  apostle, 

1  Lane-Poole  (Hist.  p.  23).  Butler,  following  Ibn  el  Athir,  thinks  that  the 
expedition  was  a  failure. 

2  Lane-Poole,  Hist.  p.  18.  3  Butler,  p.  461. 

4  Lane-Poole,  Hist.  p.  20. 

5  975~99°  are  the  dates  of  Al  'Aziz  bi'llahi  the  Fatimite  Khalifa  for  whom 
el  Aswani  wrote  his  work  (see  Quatremere,  II,  3). 

6  See  Makrizi  (Khetdt),  1,  vi ;  11,  549,  580  et  seq.  Cp.  Lane-Poole,  Hist. pp.  21-23. 

7  The  king's  name  is  translated  as  Kaliduruth  by  Bouriant  and  as  "  Koleydozo" 
by  Burckhardt. 

8  As  translated  by  Lane-Poole  (Hist.  p.  21  et  seq.). 


158  THE  PROGRESS  THROUGH  EGYPT  11. 2.  v. 

Muhammad  the  prophet,  whom  God  bless  and  save.  We  will  not  attack 
you,  nor  wage  war  on  you,  nor  make  incursions  against  you,  so  long  as  ye 
abide  by  the  terms  settled  between  us  and  you.  When  ye  enter  our  country, 
it  shall  be  but  as  travellers,  not  as  settlers,  and  when  we  enter  your  country 
it  shall  be  but  as  travellers  not  settlers.  Ye  shall  protect  those  Muslims  or 
their  allies  who  come  into  your  land  and  travel  there,  until  they  quit  it. 
Ye  shall  give  us  the  slaves  of  Muslims  who  seek  refuge  among  you,  and 
send  them  back  to  the  country  of  Islam ;  and  likewise  the  Muslim  fugitive 
who  is  at  war  with  the  Muslims,  him  ye  shall  expel  from  your  country  to 
the  realm  of  Islam ;  ye  shall  not  espouse  his  cause  nor  prevent  his  capture. 
Ye  shall  put  no  obstacle  in  the  way  of  a  Muslim,  but  render  him  aid  till 
he  quit  your  territory.  Ye  shall  take  care  of  the  mosque  which  the  Muslims 
have  built  in  the  outskirts  of  your  city,  and  hinder  none  from  praying  there ; 
ye  shall  clean  it,  and  light  it,  and  honour  it.  Every  year  ye  shall  pay  3601 
head  of  slaves  to  the  leader  of  the  Muslims  [i.e.  the  Khalifa],  of  the  middle 
class  of  slaves  of  your  country,  without  bodily  defects,  males  and  females, 
but  no  old  men  nor  old  women  nor  young  children.  Ye  shall  deliver  them 
to  the  Governor  of  Aswan.  No  Muslim  shall  be  bound  to  repulse  an  enemy 
from  you  or  to  attack  him,  or  hinder  him,  from  'Aiwa  to  Aswan.  If  ye 
harbour  a  Muslim  slave,  or  kill  a  Muslim  or  an  ally,  or  attempt  to  destroy 
the  mosque  which  the  Muslims  have  built  in  the  outskirt  of  your  city,  or 
withhold  any  of  the  360  head  of  slaves,  then  this  promised  peace  and 
security  will  be  withdrawn  from  you,  and  we  shall  revert  to  hostility,  until 
God  decide  between  us,  and  He  is  the  best  of  umpires.  For  our  perform- 
ance of  these  conditions  we  pledge  our  word,  in  the  name  of  God,  and  our 
compact  and  faith,  and  belief  in  the  name  of  His  apostle,  Muhammad, 
God  bless  and  save  him.  And  for  your  performance  of  the  same  ye  pledge 
yourselves  by  all  that  ye  hold  most  sacred  in  your  religion,  by  the  Messiah 
and  by  the  apostles  and  by  all  whom  ye  revere  in  your  creed  and  religion. 
And  God  is  witness  of  these  things  between  us  and  you.  Written  by  'Amr 
ibn  Shurahbil  in  Ramadan  in  the  year  31."    [May-June,  652  a.d.] 

VI  This  treaty  continued  in  force  for  over  600  years.  The  tribute 
was  paid  over  yearly  to  the  officer  in  charge  of  the  frontier  post  of 
el  Kasr,  five  miles  south  of  Aswan.  At  the  same  time  a  present  of 
forty  slaves  was  handed  over  by  the  Nubians  and  a  large  gift  of  wheat, 
barley,  lentils,  cloth  and  horses  by  the  Arabs.  The  gift  of  one  party 
was  in  theory  no  doubt  the  equivalent  of  that  of  the  other,  but  unless 
the  only  detailed  list  of  amounts  that  survives  is  entirely  inaccurate 
— which  is  of  course  possible — the  Arabs  would  probably  in  practice 
have  had  more  difficulty  in  getting  their  tribute  of  360  slaves  had  not 
their  gift  to  the  Nubians  exceeded  in  value  that  of  the  Nubians  to 
them  by  something  very  like  the  amount  of  the  tribute2. 

1  Mas'udi  (in,  39),  "365." 

2  Cp.  Butler,  p.  432,  and  note  in  this  connection  the  terms  in  which  Makrizi 
alludes  to  the  "bakt"  apropos  of  its  renewal  in  the  year  1276  (see  later).  The  origin 
of  the  custom  of  exchange  was  as  follows :  When  the  Nubians  paid  their  tribute 


II.  2.  viii        AND  THE  INVASION  OF  DONGOLA  159 

As  regards  the  clause  in  the  treaty  prohibiting  Arab  settlement 
in  Nubia,  no  doubt  it  was  merely  intended  as  a  concessionary  make- 
weight against  the  corresponding  prohibition  of  Nubian  settlement 
in  Egypt,  and  it  evidently  fell  into  desuetude  at  an  early  date. 
Although  the  treaty  as  a  whole  seems  to  have  remained  in  force  for 
so  long,  the  payment  of  the  requisite  tribute  must  have  been  re- 
garded as  the  only  really  important  clause,  and  even  this  was  judici- 
ously rendered  more  palatable  to  the  Nubians  by  the  subsequent 
exchange  of  gifts  so  advantageous  to  themselves. 

VII  *In  656  the  Khalifa  'Othman  was  murdered  and  the  civil  war 
which  followed  did  not  leave  Egypt  unaffected.  There  had  already 
been  a  rising  against  the  oppressive  rule  of  'Abdulla  ibn  Sa'ad,  and 
of  two  successive  governors  sent  out  by  the  Imam  'Ali  one  had  to  be 
removed  and  the  other  was  poisoned.  At  Kharibta  in  the  Hauf  were 
10,000  men  determined  to  avenge  'Othman,  and  when  'Amr  ibn  el 
'Asi  reappeared  in  658  with  a  considerable  body  of  troops  as  the 
nominee  of  Mu'awia,  the  rival  of  'Ali,  he  had  no  difficulty  in  establish- 
ing himself  for  a  second  period  as  Governor  of  Egypt.  Two  expe- 
ditions were  sent  between  658  and  664  against  the  Berbers  of  Libya, 
but  otherwise  no  outstanding  event  occurred. 

VIII  'Amr  died  in  664,  and  between  that  date  and  the  rise  of  the 
Tulunid  dynasty  in  868  ninety-eight  Arab  governors2  ruled  Egypt, 
and  the  Arab  population  increased  steadily. 

The  chief  occasions  of  the  immigration  were  the  arrivals  of  new 
governors:  each  one  came  escorted  by  an  army  of  anything  up  to 
20,000  men,  many  of  whom  never  returned  to  Syria  or  Arabia3.  A 
proportion  of  these  hordes  were  Persian,  Turkish  and  other  tribes, 
but  the  majority  were  Arabs  and  would  normally  be  members  of  the 
governor's  own  tribe.  It  is  interesting,  therefore,  to  analyse  the  tribal 
names  of  the  eighty-three  different  governors  who  followed  'Amr. 
We  find  that  in  the  Ommayyad  period,  i.e.  up  to  750  A.D.,  seven  out 

to  'Amr  after  the  expedition  of  641-2  they  offered  him  a  personal  gift  of  40  slaves: 
he  refused  to  accept  them  and  handed  them  back  to  the  envoy,  who  sold  them  and 
bought  provisions  and  wine  for  the  Nubians.  This  became  a  regular  institution; 
but  after  the  expedition  of  651-2  the  governor  of  Egypt  kept  the  40  slaves.  Accord- 
ing to  the  authority  cited  by  Makrfzi,  viz.  a  certain  Abu  Khalifa  Hamid  ibn  Hisham 
el  Bohtari  (Burckhardt  calls  him  "  Aly  Kheleyfa  Homayd  Ibn  Hesham  el  Baheyry," 
p.  512),  who  again  gave  as  his  authority  the  work  of  one  Abu  Zacharfa  (see  Makrfzi, 
Khetdt,  II,  582),  the  actual  amounts  delivered  to  the  Nubians  were  1000  ardebs  of 
wheat,  1000  of  barley,  and  1000  jars  of  wine  for  the  king,  and  for  every  1000  an 
extra  300  for  the  envoys:  also  2  fine  horses,  100  pieces  of  different  kinds  of  cloth, 
40  pieces  of  finer  cloth,  and  a  robe,  for  the  king. 

1  Lane-Poole,  Hist.  p.  24. 

2  Several  of  these  had  two  or  three  terms  of  office.  There  were  only  83  different 
governors.    See  the  list  given  by  Lane-Poole  (Hist.  pp.  45-57). 

3  Lane-Poole,  Hist.  p.  29. 


160  THE  PROGRESS  THROUGH  EGYPT        n.  2.  viil 

of  a  total  of  twenty-two  were  from  Kuraysh1,  the  same  number  from 
Kays  'Aylan2,  one  from  Guhayna,  two  from  Azd3,  three  from 
Himyar4,  one  from  Lakhm,  and  one  whose  tribe  is  unrecorded5. 

Of  the  sixty-one  different  governors  of  Egypt  who  served  an 
'Abbasid  Khalifa  between  750  and  856  the  tribe  to  which  at  least 
thirty-three  belonged  is  known.  Of  these  thirty-three  as  many  as 
fifteen  were  themselves  members  of  the  Beni  'Abbas,  three  were 
Beni  Tami'm6,  five  from  Azd7,  two  from  Tai,  one  from  Lakhm,  two 
from  Mudhhig,  two  from  Bagi'la8,  two  from  Himyar9,  and  one 
apparently  an  Armenian. 

IX  It  would  of  course  be  those  of  the  tribesmen  who  settled  in  the 
large  towns  or  took  to  cultivation  of  the  river  banks  who  chiefly 
intermarried  with  the  older  Coptic  population  and  remained  in  Egypt : 
the  more  nomadic  tribes  would  naturally  be  more  exclusive,  and 
incidentally  less  eligible,  in  the  matter  of  intermarriage,  and  such  of 
them  as  penetrated  in  later  years  into  the  Sudan  were  probably  still 
as  purely  Arab  as  when  they  entered  Africa. 

Half  a  century  after  the  death  of  'Amr  (722)  occurred  the  first  of 
a  long  series  of  Coptic  revolts.  Few  of  these  people  had  been  con- 
verted to  Islam  and  by  now  there  were  some  5,000,000  of  them  living 
in  Egypt10. 

As  a  set  off  to  their  power,  the  tribe  of  Kays  'Aylan  was  induced 
to  immigrate  to  Egypt  and  settle  round  Balbays,  and  we  have  seen 
that  by  about  750  a.d.  there  were  some  3000  of  them  in  that  locality 
and  that,  so  far  from  strengthening  the  hand  of  the  ruler  of  Egypt, 
they  formed  a  hot-bed  of  revolt. 

X  Of  the  state  of  the  countries  south  of  Aswan  at  this  period  we  have 
little  news.  Such  as  there  is  comes  to  us  from  Christian  sources 
and  consists  of  the  following.  About  737  a.d.11  the  governor  of  Egypt 

1  Mostly  Beni  Ommayya,  related  to  the  reigning  Khalifa. 

2  Fahm,  'Abs,  Fezara  and  Bahila  sections :  all  these  in  the  first  half  of  the  eighth 
century. 

3  Including  one  of  the  Khazrag. 

4  One  Asbahi,  one  Kelbi,  and  one  Hadrami.  The  Beni  Kelb  are  a  section  of 
the  Kuda'a  branch. 

5  El  Hurr  ibn  Yusef  (724-727).  6  A  section  of  Mudr. 

7  Two  belonged  to  the  Khuza'a  division  and  two  to  the  Muhallab. 

8  The  Beni  Tamim,  Azd,  Tai,  Lakhm,  Mudhhig  and  Bagila  were  all  related  to 
one  another,  being  descendants  of  Kahlan  (see  Wustenfeld,  p.  4). 

9  "El  Ruayni"  and  "El  Kelbi."  10  Lane-Poole,  Hist.  pp.  27,  28. 

11  See  Abu  Salih,  pp.  267-268:  cp.  also  Lane-Poole,  p.  27.  Abu  Salih  places 
the  incident  "in  the  Khalifate  of  Marwan  el  Ga'adi,  the  last  of  the  Ommayyad 
Khalifas"  {i.e.  between  744  and  750),  but  he  is  unreliable.  The  whole  story  is 
probably  largely  exaggerated.  Abu  Salih's  account "  is  borrowed  from  the  biography 
of  the  patriarch  Khail  in  the  compilation  of  Severus  of  El  Ashmunayn;  see  Anc. 
Fonds  Arabe,  139,  p.  162  f."  (Evetts). 


II.  2.  xl         AND  THE  INVASION  OF  DONGOLA  161 

extorted  money  so  blatantly  from  the  Coptic  Patriarch  of  Alexandria, 
Anba  Kha'il,  that  the  latter  went  up-country  to  ask  for  assistance. 
The  king  of  Abyssinia1,  Cyriacus,  was  so  indignant  at  the  humiliation 
thus  inflicted  on  his  spiritual  chief  that  he  marched  on  Egypt  with 

100,000  horsemen  and  100,000  camels.... When  the  Nubians  [i.e. 
Abyssinians]  entered  Egypt,  they  plundered  and  slew,  and  took  many 
prisoners,  and  laid  waste  many  inhabited  places  in  Upper  Egypt  as  they 
marched  towards  Misr.  Now  when  the  ruler  of  Egypt  heard  what  was  the 
cause  of  their  coming,  and  was  told  as  follows:  "when  the  patriarch  of 
Egypt  went  up  to  ask  assistance  of  the  Christians  in  Upper  Egypt,  news 
of  this  reached  the  king  of  Nubia  and  the  king  of  Abyssinia  and  [another] 
king  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  patriarch  of  Egypt,  and  [the  first 
named]  was  indignant  at  the  news  " ;  then  [the  Governor  of  Egypt]  released 
the  patriarch  from  his  obligations  and  ceased  to  extort  money  from  him, 
and  begged  him  to  write  to  the  king  of  Nubia  and  bid  him  return  [to  his 
own  country] .  So  the  patriarch  wrote  to  the  king  as  he  was  requested  and 
the  king  returned,  and  no  longer  acted  as  he  had  done,  but  departed  to 
his  own  country. 

XI  In  750  a.d.  the  'Abbasid  dynasty  supplanted  that  of  the  Om- 
mayyads,  and  Marwan,  the  last  ruler  of  the  defeated  party,  met  his 
death  a  fugitive  in  Egypt.  The  first  'Abbasid  Khalifa  was  'Abdulla 

1  Abu  Salih  calls  Cyriacus  "King  of  Nubia,"  but  he  is  vague  on  this  point. 
Later  (p.  272),  speaking  apparently  of  contemporary  affairs  (c.  1208  a.d.),  he  says: 
"The  number  of  kings  in  Nubia  is  thirteen  and  all  these  rule  the  land  under  the 
supremacy  of  Cyriacus,  the  Great  King;  and  all  of  them  are  priests  and  celebrate 
the  liturgy  within  the  sanctuary,  as  long  as  they  reign  without  killing  a  man  with 
their  own  hands ;  but  if  a  king  kills  a  man,  he  may  no  longer  celebrate  the  liturgy 
...etc."    But  if  we  continue  we  find  in  the  account  of  Abyssinia  (p.  286):  "All  the 
kings  of  Abyssinia  are  priests,  and  celebrate  the  liturgy  within  the  sanctuary,  as 
long  as  they  reign  without  slaying  any  man  with  their  own  hand ;  but  after  slaying 
a  man  they  can  no  longer  celebrate  the  liturgy;  and  the  conditions  by  which  they 
are  bound  after  they  have  killed  a  man  have  already  been  spoken  of  in  this  book." 
It  seems  that,  as  Evetts  says,  "this  proves  the  confusion  in  the  mind  of  our  author 
of  Nubia  with  Abyssinia."    Abu  Salih,  also  under  the  heading  of  "Abyssinia" 
(which ,  as  we  have  seen  earlier,  he  includes  in  the  term  "India  " :  see  p .  49 ,  above)  says : 
"The  King  of  El  Mukurra,  who  is  an  Abyssinian  and  is  an  orthodox  king,  is  the 
great  king  among  the  kings  of  his  country,  because  he  has  an  extensive  kingdom, 
including  distant  regions  in  the  north  of  the  country,  and  has  many  troops ;  and  he  is 
the  fourth  of  the  kings  of  the  earth,  and  no  king  on  earth  is  strong  enough  to  resist 
him;  and  at  a  certain  place  in  his  country  he  possesses  the  Ark  of  Noah"  (p.  286, 
and  cp.  p.  296).  Here,  too,  he  seems  to  have  involved  himself  in  the  same  confusion, 
for  the  description  given  would  apply  to  Abyssinia  but  never  to  Nubia  or  the  district 
of  Mukurra.  Thus  there  can  be  little  doubt,  I  think,  that  it  was  the  Abyssinians 
who  were  chiefly  responsible  for  the  attack  on  Egypt  about  737.    A  minor  point 
supporting  the  theory  is  Abu  Salih's  remark  apropos  of  the  100,000  horsemen. 
"Now  Nubian  horses  are  small,  like  the  largest  of  the  Egyptian  asses,  but  have 
a  great  power  of  enduring  fatigue"  (p.  268).  No  one  who  has  been  in  the  Sudan 
for  long  can  fail  to  recognize  in  this  description  the  "habashi"  (i.e.  Abyssinian) 
pony,  and  it  is  not  indigenous  to  any  other  part  of  Africa  but  Abyssinia.    At  the 
same  time  it  is  clear  from  the  sentences  which  follow  in  the  text  that  the  Nubians 
assisted  the  Abyssinians,  and  the  mention  of  camelmen  at  once  suggests  the  Bega 
tribes. 

M.S.I.  II 


1 62  THE  PROGRESS  THROUGH  EGYPT  11.2.XI. 

Abu  el  'Abbas  el  Saffah,  "The  Shedder  of  Blood."  His  policy  was 
one  of  ruthless  repression  and  the  extermination  by  wholesale 
massacre  of  all  possible  rivals  among  the  Ommayyads  and  the  parti- 
zans  of  the  Imam  'Ali. 

Such  of  the  Beni  Ommayya  as  escaped  from  the  slaughter  fled 
to  the  more  distant  parts  of  the  Islamic  world.  Some  found  a  home 
in  Spain1,  some  in  Egypt,  and  some  within  the  borders  of  India. 

Other  parties  are  said  to  have  fled  direct  to  the  Sudan,  and  it  is 
from  one  of  these  that  the  Sudanese  traditions  derive  the  Arab  element 
among  the  Fung  dynasty  who  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury founded  the  kingdom  of  Sennar  in  the  Gezira2.  Stripped  of 
obvious  inaccuracies  and  inconsistencies  the  tradition  relates  that  one 
Sulayman  ibn  'Abd  el  Malik  ibn  Marwan  fled  before  el  Saffah  to 
Abyssinia  and  thence  to  the  Sudan,  where  he  married  the  daughter 
of  a  local  king.  The  congeries  of  tribes  known  at  present  as  the 
Ga'aliyyun  ("Ga'alii'n")  are  said  in  contradistinction  to  be  of 
'Abbasid  origin.  Again  el  Mas'udi3  speaks  of  'Abdulla,  the  son  of 
Marwan  the  last  of  the  Ommayyads,  as  taking  temporary  refuge  in 
the  Sudan  and  leaving  it  by  way  of  Bada'  {i.e.  "  Airi,"  or  el  Rih4)  after 
losing  his  brother  'Obaydulla  and  many  followers.  Ibn  Selim,  as 
quoted  by  el  Makrizi5,  also  refers  to  this  event  and  there  is  no 
reason  to  doubt  that  it  constitutes  a  historical  fact6. 

XII  7In  Egypt  and  the  neighbouring  countries,  meanwhile,  a  period 
of  widespread  revolt  naturally  followed  the  change  of  dynasties  and 
the  numerous  religious  controversies  that  had  arisen. 

The  Khawarig  sect  of  puritans  caused  serious  trouble  and  blood- 
shed in  Egypt  in  754,  and  in  Barka,  in  759,  in  common  with 
recalcitrant  Ommayyads  and  Berbers,  and  in  Abyssinia  in  765.  The 
Copts  rose  periodically  during  the  same  period,  and  the  Beni  Kays 
round  Balbays  took  the  chance  offered  by  the  general  confusion  of 
affairs  to  brigandize  freely  along  the  trade  routes. 

1  E.g.  'Abd  el  Rahman  ibn  Mu'awia  in  756  a.d.  founded  there  an  Ommayyad 
dynasty. 

2  See  BA  ccxin,  A  2  xxx,  A  11  vn  and  liii,  D  2  i,  etc.  in  Part  IV. 

3  "  Kitab  el  Tanbih,"  in  Bibliotheca  Geographorum  Arabicorum,  Part  VIII, 
p.  330.  The  sons  of  Marwan  entered  the  Sudan  via  Aswan  with  their  families, 
dependents  and  Arab  adherents  and  some  Beni  Ommayya  from  Khorasan. 

4  So  identified  by  Crowfoot:  Red  Sea  Ports...,  pp.  542  ff.  Bada' — Airi  lies 
near  Akik,  just  north  of  the  eighteenth  parallel.  The  variant  Basa'  ("Base")  in 
Makrizi  {Khetdt,  II,  553)  is  clearly  a  misprint  for  Bada'. 

6  Khetdt,  11,  553.    Cp.  Quatremere,  II,  16. 

6  Tombs  have  actually  been  found  on  the  old  site  of  Bada'  by  Crowfoot  which 
are  dated  about  the  end  of  the  tenth  century  and  prove  that  members  of  the  Beni 
Ommayya  settled  there.    See  Crowfoot,  Some  Lacunae...,  p.  3. 

7  Lane-Poole,  Hist.  pp.  31-34. 


II.  2.  xv.        AND  THE  INVASION  OF  DONGOLA  163 

In  782  an  Ommayyad  usurper  in  the  Sa'id  proclaimed  himself 
Khalifa  of  Islam  and  met  with  repeated  successes  before  he  was 
caught  and  executed.  His  head  was  sent  to  the  true  Khalifa  at 
Baghdad. 

XIII  Two  years  later  began  the  most  serious  period  of  Kaysite 
rebellions.  The  beginning  of  the  ninth  century  witnessed  the  most 
serious  of  these  and  was  also  a  period  of  very  acrimonious  theological 
disputation.  Apart  from  the  main  schism  between  the  supporters  of 
the  different  claimants  to  the  Khalifate,  Sunni  and  Shi'a,  divergent 
schools  of  theology  and  law  had  arisen.  At  Baghdad  the  Hanifite 
doctrines  were  prevalent,  but  those  of  the  Imam  Malik  ibn  Anas  held 
the  field  in  Egypt  and  westwards  during  the  latter  part  of  the  eighth 
and  in  the  ninth  centuries,  and  were  especially  patronized  by  the 
rival  Ommayyad  dynasty  established  in  Spain.  But  at  the  beginning 
of  the  ninth  century  the  Imam  el  Shafa'i  came  to  Fostat  and  his 
teaching  thenceforth  began  gradually  to  acquire  the  predominance 
which  is  assured  to  it  in  Egypt  at  the  present  day — a  predominance 
which,  it  may  be  noted,  has  never  extended  to  the  Sudan  nor  seriously 
rivalled  the  hold  which  the  doctrines  of  Malik  obtain  in  that  country 
and  along  the  north  coast  of  Africa  outside  Egypt1. 

XIV  As  regards  the  more  secular  disturbances,  a  culminating  point 
was  reached  about  831  a.d.2,  when  practically  all  the  Copts  through- 
out Lower  Egypt  followed  the  lead  of  the  Beni  Kays  and  Beni 
Lakhm  and  other  rebellious  Arabs  and  broke  into  an  insurrection 
which  lasted  for  nearly  a  year  and  compelled  the  Khalifa  to  visit 
Egypt  in  person.  He  made  a  speedy  end  of  the  revolt  and  so  crushed 
the  Copts  that  henceforth  they  ceased  to  be  of  any  great  moment. 
Lane-Poole  says3: 

From  this  date  [832  a.d.]  begins  the  numerical  preponderance  of  the 
Muslims  over  the  Christians  in  Egypt,  and  the  settlement  of  the  Arabs  in 
the  villages  and  on  the  land  instead  of,  as  heretofore,  only  in  the  great 
cities.  Egypt  now  became,  for  the  first  time,  an  essentially  Muhammadan 
country. 

XV  The  Bega  meanwhile4  had  been  giving  trouble  by  their  con- 
tinual depredations,  and  the  Khalifa  had  sent  'Abdulla  ibn  el  Gahm 
against  them.  A  treaty  was  finally  concluded  in  831  a.d.,  the  year  of 
the  final  Coptic  revolt,  at  Aswan,  between  'Abdulla  and  the  Bega 
chief  Kaniin  ibn  'Abd  el  'Aziz5.  The  chief  provision  of  the  treaty 
was  that  the  portion  of  the  Bega  country  that  lay  between  Aswan  on 

1  See  Lane-Poole,  loc.  cit.  p.  31,  and  Sir  R.  K.  Wilson,  Digest...,  p.  19. 

2  Makrizi,  Khetdt,  1,  232;  Lane-Poole,  loc.  cit.  p.  37.  3  Loc.  cit.  p.  38. 
4  Makrizi,  loc.  cit.  II,  565-566,  and  cp.  Budge,  11,  187-188. 

s  From  his  name  evidently  he  was  a  convert  to  Islam. 

11 — 2 


1 64  THE  PROGRESS  THROUGH  EGYPT         n.2.xv. 

the  west  and  Dahlak  and  Bada'  on  the  east  should  pay  to  the  Khalifa 
a  yearly  tribute  of  a  hundred  camels  or  300  dinars.  The  continuance 
of  Kanun's  rule  under  the  Khalifa's  overlordship  was  dependent  on 
this  payment.  Other  clauses  of  the  treaty  provided  in  the  interests 
of  Muhammadan  subjects  for  due  respect  being  paid  to  their  religion, 
the  protection  of  their  persons  and  property,  freedom  of  trade  and 
travel  in  the  Bega  country,  assistance  in  the  recovery  of  escaped 
slaves  or  strayed  animals,  and  an  engagement  to  give  no  assistance 
to  any  enemy  of  Islam.  The  Bega  were  only  allowed  to  visit  Upper 
Egypt  unarmed  and  on  condition  of  their  not  entering  any  town  or 
village1.  They  also  engaged  not  to  damage  the  mosques  erected  at 
Siha2  and  Hagar  or  elsewhere  throughout  the  Bega  country,  and 
agreed  that  Kaniin  himself,  who  was  to  receive  a  free  pardon  for 
past  offences,  should  reside  in  Egyptian  territory  as  a  hostage  for  the 
performance  of  all  these  provisions  and  the  representative  of  his 
people. 

In  return  for  a  strict  compliance  with  these  terms  the  Bega  were 
placed  under  the  protection  of  God,  the  Khalifa,  and  all  Muhammadan 
subjects. 

XVI  No  sooner  had  the  affairs  of  the  Bega  been  thus  settled  than 
it  became  necessary  to  take  measures  against  the  people  of  Nubia, 
who  had  refused  to  pay  their  tribute.  According  to  Ibn  Selim3  the 
Arabs  in  return  adopted  the  policy  of  inciting  against  them  the  neigh- 
bouring tribes — the  Bega  no  doubt — and  of  cutting  off  their  food 
supplies.  Zakarfa  ibn  Bahnas,  who  was  king  of  Nubia  at  the  time, 
before  deciding  on  his  course  of  action,  sent  his  son  George4  to  appeal 
at  Baghdad.   George  was  very  well  treated  and  succeeded  in  obtain- 

1  I.e.  the  Bega  were  prohibited  from  Egyptian  territory  altogether  unless  they 
were  merely  passing  through  it  or  trading  with  the  nomad  Arabs.  The  region 
between  el  Kasr  (the  northern  limit  of  Nubia  on  the  river,  five  miles  from  Aswan, 
see  Makrizi,  loc.  cit.  II,  549)  and  el  Kubban  (on  the  east  bank,  three  days  south  of 
Aswan,  opposite  Dakka,  see  Burckhardt,  p.  508)  was  barred  altogether.  In  this 
connection  see  later,  p.  182. 

2  Burckhardt  (p.  508),  "Dhyher." 

3  Quoted  by  el  Makrizi,  Khetdt,  H,  584-585.  According  to  Abu  Salih  (q.v. 
pp.  268-270)  the  arrears  of  fourteen  years  were  demanded.  The  fourteen  years 
would  date  from  about  833  a.d.,  for  while  Abu  Salih  speaks  of  Ibrahim,  the  brother 
of  the  Khalifa  Mamun,  as  demanding  these  arrears,  Ibn  Selim  dates  the  trouble 
in  the  reign  of  el  Mu'tasim :  the  latter  succeeded  Mamun  in  833.  From  Ibn  Selim 's 
account  one  would  certainly  not  suppose  the  tribute  had  been  overdue  for  more 
than  perhaps  a  year.  Abu  Salih  gives  his  account  "according  to  the  history  of  the 
church  and  the  biography  of  Anba  Joseph,  the  52d  patriarch."  He  takes  it  from  the 
biography  of  Yusab  (i.e.  Joseph)  in  the  compilation  of  Severus  of  el  Ashmunayn 
(Paris  MS.,  Anc.  Fonds  Arabe,  139,  pp.  250  f.).  Joseph  occupied  the  see  from  831 
to  850  (?).    (See  Renaudot,  Hist.  Patr.  pp.  277-294.) 

4  Makrizi,  ed.  Bouriant,  "Firqi";  Budge  (11,  188),  "Feraki";  Burckhardt^ 
"  Feyrakey."   Abu  Salih  gives  "  George." 


II.  2.  xviii.     AND  THE  INVASION  OF  DONGOLA  165 

ing  a  large  order  upon  the  treasury  of  Egypt  payable  as  soon  as  the 
tribute  was  handed  over.  Arrangements  were  also  made  for  the 
tribute  in  future  to  be  paid  every  three  years,  but  the  amount  of  the 
gifts  usually  presented  by  the  Muhammadans  to  the  Nubians  on  the 
occasion  was  cut  down,  and  various  demands  made  by  Zakaria  were 
refused. 

With  this  George  had  to  be  content — as  well  he  might  be — and 
the  tribute  was  duly  paid. 

His  father,  it  is  said,  founded  a  church  in  honour  of  his  safe 
return1. 

XVII  Still  more  serious  trouble  broke  out  in  854  during  the  rule  of 
'Anbasa,  the  last  and  best  of  the  Arab  governors  of  Egypt,  for  the 
Bega  refused  to  pay  tribute  and  raided  the  riverain  towns  of  Edfu 
and  Esna.  A  large  army  of  Arabs  was  eventually  mobilized  on  the 
Nile  and  marched  inland  from  Kus,  while  a  smaller  force  was  sent 
with  supplies  by  way  of  the  Red  Sea.  In  the  result  the  Bega  were 
completely  routed  and  their  chief,  'Ali  Baba,  surrendered  to  the 
Arab  general.  He  was  well  treated  and  in  855-856  actually  induced 
to  visit  the  Khalifa  at  Baghdad.  Peace  was  then  concluded  and  the 
matter  of  the  tribute  arranged.  One  of  the  chief  clauses  of  the  treaty 
laid  stress  on  the  facilities  that  were  to  be  given  to  the  Arabs  to  work 
the  mines  in  the  Bega  countries.  This  done,  'Ali  Baba  returned  in 
safety  to  his  own  country2. 

XVIII  A  new  class  now  begins  to  appear  in  Egypt3. 

4  From  the  time  when  the  Arabs  came  in  contact  with  the  Turks  on  the 
Oxus  and  brought  them  under  their  rule,  Turkish  slaves  had  been  highly 
prized  in  Muslim  households.  Their  physical  strength  and  beauty,  their 
courage,  and  their  fidelity  had  won  the  trust  of  the  great  emirs,  and 
especially  of  the  caliphs  who  believed  they  could  rely  more  safely  upon  the 
devotion  of  these  purchased  foreigners  than  upon  their  own  jealous  Arabs 
or  the  Persians  among  whom  they  dwelt  and  who  had  hitherto  had  a  large 
share  in  the  administration  of  the  Empire.  The  young  Turkish  slave  who 

1  Abu  Salih,  loc.  cit. 

2  See  Makrizi,  Khetdt,  II,  568,  and  Lane-Poole,  pp.  41,  42.  Lane-Poole,  who 
quotes  Ibn  Miskawayh  on  this  subject,  somewhat  confuses  the  Bega  with  the 
riverain  Nubians.  E.g.  he  speaks  of  'Ali  Baba  as  king  of  the  Sudan  and  of  his  men 
as  "blacks."  It  is,  however,  quite  clear  from  the  description  of  incidents  that  the 
trouble  was  with  the  Hamitic  camel-owning  nomads  of  the  Eastern  desert.  Accord- 
ing to  el  Makrizi  {loc,  cit.)  the  war  ended  in  856. 

3  The  Mamluk  period  proper  does  not  commence  yet.  In  a  sense  it  may  be 
said  to  begin  with  Saladin  in  1175 :  "  Saladin  the  creator  of  the  Egyptian  Sultanate 
was  also  responsible  for  the  introduction  of  the  Mamluks"  (Lane-Poole,  Quart. 
Rev.  April  1915);  but  "the  real  founder  of  the  Mamluk  Empire"  was  Baybars, 
who  came  to  the  throne  in  1260. 

4  Lane-Poole,  Hist.  p.  59.  The  quotation  included  by  Lane-Poole  is  from 
E.  T.  Rogers,  Coins  of  the  Tiiluni  dynasty  (Numism.  Orient,  iv),  p.  2. 


1 66  THE  PROGRESS  THROUGH  EGYPT     n.  2.  xviii. 

served  his  master  well  usually  acquired  his  freedom  and  received  valuable 
court  appointments.  "The  caliphs,  who  were  often  unable  to  appease  the 
turbulent  spirits  of  the  native  emirs,  except  by  granting  them  special 
privileges  and  territorial  rights,  were  gradually  led  into  the  opposite  error 
of  alienating  the  most  powerful  of  their  subjects,  and  in  giving  all  their 
confidence  to  those  foreign  slaves,  who  thus  acquired  the  entire  control  of 
the  interior  of  the  palace.  These  illiterate  and  barbarous  white  slaves  (or 
mamluks),  now  incorporated  into  the  society  of  the  educated  rulers  of  a 
great  empire,  soon  became  conversant  with  the  law  of  the  Koran.  They 
adopted  the  language  and  religion  of  their  masters.  They  studied  science 
and  politics;  and  when  any  of  them  became  capable  of  undertaking  the 
more  difficult  tasks  or  of  occupying  the  more  eminent  posts  in  the  court, 
they  were  emancipated,  and  appointed  to  the  various  government  offices 
according  to  the  talents  they  displayed. 

Thus  manumitted  Turks  were  appointed  not  only  to  the  chief  offices 
in  the  palace,  but  to  the  governorships  of  some  of  the  most  important 
provinces  in  the  Empire." 

In  the  Sudan  the  Mamluks  are  generally  known  as  the  Ghuzz1. 

Egypt  had  naturally  been  affected  by  this  revolution,  and  from 
about  836  the  successive  governors  held  it  in  fee  for  Turks  at 
Baghdad. 

XIX  Till  856  they  were  Arabs,  but  in  that  year  'Anbasa  was  recalled, 
and  in  September,  868,  after  a  series  of  Turkish  governors  had  ruled 
for  a  space,  a  Mamluk  succeeded  in  founding  a  dynasty  which  was 
to  direct  the  affairs  of  Egypt  for  fifty-seven  years2.  This  man, 
Abu  el  'Abbas  Ahmad  ibn  Tulun,  was  a  remarkably  capable  ad- 
ministrator, but  ruthless  in  his  methods,  and  with  the  new  order  of 
things  the  Arabs,  who  had  fallen  into  entire  disfavour,  became 
extremely  discontented  and  began  to  emigrate  south  and  west  to  the 
Sudan  and  the  Berber  countries,  to  escape  the  heavy  hand  of  the 
alien. 

XX  Within  three  months  of  his  accession  Ibn  Tulun  was  involved 
in  a  Nubian  expedition3.  Its  leader  was  Abu  'Abd  el  Rahman  ibn 
'Abdulla  ibn  'Abd  el  Hamid  el  'Amri,  and  his  force  consisted  chiefly 
of  Rabi'a  and  Guhayna.  As  soon  as  affairs  in  Nubia  had  been  dealt 
with  el  'Amri  turned  eastwards  towards  the  mines4,  where  since  the 

1  Cp.  Burckhardt,  Nubia,  p.  138;  el  Tunisi,  Voy.  ou  Ouaddy,  p.  319;  and  el 
Mas'udi,  Ch.  xvn,  who  speaks  of  "the  Nomadic  Turks,  who  are  the  Ghuzz." 
Sprenger  deals  exhaustively  with  this  word  in  his  edition  of  el  Mas'udi  (1  Vol.). 
They  are  properly  the  Seljuk  Turks.  The  word  Ghuzz  is  etymologically  the  same  as 
"  Scythian,"  and  it  occurs  again  in  "  Getes,"  "  Massagetes,"  "  Kirghiz,"  "  Tunghiz  " 
(Sprenger,  loc.  cit.  pp.  238-240).  The  word  is  also  used  for  the  'Ayyubite  Kurds; 
see  Bouriant  (Makrizi),  pp.  75  and  107. 

2  Lane-Poole,  Hist.  pp.  42,  61.  3  Makrizi,  Khetdt,  II,  569,  575. 

4  It  is  said  that  60,000  camels  were  employed  transporting  his  provisions  from 
Aswan. 


II.  2.  xxm.     AND  THE  INVASION  OF  DONGOLA  167 

treaties  of  831  and  855-856  ever-increasing  numbers  of  Arabs  had 
been  settling  among  the  Bega.  Most  of  the  Rabi'a  and  Guhayna, 
instead  of  returning  to  Egypt,  now  took  up  their  permanent  abode  in 
the  eastern  deserts  and  on  the  Red  Sea  coast  and  married  Bega 
women.  The  chief  result  to  Egypt  was  a  cessation  of  the  raids  on  her 
southern  border,  and  to  the  Bega  the  acquisition  of  all  tribal  control 
by  an  Arab  aristocracy1. 

XXI  We  need  not  follow  the  victorious  career  of  Ibn  Tulun  in 
Syria  nor  the  amazing  dissipations  of  his  successor  in  Egypt  except 
to  note  that  golden  palaces  and  lakes  of  quicksilver  must  have  spelt 
oppression  to  the  taxpayer  and  proved  an  added  incentive  to  emigra- 
tion. It  is  enough  to  say  that  after  Egypt  had  weltered  in  blood  for 
a  further  nine  years  an  army  sent  by  el  Muktafi  in  905  a.d.  recovered 
the  province  for  the  Khalifate  for  some  thirty  years  and  removed  the 
survivors  of  the  house  of  Ibn  Tulun  to  Baghdad2. 

XXII  In  914  the  Fatimite  sectarians  from  the  west,  chiefly  Ketama 
Berbers  by  race,  began  a  series  of  attacks  on  Egypt.  They  were  beaten 
back  to  Barbary  in  920.  Then  followed  fifteen  years  of  utter  anarchy, 
until  in  935  Muhammad  ibn  Tughg  was  appointed  by  the  Khalifa  to 
restore  order  in  Egypt.  This  he  did,  and  for  eleven  years  there  is  no 
record  of  any  disturbance3. 

XXIII  It  was  during  Ibn  Tughg's  reign  that  el  Mas'udi  visited 
Egypt.  Incidentally  he  gives  us  some  valuable  information  as  to  the 
Arabs  and  the  Sudan4.  Nubia — he  uses  the  word  in  a  broad  sense- 
was  divided  into  two  main  districts,  that  of  Mukurra  to  the  north 
and  that  of  'Aloa  to  the  south.  Dongola  ("Donkola,"  aJUo)  was  the 
capital  of  the  former  and  Soba5  of  the  latter.  The  most  northernly 
portion  of  Mukurra  was  known  as  Maris. 

The  hereditary  king  of  Dongola  was  Kubra  ibn  Surur,  and  the 
southern  district,  'Aloa,  was  also  under  his  suzerainty.  He  was 
responsible  for  the  payment  of  the  ancient  tribute  which  was  still  in 
force,  namely  365  slaves,  together  with  a  present  of  forty  for  the 
Governor  and  twenty  for  his  representative  at  Aswan  and  five  for 
the  Grand  Kadi  at  Aswan  and  one  for  each  of  the  twelve  notaries 
assisting  him. 

1  Compare  the  following,  written  of  Southern  Arabia:— "The  supreme  head 
of  a  tribal  confederation  is  the  Sultan.  He  is  never  a  tribesman  himself,  but  comes 
of  an  alien  aristocracy  imported  by  the  senior  confederate  chiefs..."  (W.  Bury, 
Land  of  Uz,  p.  293). 

2  Lane-Poole,  Hist.  pp.  74-77. 

3  Lane-Poole,  Hist.  pp.  81,  82.  4  Mas'udi,  III,  31-34,  39-43. 

5  The  emendation  of  "Soba"  (ij^w)  for  "Sariah"  (2uj~,)  or  "Souiah" 
(<L>^w,  see  Quatremere)  is  an  obvious  one. 


168  THE  PROGRESS  THROUGH  EGYPT     n.  2.  xxm. 

To  the  east,  as  far  as  the  Red  Sea,  were  the  marauding  Bega 
and  the  Arab  tribes  who  had  settled  among  them.  The  latter  were 
chiefly  Rabi'a,  Mudr  and  various  Kahtanites  from  the  Yemen,  and 
numbered  about  3000.  They  had  intermarried  with  the  Bega  and  all 
alike  owed  ultimate  allegiance  to  the  great  sheikh  Abu  Marwan  Bishr 
(Bashir  ibn  Marwan)  of  the  Rabi'a. 

The  Bega  themselves  were  still  pagans,  excepting,  that  is,  the 
Hadareb,  a  warrior  clan  among  them,  who,  it  is  stated,  could  put 
into  the  field  30,000  men  mounted  on  camels. 

The  Nubian  chieftains,  by  now,  it  is  interesting  to  note,  claimed 
a  Himyarite  descent1,  just  as  did  the  rulers  of  Kanem  and  Bornu  at 
a  later  date.  To  some  extent  this  may  have  been  a  result  of  inter- 
marriage with  the  Arab  tribes  who  had  settled  round  Aswan,  for 
el  Mas'udi  especially  notes  that  the  population  of  that  town — still  a 
great  trading  emporium — was  largely  mixed  with  Nubian,  and  that 
numerous  Arab  families,  Kahtanite  and  Isma'ilitic,  had  bought  lands 
from  the  Nubians  and  established  themselves  there2;  but  the  claim 
may  equally  have  rested  on  an  intimate  association  of  long  standing 
with  Abyssinia  and  its  half- Yemenite  population. 

Beyond  'Aloa,  it  was  reported3,  was  "  a  great  tribe  of  blacks  called 
Kunna  [Kenna  ( ?),  Kinna  ( ?)].  They  are  naked  like  the  Zing  and  their 
land  produces  gold.  In  the  kingdom  of  these  people  the  Nile  divides." 
XXIV  In  951  a  successful  raid  was  made  by  the  Nubians  on  the 
oasis  of  Kharga  which  at  this  period  was  under  the  domination  of 
the  Luata  Berber4. 

About  five  years   later5   they  attacked  Aswan  but  a   punitive 

1  j-fs»-  ^j-«  lyjl^cp  j^s^a.  So  an  old  Copt  in  873  told  Ibn  Tulun  (see 
Mas'udi,  ii,  372-382).  Cp.  Quatremere,  II,  16  (quoting  Ibn  Selfm,  ap.  Makrizi): 
"  On  dit  que  Selha,  pere  des  Nubiens,  et  Makorry,  pere  des  peuples  du  Makorrah, 
etoient  natifs  du  Y£men.  Suivant  d'autres  Noubah  et  Makorry  etoient  Hemiarites 
d'origine."  See  note  to  MS.  "BA,"  para,  cxxxm,  in  Part  IV,  for  further  remarks 
on  this. 

2  Mas'udi,  in,  41,  50.  The  tribes  of  Kahtan,  Mudr,  Nizar,  Rabi'a  and  Kuraysh 
are  mentioned.  Burckhardt  (App.  ill,  p.  529)  remarks  of  this  passage  (which  is 
quoted  by  Makrizi  in  Khetdt,  11,  572) :  "  The  notice  of  these  Arab  tribes  is  interesting 
because  it  shews  how  this  part  of  Africa  came  to  be  peopled  by  them,  and  explains 
why  we  find  on  the  Niles,  in  Kordofan,  Darfur  and  Borgho,  pure  Arabian  blood." 

3  Mas'udi,  11,  383  (Ch.  31).  Here  again  the  old  Copt's  story  to  Ibn  Tulun  is 
being  quoted.  The  Arabic  is  as  follows: 

^01rojlj  -jJjJl^  Sl^s^rAj  <UU  j.cjkU  ,jl.sj«J!  ^a  i-o-Jic  i-ol  SjAs  <A)33 


These  "Kunna"  are  no  doubt  Ibn  Selim's  "Kersa"  or  "Kernina,"  for  whom  see 
p.  171.    De  Meynard  and  de  Courteille  wrongly  translate  "qu'on  nomme  Bekneh." 

4  Mas'udi,  III,  51 ;  Makrizi,  Khetdt,  11,  697,  698. 

B  Makrizi,  loc.  cit.  p.  574;  Abu  Salih,  p.  267. 


II.  2.  xxvi.     AND  THE  INVASION  OF  DONGOLA  169 

expedition  was  despatched  under  Muhammad  ibn  'Abdulla  el  Khazin 
who  captured  Ibrim,  executed  a  number  of  Nubians,  and  led  back 
others  to  Egypt  as  slaves. 

XXV  A  gap  now  follows  in  our  knowledge  of  affairs  in  Nubia.  But 
to  the  north  of  it  important  events  were  taking  place. 

The  Fatimites,  supporters  of  the  theory  that  the  divine  right  of 
succession  to  the  Khalifate  was  inherent  in  the  descendants  of  the 
Imam  'Ali,  the  husband  of  the  Prophet's  daughter  Fatima,  had  con- 
solidated their  power  in  Barbary,  and  with  the  decline  of  the  Ikhshids 
came  the  obvious  chance  of  realizing  the  persistent  ambitions  which 
had  already  led  them  half  a  century  before  to  invade  Egypt1.  The 
chance  was  not  wasted.  In  969  the  heretical  Fatimite  Khalifa,  Abu 
Tamim  Ma'add  el  Mu'izz,  with  an  army  of  Shi'ites  entered  Fostat 
in  triumph2,  and  in  the  same  year  Cairo  was  founded. 

The  new  dynasty  was  phlegmatically  accepted  by  the  people  of 
Egypt,  and  the  Sherifs  of  the  Holy  Places  and  the  ruler  of  northern 
Syria  recognized  it3. 

An  attempt  was  also  made  to  convert  George,  the  king  of  Nubia, 
but  it  was  unsuccessful4. 

XXVI  Between  975  and  996  a.d.5  was  written  Ibn  Selim's  account 
of  "Nubia,  Mukurra,  'Aloa,  the  Bega  and  the  Nile."  Such  informa- 
tion as  he  gives  us  concerning  events  that  happened  before  his  time 
has  been  already  quoted.  We  may  now  summarize  what  he  tells  us 
of  the  state  of  affairs  in  the  last  decades  of  the  tenth  century6. 

In  the  extreme  north  of  Nubia  Muhammadan  settlers  from  Egypt 
had  acquired  lands  and  were  practically  independent.  A  number  of 
the  Nubians  to  the  south  of  them,  but  north  of  the  second  cataract, 
had  also  been  converted. 

The  chief  towns  in  this  northern  section  were  Begrash  or  Negrash, 
i.e.  Faras7,  Ibrim  and  el  Derr  (?)8.  It  was  under  the  control  of  a 
powerful  official  known  as  the  "Lord  of  the  Mountain,"  the  repre- 

1  The  Shi'a  doctrine  had  been  introduced  into  Africa  in  893  by  'Abdulla  el 
Shi'i,  and  had  been  at  once  adopted  by  the  great  Berber  tribe  of  Ketama.  From 
them  it  spread  rapidly  among  the  other  Berber-Arab  tribes  who  formed  the  popu- 
lation of  north  Africa  west  of  Egypt  (Lane-Poole,  Hist.  Ch.  iv). 

2  Lane-Poole,  loc.  cit.  pp.  90,  98.  His  force  consisted  largely  of  Ketama  and 
other  Berber  tribes.    It  also  contained  Greeks,  Slavs,  etc.  (Makrizi,  loc.  cit.  I,  269). 

3  Lane-Poole,  loc.  cit.  p.  104. 

4  Ibid.  p.  105. 

5  Quatremere,  11,  3. 

6  His  geography  is  not  very  clear  and  I  omit  detailed  discussion  of  the  many 
points  that  arise. 

7  Arch.  Rep.  Nubia,  1910,  Griffith,  p.  19.  The  site  is  also  that  of  the  ancient 
Pakhoras. 

8  This  seems  a  fairly  certain  emendation  for  the  "Adwa"  ('ji')  of  some 
texts. 


170  THE  PROGRESS  THROUGH  EGYPT      n.  2.  xxvi. 

sentative  of  the  king  of  Nubia1,  and  it  was  a  part  of  his  business  to 
see  that  no  one  passed  the  barrier  of  the  second  cataract,  i.e.  that 
near  Haifa,  without  due  authorization.  His  authority  seems  to  have 
extended  nearly  as  far  south  as  Sai.  Beyond  the  southern  limit  of 
his  dominions  money  was  unknown  and  all  trade  was  conducted  by 
bartering  slaves,  cattle,  camels,  iron  and  corn  for  the  products  of  the 
north.  The  "  marisi"  language  was  spoken  as  far  south  as  "  Yastu2," 
a  village  lying  about  thirty-six  miles  south  of  the  third  cataract  and, 
says  Ibn  Selim,  marking  the  boundary  between  the  provinces  of 
Man's,  or  Nubia  proper,  and  Mukurra  (Mukurra proper?)3.  Beyond 
this  point  lay  two  districts  known  respectively  as  Bakiin  and  Safad 
Bakl  [Safdikal  (?),  Sandikal  (?),  Safdabkal  (?)4].  The  latter  extended 
as  far  south  as  Dongola,  and  Dongola  was  the  capital  of  the  whole 
country  from  the  Egyptian  frontier  to  the  borders  of  'Aloa. 

Ibn  Selim  comments  on  the  fertility  and  prosperity  of  the  country 
on  either  side  of  Dongola. 

Of  the  ordinary  inhabitants  he  says  practically  nothing,  but  he 
mentions  an  immigrant  sub-tribe  of  Bega  called  the  Zenafeg  who 
retained  their  own  language  and  kept  aloof  from  the  Nubians :  they 
led  a  pastoral  life  somewhere  between  the  present  sites  of  Abu 
Hammad  and  Berber.  We  shall  see  that  farther  north  and  east  other 
Zenafeg  were  subject  to  the  Hadareb. 

The  territory  of  Dongola  extended  no  further  south  than  el  Abwab 
(Kabushia),  which  was  the  northernmost  district  of  the  kingdom 
of  'Aloa5  and  was  ruled  by  a  vassal  mek  known  by  the   title  of 

1  That  is,  apparently,  the  king  of  Mukurra,  of  which  district  Dongola  was  the 
capital.  Yakut  mentions  (see  Abu  Saiih,  p.  261,  note)  that  the  king  of  Nubia  called 
himself  "  King  of  Mukurra  and  Nuba"  (sic). 

2  So  Bouriant  (^Zm»j).  Burckhardt  notes  (p.  523):  "I  find  this  word  written 
Yonso,  Benso,  Noso.  Perhaps  Mosho,  the  frontier  town  of  Dongola,  is  meant." 
The  "36  miles"  are  in  the  Arabic  "3  barid."  Burckhardt  says  a  "barid"  is  12 
miles. 

3  Mukurra  is  generally  spoken  of  in  a  wider  sense  (e.g.  by  Ibn  Selim  himself 
three  pages  later)  as  stretching  much  farther  north,  and  on  p.  549  Ibn  Selim  speaks 
of  Negrash  (Faras)  as  capital  of  Maris  and  on  p.  554  as  capital  of  Mukurra.  Maris 
and  Nubia  proper  are  identified  as  distinct  from  Mukurra  (pp.  551,  554).  Pre- 
sumably Maris  was  merely  a  name  sometimes  applied  to  that  northern  portion  of 
Mukurra  which  was  inhabited  by  a  distinct  type  of  Egyptianized  Ethiopian.  The 
title  of  Ibn  Selim's  work  (q.v.  above)  supports  this.  The  word  Maris  is  Coptic 
and  means  "the  South,"  i.e.  the  most  northernly  part  of  Nubia,  looked  at  from  the 
standpoint  of  Egypt.  (See  Abu  Salih,  p.  260,  and  Makrizi,  Khetdt,  II,  372). 
Amelineau,  on  what  grounds  I  do  not  know,  says  Mukurra  extended  from  Korosko 
to  the  ancient  Napata  (Abu  Saiih,  p.  261,  note):  see  note  5,  below. 

4  See  Burckhardt,  pp.  496,  523. 

6  If  so  the  southern  boundary  of  Mukurra  was  presumably  just  north  of 
Kabushia,  i.e.  within  a  few  miles  of  the  ancient  Meroe.  It  is  not  absolutely  certain 
from  Makrizi 's  text  whether  this  fact  is  stated  on  his  own  authority  or  that  of  Ibn 
Selim.    Burckhardt  assumes  the  latter. 


II.  2.  xxvi.     AND  THE  INVASION  OF  DONGOLA  171 

"rahrah1."  On  the  banks  of  the  Atbara,  we  are  told,  lived  a  tribe 
called  the  Digiun2  connected  on  the  one  hand  with  the  people  of 
'Aloa  and  on  the  other  with  the  Bega.  Beyond  them  and  bordering 
on  Abyssinia  were  the  Baza3,  among  whom  "all  the  women  bear  the 
same  name,  and  likewise  the  men." 

The  hereditary  kingship  of  'Aloa  was  held  in  Ibn  Seli'm's  day  by 
one  Simeon  whose  capital  was  at  Soba  near  the  junction  of  the  Niles. 

4  On  voit  dans  cette  ville  des  constructions  fort  belles,  de  vastes  cou- 
vents5,  des  eglises  ou  Tor  abonde  et  des  jardins;  l'un  de  ses  faubourgs6  est 
peuple  de  Musulmans.  Le  roi  de  'Alouah  est  plus  riche  que  le  roi  de 
Maqorrah;  il  a  plus  de  guerriers  et  plus  de  chevaux;  son  pays  est  plus 
fertile  et  plus  vaste7;  les  palmiers  et  les  vignes  cependant  y  sont  rares;  la 
recolte  la  plus  abondante  est  celle  du  dourrah  blanc  qui  ressemble  au  riz ; 
on  en  fait  du  pain  et  de  la  biere....Ces  peuples  sont  de  la  religion  chretienne 
jacobite;  comme  chez  les  Nubiens,  leurs  eveques  leur  sont  envoyes  par  le 
patriarche  d'Alexandrie.  lis  se  servent  des  livres  grecs  qu'ils  traduisent 
dans  leur  langue.  lis  sont  moins  intelligents  que  les  Nubiens.  Leur  roi 
est  maitre  absolu...8. 

In  the  Gezira,  some  distance  south  of  'Aloa,  lived  a  certain  people 
called  the  Kersa9.   Of  them  it  is  related : 

a  l'epoque  des  semailles,  chaque  individu  vient  avec  ce  qu'il  possede  de 
semences  et  forme  un  enclos  en  rapport  avec  la  quantite  de  graines  qu'il 
a  apportees;  puis  il  seme  aux  quatre  angles  de  l'enclos  une  petite  quantite 
de  ce  grain  et  depose  le  reste,  avec  un  peu  de  biere,  au  milieu  de  l'enclos 

1  Burckhardt,  "rahwah"  (p.  497).  Possibly  the  term  is  connected  with  the 
"Rehrehsa"  of  the  stele  of  Heru-sa-atef.  This  king  (sixth  century  B.C.)  reigned  at 
Meroe  and  records  an  expedition  he  made  against  a  people  of  that  name  and  two 
attacks  by  them  on  Merce.   (See  Budge,  n,  80,  81.) 

2  May  these  be  the  Dagu,  not  yet  gone  to  Darfur?  It  is  unlikely;  and  Burck- 
hardt reads  "Deyhyoun"  {i.e.  (J^s^i  for  C)5+^~i*)  and  Quatremere  "Rihnoun" 

(n,  17). 

3  Burckhardt,  "Nara."   Two  of  his  MSS.  spelt  it  so,  and  one  "Zonara." 

4  Trans.  Bouriant,  Khetdt,  II,  557.  For  earlier  mentions  of  'Aloa  see  pp.  46- 
48. 

5  Burckhardt  (p.  500)  translates  "handsome  edifices  and  extensive  dwellings." 

6  The  Arabic  is  hjj,  the  plural  of  -kbj:  Burckhardt  (loc.  cit.)  translates  "inns 
where  Moslims  live."  He  explains  that  the  word  means  "  public  buildings  destined 
originally  for  the  accommodation  of  students ;  many  of  them  still  exist  in  the  Hedjaz 
and  at  Cairo  where  they  have  declined  into  mere  lodging-houses."  I  think  "  hostels  " 
would  be  the  best  translation.    See  note  to  "  D  7,"  1,  in  Part  IV. 

7  Mas'udi  (in,  32)  had  heard  that  'Aloa  was  subject  to  the  king  of  Dongola: 
he  was  probably  misinformed. 

8  This  passage  cannot  fail  to  recall  the  opening  paragraph  of  MS.  "D  7"  {q.v. 
in  Part  IV). 

9  Bouriant  gives  "les  Kernina"  (U-Jj^Jt),  Burckhardt  (p.  501),  "A  nation  of 
the  name  of  Koroma  or  Kersa":  the  latter  notes:  "This  I  find  written  Korsa, 
Kortyna,  and  Koroma  (\~>j£s  1.*).^   \x*3j£s)."  The  people  are  presumably  the 
same  as  Mas'Qdi's  "Kunna"  (see  p.  168).    We  shall  later  in  this  chapter  find  the 
Kersa  grouped  with  the  'Anag  and  others  in  the  thirteenth  century. 


172  THE  PROGRESS  THROUGH  EGYPT      ii.2.xxvi. 

et  s'en  va.  Le  lendemain  matin  tout  l'enclos  est  ensemence  et  la  biere  a 
ete  bue;  au  temps  de  la  moisson,  on  coupe  quelques  tiges  que  Ton  depose 
dans  un  endroit  avec  de  la  biere,  et  Ton  se  retire;  quand  on  revient  on 
trouve  la  moisson  faite  et  mise  en  gerbes.  On  fait  de  meme  quand  il 
s'agit  de  battre  le  grain  ou  de  le  vanner.  Mais  si  quelqu'un,  voulant 
sarcler  son  champ,  arrache  par  hasard  le  moindre  epi,  il  trouve  le  lende- 
main tout  le  champ  arrache.... Les  gens  du  pays  attribuent  cela  aux  genies ; 
ils  croient  que  certaines  personnes  peuvent  obliger,  au  moyen  de  certaines 
pierres,  les  genies  a  les  servir...les  nuages  meme  leur  obeirent. 

Concerning  the  religion  of  the  tribes  of  'Aloa  we  are  told  that 

La  plupart  reconnaissent  le  Createur;  ils  lui  font  des  sacrifices  sous  la 
forme  du  soleil,  de  la  lune  ou  des  astres.  Certains  d'entre  eux  ne  con- 
naissent  pas  le  Createur  et  adorent  le  soleil  et  le  feu.  D'autres  adorent 
tout  ce  que  leur  plait:  arbre  ou  animal1. 

A  description  of  the  nomad  Bega  and  their  country  follows2. 
This  is  too  well  known  to  need  much  quotation.  The  main  points  to 
be  noticed  are  that  a  matrilinear  system  still  survived  among  them3, 
that  they  were  by  now  divided  into  a  number  of  independent  tribes 
and  no  longer  acknowledged  the  rule  of  a  single  supreme  sheikh  as 
in  the  time  of  'Abdulla  ibn  Gahm.  Among  their  customs  was  that  of 
removing  the  right  testicle  from  their  male  children :  female  excision 
was  also  practised.  For  the  rest,  most  of  what  is  said  of  the  Bega  and 
their  ways  might  well  have  been  written  at  the  present  day  of  their 
descendants. 

The  Hadareb  division  of  the  tribe,  who  lived  on  the  Red  Sea 
coast  and  the  Egyptian  frontier,  were  the  first  Bega  to  be  converted 
to  Islam.  The  rest  of  the  Bega  were  still  practically  all  pagan, 
worshipping  demons  and  living  under  the  influence  of  their  holy 
men.  To  these  latter  the  Bega  applied  for  guidance  in  their  ventures 
and  the  holy  man  would  in  a  frenzy  of  inspiration  foretell  success 
or  failure. 

XXVII  But  to  return  to  affairs  in  the  north.  The  Fatimites  remained 
in  power  in  Egypt  for  some  200  years  and  the  earlier  period  of  their 
rule  was  one  of  sumptuous  magnificence,  art,  and  material  prosperity. 
The  western  provinces,  however,  soon  began  to  break  away  from 
their  dependence:  "Abu  Rakwa,"  with  a  force  of  Ketama  and  Beni 
Kurra,  a  section  of  Gudham,  seized  Barka  in  1005  in  the  reign  of 
the  fanatic  Hakim4.  After  routing  the  Khalifa's  troops  he  proceeded 
to  occupy  Upper  Egypt.    Here  he  was  unsuccessful  and  suffered  a 

1  Trans.  Bouriant  (p.  558).    Cp.  Quatremere,  II,  25. 

2  Ibid.  pp.  561-571. 

3  For  the  ancient  prevalence  of  the  matrilinear  system  see  note  to  para,  xxxm 
of  this  chapter. 

4  Lane-Poole,  p.  128.  Cp.  p.  149,  above. 


II.  2.  xxviii.  AND  THE  INVASION  OF  DONGOLA  173 

severe  defeat.  In  consequence  he  fled  to  Nubia,  where  the  king  then 
was  Raphael1,  but  was  captured  at  the  monastery  of  St  Sinuthius  in 
1006,  taken  to  Cairo,  and  impaled2. 

Fresh  risings,  chiefly  engineered  by  the  Ketama,  supervened, 
and  in  1021  Hakim  was  murdered3. 

Hakim's  mad  rule  had  been  a  reign  of  terror :  that  of  his  successor 
el  Zahir  was  equally  so. 

XXVIII  From  1036  to  1094  el  Mustansir,  the  grandson  of  Hakim, 
ruled  Egypt,  but  Syria  was  no  longer  subservient,  and  the  Sanhaga 
and  Ketama  Berbers  to  the  west  offered  no  more  than  a  nominal 
allegiance:  they  frequently  gave  less4. 

About  1044  the  Sanhagi  governor  of  North  Africa,  Mu'izz, 
renounced  Shi 'ism,  and  two  years  later  proclaimed  his  independence5. 
We  have  already  seen  how  the  Beni  Hilal  and  Beni  Sulaym,  with 
other  parties  of  Arabs,  were  dispatched  from  the  Sa'id  to  bring  him 
to  reason,  how  they  laid  waste  his  country,  and  how  they  then 
amalgamated  with  the  Berbers  and  remained  in  practically  independent 
possession6. 

In  spite  of  the  loss  of  its  provinces  and  the  exactions  of  its  rulers 
Egypt  appears  to  have  been  fairly  tranquil  and  prosperous.  A  Persian 
traveller  has  left  a  record7  of  his  visit  between  1046  and  1049  and  has 
described  the  luxury  of  the  capital.  The  composition  of  el  Mustansir's 
forces  at  this  time  is  worth  noting:  there  were  "20,000  mounted 
Ketama  Berbers,  10,000  Batilis,  20,000  blacks,  10,000  'Orientals' 
[Turks  and  Persians],  30,000  purchased  slaves,  15,000  Bedawis  of 
the  Hegaz,  30,000  black  and  white  slave  attendants  and  chamberlains 
(ustad),  10,000  palace  servants  (serayi),  and  30,000  negro  swordsmen." 
With  such  a  heterogeneous  army  it  is  not  surprising  that  in  1062  a 
serious  internal  crisis  arose  between  the  Turks  and  the  Berbers  on 
the  one  hand  and  the  blacks  on  the  other8.  Neither  side  was  animated 
by  any  loyalty  to  the  Egyptian  Khalifate  and  while  50,000  of  the 
blacks  were  driven  into  Upper  Egypt,  whence  they  continued  for 
some  years  to  harry  the  more  northernly  provinces9,  the  Berbers 

1  According  to  Abu  Salih  (p.  265)  Raphael  introduced  into  Nubia  a  new  style 
of  architecture.  "  The  King's  house  [at  Dongola]  is  lofty,  with  several  domes  built 
of  red  brick,  and  resembles  the  buildings  in  Al  'Irak ;  and  this  novelty  was  intro- 
duced by  Raphael  who  was  King  of  Nubia  in  the  year  392  of  the  Arabs." 

2  See  Abu  Salih,  pp.  262,  265:  also  Abu  el  Fida,  Annates,  11,  616,  there  quoted. 

3  Lane-Poole,  p.  134.  4  Lane-Poole,  Hist.  pp.  136,  137. 
5  Lane-Poole,  p.  138.                                     6  See  p.  146. 

7  See  Lane-Poole,  pp.  139-142.  8  Lane-Poole,  Hist.  pp.  145-149. 

9  It  is  obviously  most  unlikely  that  Nubia  paid  any  tribute  during  this  period. 
About  now  we  hear  of  Christodulus  the  66th  patriarch  (1047-1100,  see  Evetts, 
ap.  Abu  Salih,  p.  121)  at  Alexandria  requesting  and  obtaining  monetary  assistance 


174  THE  PROGRESS  THROUGH  EGYPT   n.  2.  xxvm. 

proceeded  to  overrun  the  Delta,  and  the  Turks  looted  everything  of 
value  that  could  be  found1.  A  seven  years'  famine  followed  and 
unheard  of  atrocities  were  perpetrated.  However,  in  1074,  with  the 
aid  of  Arab  and  Armenian  troops  from  Syria  the  Khalifa  managed  to 
restore  order,  subdued  the  rebellious  Berbers  in  the  Delta  and  re- 
conquered the  country  as  far  as  Aswan,  so  that  a  period  of  twenty 
years  of  prosperity  followed. 

XXIX  The  latter  half  of  the  eleventh  century  saw  the  subjugation  of 
Syria  by  the  Selgiik  Turkmans  and  the  first  Crusade.  The  Fatimite 
power  now  began  to  decline  and  it  was  supplanted  in  1171  by  the 
Sultanate  of  the  'Ayyubite  Kurds  under  "Saladin"  [Salah  el  Din2]. 

XXX  The  histories  of  the  Fatimite  period  are  so  concerned  with 
foreign  wars,  court  intrigues,  murders,  rebellions,  and  extravagances 
of  successive  governors  that  there  is  little  to  be  gleaned  as  to  the  nomad 
Arabs.  In  the  large  towns  the  population  must  have  gradually  become 
more  and  more  mixed  with  Turkish  and  negro  elements,  and  a  certain 
number  of  the  Arabs  joined  this  heterogeneous  medley  and  adopted 
a  sedentary  life.  These,  of  course,  would  tend  to  lose  very  quickly 
all  racial  purity  and  even  tribal  distinctions:  they  were  merged  into 
the  Egyptians  and  do  not  concern  us  here. 

The  nomads,  on  the  other  hand,  remained  practically  unaffected. 
It  is  a  striking,  but  not  in  the  least  surprising,  fact  that  the  tendency 
of  each  successive  dynasty  that  ruled  Egypt  was  increasingly  to  regard 
the  Arabs,  that  is  the  nomads,  not  so  much  as  forming  an  integral 
part  of  the  state  as  an  element  of  danger  and  unrest  hovering  on  the 
borders  of  the  country,  to  be  made  use  of  when  convenient  but  never 
entitled  to  more  consideration  than  they  had  the  power  to  extort. 
The  place  they  occupied,  for  instance,  in  Saladin's  regard  is  not 
inaptly  illustrated  by  the  following  quotation  from  Makrizi3: 

The  Sultan  [Saladin]  proceeded  to  Alexandria  for  the  following  reason : 
there  was  a  surplus  population  at  Alexandria  and  at  the  same  time  money 

from  the  king  of  Nubia  "on  account  of  the  exactions  from  which  he  suffered  at 
the  hands  of  the  Government  and  of  the  Luata"  (Abu  Salih,  p.  270). 

In  the  patriarchate  of  Cyril  (1078-1092  (sic),  see  Evetts,  ap.  Abu  Salih,  p.  137), 
we  are  told,  died  Solomon,  a  king  of  Nubia  who  abdicated  in  order  to  lead  a  life 
of  asceticism  and  was  brought  to  Cairo  and  received  there  with  honour  and  finally 
buried  at  the  monastery  of  el  Khandak  in  the  suburbs  of  Cairo  (Abu  Salih,  pp.  270, 
271). 

1  The  most  serious  loss  of  this  reign  of  terror  was  the  destruction  or  dispersal 
of  the  Khalifa's  priceless  library  of  100,000  books  (see  Lane-Poole,  p.  149). 

2  Saladin  was  the  first  man  to  be  styled  Sultan  in  Egypt.  However,  both  he 
and  his  sons  and  collaterals  who  succeeded  him  styled  themselves  only  "Malik" 
on  their  coinage,  though  calling  themselves  "Sultan"  in  their  building  inscription 
and  being  commonly  known  as  such.    (Lane-Poole,  Quart.  Rev.  April,  1915) 

3  Kitdb  el  Seluk  (ed.  Blochet),  pp.  105,  106  (translated  from  French). 


II.  2.  xxxi.     AND  THE  INVASION  OF  DONGOLA  175 

was  so  very  scarce  there  that  he  did  not  know  what  to  do.  He  was  told 
that  there  were  ample  resources  in  Barka  and  that  there  were  only  Arabs 
living  there,  who  could  not  offer  any  serious  resistance.  So  he  went  to 
Alexandria  and  there  held  a  council... and  it  was  decided  to  send  an  expe- 
dition to  the  country  of  the  Arabs  and  to  hasten  the  gathering  of  the  corn 
crop  before  it  was  harvested.... Letters  were  also  sent  to  the  Arabs  demand- 
ing the  payment  of  their  tithes  and  bidding  them  cease  intercepting  the 
roads  by  which  the  slave  merchants  passed. 

Again  we  read1  that  in  1 181  for  no  particular  reason  "  orders  were 
sent  to  seize  the  crops  of  the  nomads  ('Arabdn)"  in  the  eastern 
provinces  and  to  send  them  to  Bahfra.  Intercepting  caravans  and 
raiding  other  tribes  seem  to  have  been  the  main  occupations  of  the 
nomads,  as  it  still  is  in  Arabia.  Numbers  of  them  were  also  employed 
as  auxiliary  troops  in  the  various  expeditions  sent  to  Syria,  Barbary, 
and  the  Sudan,  but  these  were  distinctly  untrustworthy. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  each  year  various  sections,  presumably 
those  who  had  suffered  most  from  oppression  or  famine,  migrated 
further  afield.  Large  numbers  evidently  took  up  their  abode  in 
Upper  Egypt,  others  returned  to  Syria2,  and  others  probably  pushed 
further  south  into  Nubian  territory. 

At  the  same  time  there  was  a  considerable  body  of  immigration 
from  Syria:  we  have  seen,  for  instance,  how  the  Awlad  Sinbis 
section  of  Tai  entered  Egypt  in  1050,  and  how  other  branches  of  the 
same  tribe  supplanted  the  Beni  Gudham  at  the  beginning  of  the 
'Ayyubite  period3. 

XXXI  Saladin  ruled  till  1 193  and  this  period  was  "  the  most  glorious 
in  the  history  of  Muslim  domination  in  Egypt4."  Sixteen  years  of  his 
reign  were  taken  up  with  campaigns  in  the  East.  He  also  found  time, 
within  two  years  of  his  accession,  to  conquer  the  Mediterranean 
littoral  as  far  west  as  Gabes  and  to  send  a  couple  of  expeditions  into 
the  Sudan5.  These  latter  were  rendered  necessary  by  a  movement 
which  had  begun  in  Nubia  in  favour  of  the  Fatimites  and  had 

1  Ibid.  p.  140. 

2  E.g.  see  Makrizi,  Kitdb  el  Seluk  (Blochet),  p.  269. 

3  In  1 154  numbers  of  nomads  accompanied  Talai'  ibn  Ruzzik,  the  Governor 
of  el  Ashmunayn  when  he  moved  north  and  seized  Cairo  (Lane-Poole,  p.  173). 
The  usurper  Shawar  (1160-1169),  who  had  been  Governor  of  Upper  Egypt,  was 
an  Arab  (Lane-Poole,  pp.  176,  186),  and  his  rival  Dirgham,  in  Cairo,  was  one  of 
the  Beni  Lakhm  (Lane-Poole,  p.  176).  The  nomad  armed  with  a  spear  and  hovering 
on  the  outskirts  of  the  battle  is  easily  recognizable  in  the  European  accounts  of 
the  Crusades,  as  distinct  from  the  heavy  troops  in  mail,  who  would  be  almost 
entirely  negro  and  Turkish  mamluks.  On  the  other  hand,  in  1249  we  find  the 
Kenana  installed  as  garrison  of  Damietta  (Lane-Poole,  p.  232). 

4  Lane-Poole,  p.  190. 

5  See  Makrfzi,  Kitdb  el  Seluk,  p.  no;  Lane-Poole,  Hist.  p.  197;  Abu  Salih, 
pp.  266  et  seq.;  and  Ibn  Khaldun  (ed.  ar.  Vol.  5,  p.  287,  Bk.  11)  for  what  follows. 


176  THE  PROGRESS  THROUGH  EGYPT     II.  2.  xxxi. 

culminated  in  an  attack  upon  Aswan.  The  first  army  was  sent  under 
command  of  Shaga'a  el  Din  el  Ba'albeki.  The  rebels  fled  at  its 
approach,  were  pursued  by  Shaga'a  el  Din  and  Kanz  el  Dowla,  the 
chief  of  the  half-Nubianized  Beni  Kanz  and  amir  of  the  Arabs  of 
Aswan1,  and  were  heavily  defeated. 

The  second  expedition2  took  place  during  the  same  year  (1 172-3), 
and  was  led  by  Saladin's  elder  brother  Turan  Shah3.  Ibrim4  was 
taken,  the  Christian  church  pillaged,  many  captives  taken — according 
to  Abu  Salih  700,000 — the  bishop  tortured,  and  700  pigs  slaughtered5. 

Turan  Shah  went  no  further  than  Ibrim.  On  his  return  journey6 
he  gave  Aswan  in  fief  to  a  certain  Ibrahim  the  Kurd  who  turned  it 
into  a  robber  fortress  whence  he  plundered  the  Nubians.  When 
Turan  Shah  reached  Kiis  he  was  overtaken  by  a  letter  and  presents 
from  the  king  of  Nubia.  He  treated  the  envoy  well  and  gave  him  a 
robe  of  honour  and  two  arrows  saying  "Tell  the  King  I  have  no  other 
reply  than  that."  He  also  sent  to  enquire  into  the  resources  of  Nubia 
an  ambassador  who  went  as  far  as  Dongola  and  then  returned  and 
reported  the  country  as 

"  a  poor  one,  where  scarcely  anything  is  grown  except  a  little  dura  and  some 
small  date-palms  on  the  fruit  of  which  the  inhabitants  live.  The  king 
came  out  of  his  palace  naked  and  mounted  a  horse  without  saddle  or 
caparisons :  he  had  wrapped  round  him  a  robe  of  silk,  and  he  had  not  a  hair 
on  his  head.  I  advanced  towards  him,"  said  the  ambassador,  "and  when 
I  would  have  saluted  him  he  burst  out  laughing.  He  appeared  to  under- 
stand no  word  of  what  I  said,  and  he  ordered  one  of  his  men  to  mark  on 
my  hand  the  figure  of  a  cross.  He  gave  me  about  fifty  roth  of  corn.  There 
were  no  buildings  at  Dongola  excepting  the  palace  of  the  king.  The  rest 
were  all  huts  of  straw." 

1  Some  account  of  this  chief  was  given  in  the  last  chapter.  The  name  Kanz 
el  Dowla  was  evidently  a  hereditary  title:  see  p.  187.  Ibn  Batata  (Vol.  iv,  p.  396) 
speaks  of  "Ibn  Kanz  el  Din,"  i.e.  Kanz  el  Dowla,  as  becoming  a  Muhammadan 
in  the  reign  of  el  Ndsir,  though  the  Nubians  were  still  Christians.  He  probably 
failed  to  realize  that  Kanz  el  Dowla  was  not  a  pure  Nubian  himself. 

2  See  note  5  on  previous  page. 

3  I.e.  El  Melik  el  Mu'azzam  Shams  el  Dowla  Turan  Shah,  surnamed  Fakhr 
el  Dfn. 

4  Of  Ibrim  at  this  time  Abu  Salih  says  (p.  266) :  "  In  the  land  of  Nubia  is  the 
city  of  Ibrim,  the  residence  of  the  Lord  of  the  Mountain,  all  the  inhabitants  of 
which  are  of  the  province  of  Maris;  it  is  enclosed  within  a  wall.  Here  there  is  a 
large  and  beautiful  church,  finely  planned,  and  named  after  Our  Lady,  the  Pure 
Virgin  Mary.  Above  it  there  is  a  high  dome,  upon  which  rises  a  high  cross." 
Ibrim,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  the  ancient  Primis.  For  the  "Lord  of  the 
Mountain"  see  p.  169. 

6  Abu  Salih  (p.  267)  also  mentions  the  capture  of  a  large  quantity  of  cotton 
at  Ibrim:  it  was  taken  to  Kus  and  sold  there.  According  to  Ibn  Khaldun,  Turan 
Shah  got  practically  nothing  except  slaves  from  the  expedition,  there  being  even 
a  shortage  of  corn. 

6  Makrizi,  Kitdb  el  Seluk,  pp.  111,  112. 


II.  2.  xxxiii.  AND  THE  INVASION  OF  DONGOLA  177 

XXXII  In  1 174  Kanz  el  Dowla  revolted  with  a  following  of  Arabs 
and  blacks  and  invaded  Egypt  in  the  Fatimite  interest.  Saladin  sent 
his  brother  Melik  el  'Adil  against  him,  a  battle  was  fought  near  Tud, 
and  the  Nubians  were  completely  defeated.  Kanz  el  Dowla  himself 
was  captured  and  put  to  death1. 

With  the  death  of  Saladin  in  1193  the  main  centre  of  power  and 
of  interest  moves  from  Egypt  to  Syria2  and  the  continued  record  of 
wars  with  the  Crusaders  seldom  touches  our  main  thesis3. 

XXXIII  We  gather  some  valuable  information  concerning  Nubia  in 
the  early  years  of  the  thirteenth  century  from  Abu  Salih  the  Armenian4, 
though  his  value  is  greatly  decreased  by  his  obvious  confusion  between 
Abyssinia  and  Nubia  and  by  his  credulity. 

The  best-known  place-names  in  Nubia  were  still,  as  in  el  Mas'udi's 
day,  Maris,  Mukurra,  Dongola,  and  'Aloa. 

Man's  was  the  name  of  the  most  northernly  province,  which 
stretched  southwards  from  the  Egyptian  border  by  Aswan  to  Korosko, 
that  is  to  about  60  miles  north  of  Wadi  Haifa.  Its  capital  was 
Bujaras  "which  is  a  well-populated  city:  there  is  the  dwelling  place 
of  Jausar,  who  wore  the  turban  and  the  two  horns  and  the  golden 
bracelet."  This  description  is  extremely  interesting.  The  two  horns 
at  once  suggest  the  takia5,  or  two-horned  cap,  of  the  Fung  king 
and  his  Mangils;  and  the  golden  bracelet  has  surely  survived  in 
the  name  of  the  great  Sowar  el  Dhahab  ("Bracelet  of  Gold")  family 
who  still  reside  in  Dongola  and  claim  to  be  Bedayria  of  the  Dah- 
mashi'a  section.  Mukurra  was  the  district  stretching  from  Korosko 
southwards.  It  probably  contained  seven  episcopal  sees,  namely 
Korti,  Ibrim,  Bucaras  (Bujaras),  Dongola,  Sai,  Termus  and  Suenkur6, 
and  certainly  numerous  monasteries  and  churches. 

'Aloa  lay  near  the  junction  of  the  Niles.  The  name  generally  refers 
to  the  district  of  which  Soba  was  the  capital,  but  is  also  used,  by 
Abu  Salih,  for  instance,  for  Soba  itself. 

The  description  given  by  Abu  Salih  of  this  district  with  its  gar- 
risons and  400  churches  of  the  Jacobite  Christians  will  be  quoted 

1  Makrfzi,  Kit.  el  Seluk,  pp.  118,  119;  Khetdt,  II,  574;  Burckhardt,  Nubia, 
p.  518;  and  Ibn  Khaldun  (ed.  ar.  Vol.  5,  p.  289,  Bk.  11).  I  have  followed  Makrfzi's 
version.  Ibn  Khaldun  attributes  the  revolt  to  Kanz  el  Dowla's  annoyance  at 
certain  lands  near  Aswan  being  allotted  by  Saladin  to  one  of  his  amirs.  He  also 
differs  as  to  the  name  of  the  leader  of  the  punitive  expedition. 

2  Lane-Poole,  p.  212. 

3  Makrfzi  {Kit.  el  Seluk,  p.  464)  mentions  a  revolt  of  Arabs  in  the  Sa'id  in 
1 240-1. 

4  See  Abu  Salih  pp.  260  et  seq.  and  notes  by  Evetts  and  Butler.  Abu  Salih's 
work  was  composed  about  1208  A.D.:  see  p.  x  (Evetts). 

8  See  Part  III,  sub  "  'Abdullah."  See  also  Part  I,  Chap.  1,  XVII,  for  what  may  be 
a  Himyarite  parallel.  6  So  Vansleb. 

M.S.I.  12 


178  THE  PROGRESS  THROUGH  EGYPT  11. 2.  xxxm. 

later1  when  we  come  to  record  the  destruction  of  Soba  by  the  Fung 
300  years  after  Abu  Salih's  time. 

Dongola  was  the  royal  residence.  "  It  is  a  large  city  on  the  banks 
of  the  blessed  Nile,  and  it  contains  many  churches  and  wide  streets2." 

Trade  was  all  by  exchange,  and  the  chief  medium  seems  to  have 
been  slaves  who  were  handed  over  to  the  Arabs  and  Mamluks  in 
return  for  cloths  and  suchlike. 

A  matrilinear  system  still  held  good,  for 

It  is  said  to  be  the  custom  among  the  Nubians  when  a  king  dies  and 
leaves  a  son  and  also  a  nephew,  the  son  of  his  sister,  that  the  latter  reigns 
after  his  uncle  instead  of  the  son;  but  if  there  is  no  sister's  son,  then  the 
king's  own  son  succeeds. 

"Nephews"  figure  very  largely  in  the  records  of  this  and  the 
following  century  and  we  have  already  seen  how  the  Arabs  accepted 
and  used  for  their  own  purposes  this  system  of  succession  among 
the  Nubians3. 

1  See  D  7,  I,  note.  2  Yakut  calls  it  "Dumkula"  (dJJLo)). 

3  See  the  case  of  the  Guhayna  in  the  last  chapter.  The  matrilinear  system 
was  quite  understandable  to  the  Arabs.  Robertson  Smith  speaks  of  the  "early 
and  universal  prevalence  of  mother-kinship"  in  Arabia  as  being  "only  gradually 
superseded  by  paternal  kinship,"  and  thinks  "the  old  Arab  groups  of  female 
kinship  were  originally  totem  tribes"  (Kinship  and  Marriage,  pp.  27-33  an(l  212). 
The  practice  is  extremely  ancient.  See  Breasted,  Hist.  p.  84,  re  the  Old  King- 
dom in  Egypt:  "the  natural  line  of  inheritance  was  through  the  eldest  daughter 
...the  closest  ties  of  blood  were  through  the  mother...";  and  ibid.  p.  141,  re 
the  Middle  Kingdom.  Compare,  too,  the  case  of  Thutmose  (Thothmes)  I  of 
the  eighteenth  dynasty  and  of  Osorkon  I  of  the  twenty-second  (Libyan)  dynasty  in 
Egypt  (Breasted,  Hist.  pp.  208,  364).  The  same  system  applied  among  the  Bega 
(Makrizi,  Khetdt,  11,  561 ;  Burckhardt,  p.  503).  It  is  also  recorded  about  1353  by 
Ibn  Batuta  as  existing  among  the  Berber  princes  of  the  country  round  Asben  (Air) ; 
see  Barth,  1,  338,  340,  341,  and  Cooley  (p.  40)  for  the  same  in  Ghana,  Walata  and 
Mali.  The  Berber  tribes  when  they  reached  these  parts  pursued  the  same  obvious 
course  as  did  the  Arabs  when  they  entered  Nubia.  Barth  says,  "with  respect  to 
the  custom  that  the  hereditary  power  does  not  descend  from  the  father  to  the  son, 
but  to  the  sister's  son, — a  custom  well  known  to  be  very  prevalent  not  only  in  many 
parts  of  Negroland,  but  also  in  India,  at  least  in  Malabar, — it  may  be  supposed 
to  have  belonged  originally  to  the  Berber  race... but  they  might  also  have  adopted 
it  from  those  tribes  (now  their  subjects — the  Imghad)  who  conquered  the  country 

from  the  black  natives "    Cp.  also  Barth,  n,  p.  273  (quoted  on  p.  92,  note).  We 

see  an  instance  of  the  same  custom  among  the  Kababish  seven  generations  ago. 
Keradim,  who  was  the  first  of  the  Nurab  family  to  rule  the  whole  tribe,  was  the 
sister's  son  and  successor  of  Kurban  of  the  Ribaykat  section,  which  had  previously 
held  the  sheikhship  (see  MacMichael,  Tribes...,  p.  185). 

The  custom  is  still  in  vogue  at  Gebel  Mfdob  (N.E.  Darfur) — see  Part  I,  Chap.  4, 
IV — and  in  the  hills  of  Abu  Hadid  and  Um  Durrag  and  el  Haraza  in  northern 
Kordofan.  For  instance,  Abu  Shenko  the  late  "mek"  of  Abu  Hadid  told  me  in 
1 910  that  his  father  was  a  Zaghawi  from  Kagmar  and  his  mother  the  daughter  of 
a  local  "mek,"  that  the  mother  of  Tibayn,  the  "mek"  of  Um  Durrag,  was  the 
daughter  of  a  previous  mek  but  his  father  only  one  of  the  Asadab  (non-royal) 
section  at  the  same  hill,  and  that  the  well-known  'Abd  el  Hadi  who,  though  a  Dolabi 
(D6alib)  on  his  father's  side,  ruled  the  "Nuba"  of  el  Haraza,  did  so  by  virtue  of 
the  fact  that  his  mother  was  a  Nubawia  of  the  royal  stock. 


II.  2.  xxxvii.  AND  THE  INVASION  OF  DONGOLA  179 

XXXIV  The  geographer  Yakut  lived  about  the  same  time  as  Abu 
Salih  and  supplements  the  latter's  information  in  some  details:  he 
tells  us,  e.g.  that  Suakin  was  peopled  by  blacks  of  Bega  race,  who 
were  Christians1.  Ibn  Sa'id  (1214-1287)  calls  them  "partly  Christian 
and  partly  Muhammadan2." 

XXXV  In  1250  the  rule  of  the  'Ayyubites  ended  and  that  of  the 
Bahrite  Mamluks  began.  The  political  isolation  of  the  Arabs  was  if 
anything  increased  by  the  change.  Military  power  was  the  only 
standard  of  influence  and  the  Arab  levies  had  proved  themselves  in 
war  after  war  to  be  quite  inefficient  as  compared  with  the  standing 
army  of  trained  Turks  and  negroes  which  formed  a  military  oligarchy 
of  foreigners  among  a  subject  population3. 

The  Arabs  were  not  disposed  to  accept  this  state  of  affairs  without 
a  struggle.  About  1253  those  in  Upper  Egypt  broke  into  revolt  and 
mustered  some  12,000  horse  as  well  as  a  large  force  of  infantry.  The 
movement  spread  to  the  Delta,  but  the  Mamluks,  in  spite  of  inferior 
numbers,  speedily  repressed  it,  and  henceforwards  the  Arabs  were 
a  negligible  factor  of  opposition  in  Egypt,  and  it  is  only  in  the  extreme 
south  and  in  Nubia  that  their  fortunes  can  be  followed4. 

XXXVI  In  1260  Baybars,  the  great  organizer  of  the  Mamluk 
system,  succeeded  to  the  Sultanate5.  In  his  time  and  that  of  his 
successors  the  Mamluk  chiefs  were  "granted  more  and  larger  fiefs  in 
the  spoliated  land  of  Egypt,  and  also  drew  great  revenues  from  the 
exorbitant  transit  dues  on  the  European  trade  with  India,  which 
necessarily  passed  through  Alexandria6";  and  it  was  probably  these 
revenues  alone  which  stood  between  the  Egyptian  taxpayer  and  utter 
ruin. 

Beybars,  too,  by  a  masterstroke  of  policy,  revived  at  Cairo  the  old 
'Abbasid  Khalifate  overthrown  at  Baghdad  by  Hulagu  two  years 
before,  and  so  made  Egypt  the  premier  state  of  Islam7. 

XXXVII  In  1275-6  the  Governor  of  Kus  invaded  Nubia  as  far 
south  as  Dongola  because  the  king,  Daiid,  had  failed  to  pay  his  tribute 

1  Vol.  in,  p.  182. 

2  Quoted  by  Ibn  Khaldun  (ed.  ar.  Vol.  6,  p.  199,  Bk.  Ill;  ed.  de  Slane,  Bk.  II, 
p.  105). 

3  Cp.  Lane-Poole,  Hist.  p.  253.  4  Ibid.  pp.  259,  260. 

5  His  diploma  from  the  Khalifa  appointed  him  "  Sovran  of  Egypt,  Syria,  the 
Hegaz,  the  Yemen,  and  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates  and  all  lands  plains  or  mountains 
which  you  may  henceforth  subdue."  With  his  accession  the  title  of  Sultan  appears 
on  the  coinage  (Lane-Poole,  Quart.  Rev.  April  1915). 

6  Lane-Poole,  loc.  cit.  p.  536. 

7  Ibid.  p.  540.  The  Khalif  at  Cairo  was  restricted  to  spiritual  functions,  and 
though  technically  he  remained  the  head  of  Islam  he  was  really  no  more  than  a 
puppet  until  the  'Othmanli  Sultans  assumed  the  office  in  1538  A.D.  {ibid.  p.  530, 
and  Hist.  p.  265,  note). 

12 — 2 


180  THE  PROGRESS  THROUGH  EGYPT  n.  2.  xxxvu. 

and  repeatedly  raided  Egyptian  territory  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Aswan  and  'Aidhab1.  Daud  wisely  evaded  an  engagement  and 
retreated  southwards,  so  that  the  troops  sent  against  him  had  to  be 
content  with  capturing  numbers  of  Nubians  who  had  remained  in 
their  villages  and  taking  them  to  Egypt,  where  they  were  put  to 
death. 

XXXVIII  In  1276  Baybars  dispatched  a  much  larger  army,  composed 
of  regulars,  provincials,  and  Beduins,  under  the  command  of  Shams 
el  Din  el  Farakani  and  Tzz  el  Din  Aibek  el  Afram.  They  were  also 
accompanied  by  Shekenda2,  the  son  of  Daud's  sister,  who  had  been 
to  complain  to  Baybars  against  his  uncle. 

The  armies  met  somewhere  between  Aswan  and  Derr  (?)3  and  a 
battle  was  fought  in  which  the  Nubians4  were  defeated  and  put  to 
flight. 

El  Afram  then  marched  rapidly  on  Derr(?)  and  put  it  to  the 
sword,  while  el  Farakani  pushed  on  beyond  the  second  cataract  by 
land  and  river  looting  and  slaughtering. 

Kumr  el  Dowla,  who  was  apparently  the  "  Lord  of  the  Mountain  " 
at  the  time,  tendered  his  submission  and  swore  allegiance  to  Shekenda. 

El  Afram  then  proceeded  southwards  taking  large  numbers  of 
prisoners,  including  Daud's  wife,  sister  and  brother:  the  king  him- 
self, however,  evaded  capture5.     Shekenda  was  crowned  king  on 

1  See  Makrfzi,  Khetdt,  II,  586,  and  Burckhardt,  p.  514.  Bouriant  writes  "694" 
(a.h.)  by  error  for  "674,"  but  correctly  converts  the  date  to  June,  1275-June,  1276. 
Lane-Poole  (Hist.  p.  271)  gives  the  date  of  this  affair  as  1272—3.  If  Daud  pillaged 
the  country  round  'Aidhab,  he  must  have  been  in  alliance  with  the  Bega  tribes 
who  interposed  between  the  Nile  and  the  Red  Sea  coast. 

2  Bouriant  calls  him  "Skandah";  the  MS.  Hist.  Kalaun  gives  " Meschkedet " 
(Quatremere,  II,  111,  etc.);  Burckhardt  gives  "Shekendy"  and  notes  "I  find  this 
name  written  in  my  MSS.  Shekende,  Sekebde,  Tenekde,  Sekende  (Sjk*£w  3j^5w 
ojj£.^  Sj&j):  see  Nubia,  pp.  514,  528.  Ibn  Khaldun  (ed.  ar.  Vol.  5,  p.  400,  Bk.  11) 
gives  "Martashkfn"  (O*5^*5  J+)  f°ur  times,  and  "Min  Tashkil"  (JJCij  k>«) 
once — probably  by  misprint.  Ibn  KhaldQn's  account  also  makes  "  Martashkf n  " 
the  uncle  instead  of  nephew  of  Daud:  it  is  less  detailed  than  that  of  Makrfzi,  and 
the  main  discrepancies  will  be  mentioned. 

3  Burckhardt,  "KalletAddo"  (3  jJ I  2uXs,  i.e.  j jJ!  for  j jJI).    Seep.  169,  note. 

4  Makrizi's  statement  that  these ' '  Nubians ' '  were  mounted  on  camels  and  clothed 
in  long  black  tunics  (Burckhardt,  "black  dekadek")  suggests  that  they  were  largely 
Nubianized  Arabs  (Beni  Kanz?)  or  semi-arabicized  Bega  allies  of  the  same.  It 
will  be  remembered  that  the  Beni  Kanz,  who  had  amalgamated  with  the  Nubians, 
were  originally  a  branch  of  Rabi'a,  the  tribe  which  had  amalgamated  with  the 
Bega;  and  the  mention  of  'Aidhab  is  significant.  Black  was  the  'Abbasid  colour, 
worn  originally  as  a  sign  of  mourning  for  el  Hasan.  A  black  robe  is  worn  at  the 
present  day  by  the  men  throughout  Upper  Egypt  and  by  the  Barabra,  'Ababda,  etc., 
in  Lower  Nubia.    Its  use  declines  further  south. 

5  Ibn  Khaldun  (loc.  cit.)  says  Daud  fled  to  el  Abwab  (i.e.  Kabushia),  but  was 
seized  by  the  Mek  of  that  district  and  sent  a  prisoner  to  Baybars,  who  threw  him 
into  a  dungeon  and  left  him  to  die  there. 


II.  2.  xxxviii.  AND  THE  INVASION  OF  DONGOLA  181 

consideration  of  his  solemnly  engaging  to  pay  the  ancient  bakt1 
and  also  to  deliver  yearly  three  giraffes,  three  elephants,  five  she- 
leopards,  a  hundred  russet2  camels  and  four  hundred  head  of  cattle. 
He  also  promised  to  hand  over  to  the  Sultan  all  monies  and  cattle 
that  belonged  to  Daud  and  to  the  Nubians  killed  or  captured  by  the 
expedition. 

By  the  same  treaty  Nubia  was  divided  into  two  parts,  and  under 
this  division  the  cataract  district  lying  immediately  south  of  Aswan3 
became  a  fief  of  the  Sultan,  to  whose  person  was  payable  the  custom- 
ary proportion  of  the  dates,  cotton  and  other  produce4.  Such  of  the 
people  as  remained  Christian  were  also  to  pay  a  yearly  poll  tax  of 
one  dinar  for  each  adult  male.  The  two  amirs  then  destroyed  the 
churches  of  the  Nubians5  and  carried  off  the  contents.  They  also 
insisted  on  twenty  Nubian  chiefs  being  handed  over — as  hostages, 
one  supposes — and  the  release  of  such  Muhammadans  of  Aswan  and 
'Aidhab  as  the  Nubians  had  imprisoned. 

1  The  "bakt"  is  spoken  of  as  "400  slaves  and  a  giraffe,  of  which  360  slaves 
were  for  the  Khalifa  and  40  for  the  lieutenant  of  the  Khalifa  [i.e.  the  Sultan]  in 
exchange  for  1000  ardebs  of  wheat  for  the  king  and  300  ardebs  for  the  royal  dele- 
gates."   Compare  the  terms  quoted  on  p.  158. 

2  Burckhardt  (p.  514),  "camels  of  good  race." 

3  It  is  spoken  of  as  "nearly  one  quarter  of  Nubia,"  "Nubia"  being  apparently 
used  in  the  sense  of  Maris  or  Nubia  proper. 

*  So  I  interpret  the  clause.  Lane-Poole  speaks  of  (1)  the  "bakt"  of  slaves, 
(2)  the  "tribute"  of  elephants,  giraffes,  etc.,  and  (3)  of  an  engagement  "to  pay 
half  the  revenue  of  the  kingdom"  in  addition.  Similarly,  Burckhardt  (p.  515),  in 
his  translation,  rightly  distinguishes  between  the  "bakt"  and  the  "annual  personal 
tribute"  of  animals,  and  continues  "and  that  the  soil  of  Nouba  should  thence- 
forward be  divided  into  two  parts;  one  half  for  the  Sultan,  and  the  other  to  be 
appropriated  to  the  fertilizing  and  guarding  of  the  country ;  excepting  the  territory 
of  the  cataracts,  which  was  to  belong  entirely  to  the  Sultan,  on  account  of  its 
vicinity  to  Assouan:  this  alone  was  about  one-fourth  of  Nouba.  Farther,  that  the 
dates  and  the  cotton  of  this  part,  as  well  as  the  ancient  customary  duties,  should 
be  carried  off,  and  that  as  long  as  they  should  remain  Christians,  they  should  pay 
the  Djezye,  or  annual  Om  Dinar  in  cash,  for  every  grown-up  person." 

Bouriant  alters  the  effect  considerably  by  translating  "  II  fut  etabli  que  le  terri- 
toire  de  la  Nubie  serait  partage  en  deux  parts,  l'une  destinee  au  Sultan  et  l'autre 
reservee  pour  l'entretien  et  la  garde  du  pays;  le  district  des  cataractes,  voisin  im- 
mediat  d'Assouan  et  formant  a  peu  pres  le  quart  de  la  Nubie,  serait  tout  entier  la 
propriete  du  Sultan  qui  recevrait  les  dattes,  le  coton  et  les  autres  redevances  que 
payait  le  district  depuis  le  temps  le  plus  ancien.  Les  habitants  restant  Chretiens 
furent  soumis  a  la  capitation;  chaque  homme  adulte  devait  payer  par  annee  un 
dinar  d'argent  comptant."  It  seems  to  me  inconceivable  that  the  king  of  Nubia 
should  have  been  expected  to  pay  (1)  "  bakt "  and  (2)  tribute  and  (3)  half  his  revenues 
and  also  (4)  to  give  up  a  quarter  of  the  country,  and  I  venture  to  suggest  the  inter- 
pretation offered.  Ibn  Khaldun  (Vol.  v,  p.  400,  ed.  ar.  Bk.  11)  speaks  of  "  an  allotted 
tribute  and  certain  definite  gifts  payable  yearly,  and  the  strongholds  (^j^a^)  near 
Aswan  to  pass  to  the  Sultan  (^jUstL-JJ  iUaJli.  C)$&)-"  He  says  nothing  of  half 
the  revenue  of  Nubia  being  taken  by  Egypt. 

5  There  is  no  indication  in  Makrizi's  narrative  that  the  Sultan's  troops  went 
more  than  three  or  four  days'  march  south  of  Haifa.  Lane-Poole  (Hist.  p.  271) 
says  "the  forts  of  Daw  [Derr?],  Sus  and  Dongola  were  taken." 


i82  THE  PROGRESS  THROUGH  EGYPT  ii.2.xxxix. 

XXXIX  One  point  in  this  treaty  is  of  particular  interest :  the  district 
lying  immediately  south  of  Aswan  was  recognized  as  a  perquisite  of 
the  Sultan  of  Egypt.  This  was  no  new  idea.  King  Zoser  of  the  third 
dynasty  conveyed  it  to  the  God  Khnum1,  and  about  seventeen  hun- 
dred years  later  Rameses  III  confirmed  the  gift  for  all  time  and  made 
the  inhabitants  and  the  land  itself  and  its  produce  free  from  taxation 
by  the  crown :  its  wealth  was  to  be  entirely  for  the  service  of  the  god2. 

The  extent  of  this  reserved  area  was  from  Aswan  to  Takompso, 
which  latter  was  at  least  as  far  south  as  Muharraka,  the  classical 
Hierasycominos ;  and  in  the  Ptolemaic  and  Roman  periods  it  was 
known  as  the  Dodekaschoinos  ("the  field  of  twelve  Schoinoi"),  and 
considered  a  dependency  of  Egypt3.  There  is  no  trace  there  of 
typically  Meroitic  or  Ethiopian  settlements4. 

Its  people  were  largely  Egyptianized  and  it  is  evident  that  it  was 
traditionally  regarded  as  an  annex  of  Egypt  rather  than  an  integral 
portion  of  the  dominions  of  the  king  of  Dongola.  It  is  noticeable, 
too,  that  it  formed,  roughly  speaking,  "the  boundary  of  the  population 
that  wrote  in  Meroitic"  and  corresponded  approximately  to  the  Dar 
Kanuz  of  the  present5. 

When  'Abdulla  ibn  Sa'ad  invaded  the  Sudan  in  651-2  and  formu- 
lated terms  of  peace  nothing  was  said  about  this  region  to  differentiate 
it  from  the  rest  of  Nubia,  but  as  the  Arabs  were  new-comers  and 
still  unaware  of  the  traditional  history  of  the  countries  they  were 
subduing,  this  is  only  natural. 

In  the  course  of  years  they  evidently  learnt  more,  and  we  see  the 
fruits  of  their  knowledge  in  the  attitude  adopted  in  831  after  the 
Bega  war :  the  only  territory  in  Egypt  or  Nubia  which  was  absolutely 
prohibited  to  the  Bega  was  that  lying  between  el  Kasr  (near  Aswan) 
and  el  Kubban  (near  Muharraka),  i.e.  the  old  Dodekaschoinos. 

Now,  in  1276  a.d.,  we  have  Baybars  practically  usurping  that 
which  had  once  been  the  right  of  the  great  god  Khnum.  It  is  not  of 
course  suggested  that  he  was  aware  of  the  full  import  of  his  action 
from  a  historical  point  of  view ;  but  merely  that  he  knew  a  particular 
region  to  be  traditionally  regarded  as  a  special  reserve  attached  by 
certain  ties  to  Egypt  and  seized  the  opportunity  to  monopolize  it  for 
his  own  benefit. 

1  Breasted,  A.  R.  1,  24. 

2  Ibid,  iv,  146-150. 

3  Ibid.  loc.  cit.,  and  Milne,  p.  23,  and  Abu  Salih,  p.  260. 

4  Other  than  the  X-group  (Nobadae?).   Arch.  Surv.  Nubia  Bull.  7,  191 1. 

6  See  Griffith,  Nubian  Texts...,  p.  58.  See  also  Cailliaud,  1,  394,  where  Kubban 
(which  is  close  to  Muharraka)  is  mentioned  in  1821  as  the  southern  boundary  of 
the  Mahass. 


II.2.XLI.       AND  THE  INVASION  OF  DONGOLA  183 

XL  Baybars  died  in  1277,  and  two  years  later  el  Melik  el  Mansur 
Sayf  el  Din  Kalaun,  a  Turk  of  the  Burg  Oghlu  tribe  of  Kipchak1, 
who  had  been  one  of  the  most  competent  of  the  generals  of  Baybars, 
usurped  the  throne.  Shekenda  meanwhile  was  murdered2,  and  a 
certain  Berek  elected  in  his  place.  The  Mamluk  governor3  put  the 
latter  to  death  and  Shamamun  succeeded4. 

XLI  In  1286  a.d.  ambassadors  arrived  in  Egypt  from  Ador,  the 
"mek"  of  the  district  round  Kabushia5,  to  complain  against  the 
king  of  Dongola  for  detaining  and  ill-using  an  envoy  sent  from 
Egypt  to  Ador.  Ambassadors  came  also  from  Dongola.  Kalaun  in 
return  sent  one  amir  to  visit  the  courts  of  Ador  and  the  meks 
of  the  'Anag  and  of  Basa  Kassala  Kadaru  and  other  districts6, 
and  another  to  interview  Shamamun.  The  southern  princelets 
apparently  made  out  the  better  case,  for  in  the  following  year7 
Kalaun  dispatched  an  army  against  Dongola  and  sent  orders  to  the 
Governor  of  Kiis  to  reinforce  it  from  the  Arabs  of  his  province. 
These  were  mainly  Beni  Abu  Bukr,  Beni  'Omar,  Beni  Sherif,  Beni 
Shayban,  Beni  Kanz8,  Beni  Rais  and  Beni  Hilal.  The  first  three 
were  probably  Kuraysh  claiming  descent  from  the  first  and  second 
Khalifas  of  Islam  and  from  the  Prophet  respectively,  the  Beni 
Shayban  were  a  branch  of  Rabi'a9,  and  the  Beni  Rais  were  a  branch 
of  Beli. 

1  Lane-Poole,  loc.  cit.  p.  278. 

2  See  Quatremere,  H,  1 11,  quoting  Hist.  Kalaun.  "  Meschkedet "  =  "  Shekenda  " 
(see  p.  180). 

3  Of  Aswan  and  the  cataract  district  presumably. 

4  Ibn  Khaldun  (ed.  ar.  loc.  cit.  p.  401),  "Baytmamun,"  but  later  (p.  429) 
"  Semamun." 

5  He  is  called  "King  of  the  Gates,"  i.e.  of  el  Abwab:  the  district  of  Kabushia 
was  so  called  until  quite  lately:  cp.  MS.  D  3,  and  see  Crowfoot,  Some  Lacunae..., 
p.  6. 

6  The  passage  in  the  History  of  Kalaun,  as  translated  by  Quatremere,  runs  as 
follows:  "Le  Sultan  envoya  l'£mir  Alem-ed-din-Sandjar-al-Moaddamy,  en  qualite" 
d'ambassadeur,  aupres  du  roi  de  Nubie,  Ador,  roi  des  Portes,  et  des  princes  de 
Barah  (Bazah),  Al-Takeh,  Kedrou,  Denfou,  Ary,  Befal,  Anedj  et  Kersah"  (Quatre- 
mere, 11,  101).  Crowfoot  wrongly  gives  "Densou"  and  "Besal."  The  name  Basa 
for  a  district  east  of  Kabushia  still  survives,  and  "Kedrou"  is  probably  Kaderu, 
a  site  eleven  miles  north  of  Khartoum :  the  village  of  the  same  name  near  Sennar 
may  however  be  intended.  "Taka"  was  the  name  of  the  district  round  Gebel 
Kassala  until  lately  (see  D  7,  passim).  Crowfoot  (loc.  cit.),  presumably  identifying 
"Kersah"  with  the  name  of  the  tribe  mentioned  by  Ibn  Selim  as  living  in  the 
Gezira  (see  para,  xxvi  above),  says  that  Kersah  "lay  between  the  White  and  Blue 
Niles."  Denfou,  Befal  and  Ary  are  not  identified.  The  centre  of  the  'Anag  country 
may  have  been  at  el  Haraza  (see  p.  185).  One  is  surprised  to  see  no  mention 
of  S6ba  or  'Aloa;  but  possibly  the  name  Barah  (Bazah),  i.e.  SjJ  (?),  may  be  a  cor- 
ruption of  Soba  (aj^*j). 

7  So  el  Nuwayry  and  Makrizi,  ap.  Quatremere  (11,  102),  and  Ibn  Khaldun 
(loc.  cit.). 

8  Ibn  Khaldun,  "Awlad  Kanz  el  Dowla."  9  Wustenfeld,  A  and  B. 


184  THE  PROGRESS  THROUGH  EGYPT        n.  2.  xli. 

The  Beni  Hilal  and  Beni  Kanz  have  been  sufficiently  described 
already. 

The  army  was  divided  into  two  portions,  one  of  which  followed 
the  west  bank  of  the  river  and  the  other  the  east.  Shamamun  made 
no  attempt  to  withstand  its  advance,  but  wrote  to  Gurays,  the  "Lord 
of  the  Mountain1,"  and  "Governor  of  the  isles  of  Mikhail  and  the 
province  of  Daw"  [Derr(?)],  ordering  him  to  follow  the  policy  of 
retreating  gradually  until  he  joined  forces  with  him. 

The  Muhammadans  overtook  the  Nubians  at  Dongola  and  de- 
feated them  with  great  slaughter.  Shamamun  fled  and  Gurays  was 
captured. 

Shamamun's  nephew2  was  then  appointed  by  the  victors  to  the 
throne  of  Dongola,  and  Gurays  was  reinstated  as  his  vassal  and  ordered 
to  pay  tribute. 

This  done,  the  Arabs  retired,  but  Shamamun  at  once  reappeared 
and  reconquered  his  kingdom  and  ejected  his  nephew  and  Gurays. 

XLII  In  1289  a  larger  force,  accompanied  by  the  two  deposed 
rulers,  was  sent  from  Egypt.  During  their  advance  Shamamun's 
nephew  died  at  Aswan  and  was  replaced  by  a  nephew  of  the  old 
king  Daud3. 

The  Arab  advance  was  in  the  main  the  same  as  on  the  occasion 
of  the  previous  expedition,  but  Gurays  and  the  Awl  ad  Kanz  went 
ahead  of  the  main  army  to  try  and  effect  by  peaceful  means  what 
the  troops  would  otherwise  achieve  by  force  of  arms.  Resistance 
was  only  met  with  when  the  territories  of  Gurays  had  been  left 
behind,  but  when  Dongola  was  reached  it  was  found  that  Shamamun 
had  fled  to  an  island  fifteen  days  to  the  south,  and  within  three  days' 
journey  of  Kabushia. 

The  Arabs  lost  no  time  in  pursuit,  and  Shamamun,  deserted  by 
his  adherents,  retired  to  the  capital  of  Ador. 

The  country  at  once  submitted  peaceably,  the  necessary  formalities 
were  arranged  at  Dongola,  and  by  1290  the  Muhammadans  were 
back  in  Cairo  with  their  booty.  It  is  almost  unnecessary  to  say  that 
Shamamun  immediately  reappeared  in  Dongola,  and  without  any 

1  From  Abu  Salih  (p.  266,  quoted  above)  we  gather  that  the  Lord  of  the  Moun- 
tain lived  at  Ibrfm  and  that  the  people  there  belonged  to  the  province  of  Maris. 
Speaking,  however,  of  Mukurra  (p.  262)  Abu  Salih  mentions  "A  city  called  the 
city  of  Bausaka.  This  is  a  large  and  handsome  city,  full  of  people  and  of  all  com- 
modities, and  possessing  many  churches.  Here  dwelt  the  Lord  of  the  Mountain, 
whose  eyes  were  put  out  by  George,  son  of  Zacharias  Israel.  Here  is  the  monastery 
of  Saint  Sinuthius...near  the  town  there  is  a  gold  mine." 

2  Presumably  his  sister's  son;  see  p.  178. 

3  Ibn  Khaldun  instead  of  "nephew  of  Daud"  gives  "Daud  the  son  of  Mar- 
tashkin's  brother"  (loc.  cit.). 


II.2.XLH.      AND  THE  INVASION  OF  DONGOLA  185 

trouble  re-established  himself  in  his  old  position.  He  also  put  to 
death  Daud's  nephew1  and  Gurays,  and  wrote  to  Kalaun  offering  to 
pay  the  tribute  that  had  been  assessed  and  to  give  no  trouble.  Kalaun, 
having  other  and  more  important  matters  to  deal  with,  was  in  no 
position  to  refuse,  and  the  same  year  he  died. 

Shamamun  was  consequently  left  undisturbed  for  a  time.  One 
gathers,  however2,  that  he  soon  began  to  give  trouble  again,  and  that 
a  certain  lesser  mek  called  Any  also  revolted.  Whether  a  separate 
expedition  was  sent  against  each  or  whether  the  same  one  dealt  with 
both  is  not  clear  owing  to  the  fragmentary  state  of  the  only  manu- 
script. The  latter  is  far  more  probable.  In  any  case  Any  escaped, 
two  days  before  the  arrival  of  the  troops,  to  the  stronghold  of  the 
'Anag,  which  was  very  likely  Gebel  el  Haraza3,  and  Shamamun  was 
replaced  by  a  king  called  Boudemma,  who  had  previously  been  in 
prison  in  Egypt. 

The  latter  of  these  two  events  seems  to  have  occurred  in  the  reign 
of  Kalaiin's  immediate  successor,  that  is,  between  1290  and  12934, 
and  the  veteran  'Izz  el  Din  el  Afram,  the  leader  of  the  expedition  of 
1276,  was  the  amir  sent  to  carry  out  the  investiture. 

'Izz  el  Din  also  pushed  southwards  a  distance  of  33  marches5 
beyond  Dongola,  evidently  with  the  intention  of  meeting  the  mek  of 
Kabushia  district  [Quatremere's  "  roi  des  Portes"],  who  was  probably 
Any's  overlord.  But  the  mek  failed  to  put  in  an  appearance  and 
wrote  later  to  'Izz  el  Din  pleading  as  his  excuse  that  he  had  been 
away  pursuing  Any.  He  also  mentioned  that  the  'Anag  country  had 
been  lately  invaded  by  some  alien  tribe,  but  that  he  proposed  trying 
every  means  to  eject  the  intruders,  and  that  if  he  succeeded  all  the 
country  of  the  blacks  would  be  subject  to  the  Sultan. 

On  his  return  from  Kabushia  'Izz  el  Din  received  the  oath  of 
allegiance  from  Boudemma  and  the  priests  at  Dongola  and  returned 
to  Egypt.  He  left  behind  him  a  guard  of  infantry  for  the  new  king 
and  a  large  supply  of  corn6. 

1  Ibn  Khaldun,  "Daud"  (loc.  cit.). 

2  See  Hist.  Kalaun,  ap.  Quatremere. 

3  See  MacMichael,  Tribes  of  N.  and  C.  Kordofan,  pp.  87  ff.  The  difficulties 
of  water  transport  which  prevented  the  troops  pursuing  him  shew  that  he  fled 
inland  from  the  river.  The  prevalence  of  local  traditions  to  the  effect  that  el  Haraza 
was  a  stronghold  of  the  'Anag  support  the  theory  that  it  was  there  Any  took  refuge. 

4  See  Hist.  Kalaun,  loc.  cit.  'Izz  el  Din,  on  his  return,  reported  results  to  "  El 
Melik  el  Ashraf.*"  The  latter,  whose  full  name  was  El  Melik  el  Ashraf  Salah  el  Din 
Khalil,  was  Kalaun's  son  and  successor  (Lane-Poole,  p.  284). 

6  Assuming  he  travelled  fairly  hard  this  would  bring  him  to  Kabushia,  which 
was  normally,  as  we  have  lately  seen,  18  days'  journey  (i.e.  36  marches)  from 
Dongola. 

6  The  History  of  Kalaun  carries  us  no  further. 


1 86  THE  PROGRESS  THROUGH  EGYPT     h.2.xliii. 

XLIII  In  12991  the  Mamliiks  suffered  a  severe  defeat  at  the  hands 
of  the  Mongol  hordes  at  Hims,  and  one  of  the  after-effects  of  this 
and  of  the  oppressive  taxation  necessitated  by  a  depleted  war-chest 
was  the  serious  Beduin  revolt  which  broke  out  in  Upper  Egypt  in 
1302.  The  trouble  was  quelled  with  promptitude  and  thoroughness. 
From  Giza  and  Atfih  southwards  thousands  were  put  to  the  sword 
and  their  possessions  confiscated.  A  nomad  wherever  found  was  at 
once  executed2.  It  is  said  that  8000  oxen,  6000  sheep  and  goats, 
4000  horses,  and  32,000  camels  formed  the  spoil. 

XLIV  Meanwhile,  the  settlement  of  Nubia  seems  to  have  been 
distinctly  successful,  for  in  1 304-1 305  we  have  the  king  Amai3 
bringing  presents  to  Cairo  and  seeking  aid  from  the  Sultan  el  Nasir 
Muhammad  ibn  Kalaun,  and  obtaining  it.  Taktoba  the  Governor  of 
Kus  was  sent  to  help  Amai  with  an  army  of  regulars  and  Arab 
auxiliaries4. 

In  131 1  the  tribute  was  paid  by  Kerenbes5,  the  last  Christian 
king  of  Dongola,  but  he  was  evidently  less  docile  than  his  predecessors, 
for  both  in  13 15  and  13 16  troops  had  to  be  sent  to  Dongola.  The 
second  of  these  two  expeditions  was  accompanied  by  'Abdulla  ibn 
Sanbu,  nephew  of  Daiid,  and  resulted  in  the  capture  of  Kerenbes 
and  his  brother  Abraam  and  their  removal  to  Cairo6. 

'Abdulla  ibn  Sanbu — a  Muhammadan — was  then  made  king. 

XLV  A  new  favourite  now  appears  for  the  Nubian  throne,  Kanz  el 
Dowla  the  chief  of  the  Beni  Kanz  settled  round  Aswan.  He  attacked 
'Abdulla,  put  him  to  death,  and  made  himself  king.  Whether  he  had 
allied  himself  by  marriage  with  the  royal  house,  in  the  usual  manner, 
or  whether  he  had  no  other  right  than  might,  we  do  not  know. 

1  Lane-Poole,  Hist.  p.  300. 

2  If  he  claimed  not  to  be  a  nomad  he  was  told  to  pronounce  the  shibboleth 
"  dakik,"  the  k  of  which  the  Egyptian  would  pronounce  as  an  'am  and  the  Beduin 
as  a  hard  g.  „ 

3  Ibn  Khaldun  (ed.  ar.  Vol.  5,  p.  429,  Bk.  11)  calls  him  "Ay"  (^1)  and  says 
he  does  not  know  if  he  was  "Semam tin's"  successor  or  whether  any  other  ruler 
interposed  between  the  reigns  of  the  two.  He  dates  his  death  in  13 16,  but  is 
probably  in  error. 

4  El  Makrizi,  Kit.  el  Seluk,  ap.  Quatremere  (11,  114):  cp.  Lane-Poole,  p.  299. 

5  Makrfzi,  loc.  cit.  Ibn  Khaldun  calls  him  (loc.  cit.)  "Kerbays"  and  makes 
him  brother  as  well  as  successor  of  Amai  ("Ay").  Makrfzi's  account  is  adopted 
in  the  following  paragraphs. 

6  Ibn  Khaldun  {loc.  cit.)  gives  "  'Abdulla  Nashli."  He  says  he  was  one  of  the 
Nubian  royal  family  who  had  lately  settled  in  Egypt  and  been  converted  to  Islam. 
Ibn  Khaldun's  account  of  what  follows  is  that  "Kerbays"  fled  to  the  Mek  of 
el  Abwab  and  that  the  Sultan  requested  the  Mek  to  hand  him  over  and  that  the 
Mek  complied.  Kerenbes  must  have  been  sent  to  Egypt  by  way  of  the  Red  Sea, 
e.g.  via  'Aidhab,  for  after  'Abdulla's  murder,  according  to  Ibn  Khaldun,  the  rebels 
sent  to  el  Abwab  for  Kerenbes  and  only  then  learnt  that  he  was  in  Egypt.  When 
the  Sultan  heard  of  the  episode  he  sent  Kerenbes  to  them  and  he  became  their  king. 


U.2.XLVII.    AND  THE  INVASION  OF  DONGOLA  187 

The  Sultan  sent  Abraam  to  Nubia  with  the  promise  of  the  suc- 
cession if  he  could  oust  Kanz  el  Dowla.  The  latter  submitted  quietly, 
but  Abraam  only  lived  a  short  time  and  Kanz  el  Dowla  was  then 
reappointed  by  the  Nubians. 

In  1323 x  the  Sultan  again  sent  an  army  against  Kanz  el  Dowla, 
this  time  with  Kerenbes  attached  to  it  as  prospective  king.  Kanz 
el  Dowla  fled  and  Kerenbes  entered  on  his  second  reign.  As  invari- 
ably happened,  however,  the  retreat  of  the  Arab  or  Mamluk  troops 
was  the  signal  for  the  reappearance  of  the  pretender,  and  Kanz  el 
Dowla  was  soon  installed  again. 

XLVI  But  the  kingdom  of  Nubia  had  now  to  all  intents  and  pur- 
poses ceased  to  exist  and  such  "kings"  as  reigned  in  name  were 
puppets  of  the  Arab  tribes.  The  tribute  had  been  abolished  when 
the  paramount  king  was  no  longer  a  Christian  and  great  hordes  of 
Arabs,  mainly  Guhayna,  were  pouring  into  the  Sudan  and  rapidly 
overrunning  it  as  far  as  Abyssinia  and  Darfur. 

It  is  from  this  period,  the  early  years  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
that  the  immigration  of  most  of  the  camel-owning  nomads  of  the 
Sudan  dates.  Generally  speaking,  it  seems,  the  Guhayna  and  their 
allies,  most  of  whom  we  may  be  sure  were  Fezara,  loosed  their  hordes 
southwards  and  westwards,  leaving  the  Beni  Kanz  and  'Ikrima  in 
northern  Nubia  and  Upper  Egypt.  From  the  Arabic  historians  we 
hear  no  more  of  these  southern  migrants  of  the  Guhayna  congeries, 
for  they  passed  beyond  their  ken,  but  the  native  manuscripts  of  the 
Sudan,  as  will  be  seen,  take  up  their  tale. 

XL VII  Of  affairs  in  Nubia,  too,  we  hear  no  more  till  1366.  In  that 
year  the  country  round  Aswan,  from  'Aidhab  on  the  east  to  the  oases 
on  the  west,  was  ravaged  by  the  Beni  Kanz  and  the  'Ikrima2,  the 
former  of  whom  in  particular  were  now  extremely  powerful,  and 
envoys  were  sent  to  the  Sultan  at  Cairo  to  report  that  the  King  of 
Nubia  had  been  murdered  by  his  nephew  and  some  Beni  Ga'ad,  a 
section  of  the  'Ikrima.  The  loyalists  had  elected  the  late  king's  brother 
to  succeed  him  and  were  holding  the  fortified  post  of  Daw  [Derr  ( ?)]. 
The  rebels  had  taken  Dongola  but  had  then  quarrelled  among  them- 
selves with  the  result  that  the  pretender  had  succeeded  in  treacherously 
murdering  most  of  the  Beni  Ga'ad.  He  had  then  collected  a  force 
of  other  Arabs  and  started  to  attack  Daw  [Derr(?)].  The  Sultan 
granted  the  embassy's  request  for  aid,  and  dispatched  an  expedition 
to  Nubia,  partly,  it  seems,  to  reinstate  the  legitimate  king  and  partly 
to  repress  the  Beni  Kanz  and  'Ikrima. 

The  result  was  on  the  whole  satisfactory,  but  the  fact  that  the 

1  Makrfzi  (loc.  cit.)  is  still  the  authority.  2  Makrizi,  loc.  cit. 


1 88  THE  PROGRESS  THROUGH  EGYPT     h.2.xlvii. 

murdered  king's  brother  was  installed  at  Daw  [Derr(?)]  and  not  at 
Dongola  suggests  that  success  was  only  partial.  The  Beni  Kanz  so 
far  from  offering  any  resistance,  gave  every  facility  to  the  troops ;  and 
such  of  the  'Ikrima  as  resisted  were  killed. 

XL VIII  What  happened  eventually  to  the  new  king  is  not  known. 
In  1397-8  there  is  record1  of  a  king  called  Nasr  el  Dm  who  was 
ousted  by  one  of  his  relatives  and  fled  to  Cairo  for  help — which  the 
Governor  of  Aswan  was  told  to  give.  From  his  name  this  king  must 
have  been  a  Muhammadan,  and  for  all  we  know  he  may  have  been  one 
of  the  Beni  Kanz.  At  this  period  the  Beni  Kanz  and  other  Arabs 
and  the  HowAra  and  other  Berber  tribes  were  amalgamating  rapidly 
with  the  riverain  Nubians,  northwards  from  Dongola,  and  Islam  was 
supplanting  Christianity  in  a  corresponding  ratio. 

The  power  of  the  Mamliik  government  so  far  up  the  river  was 
almost  negligible2,  and  the  state  of  affairs  under  their  rule  in  Egypt 
was  such  as  to  offer  every  inducement  to  the  nomad  tribes  to  depart 
to  districts  where  they  were  not  subjected  to  any  alien  power.  If  an 
expedition  was  sent  to  Nubia  it  was  easy  for  the  tribes  to  give  way 
for  the  time  being  and  to  resume  their  old  status  as  soon  as  the  troops 
had  gone. 

Thus  the  settlement  of  Nubia  by  the  Arabs  proceeded  to  all 
intents  undisturbed,  and  by  the  fifteenth  century  the  racial  charac- 
teristics of  the  population  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  first  two 
cataracts,  and  perhaps  as  far  south  as  Dongola,  had  become  sub- 
stantially what  they  are  to-day. 

XLIX  In  the  east,  we  learn  from  the  traveller  Ibn  Batuta  (1302- 
1377),  the  Sultan  of  Suakin,  which  belonged  to  the  Bega,  was  a 
Sherif,  whose  father  had  been  amir  of  Mekka  but  who  was  con- 
nected on  his  mother's  side  with  the  Bega.  Between  'Aidhab  and 
Suakin  he  records  an  encampment  of  some  Arab  Awlad  Kahil 
(J.a>1£>  y^jl),  "mingled  with  the  Bega  and  understanding  their 
language3."  Others  of  these  Awlad  Kahil  and  some  Guhayna, 
together  with  Bega,  composed  the  Sultan's  military  force.  Probably 
the  Awlad  Kahil  here  mentioned  represent  the  same  people  who 
appear  as  Kawahla  {sing.  "Kahli")  or  Awlad  Kahil  at  the  present 
day  and  who  contain  a  section  of  the  'AbAbda4. 

1  Quatremere,  II,  124. 

2  About  1403  Aswan  ceased  for  a  time  to  be  under  Egypt  (Makrfzi,  Kheldt 
(ap.  Quatremere,  loc.  cit.),  and  cp.  Lane-Poole,  Hist.  p.  308).  In  that  year  the  Sa'id 
was  prey  to  a  dire  famine  and  it  is  said  that  17,000  deaths  occurred  at  I£us,  11,000 
at  el  Siut,  and  15,000  at  Hou.    (Makrizi,  Khetdt,  n,  548.) 

3  Ibn  Batuta  (11,  161):  ^^iL-b  ^9j\£.  SU»*JL>  ^JaJUs 

4  See  Part  III,  Chap.  5. 


II.2.LH.        AND  THE  INVASION  OF  DONGOLA  189 

L  We  have  seen  in  the  preceding  chapter  what  was  the  approximate 
distribution  of  the  chief  Arab  tribes  in  Egypt  when  el  Makrizi  wrote 
his  treatise,  a  century  later  than  Ibn  Batuta.  He  tells  us  that  the 
greater  part  of  Upper  Egypt  belonged1  to  six  tribes,  the  Beni  Hilal, 
the  Beli,  the  Guhayna,  the  Kuraysh,  the  Luata  (Howara  ?)2  and 
the  Beni  Kelab. 

Besides  these  tribes  many  of  the  Ansar  had  settled  there  and 
numbers  of  the  Muzayna,  Beni  Darag,  Beni  Kelb,  Tha'aliba  and 
Guzam  (Gudham)3. 

LI  From  1382  to  15 17  the  Circassian  Mamluks  held  Egypt.  They 
ruled  entirely  by  the  aid  of  alien  mercenaries,  Circassians,  Turks, 
Greeks  and  Mongols,  and  the  country  passed  through  an  era  of 
cruelty,  debauchery,  corruption  and  injustice  which  even  in  its  own 
stormy  annals  were  unprecedented.  During  this  period  revolts  of 
nomads  and  cultivators  alike  were  frequent,  but  uniformly  shortlived4. 

LII  In  1504,  in  the  far  south,  the  Fung  and  Arabs  combined  to 
form  a  native  Sudanese  kingdom  in  the  Gezira  of  Sennar. 

In  1 5 17  Selim  I,  Sultan  of  Turkey,  defeated  the  Mamluks,  and 
Egypt,  from  being  an  independent  Sultanate,  became  a  province  of 
the  'Othmanli  empire. 

But  Selim'  s  control  did  not  end  at  the  first  cataract.  The  country 
south  of  it  was  already  peopled  by  a  race  who  were  more  nearly  akin 
to  their  northern  than  to  their  southern  neighbours,  and  he  extended 
his  rule  over  them  to  the  neighbourhood  of  the  third  cataract  and 
placed  them  under  a  number  of  Kdshifs5.  These  Kdshifs  were 
officials  of  Turkish  or  Bosnian  descent  and  had  under  their  orders  a 
number  of  mercenaries,  mostly  Bosnians,  to  act  as  garrisons:  in  fact, 
the  system  of  Selim  was  almost  exactly  the  same  as  that  of  Psam- 
metichus  I.  The  term  Ghuzz  as  used  in  the  Sudan  applies  in- 
differently to  these  Bosnian  mercenaries  and  to  the  Mamluks, and  there 
is  no  doubt  that  they  settled  in  Nubia  in  sufficient  number  to  modify 
distinctly  the  racial  type  in  certain  of  the  northern  riverain  districts6. 

1  The  past  tense  is  used. 

2  Bouriant  gives  "  Laouatah,"  Burckhardt  (p.  529)  "Howata."  Either  may  be 
correct. 

3  Makrizi,  Khetdt,  11,  547,  also  translated  by  Burckhardt,  p.  529.  The  latter 
speaks  of  the  Muzayna  as  "a  strong  tribe  of  Beni  Harb." 

1  See  Lane-Poole,  Hist.  p.  327.  Most  of  these  Circassians  apparently  did  not 
know  how  to  speak  Arabic,  which  was  merely  the  language  of  the  common  people 
(Lane-Poole,  Quart.  Rev.  April  1915,  p.  542). 

5  See  Budge,  11,  201,  207,  and  Norden,  1,  58-62. 

6  Cp.  J.  A.  St  John,  1,  433.  "The  inhabitants  of  Derr  are  supposed  to  be  the 
descendants  of  a  number  of  Bosnian  soldiers,  established  in  Nubia  by  Sultan 
Selym."  They  preserved  their  fair  complexion  though  often  intermarrying  with 
blacks.    See  the  account  of  the  Shaikia  in  Part  III. 


iqo  THE  PROGRESS  THROUGH  EGYPT        n.  2.  liii. 

LIII  It  was  a  few  years  before  Seli'm's  conquest  of  Egypt  that  Leo 
Africanus  travelled  through  the  negro  kingdoms  of  West  Africa,  and 
immediately  after  it  that  he  went  on  a  journey  up  the  Nile  valley1. 
The  bulk  of  his  work  deals  with  the  half-arabicized  Berbers  living 
between  the  Mediterranean  and  the  Niger.  These  "  Affricani  bianchi" 
as  he  calls  them,  he  divides  into  the  five  tribes  of  Sanhaga,  Zenata, 
Howara,  Masmuda  and  Gumeri  (GhomAra2).  They  were  nomads, 
and  the  majority  of  them  spoke  the  Berber  tongue3,  but  most  of  the 
Howara  and  Gumeri  spoke  Arabic,  though  corruptly. 

Branches  of  them  had  by  Leo's  time  been  pushed  farther  south 
"  to  inhabite  those  deserts  which  border  vpon  the  land  of  the  negros4," 
though  the  main  portion  of  the  race  remained  in  the  north  where  they 
had  blended  their  stock  with  that  of  the  Arabs. 

Of  Nubia  Leo  tells  us  very  little.  He  says  that  on  the  south  it 
was  bordered  by  the  "  Desert  of  Goran,"  i.e.  the  steppes  of  northern 
Kordofan,  and,  as  has  been  mentioned,  that  the  Nubians  were  much 
harried  both  by  the  Tibbu  tribes  ("Zingani")  who  inhabited  this 
region  and  by  the  desert  dwellers  to  the  east  of  the  Nile5. 

Of  Aswan  he  merely  tells  us6  that  the  inhabitants  were  "mingled 
with  the  people  of  Nubia  and  Ethiopia."  Beyond  it  were  villages  of 
blacks  subject  to  the  nomad  "Bugiha"  (Bega). 

LIV  Marmol  Caravajal,  who  wrote  about  1520  and  plagiarized 
freely  from  Leo,  states  that  "  Dangala  "  the  capital  of  Nubia  contained 
ten  thousand  houses  of  mud  and  was  a  rich  trading  centre7. 

1  He  is  an  accurate  and  not  over-credulous  writer  but  unfortunately  one  is 
often  not  sure  whether  he  speaks  of  what  he  actually  saw  or  whether  he  speaks  at 
second  hand,  and  he  follows  no  system  in  transliterating  Arabic  words  into  Italian. 
He  was  first  translated  from  the  Italian  into  English  by  John  Pory  in  1600.  Where 
Leo  is  at  fault  in  the  matter  of  transliteration  Pory  makes  things  worse  by  care- 
lessness and  random  alterations,  Leo  uses  Ibn  el  Rakik,  el  Mas'udi,  and  el  Bekri 
freely  and  undisguisedly.  He  died  in  Tunis,  after  a  long  sojourn  in  Italy,  in  1552. 
(See  ed.  Brown,  note  to  Bk.  vn  and  p.  an.) 

2  In  this  Leo  follows  Ibn  el  Rakik  (q.v.  ap.  Carette,  pp.  49,  433,  etc.).  Pory 
writes  "Zanhagi,"  "Zeneta,"  "Haoari."    For  "Howara"  Leo  wrote  "Aoara." 

3  Leo,  Bk.  I,  p.  151.  *  Ibid.  p.  157. 
B  See  Part  I,  Chap.  2,  xli,  and  Leo,  Vol.  in,  Bk.  v,  p.  836. 

6  Ibid.  p.  903. 

7  Vol.  in,  pp.  71  ff.  Marmol's  remarks  concerning  the  wars  of  the  Prince  of 
Dongola  with  the  nomads  of  the  Bayuda  and  of  the  Eastern  Desert  have  already 
been  quoted  (see  Part  I,  Chap.  2,  xli). 


GENEALOGICAL  TREES 


Amr 

i 

Arasha 

I 

Sa'b  =  Anmar 

ila) 


I 
Abkar 

r 

Kasr 

Vfadhfr 

Sa'ad 

Malik 
I 

'Ali 

Harb 

I 
lazima 


El  Ghauth 
Kavs  Kobba 


'1 

E 

AZD 

'i 

'J 
'O] 


Bohtha  ibn  Sulaym 
(See  Tree  2) 


_ 


PART  III 

THE  ARAB  TRIBES  OF  THE  SUDAN 
AT  THE  PRESENT  DAY 


M.S.I.  13 


[i95l 


INTRODUCTION 

In  the  chapter  that  follows  an  account  is  given  only  of  those  Arabic- 
speaking  tribes  which  are  the  best  known  in  the  Sudan  at  the  present 
day  and  in  which  the  Arab  element  either  preponderates  or  is  at 
least  sufficiently  strong  to  warrant  the  popular  definition  of  them  as 
Arabs. 

Thus  there  is  no  account  of  the  Bishariin,  Hadendoa,  Halanka 
and  Beni  'Amir  of  the  Eastern  Deserts — the  Bega  of  the  Middle 
Ages — who  are  predominantly  Hamitic  and  do  not  have  Arabic  in 
general  use;  nor  of  the  Nubian  Mahass  and  Sukkot  of  Haifa  Pro- 
vince; nor  of  the  "Nuba"  of  el  Haraza  and  Kaga;  nor  of  the  Fung 
and  Hamag  of  the  southern  Gezira,  whose  affinities  are  rather  with 
the  Shilluk  and  Burun  than  with  the  Arabs.  Some  description  has 
already  been  given  in  Part  I  of  their  general  ethnical  characteristics 
and  history,  and  from  the  text  and  notes  contained  in  Part  IV  further 
items  of  information  may  be  gleaned. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  impossible  to  avoid  devoting  some  space 
to  the  Danagla,  and  to  the  various  branches  of  the  Mahass  who 
have  taken  up  their  abode  south  of  the  cataract  regions,  since  it  is 
beyond  question  that  they  have  as  much  Arab  blood  in  their  veins 
as,  for  instance,  the  sedentary  "Arabs"  of  Central  Kordofan;  and 
for  the  same  general  reason  a  short  notice  concerning  the  'Ababda 
has  been  inserted,  and  the  Hawawi'r,  though  largely  of  Berber  origin, 
have  a  section  to  themselves. 

Some  few  of  the  names  that  are  applied  in  the  "nisbas"  as 
though  to  distinct  and  separate  tribes,  and  other  names  that  are  more 
or  less  familiar  in  the  same  sense  to  the  natives  of  the  Sudan,  will  not 
be  found  heading  paragraphs  in  this  chapter,  but  a  reference  to  the 
index  will  generally  shew  that  such  are  in  fact  included  among  the 
subdivisions  of  a  larger  tribe  or  dealt  with  incidentally  elsewhere. 
Under  this  category  in  particular  fall  the  family  groups — the  name 
tribe  would  be  a  misnomer — of  the  Medanii'n  Hasunab,  Faradiin, 
Delaykab  and  others,  who  only  derive  a  separate  entity  from  the 
fact  that  their  forebears  were  well-known  holy  men  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  or  perhaps  merely  members  of  the  entourage  of  such. 

In  two  respects  at  least  the  Arabs  of  the  Sudan  form  a  single 
entity.  They  are  all  Muhammadans,  though  their  Muhammadanism 
has  been  tainted  by  the  customs  and  superstitions  of  the  various 

13—2 


196  INTRODUCTION 

autochthonous  inhabitants  among  whom  they  have  settled ;  and  they 
speak  Arabic.  In  fact  the  colloquial  Arabic  of  the  Sudan  contains 
many  words  and  phrases  that  would  be  incomprehensible  in  Egypt 
or  Syria  but  which  have  well-established  classical  authority:  this  is 
naturally  most  true  of  the  nomad  Arabs  and  applies  less  to  the 
riverain  populations.  The  words  of  Escayrac  de  Lauture  remain  sub- 
stantially correct: 

Leur  langue  alteree  un  peu  par  le  temps,  accrue  de  quelques  mots 
empruntes  aux  vocabulaires  des  negres,  est  cependant  encore  la  langue  du 
Hedjaz  plus  harmonieuse,  plus  concise,  plus  energique,  plus  grammaticale, 
et  plus  arabe  que  les  jargons  paries  en  figypte  et  dans  le  Gharb. 

It  would,  however,  be  difficult  to  give  a  detailed  history  of  the 
Arab  race  in  the  Sudan  in  the  form  of  a  single  narrative.  To  deal 
with  it  tribe  by  tribe  is  an  easier  method,  and  this  I  will  now  attempt 
briefly  to  do. 

In  the  second  Part  mention  was  made  of  the  largest  or  most  im- 
portant of  those  well-known  Arabian  tribes  which  sent  branches  to 
the  Sudan,  and  the  plan  was  adopted  of  following  the  fortunes  of 
each  in  turn,  as  a  single  whole  where  feasible,  or  otherwise  as  a  number 
of  subdivisions  which  had  become  practically  independent  of  one 
another,  down  to  the  point  of  their  entry  into  the  Sudan. 

In  this  chapter,  whenever  occasion  arises,  it  will  be  more  conveni- 
ent to  reverse  this  process,  and  taking  in  turn  the  best-known  Sudanese 
Arab  tribes  of  the  present  day,  to  attempt  to  connect  each  of  them 
with  its  respective  parent  stock. 


[J97] 


CHAPTER  1 
The  Ga'aliin  and  Dandgla  Group 

I  Of  the  main  groups  into  which  the  Arabs  of  the  Sudan  are  popu- 
larly divided,  and  in  particular  by  the  native  genealogists,  the  largest 
and  most  widely  distributed,  and  at  the  same  time  the  most  loosely 
knit,  is  the  Ga'aliin. 

The  distinguishing  feature  of  the  congeries  included  under  this 
name — it  cannot  be  called  a  tribe — is  the  claim  of  its  members  to  be 
descended  from  el  Abbas,  the  uncle  of  the  Prophet;  so  that  in  fact 
the  word  Ga'ali  used  in  its  wider  sense  has  become  practically 
synonymous  with  Abbasi,  and  is  borrowed  by  all  the  numerous 
families  from  Abyssinia  to  Lake  Chad  who  regard,  or  make  some 
show  of  regarding,  el  Abbas  as  their  forefather.  Not  only  is  this 
pretension  of  the  Ga'aliin  unsupported  by  evidence,  but  the  actual 
derivation  of  their  name  as  accepted  by  its  holders  would  sufficiently 
indicate  both  its  hollowness  and  the  popular  appreciation  of  the  same, 

It  is  said1  that  a  certain  Ibrahim,  a  descendant  of  el  Abbas,  in  a 
time  of  famine  relieved  the  distress  by  his  munificent  charity,  was 
surnamed  "Ga'al"  by  the  recipients,  because  he  said  "ga'alnakum" 
("we  have  made  you"),  and  thus  obtained  a  considerable  following. 
The  members  of  the  Ga'aliin  group  perfunctorily  claim  to  be  lineally 
descended  from  this  Ibrahim,  but  obviously,  in  so  far  as  the  tradition 
is  anything  but  a  pure  invention,  it  only  indicates  the  collection  under 
the  leadership  of  a  single  man,  who  claimed  to  belong  to  the  Beni 
Abbas,  of  a  more  or  less  heterogeneous  medley  of  tribesmen. 

II  The  term  Ga'aliin  in  its  vague  genealogical  sense  is  still  made 
applicable  to  most  of  the  northern  riverain  tribes,  such  as  the  Gaw- 
abra  and  Bedayria,  and  also  to  the  Shaikia,  the  Batahi'n,  the 
Gawama'a  and  Bedayria  of  Kordofan,  and  many  others.  And  the 
percolation  of  these  "Ga'ali"  stocks  into  the  south  and  west  has 
given  an  excuse  to  the  Hamag  of  Sennar  to  say  that  their  ancestors 
were  Ga'aliin  who  took  to  wife  blacks  from  the  Burun  hills,  and  has 
resulted  in  allegations  of  close  kinship  between  the  Ga'aliin  and  the 
rulers  of  Tekali,  Darfur,  Wadai  and  Bornu. 

Thus,  in  the  case  of  Wadai,  according  to  local  tradition,  the 

1  See  BA,  cxxxn,  e.g. 


198  THE  GA'ALIiN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP     m.  i.  n. 

Muhammadan  Empire  was  founded  by  "  'Abd  el  Kerim  ibn  Yame" 
in  1020  a.h.  (1611  a.d.1)  and 

Yame  etait  de  la  tribu  des  Djaliya's  [Ga'aliin,  that  is],  au  Chendi,  au 
nord  de  Khartoum,  dans  la  vallee  du  Nil.  Son  ancetre  etait  Saleh  ibn 
Abdullah  ibn  Abbas,  aussi  Yame  et  sa  famille  se  disaient-ils  Abassides, 
comme  le  font  encore  les  indigenes  de  Chendi,  dAbou  Harras,  d'Ourfa, 
de  Neselmiya  [Mesallamia  ( ?)]  et  les  habitants  de  la  ville  de  Sennar. 
Avant  de  venir  au  Ouadai,  Yame  s'etait  arrete  assez  longtemps  au  Darfour2. 

This  'Abd  el  Kerim  was  a  contemporary  of  Sulayman  Solong 
the  first  Muhammadan  ruler  of  Darfiir,  whose  descendants  have 
always  claimed  to  be  descended  from  the  Beni  'Abbas  through  a 
certain  "Idris  Ga'al3."  The  "Yame"  or  "Yame"  who  appears  as 
father  of  'Abd  el  Kerim  is  undoubtedly  "Gama'i" — the  singular  of 
Gawama'a  :  Barth  indeed  says4 : 

Woda,  the  son  of  Yame,  belonging  to  the  tribe  of  the  Gemir,  who  at 
that  time  were  settled  in  Shendy,  and... had  emigrated  with  his  country- 
men into  the  regions  which  afterwards,  in  honour  of  him  it  is  said,  were 
comprised  under  the  name  of  Waday... ; 

and  here  "Gemir"  can  hardly  mean  other  than  Gawama'a. 

When,  in  1916,  I  visited  Turra  in  Gebel  Marra,  the  seat  of  the 
ancient  Fur  kingdom  and  the  burial-place  of  its  Sultans  since  the 
time  of  Sulayman  Solong,  I  found  established  there  a  small  colony 
of  Gawama'a  "fukara"  who  claimed  descent  from  an  ancestor  Idris, 
who  had  been  "brought  by  Sulayman  Solong  from  the  river  seven 
generations  ago  for  the  sake  of  religion."  They  had  ever  since  been 
guardians  of  the  royal  tombs  and  "  Imams"  of  the  local  mosque. 

Ill  Now  as  regards  the  Gawabra-Bedayri'a  group,  it  is  fair,  I 
think,  to  say  that  the  only  denomination  under  which  they  can  all  be 
classed  with  any  accuracy  is  that  of  Danagla,  inhabitants,  that  is, 
of  Dongola5 ;  and  it  is  doubtful  whether  they  were  ever  called  Ga'aliin 
until  el  Samarkandi  asserted  that  they  were  descended  from  el  'Abbas 
and  linked  them  on  that  score  with  the  Ga'aliin  proper  who  lived 
further  upstream.  This  is  not  to  deny  for  a  moment  that  there  is  an 
essential  similarity  of  race  between  the  two  groups :  it  is  quite  obvious 
that  such  exists,  and  an  average  Dongolawi  might  pass  for  an 
average  Ga'ali,  or  vice  versa,  at  any  time  or  place.  Nor  was  el  Samar- 

1  Helmolt  (Hist.  p.  584)  gives  his  date  as  1635-1655. 

2  Nachtigal,  Voy.  au  Ouadai,  p.  93. 

3  See,  e.g.  Helmolt,  Hist.  p.  585 ;  and  p.  92,  above. 

*  Vol.  in,  p.  528.  He  notes,  however,  "  The  derivation  of  this  royal  family  from 
the  'Abbasiyin  is  altogether  imaginary." 

5  All  inhabitants  of  Dongola  do  not,  however,  care  to  be  called  Danagla.  The 
Rikabfa,  for  instance,  regarding  themselves  as  Shurafa,  resent  the  application  of 
the  name  to  themselves  as  suggesting  they  are  merely  Nubians. 


in.  i.  iv.     THE  GA'ALIIN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP  199 

kandi  likely  to  choose  for  identification  two  peoples  whose  traditions 
or  physical  characteristics  must  create  a  strong  presumption  against 
the  accuracy  of  his  diagnosis.  El  Samarkandi  was  by  no  means  a 
fool ;  and  it  is  particularly  noticeable  that  though  he  classes  all  alike 
as  Ga'aliin  he  pictures  at  the  same  time  the  approximate  degree  of 
racial  closeness  or  distance  existing  between  the  several  groups  by  a 
genealogical  parable  of  surprising  acumen. 

While  the  real  raison  d'etre  of  the  traditional  identification  lies  in 
the  fact  that  the  Arab  elements,  which  permeate  in  widely  varying 
degrees  both  the  Danagla  and  the  Ga'aliin  groups,  and  especially 
the  families  of  the  sheikhs  as  distinct  from  the  rank  and  file,  are  sub- 
stantially the  same  at  root,  it  is  also  true  that  the  non-Arab  substratum 
on  the  river  from  Dongola  to  Khartoum  is  to  some  extent  homo- 
geneous and,  though  not  directly  admitted  to  the  argument,  lends  to 
it  a  strength  and  colour  that  would  otherwise  be  largely  lacking1. 

IV  In  the  first  chapter  some  mention  was  made  of  the  Barabra  and 
Danagla  and  of  the  migratory  activities  which  these  Nubian  stocks 
directed  southwards  in  the  years  which  followed  the  downfall  of  the 
Christian  kingdom  of  Dongola  about  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth 
century2.  It  was  stated  that  many  of  them  settled  in  southern 
Kordofan  and  that  to  this  fact  may  be  attributed  the  linguistic 
affinities  between  the  population  of  the  northern  hills  of  Dar  Nuba 
and  the  people  of  Dongola.  These  affinities3  do  not  extend  beyond 
the  northernly  group  of  hills,  but  can  hardly  be  sufficiently  explained 
by  the  mercantile  proclivities  of  more  recent  generations  of  Barabra- 
Danagla4. 

Such  of  the  peoples,  sprung  from  the  blend  of  the  two  elements, 
Nubian  and  Arab,  as  migrated  farther  afield  to  the  south  and  west, 
for  instance  the  Gawama'a  and  the  Bedayria  of  Kordofan,  have  by 
now  become  inevitably  differentiated  from  the  northern  riverain 
stock,  since  they  have  incorporated  or  become  themselves  merged 
in  quite  distinct  negroid  races.  In  this  manner  the  Dubab  have  be- 
come to  all  intents  and  purposes  Nuba  like  those  of  Gebel  Daier, 
the  Gawama'a  are  half  Kungara  of  Darfur  and  the  Ghodiat  a 

1  The  autochthonous  element  among  the  Danagla  is  admitted  in  D  i,  cxlix. 

2  See  also  introduction  to  Part  IV  as  to  the  influx  of  Arab  elements  into  Nubia 
about  this  time. 

3  Q.v.  Lepsius,  Nub.  Gramm.  p.  lxxvii,  and  Pallme,  p.  116. 

1  See  Seligman,  Journ.  R.  Anthr.  Inst.  Vol.  xliii,  1913.  As  regards  this  modern 
settlement  of  Danagla  in  southern  Kordofan  the  evidence  is  ample:  see  in  particular 
Pallme,  pp.  117,  160,  171.  Seligman  also  bases  his  argument  to  some  extent  upon 
certain  specific  mentions  of  "Danagla"  which  I  made  in  The  Tribes  of  Northern 
and  Central  Kordofan,  and  he  might  have  made  more  of  this  line  if  he  had  noticed 
that  various  tribes  such  as  Doalfb,  Bedayria  and  Gawabra,  whom  I  specified  as 
being  settled  in  large  numbers  in  Kordofan,  are  all  properly  Danagla. 


200 


THE  GA'ALIIN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP    in.  i.  iv. 


mixture  of  Fung,  Hamag,  Nuba  and  Arab.    All,  however,  regard 
themselves  as,  in  a  certain  sense,  Ga'aliIn. 

But  the  name  of  Ga'aliin  as  used  at  present  in  common  parlance 
is  more  often  limited  to  the  large  group  which  contains  the  Sa'adab, 
Nifi'ab,  Kitiab  and  other  sections — the  group  alluded  to  in  this 
chapter  as  the  Ga'aliin  proper — and  though  its  exact  scope  varies 
the  wider  use  of  the  term  is  uncommon  and  practically  confined  to 
genealogical  discussion. 

V  Let  us  then  deal  in  order,  firstly  with  the  tribes  which,  though 
claiming  a  Ga'ali  origin,  have  for  many  generations  been  plainly  dis- 
tinguishable from  the  Ga'aliin  proper  as  well  as  from  the  other  tribes 
held  popularly  and  vaguely  to  belong  to  the  same  group  as  them- 
selves, and  secondly  with  the  Ga'aliin  proper. 

From  the  manuscripts  it  would  appear  that  the  following  are  the 
better  known  tribes  and  subtribes  traditionally  reckoned  Ga'aliin 
in  the  widest  sense  of  the  term1 : 


f  Bedayri'a 

i.  I  Shuwayhat 

[  Terayfia 

'RubAtAb 

'AWADIA 

MAgidiA,  or  MAi'dia) 


4 


KurtAn 

HAkimAb 

GawAbra 

Gima'a 

GawAma'a 

ManAsra 

DubAb 

MekAbda2 

Fadli'a 

MansurAb 

SANDiDAB 

Gamu'ia 

ShAikia 

FAdlAb 

MirafAb 

SerayhAb 


/ 


3-  < 


f  GhodiAt 
\  BatAhin 

KitiAb 

MukAbirAb 

ZaydAb 

Sha'adi'nAb 

MesallamAb 

GebelAb 

KAliAb 

'OmarAb 

KabushAb 


1  1 

I 


1 


KandIlAb 

HasabullAb 

GodalAb 

KarAkisa 

NAfa'Ab 

Nifi'Ab 

'Ali'Ab 

Sa'adAb 

Muhammad  ab 


The 

Ga'aliin 
proper 


1  Many  of  the  less  known  or  more  doubtful  sections  are  omitted.  Their  names 
and  some  details  concerning  them  can  be  found  in  the  texts  or  genealogical  trees 
of  the  MSS.  of  the  "A"  group;  and,  in  many  cases,  in  the  account  of  the  Ga'aliin 
which  follows.  The  brackets  linking  various  tribes  in  the  list  here  given  denote  a 
measure  of  connection  according  to  the  "nisbas." 

2  See  sub  Ghodiat. 


in.  i.  vi.    THE  GA'ALlfN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP  201 


(a)  THE  BEDAYRfA,  SHUWAYHAT  AND  TERAYFfA 

VI  The  Bedayria  are  at  present  more  or  less  evenly  divided  between 
riverain  Nubia  and  Kordofan,  while  a  few  live  further  west  in  Darfiir; 
but  the  true  home  of  the  race  lies  between  the  Gawabra  and  the 
Shaikia  territories  in  Dongola  province. 

In  the  eighteenth  century,  and  for  an  unknown  period  previous 
to  it,  the  chief  "mek"  lived  at  Old  Dongola,  and  subject  "meks"  at 
el  Khandak,  Tankasi  Island,  Abkiir  and  Dufar1,  and  at  the  present 
day  it  is  still  probably  true  to  say  that  of  the  semi-Arab  semi- 
Nubian  Danagla  more  are  Bedayria  than  not2. 

Their  chief  branch  is  the  Dahmashia3. 

At  some  early  period,  probably  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  a  number  of  Bedayria  and  Shuwayhat4  found  their  way  to 
Kordofan,  carried  thither,  it  seems,  by  a  general  wave  of  "Ga'ali" 
movement  to  the  south-west  consequent  upon  the  Arab  subjugation 
of  Dongola5,  and  settled  round  the  present  site  of  el  Obeid  and 
took  to  cattle-breeding  and  cultivation. 

Of  the  history  of  the  Bedayria  either  in  Dongola  or  Kordofan 
we  know  but  little.  In  the  former  province  during  the  period  of 
Shaikia  ascendancy  the  Bedayria  were  subject  to  their  more  war- 
like congeners6,  and  the  oppression  they  suffered  induced  many  to 

1  Cp.  Nicholls,  pp.  7,  8. 

2  Sir  C.  Wilson  spoke  of  them  in  1887  as  a  Nuba  [i.e.  Nubian]  people  with  an 
admixture  of  Arab  blood  still  speaking  a  "rotana"  among  themselves. 

3  For  its  subdivisions  see  Tree  to  "  AB."  One  of  them,  it  may  be  noted,  is  the 
'Aidab,  a  name  which  we  shall  again  meet  with  among  the  Shaikia.  It  would  seem 
that  some  of  the  descendants  of  'Aid  are  with  one  tribe  and  some  with  the  other, 
while  others  again  are  attached  to  the  Kababish.  To  what  tribe  'Aid  himself  belonged 
is  uncertain,  but  perhaps  he  is  the  'Aid  father  of  Ghulamulla  (q.v.  genealogical  tree 
to  D  1),  in  which  case  his  alleged  Sherifi  descent  would  explain  his  popularity  as 
an  ancestor.  There  is  a  tribe  called  'Aid  near  Balbays  in  the  Sharkia  Province  of 
Egypt  who  are  said  to  be  Kahtanites  descended  from  Guzam  (Gudham),  and  it  is 
not  impossible  that  some  connection  may  be  traceable  between  these  and  the 
'Aidab  of  the  Sudan.  Compare  the  cases  of  the  Rashaida  (Rowashda),  Ziud, 
Muzayna,  Kerrarish  (Kerarsha),  and  Gubarat.  For  the  'Aid  see  Na'Qm  Bey,  Hist. 
Sinai,  pp.  108-9. 

4  Or  perhaps  the  Shuwayhat  were  only  a  branch  of  Bedayria.  I  have  assumed 
the  contrary  because  the  MSS.  make  Shuwayh  the  brother  and  not  the  son  of 
Bedayr. 

5  A  well  and  hill  named  Bir  Serrar,  lying  a  day's  journey  north  of  Bara,  are 
named  after  Serrar  the  son  of  Kerdam  who  is  said  to  have  brought  his  family  to 
Kordofan  and  settled  there.  Serrar  is  ancestor  not  only  of  the  Bedayria  but  of 
almost  the  whole  "Ga'ali"  group.  His  date  was  about  the  end  of  the  thirteenth 
century  (see  Introd.  to  Part  IV). 

6  Burckhardt,  Nubia,  p.  68.  "Between  the  city  of  Dongola  and  Merawe  is  the 
Wady  of  the  Arabs  called  Bedayr,  whose  chiefs  have,  till  lately,  been  tributary  to 
the  Sheygya." 


202  THE  GA'ALlfN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP    m.  1.  vi. 

emigrate  to  the  south-west  and  join  their  kin  in  Kordofan  or  push 
further  west  into  Darfur1. 

About  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  a  certain  Balul,  one 
of  the  chieftains  of  the  Bedayria  in  Kordofan,  moved  northwards 
from  Abu  Haraz,  conquered  Kaga  Surriig  on  the  Darfur  border,  and 
made  his  headquarters  Gebel  Bishara  Taib  or  "Kab  Balul."  He 
was,  however,  ousted  thence  by  the  invading  Musaba'at  from  Darfur 
and  was  compelled  to  take  refuge  with  the  remnants  of  his  folk  at 
Kaga  Soderi  and  Katul.  Here  the  Bedayria  gradually  became  merged 
in  the  older  population. 

VII  The  Bedayria  in  Kordofan  now  divide  themselves  into  two 
main  groups  and  a  number  of  subdivisions,  as  follows: 

A.  Dahmashia  f  i.  Awlad  Hilayb 

2.  Zenara2 

3.  Ayadga 

4.  Awlad  Muhammad 

5.  Shuwayhat 

6.  Ri'ash3 

7.  Kaduma 

8.  Awlad  'Ali 

9.  Awlad  Shihada 

10.  Awlad  Hilal 

11.  Husaynat4 

B.  Awlad  Na'amia   f  1.  Awlad  Hamdulla 

2.  Awlad  Mati'ya5 


3.  Awlad  Melki 

4.  'Aynani'a 

5.  Awlad  Musa 

VIII  In  addition  to  the  Bedayria  who  preserve  their  name  as  such 
in  Dongola,  Kordofan  and  elsewhere,  there  are  others  for  whom  a 
Bedayri  ancestry  is  commonly  alleged.  The  most  numerous  of  these 
are  the  Asirra  who  form  a  large  section  of  the  Hawazma,  and  who 
are  also  represented  in  Darfur  and  Wadai6. 

IX  The  Bedayria  of  Dongola  are  of  course  entirely  sedentary. 

1  For  instance,  at  el  Hashaba  in  the  Zaghawa  country  (N.  Ddrfur)  there  is  a 
small  colony  of  the  Rfash  branch,  settled  in  villages. 

2  Originally  Berbers.  The  Zenara  were  a  section  of  Luata.  See  p.  152,  above. 
Other  Zenara  are  among  the  Hawazma  (q.v.  later). 

3  It  will  be  seen  from  the  trees  that  Abu  el  Rish  ("Father  of  the  Feather"), 
their  ancestor,  is  traditionally  a  brother  of  Bedayr  and  Shuwayh. 

4  Bedayria  by  marriage  only,  i.e.  their  ancestress  was  a  Bedayria. 

6  The  name  is  mentioned  ("Mateye")  by  Burckhardt  as  being  that  of  one  of 
the  tribes  of  Kordofan. 

6  See  Carbou,  II,  91 ;  and  Nachtigal,  Voy.  au  Ouada'i,  p.  71.  The  site  of  el  Fasher 
itself  is  said  to  have  anciently  belonged  to  the  Asirra. 


III.  i.  xi.    THE  GA'ALlfN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP  203 

Those  in  Kordofan  have  intermarried  so  freely  with  their  neighbours, 
the  partly  cognate  Gawama'a  and  the  Hawazma,  and  above  all  with 
the  Nuba,  that  they  have  little  racial  individuality  remaining  to  them. 
They  resemble  the  Nuba  far  more  than  the  Dongolawi,  and  it  is  from 
the  former  that  the  jeunesse  doree  of  the  Bedayria  have  adopted  the 
fashion  of  wearing  their  hair  in  several  thick  sausage-like  rolls  laid 
longwise  back  from  the  forehead  and  falling  at  the  back  nearly  to  the 
shoulders1. 

They  have  many  villages  near  to  the  south  and  west  of  el  Obeid 
and  these  again  have  sent  out  numerous  scattered  colonies  into 
northern  and  western  Kordofan.  In  the  rains  the  cattle-owning 
Bedayria,  those  to  the  south  and  east  that  is,  lead  a  nomadic  existence 
in  company  with  the  Hawazma  Bakkara. 

X  The  Terayfia  are  close  connections  and  neighbours  of  the 
Nubian  Bedayria.  Korti  and  Ambukol  were  their  ancient  centres 
and  a  number  remain  thereabouts  at  the  present  day.  Many  Terayfia 
however  have  migrated  elsewhere,  and  the  majority  of  these  are 
settled  in  Kordofan.  They  probably  accompanied  the  earliest  Be- 
dayria emigrants,  but  instead  of  remaining  with  them  they  took  up 
their  abode  with  the  Gawama'a  group  and  at  the  present  day  form 
one  of  its  larger  subdivisions  and  have  become  assimilated  to  the 
semi-negroid  type2.  The  Terayfia  who  were  driven  from  Dongola 
at  a  later  date,  victims  of  Shaikia  aggressiveness  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  mostly  went  to  Darfur  and  took  to  trading  at  Kobbe  and 
el  Fasher,  etc.  They  are  still  represented  among  the  " Gelldba3" 
Danagla  at  el  Fasher.  Others  settled  at  Kerri  near  the  Shabluka 
cataract4. 

(b)  THE  GHODlAT 

XI  The  Ghodiat5  live  south  of  el  Obeid  on  the  very  fringe  of  the 
Nuba  country,  and  the  connection  between  them  and  the  rest  of  the 
so-called  Ga'aliin  group,  though  apparent  from  all  the  Ga'ali 
"nisbas"  is  somewhat  theoretical. 

In  tradition  they  are  very  closely  connected  with  the  ancient 
tribes  of  the  Kunan  and  the  KusAs  who  are  now  extinct  in  the  Sudan. 
The  former  are  said  to  have  lived  at  Rera  in  Kassala  Province  and  to 
have  been  extirpated  by  the  Shukria. 

1  The  Hawazma  have  adopted  the  same  custom  but  not  to  quite  the  same  extent. 

2  For  the  subdivisions  of  the  Gawama'a-Terayfia  see  sub  Gawama'a. 

3  "  Gelldba"  are  small  traders,  generally  pedlars. 

4  Nicholls,  p.  19. 

5  Sing.  "Ghadawi."  The  MSS.  almost  universally  spell  "Kodiat"  and  "Ka- 
dawi,"  but  the  confusion  between  Jj  and  c  is  so  common  that  no  reliance  can  be 
placed  on  the  correctness  of  that  spelling.^- 


204  THE  GA'ALlfN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP    in.  i.  xi. 

The  only  record  of  the  KusAs  is,  I  think,  in  a  passage  of  Burck- 
hardt.  Speaking  of  the  Howara  of  Upper  Egypt  in  Mamliik  days  he 
says1: 

On  the  south,  the  tribe  of  Kaszas  (^Las)  [i.e.  KusAs]  who  people 
the  country  on  the  west  banks  from  Thebes  to  near  Esne,  and  to  whom 
belong  the  inhabitants  of  Gourne,  Orment,  and  Reheygat  (all  celebrated 
for  their  bold  plundering  enterprises)  were  their  determined  enemies; 
although  both  these  and  the  Howara  report  that  they  have  the  same  origin 
from  Barbary. 

Both  tribes  have  left  their  names  in  some  of  the  small  hills  east 
of  the  Blue  Nile  near  Abu  Delayk.  With  the  Ghodiat,  Kunan  and 
KusAs  the  "tiisbas"  commonly  include  the  BatAhin2  whose  ancient 
home  was  among  these  same  hills. 

XII  On  the  other  hand  the  Ghodiat  are  universally  allowed  to  be 
largely  Fung3  by  race. 

They  are  also  obviously  as  much  negroid  as  Arab.  The  inference 
then  to  be  drawn  would  seem  to  be  that  certain  members  of  the  group 
which  also  formed  the  substratum  of  the  "Ga'aliin"  tribes  of  the 
present  settled  at  some  early  period  in  the  vicinity  of  Abu  Delayk ; 
and  that  certain  of  them  took  an  active  part  in  the  Arab-Fung  move- 
ment at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  in  connection 
with  that  movement  penetrated  westwards  into  Kordofan  and  settled 
there  among  the  Nuba  and  intermarried  with  them.  Or,  as  an  alter- 
native, it  is  possible  that  the  Ghodiat  may  have  formed  a  part  of  the 
racial  wave  that  flowed  into  Kordofan  from  Dongola  two  centuries 
before  the  foundation  of  Sennar  and  have  subsequently  acquired  the 
Fung  connection  in  Kordofan  itself. 

XIII  Their  traditions  relate  that  they  took  up  their  abode  at  first 
near  Gebel  Kurbag  and  Melbis  and  after  a  time  drove  the  Nuba 
from  their  stronghold  on  Gebel  Kordofan  and  usurped  their  position. 

The  Bedayri'a-Gawama'a  group  are  said  to  have  submitted  to 
their  overlordship4.  The  story  as  Pallme  heard  it  in  1838  is  as  follows : 

The  aborigines  are  negroes  from  Nubia,  who,  even  at  the  present  time, 
inhabit  many  parts  of  Kordofan.  The  word  Kordofan  itself  is  of  Nubian 
derivation.  Three  tribes  subsequently  immigrated :  the  Hadejat,  el  Giomme, 
and  Bederie5.  The  period  of  this  immigration,  however,  cannot  be  definitely 
determined.  These  three  nomadic  tribes  distributed  themselves  over  the 
country  round  about  Mount  Kordofan,  occupied  themselves  with  cattle- 
breeding,  and  each  tribe  had  its  sheikh,  or  magistrate;  but  from  these 

1  Nubia,  p.  532.  2  Cp.  the  genealogical  trees  of  the  "A"  group. 

3  D  1 ,  ccix  says  Hamag  instead  of  Fung. 

4  So  tradition.    Cp.  Pallme,  pp.  11-12,  Prout  and  Petherick. 

5  The  names  appear  so  in  the  original  German  also.  The  tribes  meant  are  the 
Ghodiat,  the  Gawama'a  and  the  Bedayria. 


in.  i.  xiii.   THE  GA'ALlfN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP         205 

three  tribes,  collectively,  a  head  was  chosen,  who  acted  as  impartial  judge 
in  all  questions  of  difficulty,  and,  in  fact,  as  the  last  authority. 

About  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century1  the  Fung,  having 
consolidated  their  power  in  the  Gezi'ra,  proceeded  to  make  raids  over 
the  White  Nile  in  the  direction  of  Gebels  Tekali  and  Daier.  In  the 
following  century  they  became  paramount  in  those  regions  and  an- 
nexed them  to  Sennar,  but  according  to  their  usual  policy  they  left 
in  power  the  chiefs  of  the  conquered  districts,  and  thus  the  chief  of 
the  Ghodiat  confederacy  between  el  Obeid  and  Daier  was  given  the 
title  of  " Mdngil"  and  was  expected  to  pay  a  yearly  tribute  of  cattle 
and  iron  hoes2. 

No  doubt  a  number  of  Fung  settled  during  the  two  centuries 
mentioned  in  the  newly  acquired  province,  and  while  it  is  possible 
that  it  is  due  merely  to  this  that  the  Ghodiat  are  commonly  considered 
as  half  Fung,  it  is  far  more  probable  that  the  connection  was  more 
ancient  and  dates  from  one  or  other  of  those  periods  of  unrest  and 
expansion,  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century  and  the  beginning 
of  the  sixteenth  century. 

The  Fung  control  in  south-central  Kordofan  was  a  very  fluctu- 
ating quantity.  It  reached  its  zenith  between  1748  and  1758  with  the 
defeat  of  the  Musaba'at  of  Darfur,  and  ended  in  1788.  The  period 
in  which  the  Ghodiat  were  most  powerful  was  between  1755  and 
17683,  a  fact  which  confirms  the  tradition  that  they  were  the  special 
proteges  and  allies  of  the  Fung  and  dependent  upon  them  for  the 
maintenance  of  their  position4.  In  1768  central  Kordofan,  Kordofan 
proper  that  is5,  passed  to  the  Musaba'at,  but  there  was  apparently 
no  particular  animosity  between  these  and  the  Ghodiat,  and  the 
latter  were  left  in  possession  of  their  lands  south  of  the  capital6,  and 

1  See  D  7,  xxix. 

2  Called  "Hashhash  Um  Henana."  That  these  hoe-heads  came  to  be  used  not 
merely  as  a  useful  medium  of  exchange  but  solely  as  coins  I  have  argued  in  Tribes 
of  Northern  and  Central  Kordofan  (p.  67).  See  also  Ruppell,  p.  139.  This  traveller, 
speaking  of  the  years  1824-5  says:  "In  Obeid  bedient  man  sich  bei  kleinen  Aus- 
lagen  einer  eigenthumlichen  Miinze;  es  sind  kleine,  drei  Zoll  grosse  Stiicke  Eisen 
in  Gestalt  von  "T ;  die  vorige  und  jetzige  Regierung  setzte  solche  in  Circulation. 
Man  nennt  diese  Eisenstvicke  Haschasch."  They  were  also  used  in  Darfur:  see 
el  Tunisi,  Voy.  au  Darfour,  p.  320.  For  "Mdngil"  see  p.  246. 

3  See  D  1,  ccix. 

*  It  is  said  el  Obeid  was  built  during  the  Ghodiat  period  of  ascendancy,  but 
this  is  not  certain. 

5  To  the  present  day  the  hillmen  of  Kaga  and  el  Haraza  and  the  nomads  in 
the  north  (Kababish,  etc.),  and  also  the  Hamar  of  "Western  Kordofan,"  speak  of 
"going  to  Kordofan,"  meaning  to  the  cultivable  sandy  districts  now  comprised  in 
el  Obeid,  Bara,  Um  Dam  and  Um  Ruaba  districts.  The  extension  of  the  name  to 
the  north  and  west  (and  for  some  years  to  the  Nuba  hills  in  the  south)  was  a  purely 
arbitrary  administrative  act. 

6  For  the  above  see  also  MacMichael,  Tribes...,  pp.  9-13,  62,  67,  68. 


206  THE  GA'ALIIN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP  in.  i.  xm. 

live  there  in  their  villages  to  the  present  time  among  a  medley  of 
equally  debased  Bedayria,  Musaba'at,  Birked1,  Tom  am,  Tumbab 
and  Dubab. 
XIV  Among  the  subdivisions  of  the  Ghodiat  are  the  following : 


Nafar  el  Marad 
,,     'Omar 
„     Safei' 
„     Sa'id 
|        „     Abu  Khadra 


Buruh 

Idayrat 

Ku'uk 

Mekabda  (properly  Bedayria) 

Serarir 


^  Salamat  (an  offshoot  of  the  Bakkara  Salamat) 

The  Mekabda,  it  is  worth  noting,  appear  in  the  "nisbas"  as  a 
Ga'ali  tribe  closely  cognate  to  the  Manasra.  Those  who  are  among 
the  Ghodiat  are  regarded  locally  as  Bedayria  affiliated  for  several 
generations  to  the  Ghodiat. 

(c)   THE  BATAHfN2 

XV  The  Batahin  of  the  present  day  are  a  nomadic  tribe  with  head- 
quarters at  Abu  Delayk,  halfway  between  Khartoum  and  the  Atbara, 
and  to  a  less  degree  at  'Alwan.  The  more  southernly  members  of  the 
tribe,  but  for  a  few  scattered  individuals  settled  near  Wad  Medani 
and  el  Manakil,  are  certain  of  the  'Abadla  section  in  Rufa'a  district, 
and  the  most  northernly  the  Butugab,  who  have  lately  split  away 
from  the  main  tribe  and  live  in  Khartoum  North  district. 

Eastwards  they  do  not  extend  beyond  the  boundaries  of  the  Blue 
Nile  Province,  except  in  the  season  of  the  rains  when  they  roam  the 
common  grazing  ground  of  the  Butana,  and  westwards  their  rights 
end  fifteen  miles  or  more  from  the  river. 

XVI  Until  about  half  a  century  ago  the  majority  of  the  tribe,  less 
powerful  then  than  now  and  living  round  'Alwan,  were  dependent 
for  water  upon  the  "hafirs"  until  these  dried  up  in  the  early  spring, 
and  then  upon  the  river.  But  for  a  long  time  there  had  been  also  a 
few  of  them  at  Abu  Delayk,  and  it  seems  that  these  were  popularly 
regarded  as  having  ancient  rights  in  that  vicinity,  if  not  as  aboriginals3. 

However  the  Shukria  under  the  great  Abu  Sin  family  had  made 
themselves  supreme  in  Fung  days  between  the  Blue  Nile  and  the 
Atbara  and  maintained  their  supremacy  throughout  the  Turkish 
period.  The  Batahin  were  a  negligible  factor  under  these  conditions; 
and,  in  addition,  the  Delaykab4,  descendants  of  a  certain  Kahli  "  feki" 

1  Q.v.  Part  I,  Chap.  4.  2  Sing.  Bat-hani. 

3  Cp.  D  3,  No.  74.  It  is  said  they  owned  one  well  there.  Burckhardt  (p.  345) 
mentions  Batahin  among  the  Arabs  of  Shendi  district  in  1814,  and  no  doubt  he 
refers  to  the  families  whose  headquarters  were  at  Abu  Delayk. 

*  Q.v.  in  Chap.  5  (a)  of  this  Part. 


III.  i.  xvii.   THE  GA'ALlfN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP         207 

surnamed  Abu  Delayk,  had  obtained  a  hold  on  the  particular  site 
now  known  by  his  name  and  a  large  part  of  the  Wadi  Hawad.  Some 
years  before  the  Mahdia  Sheikh  'Abd  el  Baki  'Abd  el  Kadir,  the 
grandfather  of  the  present  "'omda"  of  the  Batahin,  succeeded  in 
opening  wells  at  'Alwan,  Tomama,  Um  Sidayra  and  Kadfim  and 
thereby  the  unity  and  prosperity  of  the  tribe  were  considerably 
advanced1. 

At  Abu  Delayk  there  must  have  been  wells  from  very  early  times, 
for  water  is  procurable  in  the  "wddi"  so  near  the  surface  that  a 
"sdkia"  can  be  used,  but  it  was  only  as  a  result  of  the  upheavals 
and  vicissitudes  of  the  Mahdia  that  the  Bat  ah  in  found  themselves 
sufficiently  strong  to  assert  their  ancient  claims  in  the  face  of  the 
Shukria  and  Delaykab  and  to  make  Abu  Delayk  their  tribal  head- 
quarters, open  numerous  wells  there,  and  cultivate  most  of  the  sur- 
rounding "  zvddis2." 

XVII  In  the  Dervish  days  many  of  the  Batahin  were  sent  north  by 
the  Khalifa  to  Dongola  and  Berber  and  perished  there.  Those  remain- 
ing near  Abu  Delayk  fell  into  his  displeasure,  and  it  is  still  remembered 
how  he  put  sixty-seven  of  them  to  death  with  the  utmost  brutality  in 
one  day  at  Omdurman3. 

They  now  own  fairly  large  herds  of  camels,  cattle,  sheep  and  goats, 
and  cultivate  a  rain  crop  in  the  numerous  shallow  "wddis"  of  their 
''ddr."  They  are  typical  nomads  in  physical  appearance4,  lithe, 
sallow-red  in  complexion,  furtive-eyed,  and  in  character  impatient 
of  control,  quarrelsome  like  the  Shaiki'a,  humorous,  and  more  daring 
than  the  usual.  They  are  also  incorrigible  and  unblushing  thieves; 
yet  their  thefts  are  not  of  the  mean  house-breaking  order,  but 
a  survival  from  the  happy  inter-tribal  looting  days5.    They  profess 

1  Mrs  Petherick  {Centr.  Africa,  II,  84)  speaks  of  "some  five  hundred  brood  of 
camels  with  their  young"  seen  by  her  in  March,  1862,  watering  on  the  east  bank 
of  the  White  Nile  near  Gebel  Aulia  and  belonging  to  the  "  Batacheen." 

2  The  "  'Omda"  has  lately  founded  a  village  of  mud  houses  close  to  the  wells, 
an  entirely  new  departure  for  the  Batahin.  The  most  permanent  type  of  house  in 
use  among  those  who  were  not  entirely  nomadic  had  previously  been  a  tukl  of 
straw  of  which  the  wall  was  plastered  with  "  zibl"  (dung)  and  lime.  The  mixture 
adheres  to  the  corn-stalks  and  the  wooden  uprights  alike,  and  windows  are  cut 
through  it.  This  type  of  building  is  not  found  west  of  the  Nile.  Inside  their  huts 
the  Batahin  have  one  or  two  large  "suaybas,"  cylindrical  jars  for  storing  grain, 
about  three  and  a  half  feet  in  height.  Their  jars  ("bata' ")  are  made  from  a  compound 
of  "  seidl"  gum  ("  kaddb")  and  leather  and  rags.  The  black  colour  is  obtained  by 
mashing  and  burning  corn  and  forming  it  into  a  paste  which  is  used  in  manu- 
facturing the  "bata'."  The  black  conglomerate  is  about  an  eighth  of  an  inch  thick 
and  overlies  a  groundwork  of  rag. 

3  Slatin,  Ch.  XIII. 

4  I  except,  of  course,  those  in  whom  slave-blood  is  obvious. 

6  Within  the  memory  of  the  present  generation  a  Bathani  youth  could  not  hope 
to  gain  a  bride  until  he  had  proved  his  prowess  by  stealing  a  camel.  This  reminds 


2o8         THE  GA'ALlf N  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP  m.  i.  xvn. 


to  be  Ga'aliin  by  origin,  a  claim  which  is  commonly  denied  them 
with  a  laugh  and  a  sneer  by  the  Shukria,  Mesallamia  and  other 
tribes  who  live  nearest  to  them  and  consequently  have  cause  to  throw 
the  broadest  aspersions  upon  their  ancestry.  As  a  matter  of  fact  it 
would  seem  from  the  "nisbas"  that  they  are  one  of  the  oldest  off- 
shoots of  that  early  group  of  Arab  immigrants  to  whose  descendants 
the  name  Ga'aliin  is  applied.  They  are  certainly  less  noticeably  con- 
taminated with  negro  blood  than  any  other  Ga'aliin,  and  in  all 
probability  represent  more  closely  the  original  stock. 

Their  own  traditions  relate  in  effect  that  their  name  is  derived 
from  that  of  the  Batah  (Lowlander-KuRAYSH)  who  inhabited  the 
neighbourhood  of  Mekka  in  the  Prophet's  day1,  but  a  variant  put 
forward  by  the  cynical  is  that  their  ancestor  was  found  abandoned 
("mabtuh")  in  some  "toddi"  ("bat-ha"). 
XVIII  The  subdivisions  of  the  Batahin  are  as  follows : 


ASHAMA2 

'  I .  Sahbab 

f(«) 

(b) 

[(c) 

NlNAB 

Belalab 

Others 

2.   HlDAYBAB 

\ifl) 

SherahAb 

(b) 

'Atawi'a 

■ 

(c) 

Gudumab 

[(d) 

SoWADfB 

3.  'Arkashab3  j(a) 

Belalab 

- 

l(*) 

Um  'fsA 

4.  'Alamab 

(«) 

Buruk 

1 

,(&) 

Shulukhab4 

5.  Difaylab 

'(*) 

KODELAB 

(b) 

RashidAb 

00 

NURAB5 

Xd) 

Ba'abish  (sing.  Ba'abushawi) 

6.  'Asafab6       i 

1. 

(a) 

Faragab 

(b) 

Others 

one  of  Burton's  Beduin  of  the  Hegaz  among  whom  the  name  " hardmi"  ("thief") 
was  still  honourable,  and  of  the  saying  once  quoted  of  the  Crow  Indians  "Trust  to 
their  honour  and  you  are  safe,  to  their  honesty  and  they  will  steal  the  hair  off  your 
head"  (Burton,  Pilgrimage,  11,  101,  112). 

1  See  note  to  A  11,  xn.  The  father  of  the  '"omda"  of  the  Batahin  assured  me 
that  their  ancestors  formed  a  part  of  the  army  of  Khalid  ibn  Walid,  the  Prophet's 
lieutenant,  which  invaded  the  eastern  Sudan  and  converted  the  'Anag ! 

2  They  connect  the  word  with^cLxj  "to  covet   [s.c.  the  goods  of  others]," 

i.e.  "to  loot." 

3  The  root  {Ji£sj.&,  they  say,  means  "  to  sprout  thick  and  fast,"  i.e.  "  to  thrive." 

4  From  ~JUi,  i.e.  incisions  in  the  cheek. 

6  I.e.  "descendants  of  el  Nur."  There  is  no  connection  apparently  between 
these  and  the  Nurab  sections  of  Kababish  or  Shukria. 

6  These  have  attached  themselves  to  the  Shukria,  and  are  commonly  reckoned 
a  part  of  that  tribe. 


m.  i.  xix.  THE  GA'ALIiN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP         209 

B.  Butugab1    fi.  HuwAb 

2.  Harayrab 

3.  Shabala 

4.  ZAkiab 

5.  Deraysab 

6.  Atamra2 

7.  Shuaynab  (living  among  the  'Ashama) 

C.  'ABADLA3     J  I.    'AWADAB 

\2.  Others 


(d)  THE  RUBATAB,  'AWADfA,  MANASfR,  FADLIfN,  MfRAFAB, 

AND  DUBAB,  etc. 

XIX  The  country  appropriated  to  the  three  riverain  tribes  of 
Rubatab,  Manasir  and  Mirafab  lies  roughly  between  the  fourth 
cataract  and  the  junction  of  the  Atbara  with  the  Nile,  that  is  between 
the  Shaikia  and  the  Ga'aliin  proper,  on  either  side  of  the  great 
loop  in  the  river- 

The  Manasir4,  having  their  headquarters  at  Berti  on  the  boundary 
between  Berber  and  Dongola  Provinces,  are  neighbours  of  the 
Shaikia,  and  Burckhardt  spoke  of  them  as  practically  a  subtribe  of 
the  latter,  though  "not  strictly  belonging  to"  them5. 

Some  two  hundred  years  ago  or  less  a  large  colony  of  Manasir 
and  Fadliin  left  the  Nile  and  migrated  westwards  to  Darfiir.  There 
they  settled  round  Sani  Karro,  Tulu  and  Gebel  el  Hella  and  called 
themselves  Manasra  and  Beni  Fadl  respectively6.  Subsequently, 
when  the  Hamar  moved  eastwards  from  Um  Shanga  and  opened  up 
western  Kordofan  by  hollowing  the  baobabs  for  water-storage,  certain 
of  these  Manasra  and  Beni  Fadl  joined  them.  More  came  in  the 
Turkish  days;  but  the  largest  movement  of  all  took  place  about  1904 
when,  tired  of  the  oppression  to  which  they  were  subjected  by  the 
Sultan  of  Darfiir,  more  than  half  of  both  tribes  left  Darfiir  and  settled 
in  Dar  Hamar,  the  Manasra  chiefly  round  el  Odaya  and  the  Beni 

1  p^Zj  (" butuga")  is  said  to  meanjj^,  i.e.  "to  be  plentiful." 

2  From  the  rootj.^  ("dates"). 

3  Derived  from  "  Abdulla,"  a  curious  plural.  Many  of  the  'Abadla  are 
sedentary. 

4  The  name  is  simply  a  plural  formed  from  "Manstir."  Those  on  the  river, 
in  Berber  district,  comprise  the  following  small  sections : — Sulaymanfa,  Salamat, 
Berti,  Sherreri  and  Shirri.  Inland  are  a  few  Kagubab,  Khubara  and  others.  They 
number  some  600  men  in  all. 

5  Nubia,  p.  69.  Sir  C.  Wilson  in  1887  estimates  them  at  about  2500  men, 
and  reports  that  they  claim  kinship  with  the  Ababda. 

6  They  say  they  were  in  a  rough  proportion  of  two  of  the  latter  to  one  of  the 
former. 

M.s.l.  14 


2io  THE  GA'ALlfN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP  in.  1.  xix. 

Fadl  in  Zernakh  and  Kebsh  and  Um  Bel  districts1.  Since  then  these 
have  been  joined  yearly  by  others  of  their  kin  until  at  the  present 
day  there  are  few  of  them  left  in  Darfur. 

XX  The  subdivisions  of  the  Beni  Fadl  of  Kordofan  are : 

Hadarma2  Geraywat  'UkbAb3 

homran  muhammadia  debaghna 

ZtJAIDA  'AMIRiA  MUKURNA 

Those  of  the  Manasra  are  as  follows : 

HlSAMiA  ((a)   TlBAYKAT 

[(b)  Abu  'Amir 
Hammadia   ((a)  Abu  SinAbo 

[(b)  Abu  Himayyir 
GimaylIa     ((a)  Shabul4 

[(b)  Um  Sowar 
Merashish  j(a)  Um  'Azoza 

[(b)  Gebarin 

XXI  The  Rubatab  are  upstream  of  the  Manasir  as  far  as  the  fifth 
cataract  and  their  country  corresponds  roughly  to  the  Inspectorate 
of  Abu  Hammad5.  The  'Awadia  section,  which  appears  in  the  "nis- 
bas"  under  the  heading  of  Rubatab  is,  from  all  but  the  genealogical 
point  of  view,  quite  distinct6.  They  are  largely  nomadic7,  and  graze 
over  Berber  Province  with  various  subtribes  of  the  Ga'aliIn  proper. 
The  closeness  of  the  connection  between  the  Rubatab   and  the 

1  Numbers  of  both  are  also  scattered  elsewhere,  e.g.  near  to  the  S.E.  of 
el  Nahud. 

2  These  deny  any  connection  with  the  Hadarma  or  Hadarba  or  Hadareb  of 
the  Red  Sea  coast,  but  the  connection  may  none  the  less  exist. 

3  These  claim  to  be  the  same  as  the  Ya'akubab  of  Sennar,  whom  we  shall  meet 
as  a  branch  of  Shafkfa.  The  root  of  both  words  is  of  course  the  same,  but  whether 
the  Ya'akubab  are  more  properly  Beni  Fadl  or  Shaikla  I  cannot  say.  There  are 
said  to  be  now  no  other  Beni  Fadl  on  the  river. 

4  This  name  also  occurs  as  that  of  a  section  of  Habbania  and  of  a  brand  used 
by  the  Hamar  Gharaysfa. 

6  An  interesting  account  of  the  "Customs  of  the  Rubatab"  will  be  found  in 
No.  2  of  Sudan  Notes  and  Records  (1918)  from  the  pen  of  Mrs  J.  W.  Crowfoot. 
These  include  remarks  on  their  "General  Traits,"  their  "Cult  of  Holy  men"  and 
their  "Customs  and  Ceremonies"  (Marriage  Preliminaries,  Weddings,  Duties  of 
a  man  and  his  Parents-in-law,  Naming  of  the  child  and  shaving  of  the  head,  etc., 
Tribal  Marks,  Circumcision  and  Funerals).  The  account  given  was  supplied  by 
a  Rubatabi  sheikh,  but,  as  is  pointed  out,  it  would  apply  almost  equally  to  most 
of  the  tribes  on  Nile  banks  in  Khartoum,  Berber  or  Dongola  Provinces,  and  conse- 
quently to  many  other  districts  whither  these  have  emigrated. 

6  Lepsius  (Discoveries...,  p.  238)  speaks  of  them  ('"Auadieh")  as  "far  more 
considerable  than  the  Ababde."  For  their  subsections  see  sheet  3  of  genealogical 
tree  illustrating  MS.  "ABC." 

7  Their  camel-brand  is  a  well-known  one:  it  consists  of  a  " Kildda"  and  an 
"  'amud"  on  the  right  side  of  the  neck,  the  latter  being  above  and  at  right  angles 
to  the  former. 


in.  i.  xxm.  THE  GA'ALIiN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP       211 

Ga'aliin  proper  is  symbolized  in  the  "nisbas"  by  the  statement  that 
the  mother  of  Ghanim,  ancestor  of  the  latter,  was  a  daughter  of 
Rubat1. 

XXII  Now,  curiously  enough,  though  the  "nisbas"  do  not  link  the 
Rubatab  and  the  Manasi'r  as  closely  together  as  one  might  expect, 
the  latter  and  the  Dubab  appear  as  descended  from  brothers  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  all  of  the  Dubab  live  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of 
Gebel  Daier  in  southern  Kordofan  and  belong  to  the  same  Nuba 
type,  slightly  arabicized,  which  is  found  among  all  the  northern  hills 
of  Dar  Nuba. 

For  the  fact  that  the  Sakarang2  or  kings  of  Tekali  and  the  royal 
families  of  Darfur  and  Wadai3  are  credited  with  a  Ga'ali  ancestry 
rank  sycophancy  is  partly  responsible,  but  it  can  hardly  have  caused 
the  inclusion  as  Ga'aliin  of  the  Dubab  or  the  equally  negroid  Tomam 
and  Tumbab  who  are  neighbours  of  the  latter.  The  appearance  of 
these  in  the  "nisbas"  is  in  fact  additional  evidence  of  that  early 
movement  from  the  river  of  Nubian  Arabs,  of  the  type  generally 
included  under  the  vague  genealogical  term  "Ga'aliin,"  into  the 
parts  of  Kordofan  immediately  north  of  the  Nuba  hills,  and  the  fusion 
of  these  with  the  Nuba  and  others  which  has  produced  the  present 
day  tribes  of  Kordofan — Bedayria,  Gawama'a,  etc.,  and  accounts 
for  the  linguistic  similarities  between  the  Barabra  and  the  Nuba. 

XXIII  The  Mirafab  were  the  original  owners  of  Berber.  Burck- 
hardt  says  of  them4:  "A  free  born  Meyrefab  never  marries  a  slave, 
whether  Abyssinian  or  black,  but  always  an  Arab  girl  of  his  own  or 
some  neighbouring  tribe."..." They  are  careful  in  maintaining  the 
purity  of  their  race."  He  describes  them  as  a  tall  strong  people  of 
dark  red-brown  complexion,  with  oval  face,  straight  nose,  and  dis- 
tinctively Arab  rather  than  Negroid  in  appearance.  Of  their  charac- 
ters he  formed  the  lowest  opinion : 

Cheating,  thieving,  and  the  blackest  ingratitude,  are  found  in  almost 
every  man's  character.... In  the  pursuit  of  gain  they  know  no  bounds,  for- 
getting every  divine  and  human  law.... I  have  never  met  with  so  bad  a 
people,  excepting  perhaps  those  of  Suakin. 

None  the  less  they  were  "of  a  very  merry  facetious  temper,  con- 

1  See,  e.g.,  BA,  clvi.  Note,  too,  that  "A  8"  is  counted  a  "Ga'ali"  pedigree 
and  its  subject  a  Ga'ali,  though  the  occurrence  of  Rubat  among  his  ancestors  shews 
he  belongs  strictly  to  the  Rubatab.  A  similar  line  of  argument  applied  to  "As" 
denotes  that  the  Mekabda  are  commonly  counted  Ga'aliin. 

2  This  termination  -ang  is  common  in  Dongolawi  place-names. 

3  See  pp.  92  and  196,  and  cp.  genealogical  trees  of  the  "A"  group. 

4  Nubia,  pp.  210,  211,  216,  217,  221,  224,  230.  "The  people  Myrifab"  and 
the  "  Rabotab  "  (Rubatab),  'Aliab,  and  "  Macabrab  "  (Mukabirab)  are  all  mentioned, 
before  Burckhardt's  time,  on  Bruce's  map. 

14 — 2 


212       THE  GA'ALlfN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP  m.  1.  xxm. 

tinually  joking,  laughing,  and  singing."  They  were  "  partly  shepherds, 
and  partly  cultivators." 

They  had  a  "Mek  "  of  their  own,  nominated  by  the  Fung  of  Sennar, 
and  were  said  to  be  able  to  put  iooo  freemen  and  500  slaves  into  the 
field. 

Sir  C.  Wilson  reported  that  they  were  "sometimes  classed  as 
Ja'alin,  but  the  Ja'alin  repudiate  them... it  seems  a  question  whether 
they  are  not  of  Bija  origin1." 

(e)  THE  HAKIMAB 

XXIV  The  Hakimab,  who  are  commonly  grouped  in  the  "nisbas" 
with  the  Gawabra,  are  a  small  tribe  who  are  nevertheless  regarded 
as  much  more  distinctively  Ga'aliin,  in  the  limited  sense  of  the 
term,  than  the  Gawabra2. 

Their  hereditary  "meks"  ruled  Arko  Island  and  for  long  were 
the  paramount  princes  of  the  surrounding  country3. 

The  germ  from  which  the  Hakimab  are  sprung  was  probably  an 
immigrant  Arab  family  who  obtained  the  overlordship  of  the  older 
inhabitants  in  like  manner  as  did  the  Rab^'a  in  the  east  and  the 
Awlad  Kanz  round  Aswan4. 

(/)  THE  GAWABRA6 

XXV  The  Gawabra  are  the  most  northernly  riverain  tribe  in  the 
Sudan  to  whom  the  name  Arab  can  be  applied  with  any  real  legitimacy. 

Their  headquarters  are  at  Badin  Island,  near  the  frontier  between 
Dongola  Province  and  Mahass  district,  and  they  extend  from  the 
cataracts  of  Hannak  to  Tayti,  including  in  their  territories  the  islands 
of  Arko  and  Makassir6. 

Burckhardt  relates  that7  "after  the  promulgation  of  the  Moham- 
medan creed  " — presumably  the  allusion  is  to  the  thirteenth  or  four- 
teenth century — the  Gawabra  and  the  Gharbia,  a  branch  of  the 
Zen ata  Berbers,  took  possession  of  the  country  between  the  first  and 
second  cataracts  and  in  time  obtained  some  measure  of  ascendancy 
over  the  Kanuz  and  other  tribes  who  had  preceded  them. 

In  the  reign  of  Selim  I,  very  soon,  that  is,  after  the  foundation  in 
the  south  of  the  Fung  kingdom,  the  Gharbia,  having  fallen  out  with 
the  Gawabra  and  suffered  heavily,  sent  an  embassy  to  the  Sultan 
and  obtained  from  him  a  force  of  Bosnian  auxiliaries.  These  ejected 

1  Q.v.  p.  19.  A  small  section  still  lives  with  the  group  of  Bisharifn  who  inhabit 
Berber  Province. 

2  E.g.  the  MS.  A  1  is  counted  a  "Ga'ali"  pedigree  and  its  subject  a  Ga'ali: 
the  occurrence  of  H^kim  as  his  ancestor  shews  that  he  belongs  to  the  Hakimab. 

3  Nicholls,  p.  7.  4  See  pp.  149  and  150. 

5  Sing.  "  Gabri,"  i.e.  "descendant  of  Gabir." 

6  Nicholls,  p.  6.  7  Nubia,  pp.  133,  134. 


in.  i.  xxvi.  THE  GA'ALlfN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP        213 

the  Gawabra  from  northern  Nubia  into  what  is  now  Dongola  Pro- 
vince, "and  to  this  day  the  most  wealthy  inhabitants  of  Dongola 
derive  their  origin  from  the  tribe  of  Djowabere1."  "  Some  families 
of  the  Djowabere,"  however,  Burckhardt  adds,  "remained  peace- 
fully behind,  and  their  descendants  who  are  found  chiefly  at  Derr 
and  Wady  Haifa,  are  still  known  by  the  name  of  their  ancestors." 

At  the  present  day  Gawabra  may  be  found  in  all  the  larger  towns 
of  the  Sudan  engaged  in  trade.  There  is  also  a  colony  of  them  in 
Bara  district  (central  Kordofan)  who  for  many  generations  have 
cultivated  with  "sdkia"  and  "  shdduf"  the  rich  basin  of  Khor  el 
Bashiri. 

(g)  THE  SHAIKIA 

XXVI  The  traditional  relationship  of  the  Shaikia  to  the  Ga'aliin 
is  symbolized  by  the  statement  that  Shaik  was  the  brother  of  the 
Ghanim  from  whom  the  Ga'aliin  proper  are  all  descended2;  but 
unless  appearances  are  vastly  deceptive  there  has,  in  the  case  of  the 
Shaikia,  been  engrafted  upon  the  older  stock  common  to  themselves 
and  the  Ga'aliin  a  quite  distinct  foreign  element.  The  Shaiki  stands 
apart  from  every  other  tribe  in  the  Sudan  in  being  more  adventurous, 
more  quarrelsome,  and,  in  particular,  more  ready  to  take  service  as 
a  mercenary  fighter  under  any  employer3.  The  typical  Shaiki  is 
sallow  complexioned,  gaunt  and  alert,  a  hard  drinker,  fond  of  the 
dice,  and  a  born  liar.  In  appearance  he  is  often  hard  to  distinguish 
from  a  Turk  "  muwallad"  {i.e.  born  in  the  Sudan,  or  half-bred)4. 

Werne,  who  was  an  acute  observer,  and  describes  the  Shaikia 
well,  advances  a  bold  hypothesis.    The  following  are  his  words5 : 

One  can  at  first  glance  tell  a  Schaigie,  and  still  one  cannot  easily  tell 
how  they  are  so  completely  distinct  from  the  other  Arabs.  Their  faces  are 
good,  and  generally  marked  and  thin;  the  higher  among  them... are  dis- 
tinguished by  extremely  fine  features;  foreheads  rather  lofty;  eyes  lively 
and  sharp  cut;  nose  arched,  and  pointed  at  the  end  (in  this  they  are  prin- 
cipally distinguished  from  the  smaller-featured  Barabra);  lips  common; 
beard  thin;  colour  of  skin  brown,  or  brown-black;  slight  of  form,  but 
well  built,  and  therefore,  with  great  ease,  they  perform  all  kinds  of  bodily 
exercises.... All  are  very  fond  of  liquors.  Although,  from  their  face  and 
features,  they  seem  to  more  nearly  approach  the  Arabs  than  the  Nubians, 

1  Burckhardt,  loc.  cit.  2  See,  e.g.,  trees  to  MSS.  BA  and  An. 

3  Gordon  (quoted  by  Sir  C.  Wilson,  p.  15)  said  he  would  "back  them  to  try 
a  man's  patience  more  sorely  than  any  other  people  in  the  wide  world,  yea,  and 
in  the  universe." 

4  His  resemblance  to  the  Dongolawi  is  also  marked,  but  this  may  be  due  to  no 
more  than  the  Shaikia  occupation  of  Dongola  Province  to  which  reference  will  be 
made  later.  The  Shaikia  have  never  spoken  a  Nubian  dialect  ("rotana")  as  the 
Danagla  have.    Cp.  Schweinfurth,  11,  194,  on  this  point. 

5  Werne,  pp.  203,  204. 


214       THE  GA'ALlfN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP  in.  1.  xxvi. 

still  they  unanimously,  and  with  something  like  scorn,  assert  that  they  are 
no  Arabs,  and  have  no  descent  from  such  a  race1.  But  whence  they  come, 
or  to  what  race  they  are  allied,  as  they  themselves  equally  deny  a  Nubian 
descent,  their  small  kings,  who  have  their  pedigrees  at  their  fingers,  could 
not,  or  would  not,  tell  us,  much  as  we  tried  to  get  out  of  them  their 
genealogy.  They  firmly  maintain  that  they  have  been,  from  most  distant 
times,  the  children  of  the  soil,  and  have  ever  been  the  warriors  of  their 
race.  One  must  not  put  any  confidence,  as  other  travellers  have  done,  in 
what  they  have  learnt  from  their  priests,  who  are  said  to  assert  the  contrary ; 
though  we  have  not  heard  it  from  them,  for  most  of  these... are  of  Arab 
families.... Such  pious  fathers  also  fancy,  although  they  may  be  of  a  totally 
different  origin,  that  they  are  able,  by  means  of  Arabian  descent,  to  claim 
a  kind  of  relationship  with  the  Prophet.  Here  starts  up  the  interesting 
historical  question,  are  these  Schaigies,  who  perhaps  really  do  owe  their 
present  name  to  some  Arabian  saint,  a  part  of  the  emigrated  warrior  caste 
of  Egypt,  or  the  descendants  of  those  discontented  warriors  who  were 
hospitably  received  by  the  kings  of  Ethiopia  ?  Their  country,  their  prox- 
imity to  old  Meroe,  which  they  perhaps  protected  against  the  barbarous 
south,  and  their  own  warlike  spirit,  agree  with  this  tradition;  as  does  also 
the  fact,  that  amongst  them  has  never  existed  any  common  superior  chief, 
but  all  have  ever  lived  free  under  their  moluks ;  the  present  ruling  families 
are  perhaps  the  old  Egyptian  leader-race,  who,  holding  the  Ethiopian 
kings  as  their  only  lords,  became,  on  the  overthrow  of  that  kingdom,  inde- 
pendent princes,  as  the  Macedonian  generals  did  on  the  death  of  Alexander 
the  Great.  Their  hair  too  is  thinned,  or  kept  cut  short  to  the  head,  as 
cleanliness,  so  necessary  in  Egypt,  may  have  demanded ;  and  such  a  custom 
is  contrary  to  Arab  habits,  and  those  of  Nubia  and  Barabra  also,  although 
they  have,  in  common  with  those  races,  incisions  on  the  cheeks  as  marks 
of  caste;  among  the  Schaigies  these  are  horizontal2. 

1  The  same  is  not  true  of  the  present  day. 

2  The  facial  markings  (" shulukh")  of  the  Shaikia  at  once  connect  them  with 
and  dissociate  them  from  the  Ga'alifn.  The  term  " mushellakh  Ga'ali"  ("marked 
with  the  'shulukh'  of  the  Ga'alifn")  denotes  the  use  of  three  parallel  vertical 
slashes  on  both  cheeks.  "Mushellakh  Shdiki"  denotes  the  use  of  three  parallel 
horizontal  slashes  on  both  cheeks.  These  two  face-brands — (and  perhaps  the  H 
used  by  the  Sultan  of  Darfur  to  mark  his  slaves) — are  the  only  ones  which  are 
universally  known  throughout  the  Sudan,  though  both  the  Ga'ali  and  the  Shafki 
brands  are  not  entirely  confined  to  members  of  those  tribes. 

The  origin  of  this  custom  of  slashing  the  face  is  obscure.  Burton  (Pilgrimage..., 
II,  233,  234),  describing  the  people  of  Mecca,  says:  "  In  most  families  male  children, 
when  forty  days  old,  are  taken  to  the  Ka'abah,  prayed  over,  and  carried  home, 
where  the  barber  draws  with  a  razor  three  parallel  gashes  down  the  fleshy  portion 
of  each  cheek,  from  the  exterior  angles  of  the  eyes  almost  to  the  corners  of  the 
mouth.  These  Mashali,  as  they  are  called,  may  be  of  modern  date:  the  citizens 
declare  that  the  custom  was  unknown  to  their  ancestors.  I  am  tempted  to  assign 
to  it  a  high  antiquity,  and  cannot  but  attribute  a  pagan  origin  to  a  custom  still 
prevailing,  despite  all  the  interdictions  of  the  Olema." 

In  a  note  on  the  above  Burton  adds:  "The  act  is  called  'tashrit,'  or  gashing — 
The  citizens  told  me  that  the  custom  arose  from  the  necessity  of  preserving  children 
from  the  kidnapping  Persians,  and  that  it  is  preserved  as  a  mark  of  the  Holy  City. 
But  its  wide  diffusion  denotes  an  earlier  origin.  Mohammed  expressly  forbad  his 
followers  to  mark  the  skin  with  scars.    These  'beauty  marks'  are  common  to  the 


in.  l.  xxvii.   THE  GA'ALlfN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP       215 

The  custom  mentioned  by  Cailliaud1  might  also  be  cited  in  sup- 
port of  Werne's  theory.  Speaking  of  an  expedition  to  the  negro 
country  in  the  south  of  the  Gezira,  he  says : 

Les  Chaykyes  avaient  fait  un  mannequin  figurant  un  homme,  et  cense 
representer  un  des  leurs :  c'est  une  coutume  etablie  parmi  eux,  d'enterrer  un 
pareil  mannequin  au  lieu  ou  est  fixe  le  terme  de  leurs  grandes  expeditions. 

The  giant  statues  hewn  by  the  Pharaohs  to  mark  the  limits  of  their 
inruptions  are  obviously  the  prototypes  of  these  manikins. 

But  the  gap  is  too  broad  to  be  bridged  with  such  facility :  to  allow 
an  Egyptian  origin  for  the  Shaikia  is  an  attractive  suggestion,  with 
points  of  some  speciousness,  but  I  should  prefer  to  hazard  a  theory 
that  the  Shaikia  are  partly  descended  from  the  Bosnian,  Albanian 
and  Turkish  mercenaries  who  since  the  conquest  of  Selim  I  (1517  a.d.) 
have  done  garrison  duty  and  formed  settlements  in  Nubia  just  as 
Carian  mercenaries  did  in  the  days  of  Psammetichus  I,  and  to  say 
that  the  obvious  resemblance  of  type  between  them  and  the  Turkish 
irregulars  who  lorded  it  over  the  Sudan  till  1882  was  in  part  a  cause 
and  in  part  an  effect  of  the  intermarriage  that  took  place  between 
the  two2. 

XXVII  The  Shaikia  country  consists  of  the  rich  portion  of  the 
Nile  valley  which  lies  between  Gebel  Dayka  in  southern  Dongola 
and  the  upstream  end  of  the  fourth  cataract3.  Within  these  limits 
in  old  days  ruled  four  of  their  subordinate  "meks"  at  Merowi4, 
Hannak,  Kagebi  and  'Amri  respectively.  Until  the  latter  part  of  the 
seventeenth  century  they  were,  like  the  rest  of  the  Arabs,  subject  to 
the  'Abdullabi  " Mdngil"  of  Kerri,  but  about  1690  they  were  en- 
nations  in  the  regions  to  the  West  of  the  Red  Sea.  The  Barabarah  of  Upper  Egypt 
adorn  their  faces  with  scars  exactly  like  the  Meccans — "  Cp.  Wellsted,  i,  389. 

The  fact  that  the  Ga'aliin  and  the  people  of  Mekka  use  the  same  brand  is  of 
course  intimately  connected  with  the  claim  of  the  former  to  be  Beni  'Abbas,  and 
might  at  first  sight  seem  to  point  to  the  greater  antiquity  of  the  custom  in  Arabia 
than  in  the  Sudan ;  but  one  cannot  assume  that  the  ancient  custom  of  the  Mekkans 
had  not  an  African  origin  in  the  first  instance.  For  a  Nigerian  instance  see  Harvard 
Afr.  Studies,  1,  87.  Robertson  Smith  thinks  these  tribal  markings  may  originally 
have  been  totem  marks  (Kinship...,  pp.  214  ff.). 

Professor  Seligman  (Journ.  R.  A.  I.  xliii,  1913,  pp.  646-8)  thinks  it  "almost 
certain  that  the  custom"  [s.c.  in  the  Sudan]  "is  derived  from  immigrant  Arabs, 
and  is  not  an  ancient  widely  spread  Hamitic  custom."  Obviously,  however,  the 
custom  may  be  non-Hamitic  and  yet  not  derived  originally  from  Mekka.  For 
certain  modern  forms  of  cheek  marking  see  Crowfoot,  Customs  of  the  Rubdtdb, 
p.  131,  and  Jaussen,  p.  376. 

1  in,  38. 

2  Cp.  Sir  C.  Wilson  (p.  14).  "The  military  relationship  was  followed  by  a  more 
intimate  one,  for  the  Turks  took  Shagieh  wives,  and  the  sons  all  entered  the  Bashi 
Bazuk  force...":  and  again  "The  riverain  population"  [s.c.  of  Shafkia]  "...has 
sadly  deteriorated  through  close  intercourse  with  the  Turk  and  Albanian  Bashi 
Bazuks  in  the  Egyptian  service."  3  Cp.  Lepsius  (Discoveries...,  p.  259). 

*  Merowi  was  their  capital  in  Burckhardt's  day  (v.  Nubia,  p.  68). 


216       THE  GA'ALlfN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP  m.  i.  xxvu. 

couraged  by  the  dissensions  which  had  arisen  between  the  'Abdullab 
and  the  Fung,  and  the  mutiny  of  the  troops1,  to  make  a  bid  for  inde- 
pendence. Their  leader  in  the  revolt  was  'Othman  wad  Hammad2, 
and  the  decisive  action  was  fought  opposite  Dulga  Island. 

Henceforth  the  Shaikia  were  under  no  other  rule  than  that  of 
their  own  "mek";  but  their  access  to  power  merely  increased  their 
turbulence  and  afforded  wider  scope  for  their  predatory  habits. 

Poncet,  in  1699,  found  that  it  was  no  longer  safe  for  caravans  to  fol- 
low the  river  beyond  Korti  owing  to  the  brigandage  of  the  Shaikia,  and 
that  the  desert  route  across  the  Bayuda  had  perforce  to  be  followed3. 

During  the  eighteenth  century  the  Shaikia  extended  their  system 
of  terrorization  over  Dongola  province  and  the  districts  of  Mahass 
and  Sukkot4,  thereby  causing  many  of  the  older  inhabitants  to 
migrate  to  the  west5. 

They  seem  to  have  met  with  little  opposition  and  to  have  simply 
preyed  without  discrimination  upon  the  less  warlike  tribes  whose 
lands  were  sufficiently  rich  to  excite  their  cupidity. 

They  also  expanded  into  Kordofan,  for  in  1784-1785  we  find 
"un  nombre  assez  considerable  de  soldats  de  differents  pays,  tels  que 
Dongoliens,  Chaydjiens,  Kababych,  Arabes  Rezaygat,"  in  the  army 
with  which  Sultan  Hashim  attempted  to  invade  Darfur6. 

Burckhardt  describes  them  in  181 3  as  "a  perfectly  independent 
people"  having  "great  wealth  in  corn  and  cattle." 

They  are  renowned  for  their  hospitality ;  and  the  person  of  their  guest, 
or  companion,  is  sacred.... They  all  speak  Arabic  exclusively,  and  many  of 
them  write  or  read  it.  Their  learned  men  are  held  in  great  respect  by  them ; 
they  have  schools,  wherein  all  the  sciences  are  taught  which  form  the 
course  of  Mohammedan  study,  mathematics  and  astronomy  excepted7. 

At  the  same  time  Burckhardt  describes  their  career  of  conquest 
and  rapacity.    In  Dongola,  he  says8, 

The  Arabs  Sheygya,  since  they  have  been  in  possession  of  a  share  of 
the  revenue,  take  from  the  ground  irrigated  by  each  wheel9,  four  Mhourys10 
of  Dhourra,  two  or  three  sheep,  and  a  linen  gown  worth  two  dollars.  The 
native  kings  take  the  same. 

1  Q.v.  in  MSS.  D  3,  153,  and  D  7,  xlii. 

2  For  whom  and  various  details  see  D  3,  236  and  note  thereto. 

3  Poncet,  p.  15,  and  cp.  D  3,  236  note.  *  Burckhardt,  Nubia,  p.  43. 

5  Browne,  p.  241 :  "  For  many  years  their"  [the  merchants  of  Kobbe  in  Darfur] 
"native  countries  Dongola,  Mahass  and  all  the  borders  of  the  Nile  as  far  as  Sennaar 
...have  been  the  scene  of  devastation  and  bloodshed,  having  no  settled  government, 
but  being  continually  torn  by  internal  divisions,  and  harassed  by  the  inroads  of  the 
Shaikie  and  other  tribes  of  Arabs,  who  inhabit  the  region  between  the  river  and  the 
Red  Sea."  6  El  Tunisi,  Voy.  au  Darfour,  p.  67. 

7  Nubia,  p.  70.  8  Ibid.  p.  66.  9  I.e.  " sdkia." 

10  A  "  mhoury"  equals  about  8  bushels  (Burckhardt,  loc.  cit.). 


in.  i.  xxvii.  THE  GA'ALlfN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP       217 

Nor  were  their  relatives  the  Ga'alii'n  of  Shendi  in  any  way 
exempt  from  their  ravages : 

Before  the  arrival  of  the  Mamelouks  in  Dongola1  Mek  Nimr  had  been 
for  many  years  in  continual  warfare  with  the  Arabs  Sheygya,  who  had 
killed  several  of  his  relatives  in  battle,  and,  by  making  inroads  into  his 
dominions  with  large  parties  of  horsemen,  had  repeatedly  laid  waste  the 
whole  western  bank  of  the  river2. 

Even  the  'Abdullab  to  the  south  suffered  from  their  raids : 

Depuis  le  demembrement  du  royaume  de  Sennar,  dont  ils  etaient  jadis 
tributaires,  ils  s'adonnerent  avec  ardeur  au  metier  des  armes,  et  ne  tarderent 
point  a  devenir  redoutables  aux  provinces  qui  les  avoisinaient.  Dongolah, 
Barbar,  Alfaye  [el  Halfaya],  eurent  souvent  a  gemir  des  entrep rises  de  cette 
peuplade  audacieuse...3. 

And  by  1 82 1  the  population  of  el  Halfaya  had  fallen  in  consequence 
from  8000  or  9000  to  3000  or  40004. 

The  first  check  they  received  was  caused  by  the  flight  of  a  large 
body  of  Mamluks,  who  had  survived  the  massacres  of  Muhammad 
'AH,  from  Egypt  to  Nubia  in  181 1.  These  were  a  people  of  more 
virile  type  than  the  tribes  over  whom  the  Shaikia  had  so  long 
tyrannized,  and  they  began  to  apply  to  the  riverain  Shaikia  the 
methods  which  the  latter  were  wont  to  use  with  impunity  against 
others.  Beginning  at  Arko  Island  they  spread  themselves  over  the 
country  and  plundered  the  property  of  the  Shaikia  and  seized  the 
revenues5,  and  finally  established  themselves  in  Dongola  with  their 
capital  at  Meragha  and  their  southern  border  at  Khandak. 

The  Shaikia  were  not  inclined  to  accept  their  discomfiture  with 
tameness,  and  for  some  years  each  side  alternately  sent  expeditions 
against  the  other  with  varying  success.  A  state  of  hostility  still  existed 
between  the  two  parties  at  the  time  of  the  Turkish  conquest  of  the 
Sudan6.  The  most  powerful  "meks"  of  the  Shaikia7  at  the  time  of 
Isma'il  Pasha's  invasion  were  Sha'us  of  the  'Adlanab  section,  whose 
capital  was  Merowi,  and  Sibayr  of  the  Hannakab,  whose  capital  was 
Hannak8.  There  were  also  two  minor  "meks"  Medani  at  Kagebi 
and  Hammad  chief  of  the  'Amrab  ;  but  on  the  approach  of  the  Turks 
the  whole  tribe  united  under  Sha'us  and  Sibayr. 

1  In  181 1.         2  Burckhardt,  p.  278.  3  Cailliaud,  II,  68.  4  Ibid.  11,  194. 

5  Burckhardt,  Nubia,  p.  72.    Cp.  Cailliaud,  I,  403. 

6  Waddington  and  Hanbury,  p.  230.  7  Nicholls,  p.  30. 

8  Cailliaud  mentions  that  in  1821  the  Shaikia  chiefs  lived  in  "grandes  maisons 
fortifiees  et  crenelees,  de  forme  pyramidale,  en  general  bien  construites  en  pierres 
de  gres  jointoyees  avec  un  ciment  terreux,  et  susceptibles  de  soutenir  avec  avantage 
les  attaques  des  Arabes."  The  point  is  worth  noting  in  connection  with  the  theory 
of  Shaikia  origins  outlined  above.    (See  Cailliaud,  11,  38  and  40.) 


218       THE  GA'ALlfN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP  m.  i.  xxvn. 

The  Shaikia  now  atoned  for  many  past  misdeeds  by  the  heroic 
defence  they  made  of  their  country. 

They  had  lived  the  companions  of  their  horses,  with  the  lance  in  their 
hand:  they  were  to  resign  the  former  to  strangers,  and  exchange  the  latter 
for  harrows  and  pruning  knives;  and  were  to  drive  an  ox  round  a  sakie, 
instead  of  chasing  an  enemy  across  the  desert.  They  had  many  Nubians 
settled  in  the  country,  whom  they  obliged  to  all  the  labours  of  cultivating 
the  ground,  and  whom  they  treated  as  greatly  their  inferiors.  They  were 
now  called  upon  to  perform  these  labours,  which  they  had  been  brought 
up  to  consider  as  servile,  and  were  to  expect  no  better  treatment  than  that 
which  they  had  been  accustomed  to  exercise;  they  were  to  fall  at  once  to 
slavery,  not  from  liberty  merely,  but  from  tyranny;  and  again,  besides 
their  prejudices  against  white  men  generally,  they  had  particular  religious 
ones  against  the  Osmanlies,  to  whom,  in  common  with  the  Christians,  they 
applied  the  term  Dog1. 

However  they  were  completely  defeated  at  Korti  and  again  at 
Gebel  Dayka  and  they,  their  women,  and  their  children  were  sub- 
jected to  unheard-of  brutalities  at  the  hands  of  the  Turks2. 

Mek  Sibayr  submitted,  and  some  months  later  Sha'iis  followed 
suit.  But  warlike  and  restless  as  ever  the  Shaikia  were  not  content 
to  live  as  mere  "  Felldhin"  and  a  number  of  them,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Sha'iis,  enlisted  as  irregulars  in  the  Turkish  army  and  accom- 
panied it  on  its  campaign  against  the  Fung  in  the  Gezira3.  When 
Isma'il  Pasha  returned  in  1822  the  'Adlanab  were  granted  the  lands 
of  the  'Abdullab  who  had  revolted  round  Halfaya;  and  others 
— 'Adlanab,  Sow  Arab  and  Kadenkab— settled  on  either  side  of  the 
Shabluka. 

Throughout  the  Turkish  rigime  the  Shaikia  continued  to  be 
faithful  allies  of  the  Turks,  and  in  every  expedition  that  was  made 
against  recalcitrant  tribes  they,  with  the  Mogharba,  formed  the  bulk 
of  the  irregular  troops  employed.  They  were  similarly  used  for  tax 
collecting,  and  their  ruthless  methods  earned  them  an  unenviable 
notoriety4. 

Even  in  the  Dervish  days  they  remained  faithful  to  the  Turks5, 
but  the  identity  of  interests  and  similarity  of  methods  existing  be- 
tween the  two  and  the  hatred  which  the  Shaikia  had  earned  for 
themselves  made  any  other  course  difficult  for  them.  After  the  fall 
of  Khartoum  the  general  amnesty  to  natives  granted  by  the  Mahdi 
was  especially  framed  to  exclude  the  Shaikia;  and  Slatin  tells  the 

1  Waddington  and  Hanbury,  p.  99. 

2  Cailliaud,  II,  32  et  seq.,  and  Waddington  and  Hanbury,  loc.  cit. 

3  Cailliaud,  II,  182.  4  Cp.  Cuny,  p.  184. 

6  It  was  they,  for  instance,  who  relieved  Sennar  in  1882  when  it  was  attacked 
by  Abu  R6f . 


in.  i.  xxix.  THE  GA'ALlfN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP       219 


tale1  of  a  question  asked  in  Omdurman — "What  are  the  cheapest 
articles  and  the  greatest  drug  in  the  market?" — The  answer  was 
"The  yellow-skinned  Egyptian,  the  Shaikia  and  the  dog." 

XXVIII  At  the  present,  true  to  type,  many  of  them  are  to  be  found 
enlisted  in  camel-corps,  mounted  infantry,  or  police,  maintaining 
their  reputation  as  good  fighters  but  truculent  neighbours.  Many 
others  are  to  be  found  in  the  towns  engaged  in  trade.  As  a  tribe  they 
are  too  disintegrated  to  have  any  considerable  power,  but  they  own 
broad  lands  in  Dongola,  Berber  and  Khartoum  Provinces,  they  are 
still  numerous  throughout  the  Sudan,  and  are  influential,  whether 
for  good  or  evil,  by  virtue  of  their  superior  individuality. 

XXIX  The  subdivisions  of  the  Shaikia  are  as  follows2 : 


A.  Kadenkab 


Chiefly  in  Dongola 
and  Berber 
Provinces 


Chiefly  in 
Khartoum  Pro- 
vince 


1 .  Hannakab  (a)  Mahmudab 

(b)  Nasirab 

(c)  K.OTAB 

(d)  Sherayshab 

(e)  Hasanab 
(/)  Shellalil3 

2.  Salahab.   Chiefly  in  Dongola  and  Berber  Provinces 

3.  Assomab.    Chiefly  in  Khartoum  Province 

4.  'Adlanab4  (a)  Merawi 

(b)  Kagebi 

(c)  Awlad  Ali 

(d)  ManowwarabJ 

5.  HamdAb 

6.  tulbunab 

7.  GlJRUMAB 

8.  ZUMAMAB 

9.  KURUSAB 

10.  Marzukab  y 

11.  Shrenkab 

12.  Gherarab 

13.  'fsAYAB 

14.  Faragab5 

15.  Faragullab,  or  Karakira5, 

16.  Righaymab.    Chiefly  in  Dongola  and  Khartoum 
Provinces 

17.  Kodab.    Chiefly  in  Khartoum  Province 

1  Slatin,  Ch.  x. 

2  The  following  list  is  chiefly  compiled  from  Nicholls,  pp.  46-51. 

3  I.e.  "Men  of  the  Cataract"  (" Shelldl"  meaning  "Cataract").  A  section  of 
practically  the  same  name  occurs  among  the  Gawama'a  who  appear  to  contain 
several  families  of  Shaikia  origin. 

4  Burckhardt  mentions  the  'Adlanab  as  being  the  most  powerful  Shafkia  tribe 
in  181 3  (Nubia,  p.  69).  They  are  said  to  be  Kenuz  by  origin  (see  Appendix  to  ABC) 
and  also  to  be  connected  on  the  mother's  side  with  the  Fung  (see  D  5  (c)). 

8  Said  to  be  children  of  Kadenka  by  a  slave  woman. 


Chiefly  in  Dongola 
Province 


22o       THE  GA'ALII'N  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP  m.  1.  xxix. 


B.  Um  SAlim 


C.  Nafa'ab 


D.  Shellufab 


t  GHAsiNAB 

i       t^  >    \  Chiefly  in  Dongola  Province 

[2.  DayfullabJ  j  & 

f1- 

2. 


.  'Aliab 
[3.  Badiab 

HawAshAb/i.  Maganab 
(2.  'Akrabab 

J 1.  Hasanab 
[2.  DawanAb 

I. 

2. 

3- 
4- 


Ya'akubab1 

Badiab      "1 

Kalashim  v  Chiefly  in  Dongola  Province 

Gadab      J 

Ghasinab 
DayfullAb 

Muhammad  Ab' 

Chiefly  in  Dongola  Province 


F.  'Onia2 


G.  SowArAb3 


Chiefly  in  Dongola  Province 
Chiefly  in  Berber  Province 


/; 


I  Chiefly  in  Berber  Province  and  the 
Bayuda 


Kafunka 

zulaytab 

Zaragna 

Mishindil.   In  Dongola  and  Berber  Provinces  and 

the  Bayuda 
HamdullAb.    In  Dongola,  Berber  and  Khartoum 

Provinces 
Tamalayk.   In  Dongola  and  Berber  Provinces 

, .  I  In  Dongola  and  Khartoum  Provinces 

'Anaynab  J  & 

1.  'AlitAb.   In  Berber  and  Dongola  Provinces 

AbAdid5      "I 
,  2.  SAlhAb        .-  In  Dongola  and  Berber  Provinces 
[3.  Abu  NAb    I 

K.  'AmirAb.   In  Dongola  Province 


H.  MarisAb 
J.  KurayshAb 


6. 

7- 
18. 


il 


L.  Bay'CdAb 


M.  MarsAb 


(1.  Agibab 
1.2.  KotAtIa 
[3.  AmanAb 


In  Dongola  Province 


fi.  Hasanab    1  T    ^        ,    „ 

^         ,        \  In  Dongola  Province 
[2.  Rahmab     J  & 


1  A  famous  family  of  holy  men.  See  D  3,  254,  etc.  The  Beni  Fadl  and  Manasra 
of  Kordofan  claim  the  Ya'akubab  to  be  Beni  Fadl  by  origin  (see  note  on  p.  108). 

2  Some  of  these  are  nomadic  and  graze  their  sheep  in  the  Bayuda  desert  with 
the  Hasania.  It  is  no  doubt  a  branch  of  them  that  are  known  as  Awlad  'On  and 
now  form  a  section  of  the  Kababfsh  further  west.  Other  'Onia  are  nomadic  on 
the  east  bank.  For  the  legendary  feud  in  the  fifteenth  century  between  the  'Onfa 
and  the  Hasanab  see  D  5  (c). 

3  These  also  are  partly  nomadic,  and  a  number  of  them  have  gone  to  form  a 
section  of  the  Hawawir  in  Dongola  province. 

4  Some  'Afdab  are  probably  incorporated  in  the  'Awaida  section  of  Kababfsh: 
the  two  names  are  but  different  forms  of  the  same  word,  meaning  "descendants  of 
'Aid."  The  'Afdab  also  appear  as  a  section  of  the  Bedayria  of  Dongola  (see  note 
on  p.  199). 

6  A  plural  formed  from  Abu  Dud. 


in.  i.  xxx.  THE  GA'ALIiN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP         221 

Of  these  sub-tribes  the  Sowarab  and  the  Kadenkab  are  by  far 
the  most  numerous  and  powerful.  The  former  were  for  long  at  feud 
with  the  'Onia1. 

(h)   THE  GAWAMA'A,  THE  GIMA'A,  THE  GAMU'fA,  THE 
GIMI'AB  AND  THE  GEMA'AB 

XXX  No  less  than  five  of  the  subsidiary  groups  who  claim  to  be 
Ga'aliin  have  names  formed  from  the  root  £■*»-  (g-m-')  meaning  to 
gather  or  collect,  namely  the  Gawama'a  (sing.  Gama'i)2,  the  Gima'a, 
the  Gamu'ia,  the  Gimi'ab  and  the  Gema'ab  :  the  fact  is  expressive  of 
the  heterogeneity  of  their  component  parts  and  corroborative  of  the 
interpretation  put  upon  the  story  of  Ibrahim  Ga'al. 

The  GAMU'fA,  the  GlMI'AB  and  the  Gema'Ab.  The  connection 
between  these  three  tribes  is  represented  in  the  tradition  that  they 
are  descended  from  three  brothers,  and  from  the  "nisbas"  one 
would  suppose  that  their  eponymous  ancestors  lived  about  fifteen 
to  seventeen  generations  ago.  They  may  therefore  have  broken  away 
from  the  parent  stem  of  the  Ga'aliin  about  two  or  three  generations 
later3.  The  country  they  then  occupied  was  practically  that  which 
they  hold  at  present,  viz.  the  west  bank  of  the  White  Nile  for  some 
30  or  40  miles  south  of  Omdurman  and  as  far  north  as  Goz  Neffsa4 
near  the  Shabluka  Cataract,  and  certain  lands  south  of  Kerri  on  the 
east  bank  of  the  Nile. 

Of  these  three  tribes  the  Gamu'ia  have  always  been  much  the 
most  powerful,  and  it  is  not  uncommon  to  hear  their  name  used  to 
include  also  the  Gimi'ab  and  the  Gema'ab. 

The  Gema'ab  are  a  small  and  unimportant  group  living  north  of 

Omdurman.  They  are  divided  into 

Dowab 

Dushaynab 

Hakamab 

The  first  of  these  have  a  religious  reputation  as  having  produced 
numerous  "fekis"  and  built  several  small  mosques.  The  Dushaynab 
are  nomads. 

The  Gimi'ab  are  also  semi-nomadic.  Their  divisions  are  named 
respectively : 

[Shahinab  (including  Na'amab,  etc.) 

\  G6dab 

[Shibrab 

1  See  Nicholls. 

2  In  addition,  one  half  of  the  Gawama'a  are  called  Gima'fa  (see  later). 

3  See,  e.g.,  trees  to  A  2,  A  6,  A  10  and  AB. 

4  Here  they  border  on  the  Shafkia  to  the  north. 


222         THE  GA'ALIiN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP  in.  1.  xxx. 


To  the  Na'amab  belonged  Zubayr  Pasha  Rahma,  the  famous  slave- 
dealer  and  conqueror  of  the  Bahr  el  Ghazal  and  Darfur. 

In  the  Fung  period  the  whole  Gamu'ia-Gema'Ab-Gimi'Ab  group, 
as  well  as  the  ZenArkha,  who  are  of  quite  different  stock,  were  sub- 
ject to  the  "nahds"  of  the  " Mek"  of  the  Gamu'ia,  and  he  again  was 
nominally  responsible  for  the  tribute  to  the  'Abdullabi  "  Mdngil"  of 
el  Halfaya. 

The  Sururab  section,  however,  were  partially  detached  from  the 
rest  of  the  Gamu'ia  and  enjoyed  a  sufficient  measure  of  favouritism 
from  the  Fung  king  to  free  them  from  all  practical  control  by  the 
Gamu'ia  "Mek."  The  headquarters  of  the  latter  were  near  J.  el 
Hinayk,  south  of  Omdurman1. 

The  subdivisions  of  the  Gamu'ia  proper  are  as  follows: 

NAilab2 

Hirayzab 

NAsirab 

FitihAb3  /(a)  Takarir 

(b)  Awlad  IdrisJi.  Gamrab 
1  2.  BAtiAb 

(c)  HanAtira 

(d)  'Agaylab 

(e)  SayAyik 
(/)  Um  'AraykIb 


MukdAb 

Awlad  HAmid4 

NofalAb 

ShAikAb 

SandidAb5 

MansCrAb5 

KhashumAb 

RashAdAb 

MukwAb 

HAgAb 

'IsAwi'a6 


fNlFf'AB7 

Sa'adAb7 

MATABfR 

GhomArAb8 
HamaydAnia 
{  KarAgig 

IZERKAB 

ArafwAb 
DaniAb 
MuhammadAb 
Bega9 


1  Browne  in  1793  mentions  them  ("Gimmoye")  hereabouts  (p.  459). 

2  The  family  of  the  present  "Mek."    See  genealogical  tree  in  ABC. 

3  The  Fitihab  have  almost  ceased  to  be  reckoned  Gamu'ia  though  they  are  so 
strictly  speaking.  Their  chief  sheikh  still  calls  himself  a  "Mek." 

4  The  people  of  Aslang  Island. 

5  It  may  be  noted  that  these  appear  in  the  " nisbas"  as  Ga'aliin  and  merely 
cognate  to  the  Gamu'ia:  they  have  now  definitely  attached  themselves  to  the  latter 
tribe. 

6  Some  of  these  have  joined  the  Kababish  and  become  a  recognized  section  of 
that  tribe. 

'  There  are  sections  of  Ga'aliin  bearing  the  same  name. 

8  Possibly  connected  with  the  Berber  sub-tribe,  the  Ghomara. 

9  These  are  admittedly  not  true  Gamu'ia  but  emigrants  from  the  eastern  desert. 
They  are  a  very  small  community  living  south  of  Omdurman. 


in.  i.  xxxi.  THE  GA'ALIiN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP       223 

In  appearance  the  Gamu'ia  are  darker  and  more  negroid  than  the 
average  Sudanese  Arab.  They  themselves  attribute  the  fact  to  the 
enormous  number  of  slaves  they  owned  prior  to  the  Dervish  days 
and  the  miscegenation  that  resulted.  That  the  Gamu'ia  owned  many 
slaves  is  an  established  fact,  and  no  doubt,  as  they  allege,  much  of 
the  thieving  for  which  as  a  tribe  they  are  so  notorious  is  due  to  the 
slave  families  whom  they  include,  but  all  and  sundry  are  uniformly 
dark  and  semi-negroid  and  it  is  probable  that  the  fact  is  due  as  much 
to  ancient  inter-marriage  between  free  aboriginals  of  Nuba  stock  and 
Arab  immigrants  as  to  the  particular  cause  assigned. 

XXXI  The  GawAma'A.  The  history  of  the  Gawama'a,  in  so  far  as 
they  are  Arabs,  is  similar  to  that  of  the  Bedayria,  but  they  are  even 
less  homogeneous  than  the  latter,  and  the  fact  that  taken  as  a  whole 
they  are  darker  in  colour  and  more  debased1  in  manners  suggests 
that  the  original  Arab  nucleus  of  the  tribe  was  small,  and  that  in  con- 
sequence it  became  more  merged  in  the  negro.  There  is  no  tribe  of 
Gawama'a  in  Dongola,  but  since  the  Mek  of  the  Mahass  in  Burck- 
hardt's2  time  was  "of  the  family  of  Djama"  (%*{*.),  i.e.  "Gama'i," 
and  the  plural  of  "  Gama'i "  is  "  Gawama'a,"  and  the  chief  section  of 
Gawama'a  is  specifically  known  as  Awlad  Gama'i,  it  is  possible  that 
the  Gawama'a  are  related  to  the  Mahass3. 

The  negro  element  in  the  Gawama'a  would  appear  to  be  largely 
Darfurian.  We  have  seen  earlier  in  this  chapter  that  there  is  evidence 
that  one  of  the  Gawama'a  early  in  the  seventeenth  century  was 
responsible  for  the  foundation  of  the  royal  house  of  Wadai,  and  that 
a  colony  of  Gawama'a  has  been  settled  at  Turra  in  Gebel  Marra  from 
much  the  same  date.  As  to  the  numbers  of  them  in  Darfur  from  the 
seventeenth  century  until  the  nineteenth  there  is  no  information,  but 
at  the  time  of  the  Turkish  conquest  (1874)  they  were  one  of  the  chief 
tribes  between  el  Fasher  and  the  Kordofan  border,  and  at  the  present 
day,  though  few  remain  in  those  parts,  the  Gawama'a  are  repre- 
sented by  the  Darok,  a  soi-disant  Arab  tribe  of  Ga'ali  extraction,  who 
used  to  live  round  Kebkebia  in  the  west  and  have  lately  moved  to 
Showai  at  the  eastern  foot  of  Gebel  Marra,  and  by  the  Awlad 
Mana. 

Cuny  goes  so  far  as  to  say4  that  the  "  Djoama  se  disent  descendants 

1  Writing  as  I  am  of  Arabs  and  not  primarily  of  the  older  Sudanese  stocks  I 
use  the  phrase  "more  debased"  as  the  equivalent  of  "less  Arab." 

2  Nubia,  p.  64. 

3  Ibn  Khaldun  mentions  a  small  branch  of  Beni  Hilal,  named  Awlad  Gama'i 
who  were  for  a  time  "amirs'"  of  I<.abis  ("Gabes")  in  North  Africa,  but  there  is 
nothing  beyond  the  name  to  connect  them  with  the  Gawama'a  of  the  Sudan. 
(See  Ibn  Khaldun,  ed.  ar.  Vol.  6,  p.  166,  Bk.  in.) 

4  P-  177- 


224        THE  GA'ALlfN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP  in.  1.  xxxi. 

des  montagnes  du  Koudjara1,  et  issus  de  Mesaabaat2,"  and  though 
this  was  an  overstatement,  a  comparison  of  two  quotations,  from 
Prout  and  el  Tunisi  respectively,  illustrate  the  Darfur  connection  of 
the  Gawama'a. 
i.   Prout3. 

Among  the  Gowameh  (one  of  the  old  races)  is  found  a  still  more  singular 
practice.  With  them  no  girl  has  the  right  to  marry  until  she  shall  have 
presented  to  her  brother  a  child  as  his  bondman.  The  father  of  this  child 
she  chooses  when  and  where  she  will.... 

As  a  matter  of  fact  Prout  is  not  entirely  accurate :  the  child  used 
to  go  to  the  girl's  maternal  uncle  and  the  phrase  ly)U.  w*3U  ("she 
has  assisted  her  mother's  brother")  is  still  occasionally  used  as  a 
pleasant  euphemism. 

2.   El  Tunisi4. 

Plusieurs  filles  deviennent  ainsi  enceintes;  en  cela  il  n'y  a  ni  honte  ni 
deshonneur,  meme  s'il  y  a  en  inceste.  Les  enfants,  garcons  ou  filles,  nes 
de  ces  relations  sont  mis  sur  le  compte  d'un  oncle  maternel.  La  fille  qui 
en  provient  est  mariee  plus  tard  par  cet  oncle,  qui  profite  alors  du  douaire 
que  paye  l'epoux. 

The  connection  of  the  Gawama'a  with  Darfur  is  also  evidenced 
by  the  fact  that  in  Kordofan  and  Darfur  alike  many  of  them  are  be- 
lieved to  have  the  power  of  transmogrifying  themselves  into  beasts 
of  prey,  a  trait  most  commonly  ascribed  by  native  opinion  to  the  Fur 
tribes.  It  was  mentioned  in  an  earlier  chapter  that  in  Darfur  these 
Gawama'a — who  turn  themselves  into  hyaenas — are  known  as 
Awlad  Mana.  The  Darfur  strain,  too,  must  have  been  considerably 
reinforced  in  the  eighteenth  and  early  nineteenth  centuries  when  the 
Musaba'at  and  Kungara  in  turn  dominated  northern  and  central 
Kordofan5. 

During  the  earlier  years  of  their  residence  in  Kordofan  the 
Gawama'a  were  under  the  Ghodiat,  but  as  they  increased  in 
numbers  and  collected  more  and  more  scattered  units  into  their 

1  I.e.  the  Kungara  branch  of  the  Fur. 

2  I.e.  the  Musaba'at  section  of  Kungara.  3  Prout,  p.  34. 

4  Voy.  au  Ddrfour,  p.  213.  He  is  speaking  of  the  Fur  apparently,  but  he  does 
not  as  a  rule  differentiate  very  carefully  between  the  Fur  and  the  inhabitants  of 
Darfur.  It  is  therefore  possible  that  he  refers  to  Gawama'a  settled  in  Darfur.  It 
is  more  likely,  however,  that  the  Gawama'a  and  the  Fur  both  used  the  custom  and 
that  for  both  it  had  a  common  origin.  Cuny  speaks  of  the  custom,  in  rather  differ- 
ent terms,  as  existing  "  chez  la  plupart  des  peuplades  du  Kordofan."  The  use  of 
the  particular  phrase  "  'anat  Khalaha"  (wrongly  printed  on  p.  159,  " ariatkal-hum " 
for  "anat  Khalhum")  he  attaches,  like  Prout,  to  the  Gawama'a  ("  Djoama"),  but  it 
was  also  used  to  a  less  extent  among  the  Dar  Hamid.  (Cuny,  pp.  158,  159,  173,  174.) 

6  Cp.  Holroyd,  p.  176.  "The  inhabitants  of  Kordofan  belong  to  several  tribes. 
The  most  numerous,  called  Gunjarah"  [i.e.  Kungara],  "consists  of  adherents  of 
Sultan  Fadl;  the  second  is  called  Meserbat"  [i.e.  Musaba'at]. 


III.  i.  xxxii.   THE  GA'ALlfN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP       225 

confederacy  they  became  entirely  independent,  left  the  country  to 
the  south  and  west  to  the  Ghodiat  and  Bedayria  and  extended  their 
own  cultivation  and  grazing  areas  northwards  so  far  as  the  then 
nomadic  tribes  of  Dar  Hamid  and  the  like  would  allow  them.  West- 
wards they  pushed  into  Darfur  in  not  inconsiderable  numbers,  and 
the  Ga'afiria  section,  probably  at  a  later  date,  formed  the  settlement 
of  el  Sa'ata  in  the  intermediate  country  now  generally  known  as  Dar 
Hamar. 

The  Gawama'a  suffered  very  severely  in  the  Mahdia.  Slatin 
computes1  that  scarcely  a  sixth  remained  of  their  original  numbers  in 
Kordofan.  But  they  have  wonderfully  recuperated  and  the  develop- 
ment of  the  extensive  gum  forests  round  el  Taiara  has  made  them 
prosperous.  They  and  the  Hamar  are  now  the  two  largest  sedentary 
tribes  in  Kordofan. 

There  are  small  colonies  of  Gawama'a,  refugees  by  origin,  living 
in  the  Gezira  and  here  and  there  along  the  White  Nile,  even  as  far 
south  as  Fama. 
XXXII  The  following  are  the  subdivisions  of  the  tribe  in  Kordofan. 

I.  Homran 

A.  Awlad  Gama'i 

1.  Ashkar  12.  Ma'inab 

2.  'Awag  13.  Awlad  Nilayt 

3.  Bakhit  14.  Nakarmi'n 

4.  mulkab  15.  turkab 

5.  Keramsha  16.  Mashaikha2 

6.  Masikh  17.  Ferarin 

7.  DUSHASH  18.   SHIBRAWfN 

8.  Awlad  Sherayki  19.  Beluh 

9.  „     Abu  Sulayman  20.  Karko 

10.  „        ZlDAN  21.   HAGU 

11.  KHATRAB  22.   TUK 

B.  El  Terayfia3 

1.  Harrania  2.  Zarazir,  or  Awlad  ZarzOr4 

(a)  Awlad  Shaik  3.  Awlad  'Imayr 

(b)  Ketatil  4.        „      'Abd  el  Ahad 

(c)  Selimi'a  5.  Um  Gurta 

(d)  Timu  6.  Na'amanin 

(e)  Awlad  Zayd  7.  Awlad  'Abid 
(/)FERAGfA  8.  „       'Ali 
(g)  Awlad  Abu  Mukhayra        9.  SHELLALifN 

1  Chap.  xvi. 

2  These  Mashaikha  are  probably  an  offshoot  of  the  tribe  of  that  name,  for  whom 
see  D  3,  xiii,  etc.  (index). 

3  See  p.  201  above. 

4  Awlad  Akoi  (Dar  Ilamid)  by  origin. 

m.s.i.  15 


226      THE  GA'ALIf N  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP  in.  i.  xxxn. 


io.  'Udusa 

20. 

'Alayka 

(a)  Um  Barak  HERAYHfR 

21. 

MARAziK,  or  Awlad  Marzuk 

(b)            „        Hammadowin 

22. 

'OthmaniIn 

II.   HlADBA 

23- 

RahAhil 

(a)  AwlAd  'Alwan 

24. 

AwlAd  Kasim 

(b)    ShADwAn*A 

25- 

,,         MlKAYL 

(c)  Um  Tilayg 

26. 

„       Aruk 

(d)           „          Haydobi 

27. 

,,       'Afuna 

12.  Awlad  MAga 

28. 

„       Sherafia 

13.          „         SlHAYL 

29. 

„       Sherak 

14.   HlLAYGA 

3°- 

Tutu 

15.  'Arada 

31- 

„         GAMf 

16.   KlDIL 

32- 

NimrA^a 

17.  Um  Doda 

33- 

AwlAd  Nur 

18.  Um  Wadi'd 

34- 

Um  Adam 

19.  Awlad  Sirayr 

35- 

Awlad  Abu  Gin 

C.  El  SerayhAt 

1.  Dekashma 

21. 

AwlAd  Um  K6t 

2.  Awlad  Musa 

22. 

MERAKfB 

3.        „     Abu  Gindia 

23- 

Kadobsi 

4.        „     Abu  Sunnud 

24. 

Ba'Ashim1 

5.        ,,     Abu  Ghulman 

25- 

NAs  el  Ahmar 

6.  Kura'an 

26. 

GedadIn 

7.  AwlAd  Gimay'a 

27. 

GABRiNfN 

8.        „      GamA'a 

28. 

Ramadani 

9.  Baluliin 

29. 

AwlAd  HabIla 

10.  Habaysia 

3°- 

Um  IsmA^l 

11.  AwlAd  Farag 

31- 

AwlAd  Agub 

12.        ,,      Bakkari 

32. 

„       RufA'a 

13.        „     el  Hurr 

33- 

Um  KilmAn 

14.           „       EL  SHAYKH 

34- 

Awlad  Abu  Sin 

15.  KelAlIm 

35- 

„       Surur 

16.  AwlAd  LigAm 

36. 

„      'Alwan2 

17.  H amd An i a 

37- 

„       Abu  Howa 

18.  AwlAd  AwAli 

38. 

'ArId 

19.  ShiblAwiin 

39- 

Um  Tidim 

20.  BusAt 

D.  AwlAd  Murg3 

1.  Um  Kelayb 

4- 

Um  FAris 

2.  Um  BarakAt 

5- 

NugAra 

3.  Um  Dhiab 

1  Ba'ashfm  is  the  plural  of  Ba'ash6m,  a  jackal. 

2  The  same  name  occurs  among  the  Terayfia. 

3  The  Awlad  Murg  (and  the  Gamria)  were  once  subject  to  the  Serayhat  or  the 
Awldd  Gama'i.  They  live  north  of  Bara  on  the  confines  of  Dar  Hamid.  It  is  note- 
worthy that  of  the  five  subsections  four  are  named  after  animals,  etc.:  "Kelayb" 
is  a  puppy,  "Dhiab"  are  "wolves,"  "Fa>is"  is  a  mare:  "Nuga>a"  is  a  small  war- 
drum.  This  naming  of  subtribes  after  animals,  etc.,  is  no  doubt  of  totemistic  origin 


III.  l.  xxxii.   THE  GA'ALHJ 

N  AND 

DAiNAGLA  GROUP       22 

E.  El  Gamma 

i.  Awlad  Malik 

7- 

'Abd  el  Gibar 

2.   BlDAY 

8. 

Abu  HalIma 

3.  Awlad  Abu  TimAm 

9- 

Awlad  Suk 

4.  Ebay'a 

10. 

„      Mumin 

5.  Awlad  Hasan 

11. 

Kerafit 

6.  'Adlan 

F.  El  Ghanaymia1 

1.  Awlad  SAlih 

4- 

Meramra2 

2.           „        'ISA 

5- 

MAGIDfA3 

3.  Um  Shikil 

6. 

AwlAd  Hamayd 

G.  El  Fadayll*. 

I.    BA'iGAB 

8. 

TibrAwi4 

2.  Awlad  Turi 

9- 

BerAkit  (BerAghith  ?5) 

3.  FatahAwi4 

10. 

MagaylisAb 

4.  'AbdMa 

11. 

Halimab 

5.  Mahmudi4 

12. 

IZAYRIKAB 

6.  Tunuwi4 

x3- 

'AgAki4,  or  'AgAgik 

7.  Bedlawi4 

II. 

El  Gima'Ia 

A.  El  Ga'afiriA 

1.  Awlad  'Adi 

13- 

RidaysAb 

2.        ,,      Um  Rahman 

14. 

ZurkAb 

3.  Nalia 

J5- 

AwlAd  Rahuda 

4.  Botrania 

16. 

„      Merri'i 

5.  Hawamda 

i7- 

„      HAshim 

6.  Awlad  Kadim 

18. 

Danaksi 

7.  Awlad  Zuayd 

19. 

Haysinna 

8.  Gerarab 

20. 

KotAkit 

9.  Masikhab 

21. 

MuftAh 

10.  Shikayt 

22. 

BlSHR 

11.  Shibaylia 

23- 

AwlAd  HAshi 

12.    NUKARIA 

24. 

Hantushi4 

B.  El  GemAmla 

1.  Awlad  Matlut 

(d)  AwlAd  Muhammad 

(a)  Awlad  Rahayma 

(e)        „      TimsAh 

(b)        „      Musa 

(/)  Subayh 

(c)        „      Adam 

(g)  AwlAd  'Abd  el  HamId 

and  is  common  in  the  Sudan:  cp.  "Ba'ashfm"  among  the  Serayhat  on  p.  226. 
Among  the  "Nuba"  of  northern  Kordofan  we  find  subtribes  named  respectively 
after  cattle,  rats,  sheep,  wood  and  horses:  see  MacMichael,  Tribes...,  p.  97.  Cp., 
too,  the  case  of  certain  Fur  subtribes  (p.  94). 

1  These  have  been  in  turn  subject  to  the  Fadaylfa  and  the  Terayfia.  The  name 
denotes  "lambs." 

2  Cp.  Dar  Hdmid  subtribes.  3  See  later,  p.  231. 
4  These  are  singular,  not  plural  forms. 

B  Shrimps,  or  fleas  (?). 

15—2 


228      THE  GA'ALIiN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP  in.  1.  xxxn. 


2. 

AWLAD  EL  FEKI  EL  ATRASH 

5- 

Awlad  Abu  Sharr 

(a)  Awlad  'Abdulla 

6. 

„         BlSHARA 

(b)           „        EL  MuLUK 

7- 

„         EL  H6SH 

(c)  GakImia 

8. 

,,       Habud 

(d)  HelaywIn 

9- 

„       Gafun 

(e)  Awlad  ShAkhi 

IO. 

„       Rikab 

(/)  Adhuna 

ii. 

,,       'Afan 

3- 

'Abi 

12. 

DushaynAb 

4- 

Sha'alibi 

AWLAD  BlKA 

I. 

TuAYMAT 

3- 

'Anakar 

(a)  Fataha 

4- 

Awlad  Shayn 

(b)  Abu  Ashay' 

5- 

'Atur 

(c)    'AjiTULLA 

6. 

Um  Kudi 

(d)  Awlad  Manna 

7- 

Awlad  Masakh 

2. 

GhubayshAb 

8. 

Um  Shenab 

XXXIII  The  word  "Gawama'a"  being  merely  a  plural  formed 
from  Gama'i  it  seems  probable  that  the  first  mentioned  of  all  the 
above  sections  represents  the  true  nucleus  of  the  tribe.  Its  sheikh  is 
commonly  considered  the  theoretical  head  of  the  tribe,  the  holder  of 
the  "nahds." 

The  recurrence  of  uncommon  tribal  names  is  a  useful  guide  if 
used  with  discretion,  and  from  this  source  we  obtain  several  clues  as 
to  the  tribes  from  which  the  subsections  of  the  Gawama'a  were 
drawn. 

Among  the  Homran  we  note  Mashaikha  and  Beluh  :  the  latter 
are  possibly  connected  with  the  Belu  of  the  east,  the  former  are  akin 
to  the  Mesallam^ a.  Among  the  Terayfia,  who  as  a  whole  are  closely 
connected  with  the  Bedayria,  are  Awlad  ShAik  (i.e.  ShAikia  ( ?)), 
ShellAliin  (in  the  form  "ShellAlil"  a  section  of  ShAikia)  and 
MarAzik  (a  variant  of  "MarzukAb,"  also  a  section  of  ShAMa). 

Among  the  SerayhAt  are  Kura'An,  ShiblAwi^n  (who  are  pre- 
sumably connected  with  the  "Shibla"  of  the  "nisbas")  and  Ba'A- 
shim;  and  the  SerayhAt,  taken  as  a  whole,  are  properly  a  separate 
unit  in  the  Ga'aliin  congeries  and  closely  connected  with  the  Mira- 
fAb  and  ManAsir  on  the  river.  They  are  said  to  have  entered  Kordofan 
only  six  generations  ago. 

Among  the  Ghanaymia  we  find  MerAmra,  i.e.  DAr  HAmid,  and 
MAgidia. 

Among  the  Ga'afirIa  are  GerarAb,  perhaps  Beni  GerAr;  and 
among  the  GemAmla  are  DushaynAb,  of  whom  others  are  with  the 
Gema'Ab. 

The  TuaymAt,  it  is  said,  are  KawAhla. 


in.  i.  xxxv.  THE  GA'ALlf N  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP       229 

The  Ga'afiria  as  a  whole  are  no  doubt  connected  with  the 
Ga'afiria  of  Upper  Egypt  and  Dongola,  who  appear  in  the  "nisbas" 
as  Ga'afira  and  are  as  a  rule  said  to  be  descendants  of  Beni  Tai. 
Makrizi1  and  Ibn  Khaldiin2  mention  Beni  Ga'afir  (with  the  Awlad 
Kanz  north  of  Aswan)  who  were  Kuraysh  by  origin.  These  are  the 
"large  tribe  of  Djaafere"  referred  to  in  the  same  locality  by  Burck- 
hardt,  who  says  of  them : 

The  large  tribe  of  Djaafere  occupied  the  shores  of  the  Nile  from  Esne 
to  Assouan ;  a  few  families  of  Sherifs  settled  in  the  Batn  el  Hadjar  and  a 
branch  of  the  Koreish  possessed  themselves  of  Mahass.  For  several 
centuries  Nubia  was  occupied  by  these  Arabs,  who  were  at  continual  war 
with  each  other,  in  the  course  of  which  the  kings  of  Dongola  had  acquired 
so  much  influence  over  them  as  to  be  able  at  last  to  compel  them  to  pay 
tribute3. 

The  Ga'afiria  may  also  contain  elements  of  Beni  Hilal4. 

XXXIV  The  camel  brand  most  generally  used  by  such  of  the  Ga- 
wama'a in  Kordofan  as  own  camels  is  the  "ruaykib"  ("little  rider"). 
It  is  placed  on  the  right  cheek  and  assumes  in  the  case  of  the  various 

sections  one  or  other  of  the  forms  a,  b,  c,  d,e.    u    ,       11 

The  Serayhat  are  an  exception  and  use  the    1 1  U 

" shabul"  i.e.  A,  on  the  right  cheek,  a  fact   a      »        °         a      e 
which  bears  further  witness  to  their  connection  with  the  Manasi'r 
on  the  river5. 

XXXV  THE  Gima'A.  The  early  history  of  the  Gima'a,  their  separa- 
tion from  the  main  Ga'ali  stock  in  Nubia  and  their  movement  south- 
westwards  to  Kordofan,  is  much  the  same  as  that  of  the  Gawama'a. 
But  they  lack  the  Darfur  element  that  characterizes  the  Gawama'a, 
and,  having  settled  further  east  than  the  latter,  mixed  less  with  the 
autochthonous  population  of  the  northern  Nuba  mountains,  and 
during  their  subsequent  career  acquired  more  of  the  customs  and 
manners  typical  of  the  Bakkara,  such  as  their  dances  and  their  method 
of  dressing  the  hair.  Nor  did  they  become  completely  sedentary  in 
their  mode  of  life. 

Their  number  was  assessed  by  Prout  in  1876  at  about  25,00c)6. 

In  1885  their  sheikh  'Asakir  Abu  Kalam  was  ordered  by  the 
Khalifa  to  bring  them  all  to  Omdurman.  When  they  hesitated  he 
sent  Yiinis  wad  Dekaym  to  crush  them.   Yunis  confiscated  most  of 

1  Q.v.  ap.  Quatremere,  II,  204.  "Their  territory  commences  north  of  Man- 
falut  and  stretches  east  and  west  as  far  as  Samalout." 

2  Ed.  de  Slane,  pp.  9-1 1. 

3  Burckhardt,  Nubia,  pp.  133-134. 

4  See  p.  147.  5    See  p.  209. 

6  Report...,  p.  7.   Prout  classes  the  Gima'a  ("Menateh  el  Gimeh")  as  BakkaVa. 


230       THE  GA'ALlfN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP  m.  i.  xxxv. 


their  herds  and  broke  up  the  tribe.  Some  were  sent  to  Omdurman 
and  others  settled  in  Sennar  Province1. 

At  the  reoccupation  such  Gima'a  as  survived  returned  to  the  west 
bank  of  the  White  Nile  and  now,  in  spite  of  all,  they  are  probably 
as  numerous  as  they  were  before  the  Mahdia. 

Some  of  the  'AbbaysAb  branch  own  camels  and  have  attached 
themselves  to  the  Kawahla.  The  rest  are  cattle  and  sheep  owners. 

They  are  subdivided  as  follows2 : 

A.  Manata    (i.  Bol3  Muhammad 
„     Nasr 
Walad  Hammad 
Hasan 


B.  'Ashaysh 


'Abbaysab 


2.  Gahaka 


3- 

4- 

5- 
6. 


MesadAb 
DAr  Awab 
rowashda 

HULUF 


a)  Amumin 

b)  Um  FezAri 

c)  Brayshab 

d)  SaylAb 

e)  KambuiAb 
/)  Guda 

g)    UMGfA(GlR?) 

h)  Kenana 

a)  Meshamir 

b)  'AiAl  'Ukla 

c)  „       KtJKU 

d)  DeranAb 

e)  KANABiT 

/)  'AiAl  SArin 

g)      „     Adam 

h)  SiAgh 

j)  Um  Danud 

k)  'AiAl  Muhammad 


7.  TfNA 

The  most  powerful  and  numerous  of  these  sections  are  the  Bol 
Muhammad  and  the  Bol  Nasr,  and  it  is  said  the  former  is  nearly 
twice  the  size  of  the  latter. 

The  'Ashaysh  are  not  very  numerous  but  are  more  homogeneous. 

1  Slatin,  Chaps,  xi  and  xvi. 

2  The  spelling  of  these  names  may  not  in  all  cases  be  entirely  accurate :  they  were 
obtained  at  second  hand. 

3  The  word  "b6l"  (yj$j)  properly  means  "urine."    It  is  evidently  used  as  the 
equivalent  of  "seed." 


in.  i.  xxxvii.  THE  GA'ALlfN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP     231 

0)  THE  MAGIDfA  AND  KURTAN 

XXXVI  The  Magidia  or  Mai'dia1  are  an  almost  extinct  tribe,  and 
the  Kurtan,  so  far  as  I  know,  entirely  so.  The  former  are  said  to 
have  occupied  the  hills  near  Kagmar  in  Kordofan  about  the  close  of 
the  seventeenth  century2,  and  to  have  been  driven  thence  eastwards 
by  the  immigrating  Zaghawa. 

There  appear  also  to  be  remnants  of  them  among  the  Nuba  of 
Gebel  Abu  Tubr,  between  Kagmar  and  the  river3,  and  Cailliaud 
mentions  them  in  1821  on  the  west  bank  of  the  White  Nile  above 
Khartoum4. 

From  MS.  D  3  it  seems  there  was  also  one  small  colony  of  them 
at  least  on  the  Blue  Nile5. 

For  the  rest,  the  Magidia  only  seem  to  survive  as  a  branch  of  the 

GAWAMA'A-GHANAYMfA. 

(k)  THE  GA'ALlfN  PROPER 

XXXVII  We  now  come  to  the  Ga'aliin  proper,  the  people,  that  is, 
who  are  called  Ga'aliin  and  nothing  else  at  the  present. 

Their  riverain  " ddr"  is  between  the  mouth  of  the  Atbara  and  the 
Shabluka  cataract. 

An  examination  of  the  "nisbas"  shews  that  they  are  distinctly 
junior  members  of  the  great  Ga'ali  fraternity,  in  the  sense  that  all 
the  eponymous  ancestors  of  their  subsections  lived  within  the  last 
twelve  generations  or  less,  or  within,  say,  400  years  of  the  present 
day6.  Now  a  period  of  400  years  brings  us  back  approximately  to  the 
time  of  el  Samarkandi,  the  great  provider  of  genealogies,  i.e.  to  the 
date  of  the  great  Arab-FuNG  movement  which  resulted  in  the  forma- 
tion of  the  kingdom  of  Sennar. 

It  seems  that  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  certain 
chieftains  calling  themselves  pure  Arabs,  however  freely  their  fore- 
bears had  intermarried  with  the  Nubians,  were  settled  on  the  Nile 
with  their  families  north  of  the  Shabluka,  and  had  established  for 
themselves  a  position  of  authority  and  overlordship,  as  the  Rabi'a 
and  Guhayna  had  done  some  centuries  before  in  the  north-east,  and 
that  these  chieftains  were  named  'Arman  and  Abu  Khamsin7,  sons  of 

1  See  note  to  D  3,  60.  2  See  MacMichael,  Tribes...,  p.  109. 

8  Ibid.  p.  101.  4  Cailliaud,  III,  94.  5  See  MS.  D  3,  108,  200  and  204. 

6  A  1,  A  2,  A  6  and  A  10  make  Serrar,  the  "general  ancestor,"  live  eighteen  or 
nineteen  generations  ago.  Between  him  and  'Arman  intervene  five  generations 
(see  trees  to  BA  and  An);  i.e.  'Arman's  sons  and  grandsons,  who  are  the  eponymous 
ancestors  of  most  of  the  Ga'aliin  tribes  proper  lived  twelve  generations  ago,  or  less. 
See  in  particular  A  10,  the  pedigree  of  the  Grand  Mufti,  which  confirms  the  above. 

7  Or  perhaps  it  was  their  sons  or  grandsons  who  were  contemporaries  of  el 
Samarkandi.  It  is  useless  to  be  over-dogmatic,  but  a  comparison  of  the  "A"  MSS. 
suggests  that  the  generations  subsequent  to  'Arman  were  added  by  a  later  hand. 


232    THE  GA'ALIiN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP  in.  1.  xxxvu. 

Duab  ibn  Ghanim1.  El  Samarkandi  included  them  in  his  genea- 
logical treatise  as  descended  from  the  Beni  'Abbas,  and  not  only  their 
own  children — and  apparently  these  were  numerous — but  probably 
all  their  dependants  in  subsequent  ages  claimed  a  like  origin. 

XXXVIII  About  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century2  the  Ga'aliin 
proper  were  under  Sa'ad  ibn  Dabus,  the  eponymous  ancestor  of  the 
Sa'adab  section,  who  appears  in  the  "nisbass"  as  grandson  or  great- 
grandson  of  'Adlan  the  son  of  'Arman ;  and  it  is  from  this  period  that 
the  real  history  of  the  Ga'aliin  begins. 

Cailliaud4  gives  a  "chronology  of  the  princes  of  Shendi"  begin- 
ning with  "Sadab  Dabbous"  and  ending  with  Nimr,  the  Mek  who 
murdered  Isma'il  Pasha  in  1822,  but  if  any  reliance  is  to  be  placed 
on  the  "nisbas"— allowing  plentiful  inaccuracies  of  detail — this 
chronology  is  hopelessly  incorrect  in  its  earlier  stages.  For  instance, 
A  1 1  gives  the  relationships  as  follows : 

Ghanim 


1 1 

Diab  Duab 

;i  *  I 

Bishara  'Arman 

I 
'Adlan 

I 

'Abd  el  Ma'abud 

I 

'Abd  el  Salam 


El  Kanbalawi  Sa'ad  Idrfs 

I 
Sulayman  el  Adhab  ( ?) 


and  ABC  (tree  2)  as  follows: 

'Arman 

I 

'Adlan 

I 

'Abd  el  Ma'abud 


'Abd  el  Salam  el  Asfar  Sa'ad  Abu  Dabus 


El  Kanbalawi  Idris 

1  This  Duab  in  the  MSS.  has  a  brother  Didb.  The  name  Diab  ibn  Ghanim 
occurs  in  the  Abu  Zayd  cycle  of  romances  as  that  of  one  of  the  Beni  Hilal  notables 
(see  Burton,  Land  of  Midian,  n,  233,  and  Ibn  Khaldun,  ed.  ar.  Vol.  6,  pp.  14  and 
16);  but  there  is  no  evidence  that  this  is  more  than  a  mere  coincidence. 

2  I  arrive  at  this  date  by  accepting  as  roughly  correct  the  235  years  (i.e.  about 
228  solar  years)  said  by  Cailliaud  (m,  106)  to  have  elapsed  in  1821  since  the 
accession  of  Sa'ad  el  Dabus.  It  will  be  seen  that  this  computation  agrees  fairly 
closely  with  that  made  already  on  other  grounds  for  the  date  of  'Arman. 

3  See  trees  to  A  11  and  ABC  2.  4  Loc.  cit. 


in.  i.  xxxvm.   THE  GA'ALIIN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP    233 

But  Cailliaud's  list  is  as  follows1: 


20  ans 

7 
35 


10     „  JFut  tue  par  les 

\  Foungis  a  Sennar 
15     „  J  Tue  par  les  Arabes 
[  Dja'leyns 
I  Tue  par  les  Arabes 
Kaouahlehs  sur 
I'Atbarah 
12     „  jTua  son  frere  Fahl 
\  Mak 


Sadab  Dabbous 
Soleyman  el- Addar  ... 
Edrys,  fils  de  Soleyman 
Abd  el-Salam  .... 

El-Fahl  Mak,  fils  d'Abd  el-Salam 

Edrys  II,  fils  d'Abd  el-Salam,  frere  de  Mak 


Dyab,  son  frere 

Kanbalaouy,  fils  d'Abd  el-Salam 
Becharah,  fils  d'Abd  el-Salam 
Soleyman,  fils  de  Salem 
Saad,  frere  de  Soleyman 
Edrys  III,  fils  de  Fahl 


Saad  II  Mak,  fils  d'Edrys  ... 
Mecaad,  fils  de  Saad  Mak2  ... 
Mohammed  el-Mak 

Nimir  ou  Nemr,  fils  de  Mohammed 

Annees  de  regne  ...  235 

It  is  at  least  clear  that  from  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  till  the  end 
of  the  second  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  Sa'adab  were, 
nominally  at  least,  the  ruling  section,  and  that  among  them  the  chief- 
tainship was  latterly  held  by  the  Awlad  Nimr.  One  of  these  latter, 
Muhammad  wad  Nimr,  it  seems,  relying  on  aid  from  Sennar,  rebelled 
against  the  legitimate  line  of  sheikhs  as  represented  by  Musa'ad  ibn 
Sa'ad  and  was  betrayed ;  but  his  son  Nimr  succeeded  better  and  in 
1 80 1  seized  the  sheikhship,  established  himself  at  Shendi  and  rele- 
gated Musa'ad  to  an  inferior  position  as  sheikh  of  Metemma2. 

Both  the  Awlad  Nimr  and  the  other  Sa'adab  they  dispossessed 
probably  based  their  claims  on  their  connection  with  the  'Abdullab  ; 
for,  on  the  one  hand,  Nimr's  mother  was  an  'Abdullabia — and  his 

1  The  spelling  is  preserved  as  given:  see  Cailliaud,  ill,  106.  He  obtained  his 
information  from  a  certain  feki,  'Omar  el  Kassir,  verbally  (see  Cailliaud,  II,  318). 

2  See  note  to  D  7,  cxliv,  for  details.  Cailliaud  in  1821  speaks  of  Metemma  as 
"  Chef-lieu  de  la  province  d'el  Mecaa'd." 


3 

>> 

7 

>> 

15 

>> 

2 

20 

>> 

„   [Tue  par  les  Arabes 

•j    Kaouahlehs  sur 

[  I'Atbarah 

...         ...     40 

>> 

J3 

>> 

,,    (Tue  par  les  Foungis 

\  de  Sennar 

d           ...     17 

„    TDepossede   par  Is- 
-!    mayl  pacha,  en  mai 
[  1821 

234   THE  GA'ALlf N  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP  ill.  1.  xxxviil 

family  on  this  account  was  described  by  Burckhardt1  as  "  of  the  same 
tribe  as"  the  'Abdullab — and,  on  the  other,  we  know  from  Bruce 
that  in  his  day — before  the  revolt  of  Muhammad  wad  Nimr,  that  is — 
Shendi  was  ruled  by  a  woman,  the  sister  of  Wad  'Agib  (the  'Abdullabi 
"mangll"}  and  mother  of  Idris  wad  el  Fahl,  who  in  1772  was  the 
heir-apparent  to  the  sheikhship2. 

In  all  probability  the  Sa'adab  in  their  earlier  stages  were  under 
the  'Abdullab  suzerainty ;  and  that  the  rule  of  the  Sa'adab  may  have 
been  nominal  rather  than  effective  is  suggested  by  Burckhardt's 
remark3  concerning  some  villages  between  Darner  and  Shendi  in 
1814: 

They  are  inhabited  by  the  Arabs  Mekaberab,  who  were  formerly  tribu- 
tary to  the  chiefs  of  Shendy,  but  who  have  long  since  asserted  their  free- 
dom, and  now  live  partly  upon  the  produce  of  their  fields,  and  partly  by 
robbery ;  they  are  at  war  with  all  their  neighbours,  and  having  acquired  a 
reputation  for  superior  valour,  are  much  dreaded  by  them4. 

Later,  it  appears5,  the  Nirf  ab,  the  Nafa'ab  and  the  KarAkisa 
entertained  designs  of  seizing  the  headship  from  the  Awlad  Nimr, 
but  an  agreement  was  finally  reached  whereby  the  latter  and  the 
Nafa'ab  took  the  east  bank  and  the  remainder  obtained  the  west 
bank  of  the  river  and  called  themselves  the  Sa'adab  proper. 

In  Burckhardt's  day  the  Ga'aliin  were  still  a  nomadic  rather 
than  a  sedentary  tribe6.  They  had  cultivation  on  the  river  but  their 
subtribes  roamed  up  the  Atbara  and  over  the  Butana7. 

"The  true  Djaalein  Bedouins,"  says  the  traveller,  "who  come  from  the 
eastern  desert  are  much  fairer-skinned  than  the  inhabitants  of  the  banks 
of  the  Nile. ...I  was  much  struck  with  the  physiognomy  of  many  of  these 
Djaaleins,  who  had  exactly  the  countenance  and  expression  of  features  of 
the  Bedouins  of  eastern  Arabia8." 

XXXIX  At  present  the  Ga'aliin  are  very  widely  distributed  as 
small  traders  and  colonists  and  employees,  though  the  nucleus  of 
the  tribe  remain  cultivators  and  herdsmen  between  the  Shabluka  and 
the  Atbara9. 

They  suffered  enormous  losses  in  the  Dervish  days:  thousands 

1  Nubia,  p.  268. 

2  Note  the  matrilinear  system  still  in  force.  3  P.  272. 
4  He  hazards  that  perhaps  they  are  the  Megaberi  of  Strabo. 

6  See  A  11,  lxv.  6  Burckhardt,  p.  279. 

7  Burckhardt,  p.  265.  8  Burckhardt,  p.  296. 

9  Sheikh  Ibrahim  Muhammad  Ferah  of  the  wealthy  Niff'ab  section  calls  him- 
self "  Sheikh  of  all  the  Ga'aliin"  and  is  accepted  in  theory  by  a  certain  number  of 
the  tribe,  but  his  claim  is  only  based  on  events  dating  from  the  Dervish  days  and 
is  practically  negligible.  Such  of  the  Ga'aliin  as  are  not  settled  outside  their  own 
" ddr"  under  the  sheikhs  of  the  local  tribes,  or  as  independent  traders,  etc.,  are 
under  their  respective  sectional  'omdas. 


in.  l.  xl.   THE  GA'ALlfN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP  235 

fell,  in  particular  at  Toski  and  Tokar1,  and  whole  villages  of  them 
perished  of  hunger  in  the  terrible  famine  of  18892.  What  was  left  of 
their  power  as  a  tribal  unit  was  ended  in  1897,  when,  on  the  approach 
of  the  British  forces,  they  projected  a  rising  against  the  Dervishes. 
The  "amir"  Mahmud  learnt  of  their  intention,  attacked  and  sacked 
their  headquarters  at  Metemma  and  slew  over  2000  of  them3. 

In  so  far  as  the  Ga'aliin  remain  cultivators  and  herdsmen  in  their 
own  "ddr,"  and  have  not  taken  to  trade  in  the  towns,  they  preserve 
much  the  same  degree  of  tribal  organization  as  do  their  neighbours 
the  Batahin,  Shukria,  etc.  The  sections  (Nafa'ab,  'Aliab,  etc.)  which 
graze  their  herds  and  sow  their  crops  in  the  dry  watercourses  of  the 
ancient  Island  of  Meroe  are  each  independent  of  the  other  with  no 
single  head-sheikh.  The  families  who  cultivate  the  Nile  banks  live 
the  ordinary  life  of  the  sedentary  villager  and  send  such  flocks  as 
they  possess  eastwards  in  charge  of  their  semi-nomadic  kinsfolk. 

In  addition,  however,  to  these  Ga'aliin  and  the  town-dwelling 
community  there  are  numerous  isolated  colonies  of  Ga'aliin  settled 
at  intervals  along  the  Blue  and  White  Niles  as  far  south  as  Kedaref 
and  Kawa,  and  others,  though  fewer,  in  the  inland  provinces.  These 
are  all  sedentary,  and  unimportant. 

XL  To  sum  up,  one  may  say  that  the  word  Ga'aliin  is  used  in 
two  senses:  in  the  first  and  widest  sense  it  denotes  all  the  loosely 
connected  group  of  tribes  on  the  river  and  inland,  Danagla  and  others, 
who  claim  an  'Abbasid  descent:  in  the  second  it  is  limited  to  the 
riverain  people  whose  ancestor  was  Duab  ibn  Ghanim  and  whose 
chief  habitat  has  been  between  the  mouth  of  the  Atbara  and  the 
Shabluka  cataract  since  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  if 
not  for  longer. 

In  so  far  as  the  Ga'aliin  congeries  can  be  regarded  as  a  single 
whole  its  homogeneity  consists  in  the  common  Berberine  or  Nubian 
strain  that  exists  in  a  very  varying  proportion  in  all  its  component 
parts. 

There  is  also  a  strong  infusion  of  Arab  blood — more  particularly 
in  the  Ga'aliin  proper — but  the  error  into  which  the  native  genealo- 
gists have  wilfully  slipped  consists  in  ignoring  the  Nubian  element 
and  finding  the  common  race  factor  of  the  Ga'aliin  in  the  tribe  of 
Kuraysh.  The  facts  being  as  they  are,  it  is  impossible  to  specify  any 
particular  tribe  of  Arabia  as  being  that  to  which  the  Arab  element  in 
the  composition  of  the  Ga'aliin  group  can  be  attributed  in  any 
exclusive  sense. 

1  Slatin,  Ch.  xvi.  2  Slatin,  Ch.  XIII. 

3  Anglo-Egypt.  Sudan,  I,  45;  Budge,  II,  271. 


236  THE  GA'ALlfN  AND  DANAGLA  GROUP  111. 1.  xl. 

We  have  seen  that  numbers  of  Kuraysh  entered  the  Sudan  at 
various  times,  but  Kuraysh  were  only  one  tribe  among  scores  of 
others,  and  the  comprehensive  claim  of  the  Ga'aliin  to  belong  to 
one  special  branch  of  Kuraysh,  the  Beni  'Abbas,  would  be  difficult 
indeed  to  substantiate.  Being  themselves  in  some  doubt  as  to  the 
facts  of  the  matter  they  had  the  less  hesitation  in  making  a  bold 
throw  for  distinction. 


[237] 


CHAPTER  2 

The  Guhayna  Group 

I  The  second  great  Arab  group  in  the  Sudan  is  known  as  the 
Guhayna. 

As  in  the  case  of  the  Ga'aliin,  the  word  has  a  wider  and  a  narrower 
sense.  In  the  latter  it  applies  to  certain  nomads  the  bulk  of  whom 
inhabit  Sennar  Province  in  the  southern  Gezira.  In  the  former  sense 
the  term  "Guhayna"  is  used  of  all  the  vast  group,  Rufa'a1,  Kaba- 
BfsH,  Dar  Hamid  and  other  camel-owning  nomads  of  Kordofan,  as 
well  as  of  the  great  Bakkara  fraternity  of  Kordofan,  Darfur  and  the 
western  states,  all  of  whom  are  said  to  be  descended  from  "  Abdulla 
el  Guhani." 

The  parallelism  between  the  use  of  the  terms  Ga'ali  and  Guhani 
is,  however,  not  complete,  for,  whereas  any  native  is  only  too  glad  to 
imply  a  connection  with  the  Prophet  by  calling  himself  a  Ga'ali, 
there  is  not  an  equal  enthusiasm  for  Abdulla  el  Guhani. 

Thus  a  Bedayri,  for  instance,  if  asked  his  tribe  would  some- 
times say  "  Ga'ali,"  but  a  Rufa'i,  a  Kabbashi,  or  one  of  the  Bakkara 
would  never  think  of  saying  "Guhani."  He  would  only  say  he  be- 
longed to  the  Guhayna  if  he  were  asked  "granted  you  are  a  Rufa'i 
(Kabbashi,  Bakkari)  from  what  main  stock  is  your  tribe  sprung?" 

A  hypocritical  tendency  too  has  arisen  among  some  of  the  tribes, 
e.g.  the  Rufa'a,  to  assert  a  descent  from  one  of  the  sons  of  the  Imam 
Ali2,  and  to  speak  of  the  Guhayna  connection  as  confined  to  the 
mother's  side.  Again,  whereas  it  is  useless  to  try  and  determine  with 
what  particular  Arab  tribe  the  Ga'aliin  are  most  closely  connected, 
in  the  case  of  members  of  the  Guhayna  group  there  is  often  sufficient 
evidence  to  create  a  strong  presumption,  if  not  a  certainty. 

The  reason  for  this  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  Guhayna  represent 
the  nomad  Arab  immigrants  who  kept  their  tribal  system  unimpaired 
from  generation  to  generation,  whereas  the  Ga'aliin  absorbed  an 
older  and  more  sedentary,  and  therefore  more  heterogeneous,  popu- 
lation. 

But  a  curious  fact  comes  to  light.  The  historical  Abdulla  el 

1  The  Rufa'a  are  sometimes  called  "Guhayna  el  Shark"  ("Eastern  Guhayna") 
to  differentiate  them  from  the  nomads  west  of  the  Nile. 

2  The  Fadnfa  are  another  example. 


238  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  hi.  2. 1. 

Guhani  was  not  of  the  tribe  of  Guhayna  at  all1,  and  hence  one  is 
tempted  at  first  to  say  that  the  tribes  claiming  descent  from  him  are 
unlikely  to  be  Guhayna.  The  conclusion  would  be  false  however, 
for  the  claim  to  be  Guhayna  preceded  the  claim  to  be  the  children  of 
'Abdulla  el  Guhani  and  was  based  on  rather  surer  foundations.  The 
dragging  in  of  'Abdulla  el  Guhani  was  merely  the  ill-advised  expedient 
of  a  later  generation. 

II  Before  dealing  with  the  tribes  that  compose  the  Guhayna  group 
it  is  as  well  to  recall  several  facts :  that  the  true  Guhayna  of  Arabia 
have  occupied  the  neighbourhood  of  Yanbu'  for  at  least  1300  years; 
that  there  has  been  immigration  of  varying  volume  from  this  part  of 
the  Hegaz  at  every  period  known  to  history;  that  many  Guhayna 
took  part  in  the  invasion  of  Egypt ;  that  a  large  force  of  them  in  the 
ninth  century  invaded  the  Eastern  Desert  in  company  with  the 
Rabi'a;  that  by  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  they  were  said 
to  have  "conquered  the  countries  inhabited  by  the  Nubians"  and  to 
be  settled  between  Aswan,  Nubia  and  Abyssinia;  and  that  another 
large  body  of  them  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century  was  still 
in  Upper  Egypt2. 

There  is  therefore  no  reason  to  doubt  that  by  the  Fung  period 
there  was  a  very  large  number  of  Guhayna — "fifty-two  tribes"  say 
the  "fiisbas3" — on  the  Blue  Nile  near  Soba,  and  even  more  in  the 
west,  and  that  the  great  majority  of  the  tribes  which  claim  to  be  or 
are  alleged  to  be  descended  from  'Abdulla  el  Guhani  are  ultimately 
connected  with  the  Guhayna. 

The  following  are  the  chief  of  these  at  the  present  day4 : 

RufA'a  (including  Kawasma,  'Abdullab,  etc.) 

Lahawiin 

'Awamra,  Khawalda,  etc. 

ShukrIa 

DAr  Hamid  \ 

Zayadia 


Beni  Gerar 
Baza'a  [ 

Shenabla 
Ma'alia 


The"FEZARA" 


1  See  note  to  BA,  lviii,  for  full  details. 

2  See  Part  I,  Chaps.  2  and  3.  The  term  no  doubt  included  a  proportion  of 
neighbouring  tribesmen  who  were  joined  to  the  Guhayna  by  the  fortunes  of  war 
and  community  of  aims.  3  BA,  cxxiii. 

4  Many  other  "Guhayna"  tribes  of  less  importance  are  omitted.  They  can  be 
found  by  reference  to  the  trees  of,  e.g.,  BA.  One  or  two  tribes,  e.g.  the  Mogharba, 
are  included  because  they  appear  as  Guhayna  in  the  "nisbas"  and  seem  to  be 
related  to  the  rest  of  that  group  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they  do  not  call  themselves 
Guhayna. 


in.  2.  in.  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  239 

DWAYH 

Mesallami'a 

The  Bakkara  tribes 

Mahamid,  Mahria,  etc. 

Kababish  (certain  sections  only) 

mogharba 

Hamar 

The  Kababish,  the  Hamar,  the  Bakkara,  the  Mahamid  group 
and  the  "  Fezara"  group  of  the  above  are  all  in  Kordofan  or  west  of 
it;  the  remainder  are  nearly  all  in  the  Gezira  or  east  of  it. 

(a)  THE  RUFA'A  GROUP,  THE  GUHAYNA  PROPER,  THE 

lahAwiIn,  the  'ABDULLAB  and  the  inkerriAb 

III  The  RufA'A.  The  Rufa'a,  descendants  of  Rafa'i,  that  is, 
generally  appear  in  the  "nisbas"  among  the  Guhayna  group  and 
are  said  to  have  sojourned  among  the  Bega  and  in  Abyssinia  before 
moving  down  to  the  valley  of  the  Nile1.  This  tradition  is  corroborative 
of  the  statement  quoted  by  Quatremere2  that  in  680  a.h.  (1281  a.d.) 
a  battle  was  fought  between  the  Guhayna  and  the  Rufa'a  in  the 
desert  of  'Aidhab.  The  two  tribes  mentioned  have  been  close  neigh- 
bours for  many  generations,  not  only  in  Africa  but  also  in  Arabia: 
Burckhardt,  writing  in  1814,  says3: 

While  I  was  at  Shendy  an  Arabian  came  from  Souakin,  who  was  of  the 
tribe  of  Refaay  (15^^;),  which  is  related  to  the  great  tribe  of  Djeheyne 

(A.Uyefc.),  near  Yembo;  he  told  me  that  he  had  heard  that  there  were 
descendants  of  his  own  tribe  of  Refaay  settled  to  the  south  of  Sennaar, 
and  that  he  intended  to  visit  them... as  they  had  always  manifested  kind- 
ness to  their  relatives  in  the  Hedjaz,  especially  to  such  as  had  undertaken 
the  journey  for  the  purpose  of  saluting  them. 

The  Rufa'a  of  the  Sudan  themselves  now  claim  to  be  distinct 
from  the  Guhayna  in  origin,  though  admitting  that  much  inter- 
marriage has  been  taking  place  for  centuries,  and  perfunctorily  claim 
descent  from  a  line  of  Sayyids.  This  however  may  partly  be  due  to 
the  fact  that  the  'Arakiin,  many  of  whom  are  "  holy  men,"  claim  to  be 
Ashraf,  and  the  Rufa'a  are  placed  in  the  dilemma  of  having  either 
to  repudiate  the  claim  of  the  'Arakiin  to  be  Ashraf  or  deny  the  fact 
that  the  'Arakiin  are  a  branch  of  the  Rufa'a.  They  have  chosen  the 
obvious  course  of  saying  that  the  Rufa'a  are  all  Ashraf4.  The  fact  of 
the  matter  is  that  soi-disant  Ashraf  have  intermarried  with  them; 
but,  generally  speaking,  they  are  a  composite  tribe  containing  more 

1  See  A  2,  xxxv,  A  n,  lviii,  D  6,  xxxv. 

2  Vol.  ii,  p.  172,  quoting  MS.  Arab  672,  p.  421. 

3  Nubia,  p.  323.  4  See  later  sub  'Arakiin. 


240  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  in.  2.  in. 

of  the  Guhayna  element  than  any  other1.  When  I  asked  one  of 
their  chief  men,  'Agab  Abu  Gin,  whether  the  RufA'a  were  Guhayna 
or  Ashraf  his  reply  was  "It  is  said  we  are  Ashraf,  but  God  knows: 
if  we  are  not  Ashraf  we  are  certainly  Guhayna." 

Makrizi  calls  the  Rufa'a  a  branch  of  the  Beni  HilAl2,  and  it  will 
be  noticed  that  one  section  of  them  in  the  Sudan  is  called  the  HilAlia. 
It  is  possible  therefore  that  the  legend  of  Abu  Zayd  el  Hilali  crossing 
the  Blue  Nile  near  the  site  of  the  village  of  Rufa'a  is  connected  with 
the  southern  movement  of  the  Rufa'a  from  the  Eastern  Desert  to 
the  Blue  Nile. 

IV  In  the  Fung  days  the  Rufa'a  were  almost  entirely  nomadic  and 
their  headquarters  were  Sennar,  Arbagi,  and  el  Talha.  The  village  of 
Rufa'a,  after  which  a  district  is  now  named,  was  not  founded  until 
the  northern  half  of  the  tribe  had  begun  to  relinquish  the  purely 
pastoral  life. 

At  present  the  habitat  of  the  Rufa'a  is  along  the  Blue  Nile  from 
its  embouchure  to  south  of  Singa.  They  fall  into  two  main  groups. 
Of  these  the  northern  group  are  settled  in  villages  in  the  Blue  Nile 
Province:  here  in  a  single  village  one  sometimes  finds  a  medley  of 
Rufa'a,  Mahass,  Ga'aliin,  DanAgla  and  others:  in  other  villages 
the  whole  population  is  composed  of  a  single  section  of  Rufa'a. 
They  and  the  Mahass  are  generally  regarded  as  the  ancestral  tribal 
owners  of  the  riverain  land  in  the  northern  districts  of  the  Blue  Nile 
Province,  and  the  claim  of  the  Rufa'a  at  least  is  probably  well  founded, 
for  it  must  be  remembered  that  though  the  'AbdullAb,  whose  epony- 
mous ancestor  four  centuries  ago  helped  'Omara  Dunkas  to  found 
the  kingdom  of  Sennar,  have  since  that  time  been  an  entirely  inde- 
pendent tribe,  they  were  properly  Rufa'a  of  the  KawAsma  section, 
and  their  sphere  extended  from  north  of  the  junction  of  the  Niles 
southwards  to  Arbagi. 

V  The  southern  branch  of  the  Rufa'a  is  more  nomadic  than  seden- 
tary and  is  often  referred  to  by  other  tribes  simply  as  the  "  Guhayna  " 
or  "Guhayna  el  '(3l"  ("feckless  Guhayna")3.  These  are  divided  into 
Rufa'a  el  Shark  (Eastern  Rufa'a),  or  NAs  Abu  Gin,  and  Rufa'a 
el  Huoi  (Rufa'a  of  the  Gezira,  i.e.  Western  Rufa'a),  or  NAs  Abu  Rof. 
These  alternative  names,  "Abu  Gin's  folk"  and  "Abu  Rof's  folk," 
are  given  them  because  for  many  generations  they  have  been  ruled 

1  Sir  C.  Wilson  speaks  of  them  (loc.  cit.)  as  a  branch  of  Guhayna. 

2  Quatremere,  II,  201.  The  Beni  Sulaym,  who  accompanied  the  Beni  Hilal  in 
their  great  migration,  also  contained  a  section  called  Rufa'a  (Quatremere,  11,  214). 

3  The  proverb  says  "  Guhayna  el  'Ol,  el  'ashira  f6k  zol,"  i.e.  "feckless  Guhayna, 
ten  of  them  all  at  one  man."  They  are  supposed  to  be  particularly  excitable, 
irresponsible  and  hasty. 


III.  2.  vi.  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  241 

by  the  Abu  Gin  and  the  Abu  Rof  families  respectively1.  The  former 
are  a  family  of  Hammada,  the  latter  of  Beni  Hasan,  but  the  sections 
subject  to  them  have  always  been  drawn  from  a  medley  of  all  the 
Rufa'a  of  the  south,  not  even  all  the  Hammada  being  subject  to  Abu 
Gin  nor  all  the  Beni  Hasan  to  Abu  Rof.  In  fact  the  titles  "Rufa'a 
el  Shark"  and  "  Rufa'a  el  Huoi "  refer  to  an  administrative  and  not 
a  genealogical  division  of  the  southern  branch  of  the  tribe. 

Generally  speaking  the  Rufa'a  el  Shark  spend  the  rainy  season 
in  the  Butana  and  round  Kala'a  Arang,  while  the  Rufa'a  el  Huoi 
remain  in  the  west,  moving  northwards  to  Gebel  Moya  and  Manakil. 

Early  in  the  Dervish  revolt  these  southern  Rufa'a  or  "  Guhayna  " 
twice  attacked  Sennar  in  the  Mahdist  interest  and  suffered  great 
losses  at  the  hands  of  'Abd  el  Kadir  Pasha2. 

In  1887  the  Khalifa  ordered  the  "Abu  Rof"  of  the  day  to  bring 
his  whole  tribe  to  Omdurman.  On  his  refusal  a  strong  force  was  sent 
against  him  and  the  flower  of  the  "Guhayna"  were  slain  and  their 
herds  confiscated3. 

VI  As  in  the  south  it  is  impossible  to  draw  any  but  a  purely  ad- 
ministrative and  geographical  line  between  the  eastern  and  western 
groups  of  "Guhayna,"  so,  too,  one  would  find  it  very  difficult  to 
specify  any  real  difference  in  race  between  the  sedentary  Rufa'a  of 
the  north  and  the  semi-nomadic  "  Guhayna"  of  the  south.  The  same 
sections  are  common  to  both,  though  their  proportional  distribution 
of  course  varies.  It  will  be  simplest  to  give  a  list  of  the  chief  Rufa'a 
subtribes  in  order  and  to  specify  incidentally  where  each  has  its 
main  habitat.  It  may  be  noted  that  the  names  of  many  of  the  smaller 
sections  are  chiefly  familiar  as  being  applied  to  villages  on  the  Blue 
Nile  which  were  originally  built  by  Rufa'a  but  which  are  now  in 
part  occupied  by  later  immigrants. 

The  list  is  as  follows : 

A.  Kawasma 

1.  'Abdullab4 

2.    M  AH  AMID 

j  3.  Um  Arosa 
1 4.  'Itaybab 

I  5.    'AZAZAB 

V      etc. 

1  It  is  said  there  have  been  over  twenty  successive  Abu  Rofs  and  Abu  Gins, 
but  this  is  doubtful.  The  earliest  mention  of  either  occurs  in  Bruce,  who  about 
1772  speaks  of  "Wed  Abroff  and  all  the  Jeheina  Arabs."  Tremaux,  II,  29,  quoting 
Lejean  (1862)  says:  "Les  Abou-Rof  ont  rebattu...les  negres  Denka  compris  dans 
le  quadrilatere  de  Tangle  forme  par  le  Saubat  et  le  Nil  Blanc." 

2  Slatin,  Chaps,  iv  and  xi.  3  Ibid.  Ch.  XII. 
4  These  are  dealt  with  later,  separately. 

m.s.i.  16 


242  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  in.  2.  vi. 

Most  of  the  Kawasma  proper  are  now  west  of  Sennar  and  on  the 
Dinder1. 

B.  'Arakiin 

1.  Feragiin 

The  'Arakiin  now  claim  to  be  of  Sherifi  descent2  through  a  series  of 
holy  men,  biographies  of  whom  will  be  found  in  the  MS.  "D  3."  They 
cultivate  in  the  south  of  the  Blue  Nile  Province,  in  Sennar  and  in  el  Ma'atuk 
district,  and  a  halo  of  sanctity  still  surrounds  them.  Their  headquarters  are 
at  Abu  Haraz. 

The  small  subtribe  of  Feragiin  live  with  the  Gamu'Ia  south  of  Omdur- 
man.  In  Fung  days  they  were  under  the  "nahds"oi  Sheikh  Hammad 
el  Nil  el  'Araki,  and  they  consider  themselves  'ARAKiiN  on  both  sides. 

C.  'ISAYLAT 

1.  Widi'ab 

2.  SlNHAYRAB3 

3.  Hasanab 

4.  Ma'alia 

5.  Gabrab 

There  is  a  group  of  villages  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Blue  Nile  called 
'Isaylat.   By  many  the  'IsaylAt  are  held  to  be  a  section  of  the  Hammada. 

D.  N6lAb 

E.  Zenafla.  A  colony  of  these  is  said  to  have  lived  at  Kalkol  near 
el  Kamlin  before  the  coming  of  the  Mahass.  But  I  have  also  heard 
them  spoken  of  as  "  Ghuzz,"  i.e.  Mamluk  or  Bosnian  stock  and  not 
RufA'a  at  all. 

F.  HagAgAb 

G.  BeshAkira.  There  is  a  village  on  either  side  of  the  river  in  el  Kamlin 

district  called  after  them. 

H.  ShibaylAt 

J.  HalAwiin 

These  are  chiefly  in  Rufa'a  district  and  Sennar,  and  are  a  large  and 
turbulent  section,  much  feki-ridden.  In  a  list  of  Arab  tribes  in  Egypt, 
east  of  the  Nile,  Sir  G.  Wilkinson  includes  "Alloween,"  who  are  probably 
a  branch  of  the  same  people,  between  Egypt  and  Petraea  and  north  of 
Sinai.    (See  Modern  Egypt  and  Thebes,  II,  380.) 

K.  FerahAb 

L.  Ma'adi'd.    In  Rufa'a  district  and  Sennar. 

M.  Faradiin4 

N.   FaragAb.    A  few  live  in  Kawa  district  on  the  White  Nile. 

1  Several  others  of  the  Rufa'a  sections  given  below  are  often  also  included  as 
I£awasma :  in  fact,  half  the  tribe  is  popularly  so  considered :  the  reason  is  that  they 
were  for  long  under  the  'Abdullah  chieftainship. 

2  Cp.  MS.  C  9,  but  for  the  real  facts  see  D  i,  ci. 

3  Corrupted  into  "  Sirhaynab." 

4  Probably  connected  with  the  Ibrahim  ibn  'Abudi  el  Faradi  whose  biography 
is  numbered  135  in  D  3. 


in.  2.  vi.  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  243 

O.  TowAl,  or  TowALifN.  Chiefly  in  el  Ma'atuk  and  Kawa  districts. 
They  are  said  to  be  a  branch  of  the  Hammada. 

P.  ShabArka 

As  regards  this  section  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  ShabArka  also  occur 
in  the  northern  hills  of  Kordofan1,  where  they  are  called  Shaberko  and 
are  said  to  have  immigrated  from  the  Blue  Nile  in  ancient  days  and  to  have 
spread  even  further  westwards  into  Darfur.  They  are  also  said,  at  el  Haraza, 
to  be  connected  with  the  TowAl  section  of  KabAbish.  As  the  TowAl  also 
appear  in  the  list  of  RufA'a  tribes,  and  their  name  and  that  of  the  Sha- 
bArka were  given  me  one  after  the  other,  it  is  a  fair  presumption  that  some 
of  the  RufA'a  passed  into  Kordofan  and  mixed,  some  with  the  Nuba  of 
el  Haraza  and  some  with  the  nomads  north-west  of  them,  while  others 
reached  Darfur. 

That  there  were  also  cases  of  movement  in  the  opposite  direction  is 
evidenced  by  the  existence  of  two  villages  on  the  Nile  called  "el  Nuba," 
one  near  el  Kamlin  and  one  north  of  Khartoum,  both  of  which  are  said  to 
have  been  formed  by  colonies  from  el  Haraza.  In  the  case  of  the  former 
village  it  is  said  seven  Nuba  from  Kordofan  were  allotted  land  there  by 
the  Fung  and  their  daughters  were  married  by  Arabs. 

Q.  HilAlla 

R.  'Akaliin.  This  subtribe  was  all  but  wiped  out  by  the  famine  of 
1 889s,  but  it  has  recovered  and  large  numbers  now  live  round 
Sennar  and  in  Mesallamia  district,  with  scattered  villages  in  the 
Gezira  and  on  the  White  Nile. 

S.  Beni  HasAn3 

(1.  Wad  B alula 

I  2.  'AtAmla.   Abu  Rof's  own  family. 

1  3.  Wad  Abu  SirwAl 

{         etc. 
Their  habitat  is  south  of  el  Manakil  and  between  Singa  and  Rosayres. 

T.  Beni  Husayn3.  They  live  with  the  Beni  Hasan  and  west  of  them 
to  the  White  Nile. 

U.  Hammada3 

(1.  R\hAhla 
-  2.  Ghuzz 
[3.  Rib  ay 'At 
These  are  the  "Nas  Abu  Gin"  proper.    In  Fung  days  their  chief  had 
the  rank  of  "  Mdngil"  and  the  right  of  wearing  the  two-horned  "takia." 
In  1889  they  and  the  'Akaliin  suffered  equally4.  Their  habitat  is  on  the 
Rahad  and  the  Dinder.   The  capital  of  the  Abu  Gin  was  at  Deberki. 

V.   'UlAtiin3.    Semi-nomadic.  They  have  villages  in  the  east  and  the 

west  of  the  Gezira. 

W.  ZamAlta3 

1.  KamAti'r3 

1  See  MacMichael,  Tribes...,  p.  97.  2  Slatin,  Ch.  xm. 

3  These  sections  are  closely  connected.  Almost  all  are  in  Sennar  Province,  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Singa.  4  Slatin,  loc.  cit. 

16 — 2 


244  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  in.  2.  vi. 

The  Kamatir,  or  Awlad  Kamtur,  have  now  all  but  died  out  as  a 
result  of  constant  warfare  with  the  Fung  in  the  eighteenth  century.  Their 
chief,  who  was  usually  known  by  the  tribal  name  of  Kamtur,  had  the 
right  of  wearing  the  "takia1."  His  domains  stretched  from  Karkoj  to 
Rosayres. 

X.  RAzKf  a.  These,  like  the  'Arakiin,  claim  descent  from  AshrAf.  They 
are  the  only  section  of  RufA'a  (if  RufA'a  they  be)  who  live  north  of  the 
junction  of  the  Niles. 

VII  The  Guhayna  Proper.  Now  although  the  term  "  Guhayna  " 
is  applied  vaguely  by  other  tribes  to  all  the  Rufa'a,  and  more  especi- 
ally those  of  the  south,  the  Rufa'a  el  Shark  and  Rufa'a  el  Huoi, 
there  is  living  near  these  a  group  of  small  tribes  to  whom  the  term  is 
more  especially  applicable  and  to  whom  the  Rufa'a  themselves  apply 
the  term  Guhayna:  these  are  the  Ma'Ashira,  the  GenAna,  the 
RukAbin2,  the  Ga'afira  and  the  RowAshda.  They  are  largely 
nomadic  in  habit.  A  few  of  them  are  settled  in  villages,  but  most 
graze  with  the  Rufa'a  el  Shark  round  Kala'a  Arang,  el  Tdayd  and 
Suki.  They  are  not  numerous  and  they  are  now  subject  to  the  Shu- 
kriA  of  Kassala  Province. 

VIII  The  LahAwiin3.  These  are  related  to  the  Rufa'a  group  and 
are  practically  all  nomads.  One  portion  of  them  have  for  many 
generations  lived  on  the  east  bank  of  the  White  Nile  between  el  Kawa 
and  Gebelayn  and  inland4.  These  are  often  spoken  of  as  "Nas  Wad 
el  Labayh."  The  other  portion  is  more  given  to  camel-breeding, 
and  has  its  grazing-grounds  farther  east  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
el  Fasher  on  the  Atbara.  These  latter  were  for  several  generations 
attached  to  the  KabAbish  and  lived  in  northern  Kordofan  and  were 
known  as  the  Guhayna  section ;  but  they  quarrelled  with  the  "nazir  " 
of  the  KabAbish  in  19 10  and  moved  eastwards  over  the  Nile.  They 
are  now  under  the  Shukria.  Their  well-known  camel  brand  is  a 
"tubd'a"  on  the  left  side  of  the  nose  with  a  " kildda"  on  the  left 
side  of  the  neck5. 

1  Jackson,  p.  91  note.    For  Muhammad  Kamtur  see  MS.  "D7,"  passim. 

2  Cp.  Rikabfa. 

3  The  name  Lahawi  is  said  to  be  derived  from  the  "lahawia"  or  great  bag  in 
which  the  nomads  carry  grain,  gum,  etc.  The  root  is  the  same  as  that  of  "liha" 
(bark-fibre)  and  occurs  also  in  the  name  of  the  Luhaywat  Arabs  who  live  in  Sinai 
among  the  tribes  of  Tih.  These  Luhaywat  are  said  to  be  a  subdivision  of  the 
Mesa'fd  branch  of  the  Beni  'Atia  and  ancient  companions  of  the  Beni  'Ukba. 
(See  Na'um  Bey,  Hist.  Sinai...,  p.  117.)  There  is  also,  to  the  north-east,  a  section 
of  'Anaza  called  Lahawin  (Burckhardt,  Notes...,  1,  4  and  30). 

4  Cailliaud  (in,  94)  notes  them  on  the  west  bank  of  the  White  Nile  above 
Khartoum  in  1821.   He  calls  them  "  Ellahouyehs." 

6  "Lahawwy"  is  mentioned  by  Doughty  (Arabia  Des.  I,  125)  and  Zwemer 
(p.  279)  as  the  name  of  an  Arab  tribe  in  Arabia  at  the  present  time.  The  brand  of 
these  is  £Y. 


in.  2.  ix.  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  245 

IX  The  'AbdullAb.  The  'Abdullab  are  now  a  small  and  scattered 
family  living  round  Khartoum  North,  and  here  and  there  on  the  Blue 
Nile  below  Rufa'a,  with  a  little  riverain  cultivation  and  a  few  cattle, 
sheep  and  goats.  But,  poor  as  they  are,  they  take  a  legitimate  pride 
in  being  the  descendants  of  that  famous  'Abdulla  Gema'a  of  Kerri, 
an  Arab  of  the  Kawasma  branch  of  the  Rufa'a1,  who  helped  'Omara 
Dunkas,  the  first  Fung  king,  to  extirpate  the  Nuba  and  'Anag  from 
the  Gezira  and  found  the  kingdom  of  Sennar,  and  who  was  himself 
the  founder  of  a  line  of  hereditary  viceroys  with  their  headquarters 
near  the  junction  of  the  Niles.  For  several  generations  the  successors 
of  the  great  'Abdulla,  whose  sphere  extended  from  the  Shabluka 
cataract  to  Arbagi,  resided  at  Kerri,  but — it  is  not  known  exactly 
when2 — they  moved  their  capital  to  Halfayat  el  Muluk. 

The  official  title  that  they  bore  was  "  Mdngil"  or  "  Mdngilak" 
a  non-Arabic  term  applied  to  several  of  the  Fung  viceroys  in  dif- 
ferent parts3,  but  par  excellence  to  the  reigning  'Abdullabi. 

A  list  of  the  successive  'Abdullab  sheikhs  was  compiled  by 
Cailliaud  in  1821,  but  the  relationships  are  not  made  clear  and  there 
are  errors  of  detail:  certain  names  too  have  been  included  which 
probably  belonged  to  well-known  relatives  of  the  " Mdngils"  rather 
than  to  the  actual  holders  of  office. 

A  second  list  made  some  seventeen  years  ago  by  Na'um  Bey 
Shukayr,  and  quoted  by  Budge,  is  even  less  accurate.  A  comparison 
of  these  with  the  MSS.  "D  3 "  and  "D7"  and  a  pedigree4  lent  me 
by  a  direct  descendant  of  the  "Mdngils"  suggests  the  following 
genealogical  table  as  being  reasonably  correct.  It  is  not  complete 
and  it  may  contain  inaccuracies,  but  it  is  at  least  more  correct,  as  far 
as  it  goes,  than  the  older  lists  quoted.  A  common  source  of  confusion 
has  been  ignorance  of  the  fact  that  every  "Mdngil"  after  the  time  of 
'Agib  I,  the  son  of  'Abdulla,  was  known,  sometimes  by  his  own 
name,  but  more  commonly  by  that  of  "Wad  Agib." 

1  In  the  'Abdullabi  pedigree  three  generations  interpose  between  'Abdulla  and 
Rafa'i  (ancestor  of  the  Rufa'a). 

2  It  was  perhaps  between  1779  and  1790  as  Muhammad  el  Amin,  who  is  speci- 
fically alluded  to  in  D  7  as  "  Sheikh  of  Kerri,"  was  their  headman  during  that 
period. 

3  See  Appendix  to  this  section.  The  'Abdullab  appear  also  to  have  practised 
the  Fung  custom  of  slaying  their  king,  for  which  see  p.  50,  and  (Part  IV)  MS. 
D  5  (a). 

*  It  only  gives  a  single  line  of  names  from  son  to  father.  These  names  are 
marked  with  an  asterisk  in  the  following  tree.  The  figures  mark  the  order  of  suc- 
cession: the  letters  refer  to  the  footnotes  that  follow. 


246  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  in.  2.  ix. 

1.  *'Abdulla  Gema'a  (a)  (d.  1554-1562) 

2.  *Sheikh  Agfb  I,  "  el  Kafuta,"  or  "  el  Mangilak  "  (6) 

(d.  1604-1611) 

3.  *E1 'Agayl  (c) 

*'Agib 


?  El  Amin  Aradib  (d)      4.  * 'Abdul  la  II  (e)       Shammam  (/)  (d.  1747) 


(d.  1689-1715) 


El  'Agayl  (g) 


5.  *Mismar(£)       6.  'Agib  (h)  (d.  1779)        'Omar  (7) 
10.  'Abdulla  III  (/) 


7  and  9.  8.  Badi  (k)  (d.  1799) 

*Muhammad  el  Amfn  I  (i)      (ace.  1784) 
(d.  1790) 


11.  Nasir(m)  *'Agib 

(ace.  1799) 


12.  El  Amfn  II  (m) 


13.  *'Omar 


(a)  See  D  7,  v  and  xv.    Cailliaud  wrongly  calls  him  'Agib. 

(b)  „  D  7,  v  and  xx.    He  is  Cailliaud's  "  Mangalek  el  K6byr." 

(c)  ,,  D  7,  xx.  The  Hammad  el  Samfh  and  his  son  'Othman  mentioned  in 

Cailliaud's  list  and  in  D  3  seem  to  have  obtained  the  power 
after  this  man. 

(d)  „  D7,xlii. 

(e)  ,,  D  7,  LVin.    Cailliaud  (in,  96)  wrongly  calls  him  son  of  'Agayl. 
(/)      „  D  7,  lviii.  (g)   See  D  7,  lviii. 

(h)      „  D7,  lxxvi.  (t)      ,,    D7,  lxxvii  and  note,  and  cxii. 

(J)       „  Cailliaud,  loc.  cit.  (k)      ,,    D7,  lxxxix  and  xc. 

it)       „  D  7,  cxxxviii  and  exxvm. 

(m)     „  D  7,  cxl  and  clxxxvi. 

(n)      „  Cailliaud,  loc.  cit. 

(p)      „    D  3,  lviii.    He  only  ruled  two  months. 

Now  'Abdulla  Gema'a  and  his  successors  were  more  than  chiefs 
of  the  'Abdullab  :  they  were  set  in  authority  over  all  the  tribes  of 
Arabs  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  excepting  those  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Sennar  itself  where  the  " Mek"  maintained  some  12,000  Nuba 
"to  keep  the  Arab  in  subjection1" :  with  the  aid  of  these  the  " Mek" 
used  to  "levy  the  tax  upon  the  Arabs  as  they  went  down,  out  of  the 
limits  of  the  rains,  into  the  sandy  countries  below  Atbara  to  protect 
their  cattle  from  the  fly2." 

Bruce  describes  Wad  'Agib's  position  about  1770  as  follows3: 

This  prince  was  nevertheless  but  the  Shekh  of  all  the  Arabs,  to  whom 
they  paid  a  tribute  to  enable  him  to  maintain  his  dignity  and  a  sufficient 

1  Bruce,  Bk.  VII,  Ch.  7. 

2  Ibid.  Ch.  8.  Bruce  computed  that  this  system  used  to  cost  the  Arabs  yearly 
half  their  substance.  3  Ibid.  Ch.  9. 


in.  2.  x.  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP 


247 


strength  to  keep  up  order  and  inforce  his  decrees  in  public  matters.  As  for 
ceconomical  ones,  each  tribe  was  under  the  government  of  its  own  Shekh, 
old  men,  fathers  of  families  in  each  clan. 

The  residence  of  this  Arab  prince... was  at  Gerri,  a  town  in  the  very 
limit  of  the  tropical  rains,  immediately  upon  the  ferry  which  leads  across 
the  Nile  to  the  desert  of  Bahiouda,  and  the  road  to  Dongola  and  Egypt, 
joining  the  great  desert  of  Selima.  This  was  a  very  well  chosen  situation, 
it  being  a  toll-gate  as  it  were  to  catch  all  the  Arabs  that  had  flocks,  who, 
living  within  the  rains  in  the  country  which  was  all  of  fat  earth,  were 
every  year,  about  the  month  of  May,  obliged  by  the  fly  to  pass,  as  it  were 
in  review,  to  take  up  their  abode  in  the  sandy  desert  without  the  tropical 
rains. ...The  Arab  chief  with  a  large  army  of  light  unincumbered  horse 
stood  in  the  way  of  their  return  to  their  pastures  till  they  had  paid  the 
uttermost  farthing  of  tribute,  including  arrears  if  there  were  any.  Such 
was  the  state  and  government  of  the  whole  of  this  vast  country  from  the 
frontiers  of  Egypt  to  those  of  Abyssinia  at  the  beginning  of  the  16th 
century. 

Clearly  the  Arabs  had  no  enviable  lot.  Bruce  may  again  be 
quoted1: 

The  Arabs  who  fed  their  flocks  near  the  frontiers  of  the  two  countries, 
were  often  plundered  by  the  kings  of  Abyssinia  making  descents  into  the 
Atbara ;  but  this  was  never  reckoned  a  violation  of  peace  between  the  two 
sovereigns.  On  the  contrary  as  the  motive  of  the  Arabs  for  coming  south 
into  the  frontiers  of  Abyssinia  was  to  keep  themselves  independent  and 
out  of  the  reach  of  Senaar,  when  the  king  of  Abyssinia  fell  upon  them 
there  he  was  understood  to  do  that  monarch  service,  by  driving  them  down 
farther  within  his  reach. 

The  attitude  of  the  rulers  of  Abyssinia  and  Sennar  towards  the 
Arabs  was  in  fact  exactly  that  of  the  Mamluks  in  Egypt  in  the  Middle 
Ages  and  of  the  Sultans  of  Darfur  in  recent  times. 

By  the  time  of  the  Turkish  conquest  of  the  Sudan  the  'Abdullab 
had  been  independent  of  the  kingdom  of  Sennar  for  some  fifty  years, 
but  the  northern  districts  of  their  country  for  the  whole  of  that 
period  had  been  a  prey  to  the  marauding  Shaikia2.  In  name,  how- 
ever, they  still  ruled  the  country  as  far  south  as  the  junction  of  the 
Dinder  and  the  Blue  Nile3. 

X  The  InkerriAb.  Connected  by  race  with  the  'Abdullab  are  the 
InkerriAb  of  Berber  Province. 

A  MS.  in  the  possession  of  one  of  them  (but  not  included  in  the 
following  collection4)  gives  'Abdulla  Gema'a,  whom,  by  the  way  the 

1  Vol.  IV,  Bk.  iv,  p.  4.  2  Cailliaud,  n,  195. 

3  Ibid.  pp.  198  and  220.    "Lodaguib"  there  is  of  course  Wad  'Agfb. 

*  An  Arabic  copy  was  kindly  sent  me  by  Mr  F.  C.  C.  Balfour  of  the  Sudan  Civil 
Service.  The  author  of  the  MS.  says  "  I  copied  it  from  another  who  copied  it  from 
its  owner  Sheikh  'Omar  ibn  Muhammad,  who  brought  a  copy  from  Medina... from 
the  noble  Sayyids."    Probably  it  is  nearly  all  a  fake. 


248  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  in.  2.  x. 

author  prefers  to  call  a  "Sayyid,"  descended  on  his  father's  side 
from  the  Imam  'Ali1,  nine  sons,  namely  Dayuma,  Shenda2,  Idn's 
Inkayr,  Subba,  'Abuda,  Adrakog,  Shawar,  'Antar  and  'Agib  the 
Mangilak.  Of  these,  it  is  said,  'Agib  was  the  youngest  and  the  only 
son  of  his  mother,  a  daughter  of  Sherif  Hammad  Abu  Denana3.  The 
mother  of  the  others,  it  is  thought,  was  "  a  girl  given  to  him  ['Abdulla] 
by  the  king  of  the  Fung  at  the  time  of  the  advance  of  the  Arabs  to 
conquer  the  Sudan." 

From  Idn's  Inkayr  were  descended  the  Inkerriab4,  from  'Abuda 
the  Kan  gab,  from  Shawar  the  Dukalab,  and  from  Dayuma  the 
KalisAb,  the  'Araia,  the  Hamaydab,  the  ShawarAb,  the  Hammadab, 
the  Zurruk,  the  MatayrikAb,  and  the  Shendi  ab5.  From  'Agib, 
says  the  manuscript,  were  descended  the  Misamir,  the  'Agibab,  the 
Shemamim,  the  'Othamna,  the  Asidab,  the  'Araybab  and  the  Ham- 
madab, names  obviously  formed  from  those  of  famous  historical 
'Abdullab. 

Appendix  on  the  use  of  the  term  "Mangil" 

XI  The  term  is  said  to  be  of  Hamag  origin:  its  derivation  is  uncertain. 
The  rank  of  Mangil  carried  with  it  the  right  to  wear  the  "  takia"  which 
was  worn  also  by  the  Meks  of  Sennar  (see  D  7  ccxi  note).  This  "  takia" 
may  be  described  as  a  close-fitting  hat  with  two  stuffed  flaps  or  wings 
resembling  horns.  Werne  describes  it  (p.  159),  and  says  the  Mek  of 
Fazoghli,  the  Sheikh  of  the  Beni  'Amir,  the  Sheikh  of  the  'Abdullab,  and 
the  Mek  of  the  Ga'aliin  were  entitled  to  wear  it.  To  these  may  be  added 
the  Sheikh  of  the  Hammada  and  the  Sheikh  of  the  Kamatir  of  Khashm 
el  Bahr  district  (q.v.  above  sub  Rufa'a).  The  Ghodiat  of  Kordofan  say 
their  chief  in  olden  days  also  bore  the  title  and  are  corroborated  by  others. 
I  have  myself  seen  Mek  Zaybak  of  Rashad,  a  Nuba  hill  south  of  Tekali 
much  subject  in  the  eighteenth  century  to  Fung  influences,  wearing  a 
"takia."  Jackson  (p.  95)  thus  describes  the  investiture  of  an  'Abdullabi 
"  Mangil " ':  "The  newly  appointed  Sheikh  first  received  a  'Tagia,'  which 
consisted  of  two  horns  filled  with  cotton ;  this  he  put  upon  his  head  before 
taking  his  seat  on  the  throne  called  '  Kukur ' ;  he  was  then  addressed  with 
the  title  of  Mek,  and  saluted : '  may  your  reign  be  prosperous ! '  The  Sultan 
then  kissed  his  hand,  and,  after  wishing  him  success,  ordered  the  state 

1  The  author  allows  that  on  the  mother's  side  'Abdulla  was  a  Rufa'i,  and  pre- 
tends to  think  that  genealogists  have  been  led  astray  by  this  into  thinking  he  was 
a  Rufd'i  by  race. 

2  Hence,  according  to  the  author,  the  name  of  the  town  of  Shendi.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Fur  say  "Shendi,"  or  "  Sendi,"  is  a  Fur  word  meaning  the  womb 
and  that  it  was  so  named  in  Kungara  days  because  all  mankind  went  to  or  came 
from  it. 

3  Vide  Index  sub  "Abu  Denana." 

4  The  name  "  Inkerriab"  is  more  likely  to  be  derived  from  Kerri. 

5  All  these  are  small  families  scattered  over  the  Sudan.  The  first  five  sections 
mentioned  as  descended  from  Dayuma  were  by  a  Rufa'fa  mother,  the  next  by  a 
Fungawfa,  the  next  by  an  'Awadia  (i.e.  Ga'alia). 


III.  2.  xiii.  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  249 

drum  to  be  beaten  in  order  to  announce  that  the  king  had  been  crowned. 
...The  newly-crowned  king  then  returned  to  his  people  with  the  'tagia' 
and  '  kukur,'  for  which  reason  the  Abdelab  were  called  '  the  people  of  the 
"tagia"  and  "kukur."'" 

A  "Mdngil"  was  invested  not  only  with  a  "takia"  turban  but  with  a 
('emma),  a  sword,  a  robe  and,  perhaps,  a  "heikali,"  or  gold  chain  (see 
Jackson,  pp.  92  and  95);  and  it  is  impossible  not  to  connect  these  insignia 
with  those  of  "Jausar  who  wore  the  turban  and  the  two  horns  and  the 
golden  bracelet"  in  the  thirteenth  century  at  Bujaras,  the  capital  of  the 
district  which  lay  between  Aswan  and  Korosko  (see  p.  177). 

Deherain  (p.  59,  quoting  Junker,  Reisen,  1,  101  and  108)  says:  "Le  roi 
[s.c.  of  Sennar]  remet  a  celui  qu'il  agree  le  signe  du  commandement,  le 
Taquie  el  Qarne,  bonnet  de  velours  ou  de  soie  bariolee  orne  de  deux 
appendices  en  forme  de  cornes."  The  Fung  king  was  allowed  by  the  Turks 
after  the  conquest  to  retain  the  right  to  wear  the  "  takia." 

At  the  conquest  of  Darfur,  hats  of  the  same  description  were  found  in 
the  Sultan's  camp.  They  were  worn  on  gala  days  by  his  chief  bugler  and 
the  " Khashkhangia"  (blunderbuss-men)  of  the  royal  guard. 

The  title  of  "Mdngil"  always  carried  with  it  a  considerable  tract  of  land. 

(b)  THE  BENI  'OMRAN 

XII  The  Beni  'Omran  are  a  tribe  of  indeterminate  origin.  They 
claim  to  be  Ashraf  but  the  "nisbas"  class  them  as  Guhayna.  A 
few  of  them  are  scattered  in  the  central  Kordofan  villages  among 
the  Bedayria  and  others  live  in  eastern  Darfur,  more  especially  near 
the  Kordofan  frontier.  These  latter  divide  themselves  into : 

'Awlad  el  Mansur 

Shafalik 

Shellalin 

Awlad  Malik 

Beni  'Atif,  or  'Awatifa1  (near  Wada'a) 

Tergamia 

AiAl  Muhammad 
,,     Muhagir 
,,     Ibrahim 
^        „     Hasan 

and  state  they  came  from  Diraw  in  Upper  Egypt,  some  seven  genera- 
tions ago,  as  traders  and  "fukara."  In  type  they  resemble  the 
Bedayria.  They  may  be  connected  with  the  'Omran  noticed  by 
Burckhardt2  near  'Akaba. 

(c)  THE  AWAMRA,  THE  KHAWALDA,  THE  'AMARNA 
AND  THE  FADNlA 

XIII  The  first  three  of  these  tribes  are  unimportant  semi-sedentary 
folk,  each  with  some  score  of  villages  and  herds  of  sheep  and  goats 
in  the  Gezira. 

1  Cp.  '"Atayfat."  2  Notes...,  n,  9. 


250  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  m.  2.  xm. 

Many  of  the  Khawalda  are  in  the  south  with  the  rest  of  the 
members  of  the  LahawiIn-Kawasma  group,  and  others  are  further 
north  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Wad  Medani. 

The  'Awamra  are  in  the  northern  Gezira  and  have  a  few  settle- 
ments on  the  banks  of  the  Blue  and  White  Niles  above  Khartoum. 

The  'Amarna,  the  least  numerous  of  the  three,  have  villages  near 
Gebel  Moya. 

The  FadnIa  are  partly  nomadic  and  partly  sedentary.  The  nomadic 
branch  graze  in  the  valley  of  the  Hawad  and  all  over  the  northern 
part  of  the  Island  of  Meroe1.  Their  neighbours  are  the  Ga'alhn 
proper,  the  Kawahla  and  the  'Aliab2.  They  include  Halatwa, 
Ahaymerab,  Nafafi'a,  Helaywab  and  other  sections. 

The  sedentary  division  of  the  Fadnia  cultivate  on  the  river  banks 
in  Berber  Province  and  claim  to  be  Ashraf3. 


(d)  THE  SHUKRfA  AND  THE  DUBASllN 

XIV  THE  SHUKRfA.  From  the  generality  of  "nisbas"  it  would 
seem  that  the  ShukrIa  belong  properly  to  the  Guhayna  group, 
although  they  have  pretensions  to  be  Kuraysh4. 

It  is  impossible  to  say  at  what  period  their  ancestors  first  came  to 
the  territories  now  occupied  by  the  tribe  in  the  Blue  Nile  and  Kassala 
Provinces.  For  some  centuries  the  Shukria  were  of  no  particular 
importance,  though  we  hear  vague  rumours  of  fights  with  the  ancient 
inhabitants  of  Gebel  Kayli  for  the  possession  of  wells  there5,  and  acts 
of  defiance  to  the  Fung  and  Ham  AG  of  the  Gezira6. 

The  foundations  of  the  eminence  to  which  they  attained  in  the 

1  Close  to  the  ruins  of  Basa  is  the  tomb  of  the  "feki"  Bafadni,  a  well-known 
sanctuary.   (See  Crowfoot  in  Arch.  Surv.  Nubia,  xix,  p.  13,  and  cp.  D  6.) 

2  The  'Alf&b  include  sections  called  Yezid,  Idirga  and  Kimaylab. 

3  See  A  2,  A  11,  and  especially  D  6.    BA  classes  the  Fadnia  as  Guhayna. 

4  See  C  s  (a)  and  (b).  See  also  D  7,  xi  and  ABC,  xxvm,  and  notes  thereto, 
from  which  it  will  appear  that  there  may  be  a  connection  between  the  Shukrfa  and 
the  Arabian  tribe  of  Yashkur,  a  branch  of  Kays  'Aylan. 

5  In  these  traditions  the  Kayli  folk  are  spoken  of  as  'Anag. 

6  The  following  anecdote  was  told  me  by  a  Mesallami:  "  In  the  days  when  the 
Shukrfa  were  under  the  Hamag,  the  latter  in  their  haughtiness  bade  the  former  not 
to  foul  the  '  Butana '  by  leaving  their  she-camels'  afterbirths  ('  silla ')  in  it  but  to  take 
them  away  and  throw  them  into  the  river.  The  Shukrfa  had  perforce  to  obey,  but 
one  youth  dared  to  disobey  and  the  Hamag  king  Torunga  put  him  to  death.  A  year 
later,  on  the  anniversary,  Hammad,  the  brother  of  the  murdered  man,  appeared 
before  Torunga  in  armour  and  demanded  his  revenge.  Torunga  in  wrath  replied, 
'  Perform  the  marriage  ceremony  here  and  now  to  celebrate  my  marriage  with  this 
fellow's  wife' — he  reckoned  Hammad,  that  is,  as  good  as  dead  and  his  wife  taken 
as  loot.  The  ceremony  was  then  performed  (in  the  lady's  absence  of  course),  and 
Torunga  made  ready  to  slay  Hanimad ;  but  Hammad  slew  Torunga  with  one  blow, 
and  H31111113^^  six  companions  slew  the  whole  Hamag  army." 


in.  2.  xiv.  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  251 

nineteenth  century  were  laid  by  the  famous  Abu  Sin  family.  Its 
ancestor  was  Nail,  son  of  the  Sha'a  el  Din  wad  el  Tuaym,  whose 
tomb,  with  that  of  his  wife  Bayaki  bint  el  Mek1,  is  still  to  be  seen  at 
the  south-east  foot  of  Gebel  Kayli,  on  the  edge  of  the  Butana;  and 
from  Nail  and  his  brother  el  Niir  are  descended  most  of  the  Shukria 
sections  of  the  present  day. 

Nail  lived  nine  generations  ago,  that  is,  probably,  early  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  and  the  table  of  his  male  descendants,  or  such 
of  them  as  are  known,  is  as  follows : 

Nail 

I 

'Adlan 

Muhammad 
'   I 
Abu  'Ali 

'Ali 

'Awad  el  Kerim 

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I  II 2  q  I  I  I   S  a  I 

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Hammad 4     Muhammad    'Ali  el  Hadd    'Abdulla5     (four  other 

fill  sons) 

(three  sons)     (three  sons)     (four  sons)     (six  sons) 

1  His  sons,  as  shewn  above,  are  in  no  exact  order. 

2  See  D7  cxcili. 

3  The  name  denotes  a  hard  rider.  "Hardellu"  used  to  guide  the  tribe  when 
changing  their  pasture,  riding  fabulous  distances  to  find  out  where  was  the  best 
grazing  and  where  the  rain-water  lay  most  plentifully. 

4  Head  of  the  Shukria  of  Kassala. 

6  Head  of  the  Shukria  in  the  Blue  Nile  Province. 

The  earliest  of  these  about  whom  we  have  any  information  is 
Abu  'Ali,  who  about  1779  was  killed  in  a  revolt  of  the  Shukria 
against  the  Fung2. 

1  According  to  some  accounts  the  "Melt"  was  a  Mek  of  Sennar,  i.e.  it  was  a 
Fung  princess  whom  Sha'a  el  Din  wedded  and  brought  to  Gebel  Kayli.  According 
to  another  and  much  more  likely  account  she  was  a  daughter  of  the  (pagan  ?) 
Mek  of  Kayli.  She  is  said  to  have  lived  on  the  top  of  the  hill  and  her  people  at  the 
foot  of  it.  The  graves  mentioned  consist  of  an  inner  and  an  outer  ring  of  stones, 
the  former  being  about  the  size  of  the  corpse  and  the  outer  being  made  merely  to 
prevent  the  floods  washing  away  the  inner. 

2  See  D7,  lxxv. 


252  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  in.  2.  xiv. 

His  son  'Awad  el  Keri'm  Abu  Sin  succeeded  him  and  must  have 
been  the  chief  of  the  tribe  at  the  time  when  they,  in  alliance  with 
the  'Abdullab,  sacked  Arbagi  in  17841.  He  was  killed  in  the  war  of 
1802  against  the  Batahin2. 

But  the  greatest  of  all  the  Shukria  sheikhs  was  the  "grand  old 
Arab  patriarch"  Ahmad  Bey  ibn  'Awad  el  Kerim  of  whom  Sir  Samuel 
Baker  has  left  so  vivid  a  portrait3.  During  the  early  years  of  his 
sheikhship  the  tribe  was  at  mortal  feud  both  with  the  Batahin  and 
with  the  Ga'aliin  and  Ahamda  east  and  south  of  Shendi4,  and,  like 
the  rest  of  the  nomads,  at  daggers  drawn  with  the  Fung  government5. 

But  when  the  Turks  conquered  the  Sudan  they  found  it  necessary 
to  obtain  the  support  of  the  influential  sheikhs,  and  Ahmad  Bey 
became  one  of  their  most  trusted  allies.  In  return,  wide  privileges 
were  granted,  and  during  the  latter  part  of  the  Turkish  regime  the 
Shukria  were  lords  of  the  Butana  and  held  a  general  overlordship 
over  all  the  nomads  of  the  Blue  Nile,  the  Gezira  and  the  Atbara, 
and  tithes  were  paid  to  the  Abu  Sin  family6  on  the  crops  of  nearly 
every  wddi  in  the  ancient  Island  of  Meroe. 

The  Shukria  attempted  to  keep  aloof  from  the  Mahdi7  in  the 
early  Dervish  days  and  their  power  diminished  in  consequence.  Then 
came  the  famine  of  1889  and  almost  annihilated  the  tribe8.  Now, 
though  they  are  again  a  large  and  wealthy  camel-owning  tribe  they  can 
no  longer  claim  any  position  of  pre-eminence. 

Part  of  them  are  now  in  Kassala  province9,  and  the  majority  are 
between  the  Blue  Nile  and  the  Atbara.  The  head  of  the  Abu  Sin 
family,  'Abdulla  ibn  'Awad  el  Kerim,  still  resides  at  Rufa'a  and  enjoys 
the  esteem  and  respect  of  all,  as  did  his  grandfather  Ahmad  Bey,  but 
his  ancient  authority  is  a  thing  of  the  past.  His  brother  Hammad 
rules  the  Shukria  of  Kassala. 

The  main  subdivisions  of  the  Shukria  are  as  follows : 

NailAb.  Descendants  of  Nail  wad  Sha'a  el  Din.  They  include  the  Abu 

Sin  family. 
NurAb.   Descended  from  el  Nur,  brother  of  Sha'a  el  Din.    Most  of 

them  are  in  Kassala  Province,  but  there  is  a  branch  near 

Abu  Delayk. 

1  See  D  7,  xc.  2  See  D  7,  cli. 

3  See  note  to  D  7,  ccxc,  and  Baker,  pp.  75  and  in. 

4  Burckhardt,  p.  346,  and  Cailliaud,  in,  108. 

5  Ibid.  pp.  316  and  400. 

6  Cp.  Baker,  p.  75.  The  head  of  the  family  held  the  title  "Sheikh  el  Mashdlkh." 
Mansfield  Parkyns  (11,  405)  adds,  however,  that  the  same  title  was  held  by  the  chiefs 
of  the  Abu  Gin  and  the  Abu  Rof  families. 

7  Cp.  Sir  C.  Wilson,  loc.  cit. 

8  Slatin,  Ch.  xin. 

9  In  Turkish  days  rCedaref  used  to  be  known  as  "  Suk  Abu  Sin." 


in.  2.  xv.  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  253 

GalAheb.  Descended  from  Gilhayb,  said  to  be  great-grandfather  of 

Sha'a  el  Din1. 
KadurAb.   In  Kamlin  district  and  independent  of"|  Descended  from 

the  Abu  Sin  family.  I     'A wad  el  Kerim 

'Adlanab  j    the  brother  of 

HasAnAb.   Round  Gebel  Kayli2.  J     Nail. 

'AlSHAB 

Shadarna 

MiHAYdAt 

Ritamat        \  Not  descended  from  Sha'a  el  Din. 
Ofasa 

NizAwiIN 

NowAima 

The  DubAsiIn.  Racially  connected  with  the  Shukria,  though 
the  details  of  the  relationship  are  not  clear,  are  the  small  tribe  of 
Dubasijn,  who  live  in  the  northern  Gezi'ra. 

They  are  divided  as  follows : 

SaifAb 


,  In  Kamlin  district. 
Hetaykab     J 

GifaynAb.    In  Kamlin,  Mesallamia  and  Khartoum  districts. 

„  ,         [In  Mesallamia  district. 

Bilaylab      J 

GebelAb.   In  Rufa'a  district. 

RaydAb.   In  Khartoum  district. 

The  DubAsiin  are  said  to  have  split  away  from  the  Shukria  some 
seven  or  eight  generations  ago.  For  the  most  part  they  remained 
nomadic  until  the  present  generation — nor  are  they  yet  entirely 
sedentary — but  their  wanderings  in  search  of  grazing  never  extended 
much  more  than  seventy  miles  or  so  south  of  Khartoum3. 

In  Turkish  days  they  were  at  feud  with  the  HalAwiin  branch  of 
the  RufA'a. 

(e)  THE  DUBANfA  OR  DUBAfNA4 

XV  The  name  of  this  tribe  does  not  occur  in  the  genealogies  of  the 
Sudan,  a  fact  which  in  itself  is  good  evidence  that  their  present  claim 
to  be  Arabs  is  of  the  slightest,  and  they  would  appear  to  form,  from 
the  racial  point  of  view,  a  part  of  the  Shangalla  congeries  peopling 
the  fertile  belt  which  bounds  Abyssinia  on  the  west. 

1  Between  Sha'a  el  Din  and  the  eponymous  ancestor  Shakir  or  Shukur  the  names 
vary  in  different  verbal  accounts :  e.g.  one  (that  of  Ahmad  Kayli)  gives  them  from 
son  to  father  thus :  "  Sha'a  el  Din,  el  Tuaym,  Um  Besha,  Gilhayb,  Wahshi,  Shakir" ; 
another  (from  the  Abu  Sin  family)  gives  them  thus:  "Sha'a  el  Din,  el  Tuaym, 
Habash6m,  Tagir,  Sa'ud,  Wahshi,  Zaydan,  Shukur." 

2  The  curious  adoption  of  the  surname  "Kayli"  by  the  successive  hereditary 
sheikhs  of  this  section  is  noted  in  A  7  (q.v.). 

3  They  are  said  to  have  had  "  gerf"  (foreshore)  cultivation  at  Khartoum  before 
the  site  was  taken  by  the  Turks  for  building  the  present  town. 

*  They  are  called  either  indiscriminately. 


254  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  in.  2.  xv. 

Bruce1  places  them  in  the  Mazaga  district  near  the  junction  of 
the  Seti't  and  the  Atbara, and  speaks  of  "  the  Dobenah,the  most  power- 
ful of  all  the  Shangalla,  who  have  a  species  of  supremacy,  or  command, 
over  all  the  rest  of  the  nations":  he  sees  in  them  the  descendants 
of  Ptolemaeus's  "elephantophagi."  Again  he  calls2  "Dobenah"  a 
"general  name"  for  the  tribes  who  shared  with  the  Basa  of  the 
Atbara  ("Tacazze")  "the  peninsula  formed  by  that  river  and  the 
Mareb"  (the  Kash3).  He  recalls4  the  attack  made  upon  them  by 
Yasus  I  of  Abyssinia  (1 680-1704)  and  concludes5:  "Thus  ended  the 
campaign  of  the  Dobenah. ...And  yet,  notwithstanding  the  smallpox, 
which,  in  some  places,  exterminated  whole  tribes,  the  Dobenah  have 
not  lost  an  inch  of  territory,  but  seem  rather  to  be  gaining  upon 
Sire."  On  the  other  hand,  relating  the  expedition  of  Yasus  II  in 
1736  into  the  territories  of  the  Fung  Bruce  says6:  "The  King,  in 
five  days  marching  from  Gidara,  came  to  a  station  of  the  Daveina, 
which  is  a  tribe  of  shepherds,  by  much  the  strongest  of  any  in 
Atbara."  These  "Daveina,"  whom  Bruce  seems  to  have  forgotten  to 
connect  with  the  "Dobenah,"  although  he  himself  in  different  places7 
tells  us  of  each  that  it  inhabited  Mazaga  district,  are  certainly  the 
Dubaina  or  Dubania  of  the  present  day,  and  must  surely  represent 
a  more  arabicized  branch  of  the  Shangalla  "Dubena8"  settled  rather 
farther  west  than  their  kinsfolk9. 

Werne  in  1840  speaks  of  the  Dubaina  as  a  very  large  tribe  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Kedaref  and  Kallabat,  "second  to  neither  the 
Beni-Amer  nor  Haddenda10." 

Baker  met  them  and  their  sheikh  'Adlan  wad  Sa'id  in  1861  with 
the  Shukria  on  the  Atbara  round  Tomat.  They  were  then  still  a 
considerable  tribe  owning  many  cattle  and  sheep,  and  at  enmity  with 
the  Ga'aliin  refugees  of  Mek  Nimr's  family,  who  were  settled  on  the 
Abyssinian  border11.    In  his  map  Baker  shews  them  as  occupying  all 

1  Vol.  iv,  Bk.  iv,  p.  30;  and  Vol.  in,  p.  4;  and  map  ("Dubeno"). 

2  Vol.  in,  Ch.  iv,  p.  472. 

3  In  Vol.  vi,  p.  244,  however,  Bruce  speaks  of  "The  Baasa,  or  Dobena  Shan- 
galla." 

4  Vol.  in,  Ch.  iv,  p.  472.  6  Ibid.  p.  479. 

6  Vol.  iv,  Bk.  iv,  p.  119.  7  Ibid,  as  quoted,  and  Bk.  vi,  Ch.  1,  p.  44. 

8  Bruce's  editor  (Vol.  in,  Introd.  p.  4)  says:  "To  the  north  of  Abyssinia  they 
[the  Shangalla]  are  mixed  with  Arabs,  the  Beja,  and  the  Below£  [i.e.  the  Belu] ;  in 
which  quarter  they  are  called  Dubena." 

9  Mansfield  Parkyns  (map  to  Vol.  1,  and  cp.  Vol.  11,  p.  404)  places  the  "  Daveina 
Arabs"  between  the  Rahad  and  the  Atbara,  immediately  south  of  the  fifteenth 
parallel. 

10  Werne,  p.  187. 

11  Baker,  pp.  136,  279,  447.  Cp.  M.  Parkyns  (11,  404),  who  speaks  of  "Abu  Jin, 
great  chief  of  the  Daveinas."  As  Abu  Gin  was  head-sheikh  of  the  Hammada  we 
must  suppose  the  Dubaina  were  under  the  overlordship  of  that  tribe. 


III.  2.  xvi.  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  255 

the  country  between  the  Rahad  and  the  Atbara  to  the  south  of  the 
Shukria. 

The  present  habitat  of  the  Dubania  is  much  what  it  was  in  the 
time  of  Bruce  and  Baker.  There  are  some  of  them  between  Kedaref 
and  Kallabat;  but  most  of  the  tribe  was  extirpated  by  the  Dervishes. 
The  survivors  are  sedentary  and  poor.  A  few  are  at  Kedaref  with  the 
Shukria,  and  a  few  survive  in  the  villages  that  border  on  the  Blue 
Nile. 

THE  FEZARA  GROUP 

XVI  The  term  Fezara  is  now  no  longer  heard  in  the  Sudan,  but  to 
the  travellers  of  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries,  and  perhaps 
even  until  the  "  Mahdia"  it  was  the  usual  denomination  of  the  largest 
group  of  camel-owning  nomads  of  Kordofan  and  Darfur1.  These  are 
now  much  more  distinctly  divided  and  each  tribe  is  known  by  its 
own  name. 

Before  embarking  on  details  of  these  tribes  we  may  remark  it  as 
curious  that  the  Fezara  who  emigrated  from  Arabia  to  Egypt  were 
an  Isma'ilitic  tribe,  a  branch  of  Kays  'Aylan,  whereas  the  Guhayna, 
from  whom  the  Fezara  group  of  the  Sudan  claim  descent,  were 
Kahtanites  and  therefore  very  distantly  related  indeed  to  the  Fezara 
of  Arabia.  The  apparent  anomaly  is,  however,  explained  to  some 
extent  by  the  fact  that  the  Fezara  and  the  Guhayna  have  always 
been  neighbours  in  the  Hegaz,  and  probably  for  that  reason  took 
part  in  the  same  tribal  migrations2  and  intermarried  with  one  another. 
Again,  some  confusion  might  naturally  arise  between  the  two  groups 
of  Fezara  and  Guhayna  owing  to  the  fact  that  while  a  section  of 
Guhayna  happened  to  be  named  Kays  and  to  have  one  subsection 
called  Ghatafan  and  another  in  which  the  names  Dhubian  and  'Abs 
occur  at  a  comparatively  early  date,  the  Fezara  were  the  largest 
section  of  the  Beni  Dhubian,  who  again,  with  the  Beni  'Abs,  formed 
the  two  main  branches  of  the  great  Ghatafan  subtribe  of  Kays 
'Aylan3.  But  although  this  similarity  of  nomenclature  may  have 
been  due  to  no  more  than  coincidence,  it  is  more  probable  that  it 
betokens  the  close  intimacy  of  the  two  tribes  and  their  interrelation 
by  marriage. 

Let  us  take  the  various  Fezara  tribes  of  the  Sudan  in  turn : 

1  El  Tunisi's  map,  e.g.,  speaks  of  camel-owning  nomads  called  Fezara  com- 
prising the  Mahamid,  the  Meganin,  the  Beni  Gerar,  the  Beni  'Omran  and  the 
Messirfa  Zurruk.  Bruce's  map  places  "Beni  Faisara,"  "  Cubbabeesh,"  and  Beni 
Gerar  in  the  Bayuda. 

2  See  Part  II,  Chaps,  i  and  2. 

3  See  Wustenfeld,  I  and  H.  and  Tree  1  in  Part  II,  above. 


256  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  iii.2.xvii. 

(/)   DAR  HAMID 

XVII  Until  the  latter  part  of  the  Turkish  period  this  tribe  was 
almost  entirely  nomadic  and  to  a  certain  degree  it  is  so  still.  For 
several  generations  past  a  portion  of  it  has  been  with  the  Kababish 
of  Dongola  and  a  yet  larger  section  with  the  western  Kawahla,  who 
until  the  " Mahdia"  were  incorporated  as  a  subtribe  with  the  Kaba- 
bish of  Kordofan.  Both  of  these  outlying  Dar  Hamid  groups  remain 
entirely  nomadic1. 

The  remainder  of  the  tribe  has  built  many  villages  of  straw 
"tnkls"  in  the  well-wooded,  fertile  and  undulating  district  which 
marches  to  the  north  with  the  high,  rough  country  of  the  Kababish, 
and  many  of  them  reside  there  all  the  year  round  cultivating  "  dukhn  " 
or  grazing  according  to  the  season;  but  in  the  " Kharif"  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  tribe  take  their  coarse  woollen  tents  and  move  some 
distance  northwards  and  westwards  like  the  true  nomads  until  the 
rainwater  has  dried  up  and  they  have  to  return  to  the  villages  in  and 
around  the  "  Khayrdn."  The  nomadic  character  of  the  tribe  made  it 
easy  in  the  last  century  for  various  Danagla  and  others  to  acquire 
possession  of  many  of  the  basins  of  the  "Khayrdn"  which  are  culti- 
vable by  "  shaduf"  and  "  sdkia."  The  Dar  Hamid  having  no  interest 
in  or  knowledge  of  artificial  irrigation  only  used  the  wells  in  the 
"Khayrdn"  for  watering  their  flocks,  and  were  content  to  let  others 
grow  vegetables.  In  addition  the  Danagla  were  special  proteges  of 
the  Turks  and  always  sure  of  support  if  any  attempt  was  made  to 
oust  them. 

It  is  hard  to  say  at  what  period  the  Dar  Hamid  took  up  their 
abode  in  central  Kordofan.  It  may  have  been  in  the  first  half  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  or  it  may  have  been  earlier,  at  the  time  of  the 
great  southern  movement  of  the  Guhayna  tribes  through  Dongola. 

Their  ancestor  Hamid  "el  Khuayn"  lived,  according  to  their 
"nisbas"  from  eleven  to  thirteen  generations  ago.  He  and  his 
brother  Hammad,  it  is  said,  came  from  Egypt  and  pushed  through 
to  Darfiir,  and  their  descendants  took  up  their  abode  partly  in  Darfur 
and  partly  in  Kordofan. 

XVIII  The  main  divisions  of  the  tribe  are  the  Ferahna,  the  Haba- 
bin,  the  Meramra,  the  Nawahia,  the  'Arifia,  the  Awlad  Akoi,  the 
Meganin  and  the  Gilaydat;  and  the  parentage  attributed  to  some 
of  these  by  tradition  throws  some  light  on  the  early  connections  of 
the  tribe.  The  mother  of  the  first  two  is  said  to  have  been  from  Gebel 

1  The  commonest  camel-brands  of  the  Dar  Hamid  Kawahla  are  the  same  as 
those  of  certain  of  the  Meganin  branch  of  Dar  Hamid. 


in.  2.  xix.  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  257 

Mi'dob  in  northern  Darfur1 ;  the  mother  of  the  Nawahia2  a  Persian 
from  Baghdad  whom  Hamid  found  astray :  the  child  she  was  carrying 
when  Hamid  found  her  came  to  be  ancestor  of  the  Baghadda3,  who 
have  several  villages  among  the  Dar  Hamid.  The  Awlad  Akoi4  are 
said  to  be  descended  from  Hamid's  brother  Hammad,  the  'Arifia  to 
have  come  for  the  most  part  from  Borku,  and  the  Gilaydat  to  con- 
tain a  large  element  of  "slave"  or  negro. 

It  is  likely  that  though  the  eight  tribes  of  Dar  Hamid  may  have 
been  closely  connected  in  antiquity,  and  are  certainly  so  by  inter- 
marriage at  present,  their  being  grouped  together  under  a  common 
designation  was  primarily  due  to  their  occupying  a  single  tract  of 
country  under  the  leadership  of  a  single  chieftain:  as  Pere  Jaussen 
says5 : 

Bien  qu'admettant  la  descendance  naturelle  d'un  seul  homme  qui 
represente  la  souche  de  toute  la  tribu,  les  Arabes  n'excluent  point  l'ac- 
croissement  de  la  tribu  par  adhesion,  ni  meme  une  origine  par  simple 
agglomeration  d'entites  independantes  se  reunissant  autour  d'un  cheikh, 
qui  donne  son  nom  a  tout  ce  groupe. 

The  Ferahna,  Hababin,  Meramra,  Meganin  and  Nawahia  are 
probably  of  the  same  original  stock,  and  the  remainder,  though  cog- 
nate to  them,  may  be  later  accretions.  The  story  of  the  child  who 
became  ancestor  of  the  Baghadda  is  no  doubt  a  symbolical  method 
of  stating  that  the  forefathers  of  the  Dar  Hamid  on  their  way  to 
Kordofan  and  Darfur  attached  to  themselves  some  of  those  Bagh- 
adda whom  we  know  to  have  been  settled  among  the  Kanuz  between 
Aswan  and  Haifa6. 

XIX  Of  the  history  of  Dar  Hamid  until  the  eighteenth  century  we 
know  nothing.  It  was  perhaps  during  the  first  half  of  it  that  the 
Meramra  under  one  Kirialo  were  the  ruling  section  of  the  tribe 
then  camping  partly  in  Kordofan  and  partly  in  Darfur.  Kirialo  fell 
under  the  displeasure  of  the  Sultan  of  Darfur  on  account  of  his  refusal 
to  collect  the  whole  tribe  round  the  capital  and  was  imprisoned,  and 
his  " 'nahds"  passed  to  'Abd  el  Hamayd  the  sheikh  of  the  Awlad 
Akoi.  The  latter  set  off  with  a  force  of  Zaghawa  and  Kura'an, 
ostensibly  to  enforce  the  Sultan's  orders,  but  having  once  reached 

1  An  alternative  story  as  regards  the  Ferahna  is  that  their  name  is  connected 
with  Fara'on  (Pharaoh)  and  that  they  are  mainly  descended  from  Egyptian  traders. 

2  The  word  "  Nawahia"  is  said  to  be  formed  from  that  of  "  Muhammad  Nahi," 
son  of  Hamid  (by  Um  Kassawayn). 

3  Sing.  "Baghdadi." 

4  Cuny's  (p.  175)  "Arabes  Goi."  B  Pp.  114,  115. 

6  See  Burckhardt,  p.  26.  "Among  these  [the  Kenuz]  were  also  Bedouins  of 
the  neighbourhood  of  Baghdad,  whose  descendants  are  still  known  by  the  name  of 
Bagdadli." 

M.S.  I.  17 


258  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  in.  2.  xix. 

Kordofan  he  conciliated  the  Zaghawa  and  settled  them  at  Kagmar, 
enslaved  the  Kura'an,  and  placed  himself  under  the  protection  of 
the  Fung.  A  general  concentration  of  the  Dar  Hamid  in  Kordofan 
followed,  and  during  the  period  of  Fung  ascendancy  in  that  province 
the  tribe  seems  to  have  paid  them  tribute. 

The  "  nahds  "  remained  with  the  Awl  ad  Akoi  for  three  generations 
after  'Abd  el  Hamayd,  and  then  passed  into  the  possession  of  the 
Hababin,  who  had  become  the  richest  and  most  powerful  section  of 
the  tribe,  and  whose  sheikh  Um  Beda  wad  Simawi  was  their  leading 
warrior. 

From  Um  Beda  the  "nahds"  descended  to  his  sons  Tumsah  and 
'Abd  el  Salam1  and  his  grandson  Simawi  "Giraygi'r2." 

It  is  on  account  of  the  chieftainship  having  been  in  the  hands  of 
the  Hababin  throughout  the  Turkish  period  that  travellers  not  un- 
commonly spoke  of  "the  Hababin"  when  they  intended  to  denote 
the  whole  of  Dar  Hamid3. 

XX  At  the  present  day  each  of  the  sections  has  its  own  sheikh  and 
there  is  no  single  head  of  the  tribe  with  a  "  nahds."  The  most  nomadic 
of  these  sections,  because  the  richest  in  herds,  is  the  Meganin4,  the 
bulk  of  whom  are  on  the  western  confines  of  Dar  Hamid  and  roam 
almost  as  far  north-west  in  the  rains  as  do  the  Kababish  and  Kawahla. 
It  is  only  lately  that  they  have  begun  to  clear  parts  of  their  country 
for  cultivation  and  to  form  villages  and  to  tap  their  forests  for  gum. 
Grazing  their  cattle  and  sheep  and  raiding  those  of  their  neighbours 
had  long  been  their  only  occupations. 

They  have  now  become  entirely  separate  from  the  rest  of  the 
tribe5,  and  are  still  more  or  less  unregenerate. 

A  section  of  the  Meganin  lives  apart  round  el  Hashaba  in  eastern 
Kordofan  and  is  completely  cut  off  from  the  rest  of  the  tribe.  They 
were  first  noticed  by  Baron  J.  W.  von  Miiller  between  1847  and  18496. 

1  Q.v.  Cuny,  p.  154. 

2  Slatin's  "  Grieger." 

3  E.g.  M.  Parkyns  and  Cuny  (pp.  154,  161,  173). 

4  Sing.  "Magnuni"  (i.e.  "Madman").  A  curious  example  of  the  cheerful  and 
wholesale  acceptance  by  a  tribe  of  a  depreciatory  nickname  (see  Andrew  Lang,  The 
Secret  of  the  Totem,  Ch.  vi). 

5  They  are  mentioned  by  el  Tunisi  as  a  large  tribe  rich  in  herds  and  paying 
tribute  to  Darfur  {Voyage  au  Darfour,  p.  87).  He  includes  them  and  the  Mahamid, 
the  Beni  'Omran,  the  Beni  Gerar  and  some  of  the  Messfria  Zurruk  under  the  term 
"Fezara"  ("  Ferara  by  misprint;  see  loc.  cit.  p.  129).  Nachtigal  (Ouada'i,  p.  71) 
alludes  to  them  in  Wadai  as  "de  la  famille  des  Mahamid's."  Cuny  (p.  78)  speaks 
of  them  as  a  separate  tribe  and  says  they,  the  Ma'alia,  the  Kababish,  the  Beni 
Gerar,  and  the  Zayadia,  meet  at  Um  el  Bahr  in  northern  Kordofan.  However, 
when  in  1906  their  sheikh  bought  a  "  ?iahds"  for  the  Meganin,  even  his  own  tribe 
regarded  his  action  as  presumptuous  and  would  not  allow  it  to  be  beaten. 

6  Sesjourn.  R.  G.  S.  Vol.  xx,  1851. 


in.  2.  xxii.  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  259 

The  following  are  the  main  sections  of  the  Meganin1  : 

A.  'Ayadia      (i.  Awlad  Gimi'a 

-  2.      „       Gima'a 
I3.      „       Gama'i 

B.  Hamaydia  fi.  Tagula 


' 


2.  Ray  wat 
etc. 

C.  NasTibo 

D.  Awlad  Madi 

E.  Awlad  Rumia 

F.  Hayadira 

G.  Ghadianat 
H.  Awlad  Sa'id 

I.    Awlad  Fad  Ala  fi.  Abu  Rishayd 

(2.  Markuk 
J.    Mesa'id2 

No  particular  camel  brand  is  distinctive  of  the  whole  tribe.   Each 
section  uses  its  own,  and  the  subsections  add  each  its  own  variation3. 

XXI  The  Ferahna  are  the  subtribe  of  Dar  Hamid  richest  in  sheep 
and  in  land,  but  they  are  nearly  all  sedentary  and  are  regarded  as 
"  nouveaux  riches."  They  have  taken  advantage  of  the  fact  that  many 
of  the  best  " Khayrdn"  fall  within  their  boundaries  to  cultivate  them 
by  artificial  means.  Or,  maybe,  there  is  some  truth  in  the  story  of 
their  Egyptian  connection  and  for  that  reason  the  cultivable  basins 
originally  fell  to  them. 

Their  subdivisions  are  as  follows : 

El  Sherama  El  Beraykat 

El  Tursha4  El  Filiat 

El  Akarib  El  Na'umia 

El  Ghubshan  El  'Awamra 

Awlad  Hizma  El  Showal 
El  Kerimia 

XXII  The  Hababin5  and  the  Meramra  are,  after  the  Meganin,  the 

1  Some  of  the  smaller  subdivisions  of  these  are  omitted,  but  they  can  be  found  in 
my  Tribes...,  p.  129. 

2  The  Mesa'id  say  they  are  not  Meganin  at  all  by  origin.  The  name  is  merely 
a  plural  of  Mas'ud  and  not  uncommon  as  a  tribal  appellation.  The  best  known 
Mesa'id  are  those  settled  on  the  Arabian  coast  near  Muwayla  and  Gian  and  there- 
abouts: these  are  a  branch  of  the  Huwaytat  (see  Burton,  Land  of  Midian,  1,  87  ff.). 

3  See  MacMichael,  Camel  Brands...,  p.  27. 

4  The  name  Turshan  occurs  in  Klippel's  list  of  Egyptian  Bedouins :  he  speaks 
of  the  Turshan  as  "d'origine  berbere."  Sir  C.  Wilson  (p.  4)  mentions  "Tarshan" 
among  the  semi-nomadic  Arabs  north  of  Aswan.  "Turshan"  occurs  also  among 
the  Awlad  Akoi. 

5  Pallme  and  Werne  confuse  the  Hababin  with  the  Habbanfa  (Bakkara)  between 
whom,  though  the  singular  of  both  names  is  "Habbani,"  there  is  no  traditional 
connection  at  all. 

17 — 2 


260 


THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP 


III.  2.  XXII. 


most  nomadic  sections  of  Dar  Hamid.  Both  have  numerous  villages, 
west  and  east  of  the  Ferahna  respectively,  but  neither  own  any  of 
the  "  Khayidn." 

The  subdivisions  of  the  Hababin  are  as  follows : 


"NAs  el  Sheikh1 
Awlad  Anis 

„        'AWANA 

„      Sakiran 
„      Zaghawa 
„      Nakur 
Um  Sa'adun 
Abu  'Amar 
Awlad  WasIk 
El  Kiran 
Awlad  BilAl 


i 


Awlad  Hamid 
,,       Selman 
El  Fas 
NAs  Hamir 
FellAta 
Awlad  Milayt 
Nughura 
Kakko 

Awlad  Muhammad 
DAir 


Those  of  the  Meramra  are  as  follows : 


A.  Samnia  fi.  NAs  Hadhlul 

„    Ma'afa2 

„      NUSAR2 

Sellam 
<J  5.  Awlad  HAtim 
NAs  Bihayl 
Gezay'i 

8.  Abu  Tinaytim 

9.  DowAshna 

B.  Mesabi'h  1.  Turku 

C.  DAr  el  Ba'ag  (i.  GhubshAn 

-  2.  NAs  Abu  'Ali 
[3.  Kurumusi'a3 

XXIII  The  Nawahia  have  between  thirty  and  forty  villages  north 
of  Bara  and  others  farther  east  near  Um  Dam :  they  also  own  one  or 
two  of  the  " Khayrdn."  Their  subdivisions  are  as  follows: 


A.  AwlAd  Muhammad 


1. 

2. 

3- 

4- 

,5- 


Awlad  'Agayl 
RushdAna 
Awl  Ad  Sa'ad 
KanAfid 
Awlad  Keraym 


1  The  distinctive  brand  of  this  the  ruling  section  is  a  "  Ga'aba  Khashm  el 
Kelb"  ("dog's  mouth  on  the  buttock"),  i.e.  >  to  the  left  of  the  tail  (MacMichael, 
ibid.). 

2  Both  names  occur  again  in  almost  identical  form  among  the  Nawdhia. 

3  Nachtigal  gives  the  Kurumusia  as  a  separate  division  of  the  Fezara,  together 
with  the  Zayadia  and  various  Dar  Hamid  tribes  (see  Helmolt,  p.  585).  Other 
Kurumusfa  are  with  the  Zayadia  at  the  present  day. 


III.  2.  XXV. 


THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP 


261 


El  Berabish1 


Abu  'AlwAn 
Awlad  Ferayha 


B.  BlLALIA  I 

C.  Gamu'ia 

D.  MUFETTIH 

E.  H  AMD  AN  A 

F.  AwlAd  Gima'An       (i. 

G.  Awlad  'Abd  el  DAim 
H.  Um  Burur 

I.     NUSARIA 

J.    Awlad  Ma'Afa 

XXIV  The  'Ari'fia  were  for  long  in  Ddrfur  or  west  of  it  and  have 
absorbed  much  of  the  blood  of  those  parts.  They  are  now  settled  in 
the  southern  part  of  Dar  Hamid  with  the  GilaydAt  to  the  west  of 
them. 


Their  subdivisions  are2 : 

A.  'Amir   fi. 

r 

13- 

AwlAd  Ramadan 
NAs  Um  Birsh 

El  Khansur 

B.   Sanad 

1. 

Abu  Su'ud 

2. 

NAs  el  Dow 

3- 

NAs  Kiddu 

j 

4- 

'Abd  el  SAlim 

5- 

El  HAg 

k 

Abu  HammAd 

C.  'Atwa 

1. 

NAs  Belal 

2. 

„    Balul 

• 

3- 

„      BlLAYL 

4- 

Abu  Kusayra 

,5. 

Abu  el  R6yyAn 

XXV  The  AwlAd  Akoi  live  to  the  north-east  of  the  other  Dar 
HAmid  tribes,  in  Um  Gurfa  and  eastwards.   A  portion  of  them  are, 
in  addition,  permanently  nomadic. 
Their  subdivisions  are : 


Awlad  Hamayd 

Fadlia 

MuglAn 

HUGAG 

AwlAd  GAma'i 


Awlad  Gamu'a 

'Utuk 

AwlAd  Hammud 

TurshAn3 

AwlAd  Rays 


1  Barth  mentions  a  small  Arab  tribe  of  this  name  living  subject  to  the  Hogar 
north  of  Timbuktu,  and  identifies  them  provisionally  with  the  Perorsi  of  the  ancient 
geographers  (Barth,  Vol.  v,  App.  1,  pp.  464,  465,  and  map  opp.  p.  1). 

2  The  fourteen  subsections  given  only  date  from  four  to  six  generations  ago. 
The  three  main  sections  are  older. 

3  Cp.  sub  Ferahna. 


262  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  m.2.xxvi. 

XXVI  The  Gilaydat  though  classed  as  Dar  Hamid  are  regarded 
askance  by  the  rest  of  the  tribe.  It  appears  that  they  represent  a 
blend  of  some  of  the  earliest  Arab  immigrants  to  Kordofan  with  the 
autochthonous  negroids.  Riippell,  Pallme,  Parky ns  and  others  class 
them  with  the  Ghodiat  and  Gawama'a. 

Their  present  habitat  is  round  Gebel  Um  "  Shidera  "  {i.e.  Shagera) 
on  the  south-west  limits  of  Dar  Hamid.  Many  Gilaydat  were  in 
Darfur,  between  el  Fasher  and  the  Hamar  country,  in  Turkish  days1, 
but  since  the  devastation  of  the  " Mahdia"  there  have  been  no  more 
than  a  few  of  their  villages  left  there,  and  nearly  all  that  survived 
settled  in  Kordofan. 

Their  subdivisions  are  as  follows : 

Rudana  Awlad  Walid 

Nasirat  Awlad  Defin 

Akashia  Umbadiri'a2 

Awlad  Erbud  Harbia3 

(g)  THE  ZAYADfA 

XXVII  The  Zayadia  also  appear  from  the  "nisbas"  to  be  related 
closely  to  the  Fezara  group. 

They  are  frequently  mentioned  by  travellers4  in  the  nineteenth 
century  as  one  of  the  principal  tribes  of  the  northern  steppes,  gener- 
ally in  connection  with  forays  on  caravans  or  fights  with  the 
Kababish,  Beni  Gerar  and  Hamar,  on  the  Wadi  el  Melik  and  even 
as  far  east  as  the  Debba-El  Haraza  route5. 

In  1883  the  Zayadia  of  Darfur  were  assessed  for  tribute  at 
jTe.  2500  and  those  of  Kordofan  at  £e.  55  only6;  but  the  tribe  was 
all  but  wiped  out  in  the  "Mahdia"  and  now  that  it  has  recovered 
some  small  measure  of  prosperity  the  proportion  in  which  it  is  dis- 
tributed as  between  Darfur  and  Kordofan  has  been  reversed  on 
account  of  the  persecution  to  which  it  was  subjected  by  the  Sultan 
'Ali  Dinar.  A  number  of  the  Awlad  Gabir  and  Awlad  Mufaddal 
sections  still  remain  round  el  Mellit  and  el  Sayah,  north  of  el  Fasher, 
but  between  1904  and  191 3  nearly  all  the  Awlad  Gerbu'a  fled  for 
refuge  to  Kordofan7.  They  are  now  settled  at  Um  Gozayn  on  the 
south-western  confines  of  Dar  Hamid,  and  such  of  them  as  have 
any  wealth  in  herds  remaining  spend  the  "  kharif"  in  the  north- 

1  Burckhardt  also  mentions  them  in  Darfur  in  1814  (Nubia,  p.  481). 

2  See  note  to  BA,  lxvii. 

3  These  were  mostly  nomadic  until  the  last  decade. 

4  E.g.  Burckhardt,  p.  481. 

5  See  Cuny,  p.  94.  fi  See  Stewart. 

7  The  emigrants  of  191 3  were  accompanied  by  a  few  Gilaydat  from  Darfur. 


III.  2.  XXVII. 


THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP 


263 


west  of  Kordofan  with  their  nomad  cousins  of  the  Dar  Hamid  and 
the  Shenabla. 

The  subdivisions  of  the  Zayadia  are  as  follows : 


A.  Awl  ad  Gerbu'a 


'4i 


B.  Awl  ad  Mufaddal 


C.  Awl  ad  Gabir 


1. 

2. 

3- 

4- 

5- 
6. 

7- 


<! 


NAs  Hasan 
„    Adrag 
,,    Shok 
„    Sherri 
,,    Abu  HammAm 

AlAL  SULAYM 
'ISAWIA2 

8.  NAs  el  Tom 

9.  Nafa'ia 

10.  NAs  Kirtub 

1 1 .  Um  Derawa 

12.  Awl  ad  Faris 

13.  'Imayri'a 

14.    MlSAMIR 

15.  Getarna 

|^l6.    KURUMUSIA3 


I. 

2. 

3. 

4- 

5- 
6. 

7. 

8. 
9 

I. 

2. 

3- 

4- 

5- 
6. 

7- 

8. 

9- 
10. 


AWLAD  AWANULLA 
,,         I  MAMA 

„  Baybush 

,,  Zayn 

„  Wafi 

„  Shahawin 

„         'AWADA 
,,         'AWADIA 

„      Um  Gam'un 

'Aial  Sabt  el  Nur 

,,    Rikay'a 

,,    Abu  Mis-him 
awlad  tatun 

„      Abu  Ma'ali 

„       Hammud 

,,       Gubarat 

,,       Zayd 

,,       Berbush,  or  Berabish 
Nas  Um  Gema'a 


The  ZAYADfA  have  no  distinctive  tribal  brand  common  to  all4. 


1  Gerbu'a  =jerboa.  The  name  "Gerabi'a"  (BA,  xcvn)  appears  to  be  a  plural 
formed  from  Gerbu'a:  cp.  note  in  Part  III,  Chap.  5,  para.  v. 

2  Others  are  with  the  Kababish  and  with  the  Gamu'ia  (q.v.). 

3  Cp.  sub  Meramra  (above). 

4  See  MacMichael,  Camel  Brands,  p.  35,  for  some  of  their  brands. 


264  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  ill.  2.  xxvm. 

(h)  THE  BENI  GERAR 

XXVIII  At  one  time,  from  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  to  the 
middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  Beni  Gerar  and  the  Hamar 
were  the  chief  antagonists  of  the  Kababish  in  the  grazing  grounds 
of  northern  Kordofan  and  northern  Darfur  from  the  Wadi  el  Melik 
to  Kagmar,  and  used  to  raid  the  caravan  roads  running  from  Debba 
to  el  Haraza  and  over  the  Bayuda  desert  and  down  the  banks  of  the 
White  Nile1. 

The  name  "Fezara"  seems  to  have  been  more  often  applied  to 
them  than  to  any  of  the  other  nomads  and  it  is  not  unlikely  that  they 
have  some  real  connection  with  the  Fezara  who  were  in  Upper 
Egypt  in  the  fifteenth  century2. 

As  the  Beni  GerAr  were  gradually  ousted  by  the  other  nomads, 
by  the  Kababish  in  particular,  from  Kagmar  and  the  northern  steppes 
of  Kordofan  they  tended  to  move  farther  south  and  to  take  to  culti- 
vation, near  the  White  Nile  round  el  Busata  and  farther  inland  near 
Kadmul  in  central  Kordofan,  while  they  sent  their  herds  to  graze 
round  el  Tius  and  to  the  east  of  Khorsi. 

At  present  they  have  numerous  villages  in  the  White  Nile  Pro- 
vince, and  a  few  round  Kadmul.  The  nomadic  portion  of  the  tribe 
remains  in  Kordofan  and  accompanies  the  Kawahla  in  the  rainy 
season.   No  Beni  Gerar  are  left  now  in  Darfur. 

The  main  divisions  of  the  tribe  are  as  follows : 


A. 

Mahabib 

D. 

Awlad  Hayla 

B. 

Awl  ad  Rabi'a 

1 1 .  NAs  Musa 

12.  Bilaylat 

f1- 

NAs  el  Ahaymer 

2- 

,,      EL  SHA'lBA 

E. 

Abu  Hagul 

U 

,,    KhalAfa 

F. 

Awlad  Barakat 

C. 

Gubarat3 

I. 

Nas  Abu 'a 

2. 

,,    Guayd 

3- 

SlNUT 

1i. 

Um  Simayra 

15- 

Nas  Salim 

(6. 

Awlad  GltJT 

0)  THE  BAZA'A 

XXIX  The  Baza'a  are  reputed  to  be  very  closely  related  to  the  Beni 
Gerar,  but  the  connection  between  the  two  tribes  appears  purely 
adventitious. 

1  See  Bruce,  Vol.  vi,  Ch.  x;  Browne  (p.  325);  Cuny  (p.  43)  and  Mansfield 
Parkyns  (R.  G.  S.   xx,  254). 

2  See  Part  II,  Chap.  1. 

3  The  same  name  occurs  frequently,  e.g.  among  the  Bakkara  and  the  Zayddfa. 


in.  2.  xxx.  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  265 

The  former  are  more  sedentary,  poorer  and  less  numerous  than 
the  latter.  They  have  several  villages  in  the  gum  forests  south  of 
Gebel  Um  "  Shidera,"  at  Kadmiil,  and  in  the  well-less  district  south 
of  Um  Dam,  where  for  several  months  in  the  year  water-melons  form 
the  sole  supply  of  water,-  and  near  Abu  Zabad  in  western  Kordofan. 
A  portion  of  the  last-named  colony  are  almost  entirely  nomadic  and 
are. known  as  the  Ga'adia1.  There  are  also  a  few  villages  of  Baza'a 
in  eastern  Darfur  round  Gebel  Tisoma:  a  century  ago  the  number 
was  greater2. 

The  subdivisions  of  the  tribe  in  Kordofan  are  as  follows : 

A.  Mahmudia3  E.    Nowakia,  or  Nowakat4 


1.  Hamdilla 

ri.  FArisia 

2.  Awlad  Nasir 

2.    SUBAYHAT 

- 

3.  ,,      el  Ahaymer 

4.  Sa'ida 

, 

3.  Awlad  'Abd  el  Rahman 

4.  ,,       el  Bashir 

c.  Awlad  'Abd  el  Mahmud 

F. 

HUSANA 

B. 

Shafa'ia 

G. 

Awlad  Dan 

C. 

'Ayadia,  or  Abu  'Ayad 

H. 

Keraymat 

D. 

Ga'adia 

J. 

Razaka 

/ 1 .  Awlad  Hasan 

K. 

Um  Timan 

{2.          „         HUSAYN 

L. 

FUAYDA 

(k)  THE  SHENABLA 

XXX  The  name  Shenabla  ("Esshenabele")  was  noticed  by 
Burckhardt  in  18 10  as  the  name  of  an  Arab  tribe  living  in  the  hills 
near  Damascus  to  the  south-east  and  paying  some  deference  to  the 
Druses5.  Burton  says6  they  were  notorious  thieves  and  had  always 
been  so.  There  are  also  Shenabla  Beduin  at  the  present  day  in  Egypt 
to  the  east  of  the  river7. 

It  is  therefore  probable  that  the  Shenabla  of  the  Sudan  are  an 
offshoot  of  the  above. 

They  are  primarily  a  nomad  camel-owning  tribe,  who  graze  over 

1  These  may  perhaps  have  some  connection  with  the  Beni  Ga'ad  section  of 
Ikrima  who  were  round  Aswan  in  the  fourteenth  century.    (See  Part  II,  Chap.  2.) 

2  S.S.W.  of  Lake  Chad,  near  what  is  now  the  eastern  border  of  northern 
Nigeria,  Barth  met  "the  Baza,  a  powerful  and  independent  pagan  tribe  with  a 
language,  or  probably  dialect,  of  their  own,  and  peculiar  customs";  but  beyond 
the  similarity  of  the  names  there  would  seem  nothing  to  connect  these  with  the 
Baza'a.   (See  Barth,  Vol.  11,  Ch.  xxxin,  p.  409.) 

3  The  eponymous  ancestor's  son  married  a  woman  of  the  Awlad  Hawal  section 
of  Kababish. 

4  Their  camel  brand  is  a  "nun"  (the  Arabic  letter  n)  or  "naki"  on  the  right 
side.   Hence  their  name. 

5  Burton,  Unexplored  Syria,  1,  148.    Cp.  Burckhardt,  Notes...,  1,  18. 

6  Ibid. 

7  Klippel,  p.  8  ("El  Chenablah"). 


266  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  in.2.xxx. 

the  same  country  as  the  KawAhla  and  Dar  Hamid  in  Kordofan,  but 
they  have  in  addition  numerous  settlements  near  the  White  Nile. 

According  to  the  " nisbas"  they  are  closely  related  to  the  Dar 
Hamid  group.  It  is  said  that  they  severed  their  connection  with 
these  in  the  eighteenth  century  and  some  took  up  their  abode  near 
Shatt  and  Zerayka,  west  of  the  White  Nile1,  and  others  joined  the 
Kababish  congeries  in  the  north. 

A  few  Shenabla  also  joined  the  Hamar  and  are  known  as  the 
Gikhaysat.  These  are  a  rich  camel-owning  section  of  nomads  and 
are  to  be  found  from  el  Odaya  to  Foga  and  Um  Bel,  and  in  the  rains 
farther  north. 

The  main  branch,  that  which  joined  the  Kababish,  remained 
with  that  tribe  until  the  " Mahdia"  and  then  broke  away  together 
with  the  Kawahla,  and  have  since  been  independent. 

The  subtribes  of  the  Shenabla  are  as  follows: 

A.  Um  Braysh  G.  AwlAd  HawAl4 
i  .  'Amira  f  i .  NAs  Merra'i 

la.  Ga'aba  {2.  NAs  Ma'ak 

B.  Um  'Abdulla  H.  Hamdia5 
(i.  Goara                               J.    SubayhAt 
-j  2.  NAs  Guma'a 
[3.  NAs  Um  GAd  el  Keri'm 

C.  AwlAd  NAsir 
f  1 .  NAs  MukAbil 
I2.  NAs  Nukmusha 

D.  AwlAd  DAni  K.  Abu  'Imayr 

E.  NAs  Had  Ad  (i.  NagAgi'r 
fi.  NAs  Sallas                                 -  2.  TaibAt 
I2.  NAs  Fenayha  [3.  NAs  Wad  Zayn 

F.  'AwAmra2  L.   Awlad  Hashun 
.  AwlAd  FAdil  ZowrAb  (1.  NAs  Na'i'm 
.  NAs  Wad  'Abdulla                     J  2.  Abu  Ruppi 
.  NAs  Wad  el  Nur                        j  3.  MenAn 
.  ShuwayhAt3                                1 4.  NAs  Gharayra 

The  brand  used  by  almost  every  section  of  ShenAbla  on  their 
camels  is  the  " '  kiirbdg"    It  varies  in  form  but  is  always  placed  on 

1  In  The  Tribes  of  Northern  and  Central  Kordofan  (p.  206)  I  spoke  of  some  of 
these  as  joining  the  Mesallamia.  There  are  some  Shenabla  in  the  Mesallamia 
district  in  the  Gezira,  but  these  took  their  name,  it  seems,  from  Shanbul  walad 
Medani  (q.v.  in  D  J,  79,  80  and  167).  These  Shenabla  (the  word  is  the  plural  of 
Shanbul,  and  has  a  singular  "Shanbali,"  or  "Shambali")  are  alleged  locally  to 
have  some  connection  with  the  Hadareb  of  the  Red  Sea  coast,  but  evidence  of  this 
is  otherwise  lacking. 

2  Cp.  sub  Rufa'a.  3  Cp.  sub  Bedayrfa. 

4  Cp.  sub  Kababish. 

5  Once  a  section  of  Abu  'Imayr. 


i .  AwlAd  Amira 

2.  Khami'sAb 

3.  NAfa'Ab 

4.  KuwiAb 

1,5.  NAs  Um  LAota 


in.  2.  xxxi.  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  267 

the  left  leg  round  the  upper  joint.  The  following  are  its  commonest 
forms1:  ..      -   >    »\ 


(/)  THE  MA'ALIA  AND  THE  MA'AKLA 

XXXI  The  MA'ALIA.  The  Ma'alia  are  related  to  the  Dar  Hamid 
group,  but  have  long  been  entirely  independent  of  it,  and  at  best 
were  rather  allies  attracted  by  cousinship  than  brethren  who  seceded 
from  a  family  league. 

The  tribe  is  divided  between  Darfur  and  Kordofan.  At  the  close 
of  the  Turkish  epoch  the  Ma'alia  of  Darfur,  camel-owners  in  the 
north  and  cattle-owners  in  the  south,  were  assessed  for  tribute  at 
£e.  1450  as  compared  with  £e.  149  charged  against  the  branch  in 
Kordofan1.  The  tendency  had  long  been  for  the  latter  to  decamp 
westwards  to  evade  the  oppression  of  the  Turks.  But  after  the  dis- 
appearance of  the  Turkish  regime  and  the  subsequent  crushing  of 
the  Dervish  revolt  a  like  motive  led  to  a  steady  infiltration  of  Ma'alia 
from  Darfur  into  Kordofan. 

By  1916  there  were  no  Ma'alia  at  all  in  northern  Darfur  and 
only  a  few  round  their  old  headquarters  at  Shakka  in  the  south-east 
or  living  as  refugees  among  their  powerful  neighbours  the  Rizaykat. 
But  with  the  fall  of  'Ali  Dinar  in  May,  1916,  began  yet  another  return 
movement  from  Kordofan  to  Darfur  and  though  the  Ma'alia  are 
still  far  more  numerous  in  the  former  they  are  anxious  to  recolonize 
their  ancient  domains  in  Darfur  and  will  probably,  before  long,  be 
fairly  evenly  distributed  between  the  two  provinces.  In  Kordofan 
their  chief  colony  is  round  Gebel  Gleit  (Klayt),  south  of  the  Meganin 
and  west  of  the  other  Dar  Hamid  ;  but  there  are  many  others  settled 
in  el  Nahud,  el  Odaya,  Um  Ruaba3,  Dilling  and  el  Obeid  districts. 
All  these  are  partly  sedentary  but  primarily  nomadic.  In  the  rains 
they  send  their  herds  north-westwards :  in  the  summer  most  stay  in 
their  villages,  but  the  richer  folk  go  southwards  in  the  wake  of  the 
Bakkara  for  the  sake  of  the  grazing. 

1  A    similar   brand,    viz.    \n    is    used    by    the    Beshr    section    of    'Anaza    of 


I,    viz.    yj    i 


Arabia  (Doughty,  Arabia  Des.  i,  125  and  331 ;  Zwemer,  p.  279). 

2  Stewart. 

3  It  would  be  these  of  whom  Burckhardt  heard  as  living  between  el  Obeid  and 
the  Shilluk  country  (Nubia,  p.  482). 


268 


THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP 


III.  2.  XXXI. 


The  divisions  of  the  tribe  in  Kordofan  are  as  follows : 


Um  HammAd1 

i  .  Mukraym  (Um  Keraym) 


I 


a)  Akariba 

b)  NAs  Farag 

c)  Um  'Egayli 

d)  Harm  a 

e)  Dar  el  KhAdim 

/)  AwlAd  Um  Gima'a 
g)        „      Khayara 
h)        „      'AtAalla 
j)       „      Um  Hamda 

k)    SURURIA 


B.  Um  el  HatAsha 

I.    KhAWAbIr2 

,  (a)  Um  Felah 

(b)  GUAYL 

(c)  Awlad  RishdAt 
i(d)  Hidayba 

(e)  KhawAbir  el  Humr 
^(/)  GenAbla 
'Alayka 
((a)  Abu  Kusayer 
1        etc. 


(/)    RishaydAt 

XXXII  The  Ma'Akla.  The  Ma'Akla,  a  smaller  and  far  more  seden- 
tary  tribe,  are  counted  by  the  Ma'Alia  as  subject  to  them;  but  the 
two  tribes  are  racially  distinct,  and  in  Kordofan  the  Ma'Akla  are 
now  independent.  Even  in  Darfur,  where  their  numbers  are  almost 
negligible,  they  are  attempting  to  become  so. 

The  Ma'Akla  in  Kordofan  are  subdivided  as  follows : 


'SamA'i'n 

'AbAdia 

AmAmir 

Sheala 

Um  SelmAn 

BilAl 

NAs  LAzim 
■{  AwlAd  Hasabulla 

Dar  WAlid3 

Sherak3 

RibaydAt3 

Na'asna3 

Kelaba3 

KenAkil4 

AwlAd  Harayz4 


f  DOWRA 

Tarum 
NAs  SellAm 
AwlAd  DAhir 
ShilaymAt 
BishAria 
'AiAl  Shanbul 
i  BishAra 
Kagabil 
AwlAd  Gima'a 

,,      Abu  Hammad 
Um  Zayada 
'Abd  el  Habib 
'Alowna 
Gharayr 


Each  of  the  above  sections  is  theoretically  classed  as  either 
SamA'in  or  BishAria  and  there  is  an  "  'omda"  of  the  SamA'in  group 
and  an  "'omda"  of  the  BishAria.  But  the  '"omda"  of  each  group 
has  many  subjects  from  among  the  other  and  no  exact  dividing  line 
can  be  drawn. 

1  The  Ma'alia  would  include  among  these  the  Ma'akla,  who  are  not  really 
Ma'alia  at  all. 

2  There  are  none  of  these  in  Kordofan.  At  the  end  of  the  "  Turkla  "  they  were 
one  of  the  most  powerful  tribes  in  Darfur  (see  Slatin,  passim). 

3  Closely  connected.  4  In  Darfur. 


in.  2.  xxxiii.  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  269 

The  names  'Abadia  and  Bisharia  are  noteworthy  as  suggesting 
eastern  connections,  and  there  is  actually  a  tradition  among  the 
Bisharia  that  Khadra  their  ancestress  was  married  by  el  Hag  Bishari, 
"a  feki  from  the  East,"  and  that  they  are  not  Arabs  at  all  but  Bega 
and  have  many  relatives  in  the  eastern  deserts. 

There  is,  however,  no  reason  to  assume  that  the  other  branch  of 
the  Ma'akla,  the  Sama'in,  is  in  any  way  connected  with  the  Bega  or 
that  the  original  Bisharia  were  anything  but  foreigners  from  the 
racial  point  of  view. 

The  tribe  as  a  whole  claims  to  be  related  to  the  Fezara  group 
and  appears  so  in  the  "nisbas."  The  only  other  people  I  have  met 
with  bearing  the  same  name  are  the  Ma'akla  section  of  the  Beli. 
These  are  the  ruling  clan  of  that  tribe  both  in  Egypt  and  on  the 
Arabian  coast  near  Wegh,  and  it  is  possible  that  they  may  be  con- 
nected with  the  great  branch  of  Beni  Hilal  called  the  Ma'akl1  (per- 
verted in  Leo  Africanus  into  "Machill"  and  by  Marmol  into  "Ma- 
hequil"2),  who  were  by  origin  Yemenites  and  had  joined  the  Beni 
Hilal  congeries  in  their  great  invasion  of  Barbary. 

Whether  there  is  any  connection  between  the  Ma'akla  of  Kordo- 
fan and  these  other  Ma'akla  it  is  not  possible  at  present  to  say. 

(m)  THE  DWAYH,  OR  DWAYHfA 

XXXIII  The  Dwayhia  are  a  small  and  unimportant  tribe  scattered 
from  the  Nile  westwards. 

At  the  time  of  the  Turkish  conquest  a  colony  of  them,  "fekis"  by 
calling,  lived  at  Shibba  in  Dar  el  Shaiki'a  and  were  held  in  great 
repute  locally;  but  when  the  Shaikia,  who  had  relied  upon  the 
charms  and  assurances  of  these  holy  men  to  defeat  the  invaders, 
found  that  they  had  been  deceived,  they  massacred  the  whole  body 
and  destroyed  their  village3. 

A  few  of  the  Dwayhia  are  still  to  be  found  scattered  among  the 
Blue  Nile  villages,  at  el  Mas'iidia  for  instance;  but  the  main  body 
of  the  tribe — and  it  is  a  very  small  one — is  nomadic  in  habit  and 
accompanies  the  Kawahla  in  Kordofan  throughout  the  year. 

The  chief  division  of  the  Dwayh  of  Kordofan  is  the  Awlad  Salati. 
Their  camel  brand  is  a  " hildl"  or  crescent  moon,  a  sign  also  used  by 
the  Dar  Hamid  branch  of  Kababish,  on  the  right  side  of  the  neck. 

1  See  Ibn  Khaldun,  ed.  ar.  Vol.  6,  pp.  15,  17  (^ia^JI). 

2  Leo,  pp.  142,  150;  Marmol,  p.  76. 

3  Nicholls,  p.  39. 


270  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  iii.2.xxxiv. 

in)  THE  MESALLAMfA 

XXXIV  This  tribe  claims  to  be  unconnected  with  the  Ga'aliin  or 
Guhayna  group  and  to  be  descended  from  Abu  Bukr  el  Sadik, 
the  first  Khalifa  of  Islam.  Hence  they,  like  the  Mashaikha,  call 
themselves  "  Bukria." 

From  the  "nisbas,"  however,  it  would  seem  that  they  are  of 
kindred  origin  to  the  Dar  HAmid  and  other  "  Guhayna." 

They  live  in  the  Gezira,  where  they  have  given  their  name  to  a 
district,  and  on  either  side  of  the  White  Nile,  and  on  the  east  side 
of  the  lower  reaches  of  the  Blue  Nile. 

The  Mesallamia  in  the  Gezira  and  on  the  White  Nile  are 
sedentary. 

Among  their  subdivisions  hereabouts  are  the  'Anafla  and 
Washkar,  both  on  the  west  bank  of  the  White  Nile,  and,  on  the 
east  bank,  Sibaykab,  Wanaysab,  Meghayrar,  Harakira,  etc. 

Those  east  of  the  Blue  Nile  now  have  a  few  villages,  notably  Um 
Dubban1,  and  cultivate  in  the  Hasib  and  other  "zoddis"  but  they 
are  chiefly  nomadic  in  their  habits,  and  until  about  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century  were  entirely  so.  Their  range,  however,  is  not 
great  and  does  not  extend  beyond  the  western  fringe  of  the  Butana. 
They  graze  their  herds  and  dig  "hafirs"  and  cultivate  some  miles 
inland  from  the  river,  but  have  never  acquired  proprietary  rights  to 
the  river  banks  of  the  Blue  Nile  as  have  the  Rufa'a  and  the 
immigrant  M  ah  ass. 

Their  main  wealth  is  in  sheep  and  goats  but  they  have  a  fair 
number  of  cattle  and  camels  also.    The  latter  thev  brand  with  a 


(i hashasha"  (hoe)  on  the  neck,  thus: 

This   nomadic   portion   of   the   Mesallamia  is    subdivided   as 
follows : 


{  Khalafulab 
Shuwaymab 
Ghusaynab 


Ibrahimab 
Hamatiria 
Husaynab 

1  Sahalab  I Sabrab 

Bambunab  vRizkat 

vHadadil 

1  Um  Dubban  is  built  chiefly  of  mud.  It  was  founded  seventy  years  ago  by 
the  head  of  the  Ibrahimab  section,  father  of  Sheikh  el  'Ebayd  Muhammad  Badr. 
The  latter  was  a  well-known  Dervish  leader  and  Kadi  of  the  Khalifa :  he  died  in 
191 5.  Um  Dubban  possesses  two  imposing  "  kubbas"  containing  the  remains  of 
members  of  the  family. 


[271] 


CHAPTER  3 

The  Guhayna  Group  (continued) 

(i)    THE  BAKKARA 

I  The  word  "Bakkara"  means  no  more  than  "cattlemen,"  and  it 
is  primarily  applied  to  the  large  group  of  closely  cognate  nomadic 
or  semi-nomadic  Arab  tribes  inhabiting  the  rich  belt  of  country 
which  may  be  roughly  described  as  lying  south  of  the  thirteenth 
parallel  of  latitude  and  stretching  from  the  White  Nile  to  Lake  Chad1. 

Generally  speaking  the  typical  Bakkara  at  their  best  are  a  dark 
lithe  people  with  clearly  cut  handsome  features,  hawk-eyed,  with 
sparse  beards  tilted  forward  and  moustaches  carefully  combed  to 
bristle2.  The  young  "  bloods"  roll  their  hair  in  tresses  back  from  the 
forehead,  but  with  middle  age  the  habit  is  discarded3.  They  carry  a 
very  long-shafted  and  full-bladed  spear.  The  women  and  young  girls 
ride  on  bulls  and  wear  great  lumps  of  amber4  round  their  necks  and 
bosses  of  silver  across  the  forehead.  Their  hair  is  brought  straight 
forward  in  braids  on  the  crown  of  the  head  and  rolled  back  into  a 
fringe  across  the  forehead.  Large  earrings  and  nose-rings  are  also 
worn.  They  evince  little  shyness  and  do  not  affect  the  exaggerated 
modesty  and  secretiveness  which  has  spread  from  Egypt  along  the 
banks  of  the  Nile.  On  the  contrary,  the  girls,  though  never  exceeding 
the  bounds  of  decency,  and  wearing  a  "  rahad"  or  a  long  flap  of  cloth 
before  and  behind,  habitually  display  breasts  and  thighs  to  all  the 
world5. 

Among  the  men  it  is  very  frequent  to  note  a  cast  of  face  that  with 

1  The  term  Bakkara  is  sometimes  applied,  quite  legitimately,  to  various  other 
cattle-ownmg  tribes  such  as  the  Kenana,  the  Hasania,  the  Bedayria  of  Kordofan, 
the  Ma'alia,  etc. ;  but  these,  belonging  to  quite  different  groups,  are  only  occasionally 
spoken  of  as  Bakkara,  and  that  with  special  reference  to  their  cattle.  The  term 
Bakkara  in  the  Sudan,  when  used  in  a  general  sense,  is  always  taken  to  mean  the 
tribes  dealt  with  in  this  chapter — the  Bakkara  par  excellence. 

2  A  small  comb  for  the  beard  and  moustache  is  worn  hanging  round  the  neck. 

3  Browne  (p.  466,  App.  11)  speaking  of  the  Messfria  says  they  "  comb  their  hair 
back,  twist  it,  and  fasten  it  in  the  form  of  a  scorpion's  tail  behind":  a  good 
description. 

4  A  fashion  common  also  to  the  Kanembu.  "  Les  femmes  Kanembou  aiment 
beaucoup  l'ambre  comme  parure  et,  suivant  leurs  ressources,  les  morceaux  d'ambre 
dont  se  composent  leurs  colliers  sont  plus  ou  moins  gros"  (Carbou,  1,  39,  40). 
Compare  Denham,  Clapperton  and  Oudney's  description  of  the  Shawfa  Arabs  of 
Bornu  coming  to  market  on  their  bulls  (Narrative,  p.  167). 

5  For  a  good  account  of  the  Bakkara  mode  of  life  see  Pallme's  sixth  chapter. 


272  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  m.  3. 1. 

its  high  protruding  forehead,  wide  mouth  and  weak  chin  at  once 
suggests  the  Fellata,  and  it  is  an  established  fact  that  large  numbers 
of  that  race  have  become  incorporated  with  the  Bakkara  tribes  since 
they  first  settled  in  Central  Africa.  This  is  of  course  more  especially 
true  of  the  Salamat  and  Haymad,  the  most  westernly  Bakkara,  who 
live  among  a  population  that  is  largely  Fellata1  and  who  appear  to 
include  sections  of  that  people2;  but  it  also  applies  to  the  more 
easternly  Bakkara  as  we  shall  see  in  dealing  with  the  Hawazma. 

II  As  a  whole  the  Bakkara  are,  with  the  possible  exception  of  the 
Shaikia,  the  most  warlike  Arabs  in  the  Sudan :  they  are  also  the  most 
inveterate  slave  traders  and  raiders,  and  living  as  they  do  on  the 
northern  confines  of  the  negro  country  they  have  indulged  their  pre- 
datory propensities  ad  libitum  for  so  long  as  they  have  not  been 
repressed  by  the  firm  hand  of  the  Government. 

The  same  qualities  that  have  made  them  bold  fighters  and  hunters 
have  at  all  times  since  their  settlement  in  Africa  brought  them  into 
collision  with  the  rulers  of  the  more  sedentary  people  who  inhabit 
the  zone  immediately  north  of  them,  with  the  Sultans  and  Meks,  that 
is,  of  Bornu,  Wadai,  Darfur  and  Kordofan. 

In  the  dry  season  of  the  year  the  Bakkara  move  with  all  their 
cattle  to  the  rivers  of  the  south  and  there  hunt  the  elephant  and  raid 
the  negroes,  but  when  the  rains  render  the  southern  Bakkara  country 
a  swamp  of  cotton-soil  infested  by  the  fly  they  move  northwards  to 
the  clean  pastures  of  the  higher  ground  and  cultivate  or  graze  their 
herds.  It  is  then  that  they  have  been  apt  to  become  involved  in 
quarrels  with  the  sedentary  people  of  the  Sultanates. 

They  have  not,  however,  been  invariably  successful,  except  in  so 
far  as  a  perennial  evasion  of  the  full  tribute  demanded  may  be 
counted  success,  and  in  consequence  they  have  at  different  periods 
migrated  eastwards  or  westwards  along  the  line  of  least  resistance 
and  various  sections  have  been  transplanted  from  place  to  place  and 
from  tribe  to  tribe  until  it  is  impossible  to  say  how  they  were  originally 
grouped.  In  the  account  which  follows  I  have  taken  as  the  units  the 
tribes  as  they  appear  at  present  and  specified  the  various  sections 
subject  to  each,  but  it  will  be  at  once  obvious  from  a  comparison  of 
the  lists  of  these  sections  and  from  a  study  of  the  past  history  of  the 
Bakkara  that  no  real  racial  dividing  line  can  be  drawn  between  any 
one  tribe  of  them  and  any  other. 

In  Kordofan,  where,  if  one  omit  the  brief  orgy  of  the  "  Mahdia" 
there   has  been   a   settled  Government  for  nearly  a  century,  the 

1  Carbou,  n,  51. 

2  See  Chevalier,  Afrique  centrale  frangaise,  p.  321,  quoted  by  Carbou,  II,  60. 


in.  3.  iv.  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  273 

Bakkara  tribes  have  crystallised  into  more  or  less  permanent  shape, 
but  in  Darfur,  where  the  old  conditions  prevailed  until  the  deposition 
of  'Ali  Dinar  in  191 6,  the  old  process  continued  in  a  marked  degree  and 
many  families  of  other  tribes  were  continually  seeking  the  protection 
of  the  powerful  Rizaykat,  while  others,  such  as  the  Beni  Helba, 
decamped  into  Wadai.  The  occupation  of  Darfur  was  the  signal  for 
most  of  these  Beni  Helba  and  other  refugees  to  start  returning  to 
their  previous  pasturing  grounds. 

The  Bakkara  are  seen  at  their  best  in  Kordofan,  where  the  type 
has  remained  virile  and  independent.  They  are  probably  at  their 
worst  in  Darfur,  the  Rizaykat  excepted,  for  there  they  have  been 
consistently  oppressed  and  robbed  and  have  become  half  sedentary, 
dirty,  lazy  and  mentally  inert. 

III  The  present  distribution  of  the  Bakkara  is  as  follows:  on  the 
extreme  east,  on  the  banks  of  the  White  Nile,  are  the  Beni  Selim. 
In  Kordofan,  from  east  to  west,  are  the  Awl  ad  Hamayd  and  a  branch 
of  the  Darfur  Habbania,  both  living  south  of  Um  Ruaba  and  round 
Tekali.  Then  the  Hawazma,  between  El  Obeid  Dilling  and  Talodi1; 
then  the  Messi'ria,  south  of  Abu  Zabad ;  and,  lastly,  the  Humr  between 
El  Odaya  and  the  Bahr  el  'Arab. 

In  southern  Darfur  are  the  Rizaykat,  comprising  the  Mahamid 
Mahria  and  Nawaiba,  the  Habbania,  the  Ta'ai'sha,  the  Beni  Helba 
and  a  few  Beni  Khuzam;  and  farther  north  some  Messi'ria,  Ta'elba, 
or  Tha'aliba,  Hotia,  Sa'ada,  Tergam,  Beni  Husayn  and  Bashir. 

In  Wadai,  Bornu  and  Bakirmi  are  Beni  Helba,  Beni  Khuzam, 
Nawaiba,  Beni  Rashid  (Rowashda)  and  Ziud,  and  the  Salamat. 

IV  The  writers  of  the  "nisbas"  were  riverain  folk  and  evidently 
knew  little  of  the  distant  Bakkara:  they  either  omit  them  or  per- 
functorily allot  to  them  some  more  than  usually  shadowy  ancestor; 
but  the  general  impression  one  receives  from  the  traditional  gene- 
alogies is  probably  a  correct  one,  namely,  that  the  Bakkara  and  the 
camel-owning  Fezara  group  to  the  north  are  both  branches  of  the 
same  great  "Guhayna2'''  group,  and  that,  furthermore,  the  non- 
Fezara  portion  of  this  group  are  not  all  Bakkara  but  divided  in  the 
case  of  each  tribe  into  cattle-owners  in  the  south  and  camel-owners 
in  the  north.  Thus  it  arises  that,  for  instance,  the  Mahamid  and  the 
Mahria  are  independent  nomad  tribes  of  camel-owners  in  northern 
Darfur  and  Wadai,  while  other  Mahamid  and  Mahria  compose  two- 
thirds  of  the  Rizaykat  in  southern  Darfur.   It  is  easy  to  see  how  this 

1  There  is  also  a  small  colony  of  them  in  the  Fama  district  of  the  Upper  Nile 
Province  (A.  E.  Sudan,  I,  196). 

2  It  will  be  seen  that  the  term  "  Guhayna"  is  loosely  used  to  include  a  number 
of  connected  Arabian  tribes,  particularly  Harb. 

M.  S.  I  18 


274  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  ni.  3.  iv. 

may  have  happened.  When  the  Arabs  entered  the  central  states1 
they  came  no  doubt  with  their  camels  and  sheep :  cattle  they  presum- 
ably had  none,  or  but  few.  As  they  would  have  been  a  nuisance  to 
the  sedentary  population  cultivating  the  central  belt  and  would  have 
had  themselves  no  security  for  their  herds,  they  naturally  gravitated, 
some  to  the  more  barren  spaces  of  the  north,  and  some  to  the  forests 
and  bogs  of  the  south.  The  camel  of  course  cannot  exist  in  the  south 
because  of  the  tsetse  fly  and  the  poisonous  "gullum"  creeper,  and 
such  Arabs  as  went  there  imitated  the  indigenous  population  and 
took  to  cattle-rearing2.  This  is  merely  suggested  as  one  way  in  which 
the  tribes  may  have  been  divided,  but  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose 
that  other  causes  which  are  readily  imaginable  did  not  also  operate  to 
the  same  end.  The  southern  group  intermarried  with  the  older  negro 
inhabitants  and  became  darker  in  complexion:  the  northern  group 
mixed  in  the  west  to  some  extent  with  the  Tibbu  tribes  but  remain 
very  much  lighter. 

V  An  interesting  point  may  now  be  discussed.  Did  the  Bakkara 
reach  their  present  habitat  by  way  of  the  Nile  or  did  they  come  due 
south  or  south-east  to  the  Chad  region  and  Bornu  and  Wadai  from 
North  Africa,  and  thence  spread  eastwards  to  the  Nile? 

The  fact  that  'Abdulla  el  Guhani  is  generally  regarded  by  them- 
selves as  their  ancestor,  and  the  fact  that  they  consider  the  Fezara 
group  as  their  cousins3,  are  obviously  arguments  in  favour  of  the 
former  view:  so  also  is  the  evidence  of  the  Sudanese  "nisbas,"  which 
make  no  suggestion  of  a  south-easternly  migration.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  "'Abdulla  el  Guhani"  tradition  might  simply  have  been 
appropriated  from  immigrants  from  the  Nile,  and  some  of  the  Bak- 
kara do  state  that  their  ancestors  came  direct  from  Tunis  or  Fezzan 
with  their  camels  to  the  countries  west  of  Darfur4,  and  in  giving 
their  genealogy5  or  history  others  say  of  some  particular  forebear: 
"It  was  he  who  brought  the  tribe  from  Borku"  [i.e.  Wadai:  s.c.  to 
Kordofan],  and  these  forebears  are,  as  a  rule,  said  to  have  lived  from 
five  to  nine  generations  ago  and  to  be  the  sons  of  the  eponymous 
ancestors  of  the  various  sections. 

But  though  there  is  no  room  for  doubting  that  considerable 

1  They  seem  to  have  established  themselves  by  "peaceful  penetration"  rather 
than  by  force  of  arms. 

2  The  Hawazma,  e.g.,  told  me  their  ancestors  originally  "bought  a  bull  and  a 
cow  from  a  Fellati  pilgrim." 

3  See  genealogical  trees  at  the  end  of  this  chapter. 

4  E.g.  see  MacMichael,  Tribes...,  pp.  146,  151. 

5  I  have  never  seen  a  manuscript  Bakkara  pedigree,  but  have  written  down 
several  from  oral  information  and  seen  several  others  so  compiled.  No  two  ever 
agree  in  every  respect,  but  the  degree  of  coincidence  is  remarkable. 


in.  3.  v.  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  275 

numbers  of  Arabs  did  push  southwards  from  Tunis  Algiers  and 
Morocco  to  Central  Africa  in  the  centuries  following  the  Hilalian 
invasion  of  North  Africa1,  and  though  one  may  admit  that  the  pre- 
valence of  the  Abu  Zayd  el  Hilali  tradition  among  the  Bakkara  is  a 
little  suggestive,  we  have  the  definite  statement  of  Ibn  Khaldun  that 
in  the  first  half  of  the  fourteenth  century  the  Guhayna  swarmed  over 
Nubia  and  rapidly  pushed  farther  afield  "following  the  rainfall2," 
and  modern  expert  opinion  has  heavily  preponderated  in  favour  of 
the  view  that  the  Bakkara  came  from  the  east.  For  instance,  Barth 
says3  of  the  Shoa  (Shawia)— the  name  given  locally  to  the  semi- 
sedentary  Bakkara  Arabs  of  Bornu  Bakirmi  and  Chad,  and  par- 
ticularly to  the  Salamat  : 

Of  the  migration  of  these  Arabs  from  the  east  there  cannot  be  the 
least  doubt.  They  have  advanced  gradually  through  the  eastern  part  of 
Negroland.... Their  dialect  is  quite  different  from  the  Maghrebi,  while  in 
many  respects  it  still  preserves  the  purity  and  eloquence  of  the  language  of 
Hijaz.... These  Shuwa  are  divided  into  many  distinct  families  or  clans,  and 
altogether  may  form  in  Bornu  a  population  of  from  200,000  to  250,000  souls. 

He  adds  that  they  appear  to  have  immigrated  gradually  from  the 
east  from  very  early  times,  "although  at  present  we  have  no  direct 
historical  proofs  of  the  presence  of  these  Arabs  in  Bornu  before  the 
time  of  Edris  Alawoma"  (1571-1603);  and  he  mentions  the  systems 
of  blood-money  (" dhia" — which  by  the  way  maintains  among  all 
the  nomad  Arabs  of  the  Sudan)  and  infibulation  of  females  as  con- 
necting the  Salamat-Shoa  with  the  east4.  Similarly  M.  Carbou,  who 
divides  the  Shoa  into  two  groups,  one  from  the  north  and  the  other, 
the  "Guhayna"  group,  from  the  east,  also  remarks5  that  the  use  of 
the  word  "Nuba"  for  "all  indigenous  non-Arab  Muhammadans " 
lends  weight  to  the  current  tradition  of  an  early  sojourn  in  what 
is  now  the  Anglo-Egyptian  Sudan6.  In  the  same  way  the  habit 
in  use  among  the  western  Arabs  of  denoting  the  Kanembu  as 
"Hamag7"  points  as  clearly  to  a  connection  with  the  "Tribes  of 

1  Q.v.  in  Part  II.  The  Arabs  of  Bornu,  Bakirmi  and  Chad  district — chiefly  semi- 
sedentary  Bakkara — are  called  Shoa,  or  Shawia  (Barth,  "Shuwa"  and  "Shiwa") 
by  the  indigenous  tribes. 

2  See  p.  139,  above. 

s  Vol.  11,  Ch.  xxxii,  pp.  355-356.  4  Vol.  in,  Ch.  lii,  p.  465. 

5  Vol.  11,  pp.  4,  8,  9,  20,  28,  48.  6  Carbou,  11,  47. 

7  Ibid.  I,  36.  Carbou  is  apparently  unaware  of  the  existence  of  a  tribe  called 
Hamag  in  the  eastern  Sudan  and  therefore  fails  to  explain  the  term.  So,  too, 
Nachtigal  (Voy.  an  Ouaddi,  p.  74)  says  "Les  Hammedj's  sont  les  derniers  auto- 
chtones  du  Kanem.  lis  sont  de  la  famille  des  Boulala's  " — also,  it  seems,  in  ignorance 
of  the  Hamag  of  Sennar.  There  is  no  evidence  of  a  Hamag  movement  from  east 
to  west  or  vice  versa  at  any  time  and  the  term  Hamag  was  probably  no  more  than 
an  Arab  importation,  used  to  denote  any  uncivilized  people.  An  exactly  similar 
use  of  the  word  occurs  in  MS.  C  3  11. 


276  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  m.s.v. 

Guhayna"  who  in  the  sixteenth  century  had  "reached  a  total  of 
fifty-two  tribes  in  the  land  of  Soba  on  the  Blue  Nile  under  the  rule 
of  the  Fung,"  though  most  of  them  were  "  in  the  west1." 

The  main  "Guhayna"  group  having  come  from  the  east  as 
camel-owners  and  shepherds  in  the  fourteenth  and  following  cen- 
turies appear  to  have  straightway  pushed  as  far  westwards  as  Bornu, 
but  how  long  elapsed  before  branches  of  them  moved  farther  south 
and  became  Bakkara  we  do  not  know. 

In  Kordofan  these  latter  groups  had  been  anticipated  by  the 
Ga'ali  group  from  Dongola,  who  had  settled  round  el  Rahad  and 
el  Birka  and  intermarried  with  the  Nuba,  and  it  may  be  that  the 
' Guhayna"  Arabs  first  became  cattle-breeders  in  the  countries  west 
of  Kordofan.  But  at  a  later  date,  five  to  eight  generations  ago,  there 
was  a  return  movement  eastwards  caused  by  adverse  political  con- 
ditions in  the  west,  and  various  Bakkara  groups  migrated  to  join 
their  kin  in  southern  Kordofan. 

The  Bakkara  of  the  west,  however,  have  been  joined  by  arabicized 
Berbers  from  North  Africa,  and  it  may  have  been  the  presence  of 
these  latter  that  has  given  rise  to  the  doubtful  tradition  that  the 
Bakkara  came  not  from  the  Nile  but  from  Tunis.  At  all  events  it 
was  presumably  the  difficulty  of  embodying  into  their  traditions  both 
the  Abu  Zayd  el  Hilali  (Tunis)  connection  and  also  the  real  fact  of 
their  original  migration  from  the  Nile  that  gave  birth  to  the  apocry- 
phal "Great  Trek"  of  Abu  Zayd  from  the  east  over  the  Blue  and 
White  Niles  and  Kordofan2. 
VI  Let  us  now  take  the  Bakkara  tribes  separately,  from  east  to 

west. 

(a)   BENI  SELfM 

Of  the  Beni  Seli'm  of  the  White  Nile  the  "nisbas"  can  tell  us 
nothing  of  any  interest.  Their  country  at  present  extends  nearly  as 
far  south  as  Kaka3,  and  thus  lies  north  of  that  of  the  Shilluk  and  the 
Dinka  and  south  of  that  of  the  Ahamda,  but  it  is  probably  only 
within  the  last  two  centuries  that  they  have  been  able  to  dominate 
the  river  banks  at  the  expense  of  the  two  former  tribes. 

In  the  rains  the  fly  drives  them  northwards,  or  eastwards  over 
the  river4. 

They  mix  largely  with  the  Dinka,  and  not  being  cultivators  them- 
selves rely  upon  them  and  the  Shilluk  for  their  grain  supply5. 

Though  Bakkara,  they  have  taken,  no  doubt  since  their  move- 
ment to  the  river,  to  breeding  more  sheep  than  cattle. 

1  See  p.  139.  a  See  MacMichael,  Tribes...,  Chap.  II. 

3  Anglo-Eg.  Sudan,  1,  130.  *  Ibid.  1,  64.  5  Ibid.  1,  196. 


in.  3.  vii.  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  277 

Their  two  main  divisions  are  the  Um  Tarif  and  the  Awlad 
Mahbub1. 

(b)  AWLAD  HAMAYD 

VII  The  Awlad  Hamayd  round  Tekali  claim  to  be  descended 
through  el  Gunayd,  the  usual  Bakkara  ancestor,  from  Babikr  walad 
el  'Abbas,  a  Ga'ali  immigrant  to  Kordofan.  The  pedigree  they  pro- 
duce in  support  of  this  claim  is  as  follows2 : 

'Abbas 

I 
Babikr 

I 
Ahmad 

'  I 
El  Gunayd 
I 
Hammad 
I 


Hamayd  Habban  Hamid 

(AWLAD  HAMAYD      (Habbania)  (Ahamda) 

Gadayf 

I 

AH 

I 

Abdulla 

I 

Hilal 


Baivui  Buiaia 

I" 
El  Ayyan 


I  I  I  I  I 

Askar  Ahmad  Abdulla  Ghonaym        Muhammad 

El  'Ayyan,  they  say,  was  the  first  "ndzir"  of  the  tribe  and  he 
seems  to  have  lived  about  the  time  of  the  Turkish  conquest,  i.e.  1821. 
His  eighth  successor,  Dedan,  was  "ndzir"  at  the  time  of  the  Dervish 
revolt  (1881). 

The  generations  as  given  previous  to  el  Gunayd  are  presumably 
based  on  pure  invention  and  the  desire  for  relationship  with  Kuraysh, 
and  those  immediately  following  him  are  little  better. 

But  "Baivui"  and  "Buiaia"  are  not  names  that  any  Arab  would 
invent:  they  have  a  strong  Nuba  ring  and  are  probably  authentic3. 
The  name  of  el  Gunayd  and  the  close  connection  of  the  Awlad 
Hamayd  with  the  Habbania  are  reminiscences  of  the  usual  Bakkara 

1  Anglo-Eg.  Sudan  I,  130.  Of  their  history  I  know  nothing.  Petherick  records  an 
expedition  sent  in  1858  from  Kordofan  against  them  by  the  Turks  on  account  of 
their  non-payment  of  tribute.  Several  thousands  of  cattle  were  taken  ( Upper  Egypt. . . , 
pp.  299,  320). 

2  Supplied  to  me  by  Capt.  M.J.  Wheatley,  in  191 3  Inspector  of  Tekali  district. 

3  The  name  Buiaia  occurs  again  as  that  of  el  Ayyan's  great-grandson. 


278  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  in.  3.  vn. 

trees,  which  almost  always  group  these  two  tribes  and  the  Ta'aisha 
together. 

Nachtigal  gives  some  account  of  the  Awl  ad  Hamayd1  of  Wadai  and 
Bornu.  They  were  alleged  to  be  closely  connected  with  the  Bulala. 

Quand  cette  tribu,  venant  de  l'Est,  emigra  au  Soudan,  une  fraction 
demeura  au  Kordofan,  une  au  Ouada'i,  une  se  fixa  au  Bahr-el-Ghazal2, 
une  enfin  au  Baguirmi  et  au  Fitri.  C'est  cette  derniere  fraction  qui  fut  le 
noyau  du  grand  etat  qui  reunit  un  jour  les  territoires  des  Kouka's,  du 
Fitri  et  du  Kanem.  Cette  fraction  des  Oulad  Hamed,  devenue  tout  a  fait 
sedentaire,  s'etait  alliee  aux  Kouka's  et  en  avait  adopte  le  langage  (Tar  lisi), 
ce  qui  n'empechait  la  langue  arabe  d'etre  restee  extremement  repandue. 

It  seems,  then,  that  the  substratum  of  the  Awlad  Hamayd  of 
Kordofan  is  in  part  Bakkara,  akin  to  that  of  the  Ta'aisha  and  Hab- 
bania, and  in  part  Nuba  of  the  Tekali  type.  Their  Arab  ancestors 
may  have  settled  round  Tekali  at  the  time  of  the  great  Guhayna 
movement,  and  they  have  been  reinforced  by  others  of  their  kin  who 
have  returned  from  the  western  countries  whither  they  had  gone  at 
the  time  that  the  Kordofan  settlement  first  occurred.  As  in  the  case 
of  the  ruling  family  at  Tekali3,  these  Awlad  Hamayd  may  have  ab- 
sorbed a  slight  element  of  the  Dongolawi — sufficient  at  least  to  make 
them  aspire  to  a  Ga'ali  pedigree — and  they  certainly  intermarried 
with,  or  included  into  their  particular  group,  various  families  of 
other  Bakkara. 

The  Turkish  period  provides  no  more  than  traditions  of  grazing 
disputes  and  desultory  fighting  between  the  Awlad  Hamayd  the 
Habbania  and  the  Halafa  section  of  the  Hawazma.  The  eventual 
result  was  unfavourable  to  the  first-named  tribe  and  by  the  date  of 
the  outbreak  of  the  Dervish  revolt  they  had  lost  many  of  their  fighting 
men  and  a  large  proportion  of  their  herds.  They  attempted  to  resist 
the  Mahdi  at  first  but  were  easily  crushed,  and  what  was  left  of  the 
tribe  joined  the  Dervishes. 

It  was  not  until  the  reoccupation  of  the  Sudan  that  the  scattered 
remnants  of  the  tribe  returned  to  their  ancient  haunts  and  were  able 
to  re-form. 

(c)   HABBANfA 

VIII  The  Habbania  who  live  between  el  Rahad  and  Sherkayla  are 
a  branch  of  the  Darfur  tribe  of  the  same  name  and  immigrated  from 
Kalaka,  which  is  still  the  headquarters  of  the  main  tribe,  some  four 
or  five  generations  ago. 

1  "Oulad  Hamed — ou  Oulad  Homeid,  dans  certaines  regions — "  (Voy.  au 
Ouada'i,  p.  13). 

2  Not  the  Bahr  el  Ghazal  of  the  Anglo-Egyptian  Sudan  of  course. 

3  See  MS.  "A 7." 


III.  3.  VIII. 


THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP 


279 


Both  in  Kordofan  and  Darfur  they  have  numerous  villages  and 
are  less  nomadic  than  the  average  tribe  of  Bakkara.  In  the  tribal 
"nisbas"  they  are  always  connected  closely  with  the  Ta'aisha1.  The 
Kordofan  section,  previously  to  the  Mahdia,  were  generally  at  logger- 
heads either  with  the  Gawama'a,  the  Gima'a,  the  Hawazma  and  the 
Awlad  Hamayd,  or  with  the  people  of  Tekali. 

In  1876  their  numbers  were  assessed  at  about  80002:  in  1881, 
when  the  tribute  was  reassessed,  £e.  215  were  demanded  from  the 
Kordofan  branch  as  against  £e.  2640  from  those  in  Darfur3,  but 
immigration  in  recent  years,  particularly  by  the  Riafa  section,  has 
tended  to  equalise  the  numbers  of  the  two  branches. 

The  main  tribe  in  Darfur  border  on  the  Rizaykat  to  the  east,  the 
Ta'aisha  to  the  west,  the  Masalat  to  the  north  and  the  Dinka  to 
the  south.  Their  country  resembles  Dar  Humr  and  Dar  Rizaykat  in 
general,  but,  extending  farther  south,  suffers  more  from  fly  and  is 
more  marshy.  They  cultivate  less  corn  than  the  Bakkara  living  east 
of  them  and  rely  largely  on  wild  rice  and  " dkifra"  (Pannicum 
Isachne).   Elephant  hunting  is  much  in  vogue  among  them. 

As  a  tribe  they  are  divided  into  Tara  and  Sot4,  but  the  subtribes 
of  the  latter  seem  to  be  known  collectively  as  el  Zi'adat.  There  is  no 
particular  line  of  cleavage  between  the  Darfur  and  Kordofan  portions 
of  the  tribe  and  most,  if  not  all,  of  the  following  sections  are  common 
to  both. 


A.  Tara 


I 


Shebba  5  f 

(a)  Awlad  Hamayd 
j  (b)  Noala 

(c)  Hawaila 

(d)  Mirayrat 

(e)  Hilaylat 
(/)  Selmania 
(g)  Awlad  Sa'ud 

Shaybun 

((a)  Awlad  Delota 
-  (b)  Um  'Arab 
((c)  Awlad  Ma'afa 


a)  Awlad  'Aid 

b)  ,,      Zaid 

c)  „     Abu  'Amir 

d)  „      Gargar 

e)  El  Derabin 
/)  Awlad  Bello 
g)  El  Kamarsa 

h)  Awlad  Rihayma 

j)  Awlad  Idris,  or  Um  Idri's 

k)  El  Kigama 

/)   El  Mahada6 

m)  El  Hadayli 


1  Cp.  Carbou,  II,  51,  54,  where  the  Habbanfa  and  Ta'aisha  are  similarly  referred 
to  as  being  both  subtribes  of  "H£mat"  (i.e.  Haymad). 

2  Prout.  3  Stewart. 

4  The  tara  is  properly  a  cymbal,  the  sot  a  whip.  Both  occur  as  names  of  camel 
brands.  The  former  is  shaped  £*  and  placed  on  the  neck  of  a  camel,  the  latter  is 
a  long  perpendicular  line  branded  on  the  quarters,  from  the  backbone  downwards, 
like  a  hanging  whip.  (See  MacMichael,  Camel  Brands...,  figs.  113,  114,  117.)  The 
terms  presumably  date  back  to  the  time  when  the  Habbania  were  camel-owners. 
Compare  the  case  of  the  Ta'aisha. 

5  These  twelve  small  sections,  all  occurring  in  Kordofan,  all  belong  either  to  the 
Shebba  or  the  Shaybun  branches.  6  See  note  on  p.  83. 


280 


THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP 


III.  3.  VIII. 


B. 


Sot 
i. 


RlAFA 

/(a)  AwlAd  Abu  'Ayad 

(b)  El  FeraygAt 

(c)  Awlad  Abu  NigAd 
\(d)        ,,      Sa'adAn 

(e)  NAs  Kelbi 
^(/)  El  MesA'id 

Shabul1 

(a)  KenAt,  or  KenayAt 

(b)  AwlAd  Borkowi 

(c)  „      Abu  'Ali 

(d)  El  BedArin 


2  j  (a)  AwlAd  Um  Sunta 
\(b)        „      Sa'adAn 


(d)  HAWAZMA 

IX  The  HawAzma  are  perhaps  more  mixed  with  purely  extraneous 
elements  than  any  other  BakkAra  tribe,  as  the  "  nisba  "-writers  knew3, 
and  this  is  due  to  the  fact  that  during  the  greater  part  of  the  year  they 
live  among  the  villages  of  Bedayria  and  other  semi-Arab  peoples  in 
the  country  lying  immediately  north  of  the  Nuba  hills.  Of  the  three 
main  divisions  of  the  tribe  one,  the  Halafa,  is  little  more  than  a 
league4  of  families  of  TakArir5  from  the  west,  GellAba  HowAra 
and  ZenAra  from  the  north6,  GawAma'a  and  Nuba,  who  in  the  days 
of  the  Fung  desired  to  pasture  their  cattle  under  the  protection  and 
the  name  of  the  HawAzma.  The  large  and  once  powerful  Asirra 
section  are  in  Kordofan  reckoned  to  be  Bedayria. 

There  would  seem  to  be  some  connection  between  the  true 
original  HawAzma  and  the  Beni  Harb  of  the  Hegaz,  who  are  neigh- 
bours of  the  Guhayna  and  the  supposition  may  in  that  case  apply 
equally  to  most  of  the  BakkAra.  As  evidence  of  this  connection  the 
following  passage  from  Burton's  Pilgrimage7  may  be  cited : 

The  Benu  Harb  is  now  the  ruling  clan  in  the  Holy  Land.  It  is  divided 
by  genealogists  into  two  great  bodies,  first,  the  Banu  Salim,  and,  secondly, 

1  A  section  of  the  same  name  occurs  among  the  Manasir,  and  the  best  known 
brand  of  the  Hamar  Gharaysfa  and  of  the  Towal  Kababfsh  is  also  called  the 
"shabul." 

2  These  two  small  sections,  both  in  Kordofan,  belong  either  to  the  Riafa  or  the 
Shabul. 

3  Cp.  in  particular  D  i  cxxxiv. 

4  Hence  their  name.  They  sealed  the  alliance  with  an  oath  (i.e.  lyU.^. "  halafu  "). 
For  precisely  the  same  custom  in  Arabia  see  Robertson  Smith,  p.  45. 

5  Many  villages  of  Fellata  and  Takarfr  are  scattered  in  the  Bedayria-Hawazma 
country  south  of  el  Obeid. 

6  Both  tribes  are  originally  connected  with  the  North  African  Berbers.  The 
Zenara  were  a  branch  of  the  Luata.    For  the  Howara  see  Part  II,  Ch.  1,  App. 

7  11,  120;  and  cp.  11,  28,  and  1,  231,  where  the  "Howazim"  are  also  mentioned 
as  a  turbulent  section  of  Harb  near  Medina.  Doughty  (Wanderings...,  11,  135)  also 
mentions  "Hazim,  an  ancient  fendy  of  Harb...snibbed  as  Heteym." 


in.  3.  ix.  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  281 

the  Masruh,  or  "roaming  tribes."  The  Banu  Salim,  again,  have  eight  sub- 
divisions, viz.: 

1.  Ahamidah  (Ahmadi)....It  is  said  to  contain  about  3500  men.    Its 

principal  sub-clan  is  the  Hadari. 

2.  Hawazim  (Hazimi),  the  rival  tribe,  3000  in  number:  it  is  again 

divided  into  Muzayni  and  Zahiri. 

6.  Mahamid  (Mahmadi),  8000. 

7.  Rahalah  (Rihayli),  1000. 

8.  Timam  (Tamimi). 

The  mere  occurrence  of  the  name  "Hawazim,"  or  Hawazma 
{sing.  Hazmi),  might  be  a  mere  coincidence,  but  when  we  find  in 
conjunction  with  it  Ahamda1  and  Mahamid2,  both  names  of  Bakkara 
or  semi-BAKKARA  tribes,  and  "Rahalah,"  which  is  evidently  the 
same  as  Rowahla  {sing.  Rahli),  one  of  the  subtribes  of  the  KabAbish 
(among  whom,  as  we  shall  see,  the  'Atawia  also  are  ancestrally 
connected  with  the  Bakkara),  and  realize  that  Ahamda,  Mahamid, 
Hawazma  and  Rowahla  are  all  important  groups  in  Kordofan, 
and  that  KabAbish  and  Bakkara  alike  claim  descent  from  'Abdulla 
el  Guhani,  not  to  mention  the  obvious  similarity,  if  not  the 
identity,  between  the  names  of  Burton's  "Banu  Salim"  and  the 
Beni  Selim  Bakkara  of  the  White  Nile,  there  seems  small  room  for 
doubt  that  the  Bakkara  tribes  of  the  Sudan  contain  numerous  ele- 
ments that  are  also  common  to  the  Beni  Harb  of  the  Hegaz3.  The 
latter  are  an  Isma'ilitic  tribe,  originally  a  section  of  HawAzin,  who, 
again,  are  a  branch  of  Kays  'AylAn4.  In  proof  that  some  of  them 
did  come  to  Egypt  one  may  quote  Sir  J.  G.  Wilkinson.  In  his  list 
of  Arab  tribes  east  of  the  Nile  the  names  of  "Billee"  (Beli),  "Ge- 
haynee"  (Guhayna)  and  "Harb"  occur  in  close  proximity5. 

The  fact  that  the  Prophet  once  said  "  Of  a  truth  among  the  Arabs 
the  worst  names  are  the  Beni  Kelb  and  the  Beni  Harb6  "  may  explain 

1  The  singular  of  Ahamda  :~  the  Sudan  is  Hammadi  and  not  Ahmadi. 

2  The  singular  of  Mahamid  in  the  Sudan  is  Mahmudi  and  not  Mahmadi. 

3  Makrfzi  (ap.  Quatremere,  n,  191)  mentions  Awlad  Hazm  as  a  section  of  the 
Sinbis  branch  of  Tai  in  Egypt,  and  it  is  conceivable  that  the  original  Hawazma,  or 
Hawazim,  were  a  branch  of  Tai,  the  tribe  with  which  the  Messfria  are  also  said  to 
be  connected.  See  Wiistenfeld,  Tab.  6,  where  "Hizmir"  refers  to  the  same  person 
as  does  Quatremere 's  better  reading  of  "Hazm"  {i.e.  joj.a-.  for  j.aja.),  and  where 
"el  Maschr"  (i.e.  jAJ\,  "el  Mashr"  (Mishir?)),  the  son  of  Tha'aliba  and  great- 
great-grandson  of  Nebhan,  seems  to  correspond  to  "  Messir  "  the  traditional  ancestor 
of  the  Messfria,  who  appears  also  in  the  nisbas  as  son  of  Tha'aliba  and  great-great- 
grandson  of  "Nebhan,  a  section  of  Tai"  (D  1,  vn).  Possibly,  then,  while  certain 
Beni  Tai  detached  themselves  from  the  main  tribe  to  wander  southwards  into  the 
Sudan,  others  joined  the  Guhayna  or  the  Harb;  or  possibly  the  opposite  occurred 
and  the  Hawazma  broke  away  from  their  parent  stem  to  join  the  Tai:  almost  any 
similar  permutation  is  indeed  within  the  bounds  of  possibility. 

4  Wiistenfeld,  D  and  F.  5  Modern  Egypt...,  II,  380. 
6  See  Burton,  Pilgrimage...,  1,  247. 


282 


THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP 


III.  3.  IX 


why  it  is  that  the  BakkAra  in  general,  and  the  HawAzma  in  particular, 
preserve  no  record  or  tradition  of  connection  with  the  Beni  Harb. 

X  The  present  divisions  of  the  Hawazma,  all  of  whom  are  in 
Kordofan,  are  as  follows.  It  will  be  noticed  that  there  are  none  of 
those  coincidences  of  nomenclature  between  them  and  the  Bakkara 
living  farther  west  which  would  show  that  overlapping  and  inter- 
penetration  had  occurred  among  the  two  parties.  Such  elements  in 
the  Hawazma  as  are  not  original  have  been  absorbed  by  them  in 
eastern  and  southern  Kordofan. 


A.  'Abd  el  'Ali 


Dar  Gawad 


2.   AWLAD  GnABUSH 


B. 


3.  Dar  Bayti 

4.  Dar  Na'ayli 

Halafa 

Dar  'Ali 
Dar  FAid 
El  Asirra 


{(a)  Dar  Bakhoti 
\  (b)  Dar  Shalango 

(a)  DAr  Bat' ha 

(b)  AwlAd  Ba'ashom1 

(c)  Dar  Debl 

(d)  El  Ma'anAt 

(e)  AwlAd  GamA'a 

f  (a)  AwlAd  Abu  Adam 
\  (b)  El  Kura'An 


1. 
2. 


3- 


J  (c) 
(d) 

(e) 

(/) 
AwlAd  Ghonaym  ((a) 


C. 


.5.  El  T6g*a 

ROWOWGA 

.  DAr  GamA'i 


Um  wad  GAza 
AwlAd  Gomer 
El  Zurruk 
AwlAd  Mesheri 
,,       SerrAr 
„      Ma' ad  a 
DAr  Iga 
-|  (b)  AwlAd  Tadu 
c)  Dar  Tangal 


I 


< 


2.  AwlAd  Nuba3 


3.  Delamia 


[{a)  ElTowAl2 
\(b)  ElKusAr2 
1  (a)  AwlAd  Rahma 
-  lb)  DAr  BilAl 
[(c)  El  Fukara 

(a)  Awlad  Tayna 

(b)  SulaymAnia 

(c)  Um  Maginda 

(d)  Dar  'Agul 
,(e)  El  Muminin 


1  Ba'ash6m=  a  jackal.  2  "Towal"  =long; 

3  Nuba  is  said  to  have  been  son  of  Sanin  son  of  Kashama. 


Kusar"  =  short. 


in.  3.  x.  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  283 

The  'Abd  el  'Ali  section,  like  the  Rizaykat,  Messiria  and  Humr, 
generally  claim  to  be  descended  from  'Ati'a  and  say  they  are  the  true 
original  Hawazma.  This  may  well  be  so :  a  distinction  is  commonly 
drawn,  as  the  trees  show,  between  the  descendants  of  Gunayd  through 
'Ati'a  on  the  one  hand  and  through  Haymad1  on  the  other,  the 
Ta'aisha,  the  Habbani'a  and  the  Beni  Helba  falling  into  the  latter 
group  and  the  Humr,  Rizaykat,  Messiria  and  Hawazma  into  the 
former;  but  the  'Abd  el  'Ali  of  course  contain  many  alien  elements, 
e.g.  "el  Kura'an,"  like  every  other  subtribe  of  Bakkara. 

Of  the  Halafa  we  have  already  spoken. 

The  Rowowga  are  alleged  by  the  other  Hawazma  for  the  most 
part  not  to  belong  to  the  tribe  at  all,  by  descent  that  is,  but  to  be  in 
part  Beni  Seli'm  and  in  part  Ken  ana,  and  to  have  come  at  some 
distant  period  from  the  east  and  joined  the  'Abd  el  'Ali.  They 
probably  contain  more  Nuba  blood  than  most  of  the  other  sections. 
Not  only  is  one  of  their  main  divisions  called  Awlad  Nuba  but 
their  names  are  suggestive:  for  instance,  the  head  sheikh  of  the 
Rowowga,  Daud  el  Mamun,  gave  the  following  pedigree  in  1913 
to  a  Government  Inspector2  : 

El  Lieu 

I 

Hamid  Abu  Kitr 

I , 

I  I  I 

Karongo  Daud  Gabrfl 

I  I  I 

Kakidri  'Ali  Koko 

I  I  I 

Tawwar  Mamun        Mohanna 

I   .  I 

Somi  Daud 

"Karongo,"  "Kakidri"  and  "Koko"  are  obvious  Nuba  names,  and 
"el  Lieu"  is  certainly  not  Arabic. 

We  obtain  a  distinct  indication  of  the  approximate  date  at  which 
the  Hawazma  first  broke  away  from  the  parent  stem  by  examining 
the  pedigrees  of  the  present  generation.  The  names  of  the  eponymous 
ancestors  of  the  main  sections  are  quoted  as  those  of  sons,  grandsons 
or  great-grandsons  of  the  original  "Hazim,"  and  are  generally  re- 
membered by  all,  though  the  exact  relationship  of  each  to  other  is 
not ;  but  it  is  each  man's  own  business  to  know  how  he  is  connected 

1  M.  Carbou  (n,  51-74)  speaks  of  the  Haymad  ("H6mat")  as  the  most  important 
division  of  Bakkara  descended  from  Gunayd.  He  gives  their  subtribes  as  following: 
"Oulad  Hemed  [Hamayd?],  Oulad  'Amer,  Noumourra,  Djerarha,  Selmaniye, 
Ta'acha,  Nedjmiye  et  Habbaniye,"  and  adds  "Aux  H£mat  se  rattachent  encore: 
les  Dja'adne,  les  Salamat,  qui  constituent  une  des  tribus  arabes  les  plus  nombreuses 
de  l'Afrique  Centrale  et  les  Khouzam." 

2  Capt.  A.  L.  Hadow. 


284  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  m.3.x. 

with  this  family  of  traditional  ancestors.  To  take  the  case  of  four 
prominent  Hawazma1:  one  in  his  pedigree  gives  eight  generations 
as  interposing  between  himself  and  "Delam"  the  eponymous  an- 
cestor of  the  Delamia,  one  gives  six  and  one  varies  between  seven 
and  eight.  So  among  the  Awlad  Nuba  seven  generations  are  said  to 
have  lived  between  the  present  sheikh  and  "  Nuba."  One  may  guess 
that  until  seven  or  eight  generations,  or  200  to  300  years  ago,  the 
Hawazma  did  not  exist  as  a  separate  tribe,  but  that  the  ancestors  of 
the  non-alien  element  among  them  were  counted  (e.g.)  Messiria  until 
they  became  numerous  and  powerful  enough  to  break  away  and  call 
themselves  Hawazma. 

0)  MESSfRfA,  HUMR,  TA'ELBA,  H6T1A,  SA'ADA  AND  TERGAM 

XI  The  MessIria  and  Humr  were  at  one  time  a  single  tribe  and 
known  respectively  as  the  Messiria  Zurruk  ("dark")  and  the  Mes- 
sfRiA  Humr  ("red"2). 

One  finds  them  as  a  rule  so  referred  to  in  the  works  of  travellers 
who  met  them  in  the  nineteenth  century  in  Darfur  and  west  of  it3. 

In  Kordofan,  however,  the  two  divisions  have  become  so  dis- 
tinct that  the  Humr  no  longer  rate  themselves  Messiria  at  all,  and 
each  tribe  has  its  own  " ddr"  and  its  own  sheikhs. 

XII  I^UMR.  The  Humr  are  divided  into  the  Agaira  and  the  Felaita, 
and  these  two  independent  divisions  are  again  subdivided  as  follows4 : 

The  Agaira 
A.  'Aial  Khayr 

1 .  Awlad  Kamil  /  (a)  DAr  Muta 

(b)  ,,    Um  Shayba 

(c)  ,,     Salim 
<  (d)  Awlad  Kimayl  el     f  (i)  Um  Sallog 

Hamra  ((2)  Um  Ga'ar 

(e)  El  Fakarin 
V(/)  Awlad  Tuba 

1  Taken  from  Capt.  A.  L.  Hadow's  notes. 

2  This  subdivision  of  Arabs  into  Humr  and  Zurruk  is  not  confined  to  the  Mes- 
siria (see  Barth,  Vol.  ill,  App.  7).  It  may  have  coincided  originally  with  the  division 
into  northern  and  southern,  camel-owners  and  cattle-owners,  but  there  is  no  real 
evidence  that  that  is  so. 

3  See,  e.g.,  Nachtigal,  Voy.  au  Ouaddi,  p.  70;  Barth,  Vol.  in,  App.  7,  p.  545; 
and  El  Tunisi  {Darfur),  p.  129. 

4  These  lists  will  be  seen  to  differ  in  certain  details  from  those  given  in  Chap,  xi 
of  my  Tribes  of  Northern  and  Central  Kordofan.  For  most  of  the  corrections  I  am 
indebted  to  Mr  C.  A.  Willis,  who  for  some  years  was  Inspector  of  Western  Kordofan, 
and  whose  lists  I  have  compared  with  those  compiled  by  the  late  Capt.  W.  Lloyd, 
Mr  J.  W.  Sagar  and  myself. 


III.  3.  XII. 


THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP 


285 


2.  El  Kalabna     ((a)  Dar  Nala 

(b)  Ghashim 

(c)  DlRDIMMA 

I  (d)  DAr  Nut- ha 
\(e)  Dar  Mughaybil 

3.  El  MuzAghna 


((a)  Abu  TimAn 

(1) 

Dar  Khantur 

10 

El  TirAkna 

\(b)  'Aria 

[(c)  Dar  Bakhit 

4.  El  Fayarin1 

(a)  Awlad  'Ukla 

(b)       „       Um  Hani 

(c)       „       'Awana 

f(i) 

Awlad  Hamid 

(2) 

„       Khuda'a 

. 

(3) 

„       Um  Rahma 

(4) 

,,       Um  Bilala 

,(5) 

„       Musa 

(d)  Awlad  Hamdun 

r(i) 

Awlad  Na'im 

(2) 

„       el  Hamra 

- 

(3) 

„       Nilamta 

(4) 

,,       Abu  Sadak 

(5) 

„       Barak  a 

(e)  Awlad  Kimayl  el  Zarka 


B.  Awlad  'Omran 
1.  El  Manama 


2.  Awlad  'Adil 


(a)  AwlAd  Um  Gud 

(b)  Dar  Zabali 

(c)  ,,    Habibulla 

(d)  „    Ban  at 

(e)  „    Rahma 
(/)  Fadlia  Bardan 
(g)  Fadlia  Sabir 

(a)  Awlad  Nigaya 

(b)  „       Abu  Ghadaya 

(c)  „       Abu  Hamayd 

(d)  „       Abu  Hammad 

(e)  „       Abu  Ismail 
(/)  El  NawAs^ha 


1  These  also  appear  as  a  tribe  distinct  from  the  Humr  or  Messfria  and  have 
merely  attached  themselves  to  the  Humr.  See,  e.g.,  genealogical  tree  in  The 
Anglo-Eg.  Sudan...,  1,  334.  The  remainder  of  them  are  in  Borku. 


286 


THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP 


III.  3.  XII. 


The  Felaita 

a.  metaniin  i .  awlad  zlada1 

2.  El  ShAmi'a 
J  3 .  Awlad  Shabib 
"\4«       ,,       'Arafa 

5.  „       'Arif 

6.  El  Ziud2 

B.  Awlad  Surur  ,  1.  Awlad  Um  Khamis 


C.  El  GubarAt4  /i 


D.  El  SalAmAt5 


■{ 


2. 

3- 

4- 

5« 
6 


„       Gama'a 
„       Um  'Alyan 
,,       Um  Bokata 
„       Gafir3 
El  Gerafin3 

El  Shiba'    /(a)  Awlad 
(b)        „ 
\  (c)        „ 

id)        » 

(e) 
ELGuLADAj(a)  Awlad 

(A)        » 
[(c)        » 
Awlad  Ali 
,,       Sa'i'di 
„       Abu  Idris 
El  Gebabira 
Awlad  Fadl 

Abu  Kadaym 


Abu  HilAl 
Abu  GakAk 
Abu  'Id 
Mahsim 
Abd 
Garfa 
Budran 
Muhammad 


From  an  examination  of  some  of  the  Felaita  pedigrees  on  the 
lines  followed  above  in  the  case  of  the  HawAzma  it  appears  that  they 
and  the  Agaira  became  more  or  less  independent  of  the  MESsiRiA 
as  long  as  ten  generations  ago. 

The  Humr  country  lies  on  the  extreme  west  of  southern  Kordofan, 
from  the  neighbourhood  of  el  Odaya  to  the  Bahr  el  'Arab,  or  "Bahr 
el  Humr."  North  of  Muglad  it  consists  of  a  great  sandy  plain,  but 
to  the  south  it  is  black  cotton-soil  covered  with  thick  bush  and  crossed 
by  sandy  belts.  In  the  rains  the  Humr  are  between  Muglad  and  the 
confines  of  the  Hamar  to  the  north,  but  in  the  dry  season  they  and 

1  Cp.  El  Ziadat  among  the  Habbanfa. 

2  For  these  as  a  separate  tribe  farther  west  see  later. 

3  Most  of  these  are  in  Borku,  it  is  said. 

4  El  Gubarat  are  also  a  main  division  of  the  Ta'aisha.  Cp.  also  the  Beni  Gerar 
sections.  Until  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  there  had  long  been  a  tribe 
called  Gubarat  in  Sinai  round  el  'Arish.  They  then  moved  to  Gaza  (see  Na'um 
Bey,  Hist.  Sinai,  p.  108). 

6  For  these  as  a  separate  tribe  farther  west  see  later. 


ill.  3.  xiii.  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  287 

their  cattle  move  southwards  to  the  Bahr  el  'Arab,  where  they  come 
into  contact  with  the  Dinka. 

XIII  MESSiRfA  and  Ta'ELBA.  The  Messiri'a  are  a  large  and  power- 
ful tribe  in  Kordofan,  but  now  only  sparsely  represented  in  Darfur. 
In  the  former  province  they  were  by  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century  the  paramount  tribe  of  Bakkara  as  far  east  as  Sherkayla,  but 
the  rise  of  the  Hawazma  in  league  with  the  Bedayria  and  others  led 
to  the  Messi'ria  being  pushed  back  into  the  strictly  limited  stretch 
of  country  they  now  occupy  round  el  Sinut,  el  Mafura  and  the  Wadi 
el  Ghalla.  In  Darfur  and  Wadai  too  they  were,  previously  to  the 
Mahdia,  very  numerous1,  but  the  havoc  of  that  era  and  the  exactions 
of  successive  Sultans  of  Darfur  drove  many  into  south-eastern  Wadai 
(Dar  Runga).  As  soon  as  the  French  were  established  in  the  north 
many  of  these  moved  into  their  sphere  of  influence  to  escape  the 
clutches  of  the  native  dynasts,  and  now  form  a  considerable  pro- 
portion of  the  "  Arabes  refugies  au  Fitri2."  These,  it  may  be  noted, 
are  largely  breeders  of  camels.  They  bear  a  bad  reputation  as  raiders. 

The  Messi'ria  remaining  in  Darfur  live  a  semi-sedentary  life  in 
villages  round  Hammadi  and  Gebel  Kirru  to  the  east  of  Gebel  Marra. 
They  belong  chiefly  to  the  Zurruk  branch  and  are  breeders  of  cattle 
and  sheep.  Among  them  are  a  few  Humr  and  a  small  colony  of 
'Arakiin  from  the  Gezira. 

The  "nisbas"  in  general  agree  that  the  Messi'ria  are  closely  akin 
to  the  Arabian  Tha'aliba,  but  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  apparent 
corroboration  as  to  this  point  by  the  Arabian  genealogists  {see  note 
on  p.  281)  is  in  fact  corroboration  at  all  or  whether  the  tradition  of 
the  "  nisbas  "  is  not  merely  derived  from  the  Arabian  genealogists.  It  is 
curious  to  find  in  Darfur,  living  with  the  Messi'ria,  a  small  tribe  of 
Tha'aliba,  or  Ta'elba  as  they  are  generally  called,  and  to  find 
Carbou  saying  of  them3  "Les  Ta'aliba  descendent  de  Ta'leb,  fils  de 
Missir" — a  variation  no  doubt  of  the  "Meskhir  son  of  Tha'aliba" 
noticed  above.  Most  of  these  Ta'elba  live  near  the  south-east  corner 
of  Gebel  Marra  as  Bakkara,  but  a  few  live  as  villagers  in  northern 

1  See  el  Tunisi,  Ouaddy...,  p.  251,  and  Darfour...,  pp.  129,  134,  297.  Barth 
(loc.  cit.)  calls  them  "the  third  tribe  amongst  the  Waday  Arabs  in  respect  to 
numbers."    Domboli  was  their  headquarters. 

2  This  process  began  in  1903  and  the  largest  and  most  recent  movement  of  the 
Messirfa,  from  S.E.  Wadai  to  Fitri  district,  took  place  in  1907.  See  Carbou,  11,  48, 
49.  Nachtigal  (see  Carbou,  II,  75,  76)  regarded  them  as  of  practically  the  same 
stock  as  the  Salamat. 

3  Loc.  cit.  The  same  name  occurs  ("Ta'alba")  among  the  North  African  Arabs. 
They  were  in  the  desert  of  Numidia  near  Takdemt  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and 
Marmol,  who  calls  them  a  branch  of  "  Mahequil,"  i.e.  Ma'akla,  assessed  them  at 
44,000  armed  men  in  Algeria.  There  are  still  some  in  the  same  locality  (see  Carette, 
PP-  433-445)- 


288 


THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP 


III.  3.  XIII. 


Darfur  with  the  Zaghawa  round  Hashaba.  They  are  usually  con- 
sidered a  branch  of  Messiria. 

Their  subdivisions  are  as  follows: 
A.  Awlad  Kamuna 


i.  Nasayrab 

2.  Awlad  Muhammad 

3.  Awlad  Ragab 

1.  Awlad  Nur 

2.  Fakarna 

1.  Baybish 

2.  Awlad  Buras 


B.  Awlad  Ziada 

C.  Awlad  Shuwayh 

D.  Awlad  'Ebayd 

E.  Beni  'Atif1 

F.  Mahadi2 

G.  RawAina 
H.  Na'imat 

The  Messiria  of  Kordofan  are  subdivided  as  follows 


A.  Awlad  Um  Salim 


B.  El  GhazAya 


< 


1. 
2. 

3- 
4- 
5- 
1. 

2. 

3- 

4- 

5- 
6. 

7- 

8. 


C.  El  DirAwi 


D.  El  EnenAt 


1  Cp.  'Awatifa  and  'Atayfat. 
3  The  sing.  "  kurbag"  =a  whip. 


AwlAd  Sulayman 
„      Hammuda 
„      Abu  Zaydan 
,,      MusbAh 
„      Ebdo 

AwlAd  Um  RaydAn 
„      Khayr 
,,      BilAl 
„      AgmAn 
„       'A  wad  A 

„        MlSMAR 

El  Ku'Ck 

Awlad  Um  KerAbig3 

(i.  AwlAd  Kudum 

((a)  AwlAd  Fadla 
-  (b)  „  Del6t 
[(c)        „      GhAli 

^2.  AwlAd  Serir 

(a)  Abu  Khorays 

(b)  AwlAd  BokhAt 

AwlAd  Hegliga 

„         KlDAYBA 

„      HilAl 
El  Kurun 
El  Shukria 
Awlad  NusAr 

„       Um  FAris 

2  See  note  on  p.  83. 


2. 

3- 

^4- 

5- 
6. 

7- 


III.  3.  XIV. 


THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP 


289 


Awl  Ad  Abu  Na'aman  (i 

'2. 

.3- 


I! 


F.  El  Zurruk 


\ 


2. 

3- 
4- 

5- 
6. 

7= 


G.  Awl  Ad  Hayban 


AwlAd  Mahadi 
Um  Hayub 
Awlad  Dow 

Awlad  Ghanim 
Abu  'Alwan 
El  DiraymAt 
Beni  Sa'id 
Awlad  Hinayhi 
Awlad  KA'id 
El  KurbAg 
\8.  El  GenahAt 

/ 1 .  AwlAd  'Isa 
2.       „      Gabri'l 

^3.       „      el  ShAib 
4.       „      Fatr 

XIV  Living  beside  the  IVlESsfRiA  in  Darfur,  in  addition  to  the 
Ta'elba,  are  small  colonies  of  Hotia  and  Sa'Ada,  both  closely  cognate 
to  the  rest  of  the  BakkAra  family. 

Hotia.    The   Hotia   consider  themselves   an   offshoot   of  the 
Messiria. 

Their  main  division  is  into  the  BAb  and  the  Shibaylab,  and  these 
are  again  subdivided  into  the  following  nine  groups : 

/-AwlAd  SulaymAn  TAwlAd  GhAnim 
Derays  „      Baraka 

NawAr  I       „      NAsir 

NyamAk  [BedayrAb 
Dafi'a 


Sa'Ada.  The  Sa'Ada,  who  live  north  of  Showai1,  are  divided  into : 

AwlAd  Dai6k 
,,       Ahmad 
,,       HilAl 
Ragab 


j' AwlAd  'Afisa 
J  El  NuwayAt 
El  Bedria 
El  Simayria 


Tergam.  The  Tergam  used  to  live  in  north-western  Darfur  and 
were  moved  by  'Ali  Dinar  to  the  east  of  Gebel  Marra.  There  they 
live  with  the  Beni  Husayn,  Hotia  and  Ta'elba  Arabs  and  the  seden- 
tary Fur  as  their  neighbours,  and  breed  cattle.  They  call  themselves 
'"Atawa"  (descendants  of  'Atia)  and  so  belong  to  the  same  tribal 
group  as  the  RizaykAt.  There  are  few  of  them  in  Darfur,  still  fewer 
in  Dar  Masah't  and  Wadai2,  and  none  elsewhere. 

1  Many  of  them  and  of  the  Tergam  were  until  about  ten  years  ago  round 
Kebkebfa  and  Kulkul,  but  they  were  removed  by  'Ali  Dfnar. 

2  Carbou,  11,  84. 


M.S.  1. 


19 


290 


THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP 


III.  3.  XIV. 


Their  chief  subdivisions  are  as  follows : 
A.  Deraisa 

, I .   AWLAD  SA'lD 

2.  „      Sayf  el  Din 

3.  Bashiria 
J  4.  Hasabon 

5.  Awlad  Abu  Fatima 

6.  Hammadi'a 
\y.  'Atawia 


B.    ZUAIDA 

i .  Awlad  Abu  Hilal 

2.  „      Yoga 

3.  „      Sirbal 

^  4.  „        EL  KOWAL 

5.  Kango 

6.  Khushmia1 
v7.  Hanasha 


(/)  RIZAYKAT 

XV  The  Rizaykat  are  all  in  Darfur  and  are  the  richest  and  most 
powerful  tribe  in  that  country.  They  live  in  the  extreme  south-east, 
with  the  Humr  east  of  them,  the  Dinka  to  the  south,  the  Habbania 
to  the  west,  and  the  Ma'alia  and  sedentary  Birked  Bayko  and  Dagu 
to  the  north.  Owing  to  the  natural  advantages  of  their  country,  which 
in  dry  weather  is  bounded  on  the  north  by  a  broad  waterless  belt  and 
in  the  rains  is  marshy,  and  to  their  naturally  warlike  disposition  and 
abundance  of  horses,  they  were  able  to  resist  all  aggression  by  the 
Sultan  'Ali  Dinar.  But  whereas  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  they 
roamed  in  the  rainy  season  over  a  large  part  of  central  Darfur  they 
were  in  his  time  unable  to  pass  far  north  of  the  eleventh  degree  of 
latitude  lest  he  should  attack  them  and  seize  their  cattle  in  settlement 
of  ancient  claims. 

They  cultivate  south  and  west  of  Shakka  at  Abu  Gabra,  Um 
Matarik,  el  Tuhama,  etc.,  and  in  the  dry  season  go  south  with  their 
cattle  to  the  Bahr  el  'Arab,  where  raids  and  counter-raids  between 
them  and  the  Dinka  have  been  of  yearly  occurrence. 

Breeding  from  slave-women,  Dinka,  Mandala  (or  Bandala)  and 
Shatt  for  the  most  part,  has  markedly  affected  the  racial  purity  of 
the  Rizaykat. 

The  first  Sultan  of  Darfur  known  to  have  seriously  attempted  to 
deal  with  the  Rizaykat  was  Tirab,  in  the  second  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  The  Rizaykat  foiled  him  by  retiring  into  the  boggy  country 
to  the  south  and  harrying  his  troops  on  all  sides2.  Since  then  each 
successive  Sultan  was  non-plussed  in  the  same  way  whenever  he 
tried  to  exact  more  than  a  nominal  tribute3,  and  in  consequence  large 
numbers  of  other  Arabs  who  were  less  successful  or  more  fearful 
took  refuge  with  the  Rizaykat.  Most  of  these  were  Habbania,  Beni 
Helba,  Ma'alia  and  Beni  Khuzam. 

1  These  hold  the  "nahds." 

2  See  el  Tunisi,  Voy.  au  Darfour,  pp.  129,  130. 

3  For  the  Sultan  Muhammad  Fadl  s  dealings  with  them  see  Carbou,  II,  77  and 
78.    In  October,  1913,  the  Rizaykat  completely  defeated  the  Sultan  'Ali  Dinar. 


III.  3.  XVI. 


THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP 


291 


XVI  The  main  divisions  of  the  Rizaykat  are  as  follows : 


A.  Mahria1 


B.   Nawaiba 


C.  MahAmid 


f  1.  Um  Dahia 

I  (a)  Um  Sellama 

(b)  AWLAD  MUHEMMIL 

(c)  „      Hasan 

(d)  „      Zuayd 

(e)  Radiania 
(/)  'IshayshAt 

Um  Ahmad 

i{a)  NAs  'ArukJ(i)  AwlAd  Kadum 
\(2)  NAs  GimA'i 

(b)  NAs  el  Tom  and  AwlAd  Mu'wAn 

(c)  AwlAd  KA'id 

(d)  „      HenAn 
y(e)  Baraka 

Awlad  Sulayman 

(a)  Dar  Hasan 

(b)  „    Kubga 

(c)  Awlad  Um  Azrak 

(d)  Dar  Fadayla 
DAr  Ballul 
Rahasa 

(a)  DAr  Um  FezAra 
AwlAd  Su'ud 

AwlAd  ShAi'k 
((a)  El  'AtAyi 
\(b)  AwlAd  TAko 
2.  Um  Sayf  el  Din 

{{a)  AwlAd  Yasin 

(b)  „       Gifayli 

(c)  El  HanAtish 

(d)  El  HarAmis 

(e)  AwlAd  Um  Layk 
(/)  El  ShigayrAt 
(g)  Asirra 

AwlAd  Zayt 

(a)  Awlad  Birri 

(b)  ,,  Dikayl  "I 
„  Kermush  - 
„      JakAr       J 


2. 
3- 

14- 
1. 


id) 


The  name  of  each  of  the  three  main  divisions  is  well  known  as 
belonging  to  a  large  camel-owning  tribe  in  northern  Darfur  and 
Wadai;   but  though  the  MahAmid,  Mahria  and  NawAiba  of  the 

1  I  know  no  evidence  of  connection  between  these  and  the  well-known  Him- 
yaritic  tribe  of  southern  Arabia  (for  whom  see  D  1,  VIII;  Zwemer,  p.  85,  etc.),  but 
such  connection  is  quite  possible  none  the  less. 


19/ — 2 


292  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  in.  3.  xvi. 

north  are  essentially  the  same  race  as  those  composing  the  Rizaykat 
it  will  be  more  convenient  to  deal  with  them  separately  at  the  close 
of  this  chapter1.  It  may  be  said  here,  however,  in  passing,  that  it  is 
preferable  to  speak  of  these  three  tribes  as  having  united  in  the  south 
of  Darfur  to  form  the  Rizaykat  than  to  regard  the  three  tribes  as 
offshoots  of  the  southern  Bakkara  tribe. 

(g)  TA'AISHA 

XVII  The  Ta'aisha,  we  have  seen,  are  closely  connected  with  the 
Habbania  by  race  and,  like  them,  claim  descent  from  Hay  mad.  With 
the  exceptions  to  be  specified  they  are  confined  to  Darfur2. 

Their  name,  too,  is  perhaps  best  known  on  account  of  the 
Khalifa  'Abdullahi  having  been  of  their  number.  Many  thousands3 
of  them  were  imported  by  him  to  Omdurman  during  his  reign  and 
used  as  a  bodyguard  and  a  means  of  enforcing  his  will  upon  the 
riverain  tribes.  Dongola  Province  was  for  a  period  entirely  under 
their  domination4. 

After  the  Khalifa's  overthrow  many  of  the  Ta'aisha  returned  to 
Darfur,  but  colonies  of  them  settled  in  Sennar  and  Kassala  provinces, 
and  a  few  elsewhere.  Others  enlisted  in  the  Camel  Corps  and 
Mounted  Infantry. 

The  Ta'aisha  country  in  Darfur  lies  between  that  of  the  Hab- 
bania on  the  east,  Dar  Sula  on  the  west,  the  Beni  Helba  country  to 
the  north  and  the  negro  Fertit  to  the  south.  It  is  very  sparsely 
populated  at  the  present  time. 

The  main  divisions  of  the  Ta'aisha  are : 


Kilada5 

i.  Awlad  'Amir 

9.  El  Dakaila 

2.        „      Tabit 

((a)  El  Bedria 

]  (b)  El  'f dAi 

[(c)  El  Ba'ash6mi 

3-        „      Zaid 

4.        ,,      Sellama 

5.  El  Showwasha 

10.  El  Barakawi 

6.  El  Negmia 

ii.  El  Sheluhi 

7.  El  Diabia 

12.  El  Hadramia 

8.  Awlad  el  Bihayli 

13.  Awlad  Abu  Milka,  or  Abmilka 

14. 

El  Hadhalin 

1  There  is  a  fairly  large  colony  of  Mahamid  Awlad  Yasin  who  fall  between  the 
two  major  groups  of  southern  Rizaykat  and  northern  camel-nomads.  These  Awlad 
Yasin  live  a  day  south-west  of  el  Fasher  round  Abu  Zerayka  under  a  sheikh  of  their 
own  and  are  Bakkara. 

2  Cp.  Carbou,  n,  54. 

3  Slatin  says  "upwards  of  24,000  warriors  with  their  wives  and  families." 
*  Ibid.  Ch.  xiii. 

5  "Kilada"  and  "  errik"  are  both  names  of  camel-brands,  like  "  tdra"  and 
"sot"  in  the  case  of  the  Habbania  (q.v.  supra). 


III.  3.  XVIII. 


THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP 


293 


B.   'Errik1 


El  Gubarat2  3. 

(a)  Um  Surra  4. 

(b)  Awlad  Gid  5. 

c)  „      Hasabu  6. 

d)  „       Serhan  7. 

e)  „       Hamdan  8. 
/)       „       Kaid  9. 

Um  Rayda  10. 

a)  El  Bellal  i  i  . 

b)  El  Belluli  12. 

c)  El  'Imayrat 

d)  El  Mansuri 


Awlad  Sinna 

,,      Hamaydan 
Um  La'asa 
Awlad  'Abbas 
El  Gerarha3 
El  Fatimi'a 
El  Mati'ya4 
El  Ghazalin 
Awlad  Sa'ad 

Abu  Tom 


(/1)  BENI  HELBA 

XVIII  The  Beni  Helba  were  until  recent  years  a  large  and  rich 
tribe  with  their  " ddr"  proper  situated  in  the  'Id  el  Ghanam  district, 
south-west  of  Gebel  Marra,  and  with  a  smaller  branch,  the  'Alowni 
and  other  Awlad  Gabir,  living  east  of  Marra  and  south  of  Gebel 
Harayz.   An  independent  tribe  of  Beni  Helba  also  lived  in  Wadai5. 

In  the  early  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  Sultan  Muham- 
mad Fadl  (1799-1839)  decimated  the  numbers  and  seized  most  of 
the  herds  of  the  Darfur  tribe6.  They  recovered  their  wealth  and 
prosperity  only  to  be  again  decimated  during  the  Mahdia.  After  the 
overthrow  of  the  Khalifa  they  again  recuperated,  but  the  fiscal  ex- 
actions of  'Ali  Dinar  and  his  continual  demands  for  levies  and  horses 
and  cattle,  beginning  in  1900  and  culminating  in  1909,  drove  the 
bulk  of  the  Beni  Helba  into  Dar  Rizaykat,  Dar  Sula  and  Dar  Humr. 

On  the  defeat  of  'Ali  Dinar  by  the  Government  in  May,  19 16, 
the  Beni  Helba  saw  their  opportunity  for  revenge,  collected  their 
scattered  forces  and  set  to  work  to  raid  the  cattle  of  'Ali  Dinar  and 
of  the  sedentary  Fur  and  others  living  on  the  confines  of  the  country, 
hoping  no  doubt  to  lay  the  foundations  of  a  fresh  tribal  fortune  in 
place  of  those  lost  in  preceding  generations.  The  Beni  Helba  refugees 
in  Dar  Sula  at  the  same  time  seized  the  opportunity  to  stream  back 
into  Darfur  and  assist  in  the  good  work. 

The  Beni  Helba  are  divided  into  Awlad  GAbir  and  Awlad 


1  See  note  5,  p.  292. 

2  Cp.  among  the  Humr  Felaita  and  the  Beni  Gerar. 

3  See  note  on  p.  283,  above.  4  Cp.  p.  202. 

5  Barth,  Vol.  in,  App.  7,  p.  545,  classes  them  as  one  of  the  chief  tribes  of  Wadai. 
Cp.  Nachtigal,  Voy.  au  Ouadal,  pp.  70,  72,  who  classes  them  among  the  camel- 
owning  nomads.   El  Tunisi  mentions  them  in  Darfur  (Voyage...,  p.  129). 

'  Carbou,  II,  89,  90. 


294 


THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP 


Gubara,  and  the  chief  subdivisions  of  these  two 
follows : 


III.  3.  xvm. 
branches  are  as 


B. 


AWLAD  GABIR 

'  i.  El  'Alowni1 

2.  El  Zanatit 

H 

3.  El  HazAziri 

4.  El  Hadhalil 

^5.  El  MisA'ia 

AwlAd  Gubara 

'  1 .  Awlad  Gema'an 

(a)  Dar  Nimr 

(b)  Awlad  Wadi 

(c)  ,,      Habib 

(d)        „      Sufra 

- 

1 

(e)         „      Musa 
(/)  El  'Ashari'a 
(g)  El  'Amiria 

,2.  Awlad  'Ali 

((a)  Awlad  Dhifra      , 

(1) 

Awlad  Ni'ama 

(2) 

„      Manuna 

(3) 

„      Ahmad 

(4) 

„         BlLALA 

i 

(5) 

„      el  Sheikh 

(6) 

DAr  Kibaydi 

(b)  'Ushbur 

((1) 
(2) 

Saharna 

1         (el  Shabul?) 

AwlAd  Munif 

x                   '       ' 

(3) 

,,      'Abid 

(4) 

„      el  Sheikh 

Awlad  Ghayad  i{a)  AwlAd  Dow 
\(b)         „      FarAg 
-(c)        „      Maragulla 

(d)  „      el  Ruays 

(e)  El  Selimia 

4.  Beni  Mandul      ((a)  AwlAd  SAlim 

(b)  Kurbia 

(c)  AwlAd  Higga 

(d)  Awlad  ZAid 

Beni  LAbid  ((a)  AwlAd  Sa'i'd 

(b)  AwlAd  Dikayn 

(c)  El  ArArma 

(d)  AwlAd  Um  SerAg 

(e)  AwlAd  Musayid 

16.  Awlad  GhAnim  ((a)  Humr 

\(b)  Zurruk 

1  Cp.  the  'Alowna  among  the  Kababfsh  and  others  among  the  Kenana.  The 
same  name  occurs  in  Sinai  (Tor)  as  that  of  a  branch  of  Muzayna  (see  Na'um  Bey, 
Hist.  Sinai...,  p.  112). 


in.  3.  xix.  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  295 

The  Beni  Helba  of  Darfur  are  a  particularly  low  type  of  Arab, 
poor  in  spirit  and  physique,  incurably  lazy  and  with  none  of  the 
finer  qualities  that  distinguish  the  nomad  Arabs  of  Kordofan. 


(j)  BENI  KHUZAM 

XIX  The  Beni  Khuzam  are  for  the  most  part  in  Wadai  and  Dar 
Sula.  A  few  of  them  are  in  Darfur  and  these  are  at  the  present 
moment,  and  since  19 14,  refugees  living  among  the  Rizaykat. 

The  tribe  belongs  to  the  Haymad  group  of  Bakkara  and  through 
it  claims  descent  from  the  Beni  Makhzum  of  Arabia1. 

In  Wadai  a  portion  in  the  south  are  Bakkara  and  a  portion  in 
the  north  owners  of  camels2.  Since  1904  many  of  them  have  entered 
the  ranks  of  the  "Arabes  refugies  au  Fitri."  Others,  again,  are  in 
Bakirmi3  with  the  Salamat,  and  in  Bornu4. 

M.  Carbou  subdivides  those  west  of  Darfur  as  follows5: 

A.  Bahariye/i.  Oulad  'Ali 

2.  Oulad  Afan 

3.  Am  Zihefe 

4.  Oulad  Abou  Fahil 
■{  5.  Oulad  Zait 

6.  Kanabke  ("ou  El  Mehamid") 

7.  Oulad  Marram 

8.  Oulad  Hebe- 
v      etc. 

B.  Alaling  ("ou  Alalik6"). 

He  also  mentions  as  subdivisions  of  the  Beni  Khuzam  the  "  Oulad 
Abou  Assaf,  Omeirat  et  Qebesat."  These  latter  and  some  of  the 
Kanabka  are  in  Bornu. 

The  Khuzam  in  Darfur  speak  of  themselves  as  closely  connected 
with  the  Beni  Husayn  and  divided  into  Baharia  and  'Alalik.  The 
former  consist,  they  say,  of  Hammuda  and  Gema'a,  the  latter  of 
'Imayrat  (i.e.  the  "Omeirat"  mentioned),  Asheddad  and  Sayf. 


Mostly  in  Bakirmi 


1  Carbou,  II,  71-74.  Barth  (Vol.  in,  App.  7,  p.  545)  makes  them  the  fourth 
largest  tribe  of  Arabs  in  Wadai.   For  the  Beni  Makhzum  see  Wustenfeld,  R. 

2  It  would  be  these  of  whom  Nachtigal  (Ouada'i,  p.  71)  says:  " Physiquement 
ils  ressemblent  aux  Djaadina's,  mais  sont  allies  avec  les  Zoghaoua's  (Amm  Kim- 
melte)."  The  "Djaadina"  he  describes  as  of  a  colour  "l£gerement  grisatre  et 
rougeatre:  ils  sont  a  peu  pres  pur  sang  arabes"  {loc.  cit.). 

3  Cp.  map  in  El  Tunisi's  Ouaday...,  and  Carbou,  n.  8. 

4  Ibid.  Those  in  Bornu  are  said  to  have  only  settled  there  about  1830. 
8  Ibid.    I  preserve  M.  Carbou's  spelling. 

6  Some  of  these  also  are  in  Bakirmi.   Ibid. 


296 


THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP 


III.  3.  xx 


(k)  BENI  HUSAYN 

XX  The  Beni  Husayn  are  divided  between  Wadai  and  Darfur. 
They  are  only  a  small  tribe,  and  those  in  Darfur  camp  in  the  rainy- 
season  west-south-west  of  el  Fasher  between  Gebel  Kussa  and 
Marra,  and  in  the  summer  farther  south.  Until  moved  by  'Ali  Dinar 
some  ten  years  ago  they  were  mostly  north  of  Kulkul. 
The  sections  in  Darfur  are : 


< 


AWLAD  BELLUL 
„         MtJSA 

„       Bahr 
,,       Rashid 
„       'Ukal 

Haytan 

awlad  sellama 
Bakht't 


< 


/awlad  'alayan 

,,      Salim 
El  Noarna 

AWLAD  ZlADA 
,,         GURARA 

,,       Mazin 
El  Endaiyin 
^El  'Alamat 


(/)   BASHIR 

XXI  This  small  tribe  of  semi-nomadic  Bakkara  living  immediately 
south  of  el  Fasher  belongs  to  the  Haymad  group.    Its  subdivisions 

are: 

Awlad  Sultan      ~\  Awlad  Zayd      ^ 

„       El  Asad  „       Shal6li  j 

„       Hammadia  j 

There  is  a  section  of  Kababish  in  northern  Kordofan  who  are 
also  called  Bashi'r  and  are  probably  by  origin  a  branch  of  the  Darfur 
tribe. 

(m)  SALAMAT,  BENI  RASHID  AND  ZlOD 

XXII  Of  the  Salamat,  Beni  Rashid  (or  Rowashda)  and  Ziud  little 
will  be  said  since  they  do  not  inhabit  Kordofan  or  Darfur  except  in 
negligible  numbers,  and  are  then  incorporated  in  other  tribes1. 

SalAmAt.  The  Salamat2  are  one  of  the  largest  tribes  in  Africa 
and  inhabit  Bornu,  the  Chad  district,  Bakirmi  and  southern  Wadai. 
They  were  also  at  one  time  fairly  numerous  in  Darfur,  but  were  dis- 
persed and  driven  westwards.  The  western  branch  of  the  tribe  is 
darker  than  the  eastern  and  is  included  in  the  general  term  "  Shoa." 
All  alike  are  Bakkara,  though  they  also  own  a  certain  number  of 
sheep. 

Their  two  main  divisions  are  the  'fsiA  and  the  Awlad  Musa3,  but 

1  Cp.  the  subdivisions  of  the  Humr  Felaita. 

2  See  Carbou,  II,  pp.  56-71 ;  Barth,  in  (Ch.  42),  136,  137,  and  m  (Ch.  51),  454 
and  465,  etc. 

3  The  former  are  chiefly  in  Bornu  and  Bakirmi,  the  latter  in  Wadai  and  the 
Chad  district  as  well. 


in.  3.  xxii.  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  297 

each  is  subdivided  into  very  numerous  subsections,  which  again 
contain  many  alien  elements,  such  as  Fellata  and  Bulala1. 

Beni  RAshid  and  ZlUD.  The  Beni  Rashid  and  Ziud  are  very 
closely  connected  and  the  latter  should  really  be  reckoned  a  branch 
of  the  former2.  In  practically  every  Bakkara  "nisba"  the  ancestor 
of  the  Ziud  appears  as  a  descendant  of  Rashid. 

At  the  present  day  the  two  tribes  live  together  in  Bornu  and 
Wadai3.  A  few  are  camel-owning  nomads  in  the  north:  these  (Ziud) 
were  referred  to  by  Nachtigal  as  "  de  race  arabe  legerement  melee  de 
sang  noir4."   But  the  great  majority  are  Bakkara. 

Now  one  of  the  three  main  divisions  of  the  Beni  Rashid  in  Wadai 
is  the  Zebada,  a  term  used  to  include  within  its  scope  the  Ziud5,  and 
el  Tunisi,  who  met  these  Zebada  in  western  Wadai  at  the  beginning 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  was  assured  by  their  "'akid6"  that  they 
were  of  Yemenite  origin  and  "derived  their  name  from  Zebfd,  a 
town  of  el  Yemen,  and  that  they  were  descended  from  the  Him- 
3'arites7." 

This  and  the  closeness  of  the  bond  existing  between  the  Ziud 
and  the  Beni  Rashid  (or  Rowashda,  as  they  are  often  called)  at  once 
connect  the  whole  group  with  the  Zebaydia-Rashaida  community  of 
the  eastern  Sudan8.  The  word  "  Rashaida"  is  simply  a  variant  plural 
of  Rashid  and,  like  "Rowashda,"  is  the  exact  equivalent  of  "Beni 
Rashid9."  But  whereas  the  Beni  Rashid  and  Ziud  have  been  for 
centuries  in  the  western  Sudan  and  are  mostly  Bakkara,  the  Ra- 
shaida and  Zebaydi'a  in  the  east  are  recent  immigrants  and  entirely 
concerned  with  camels. 

The  same  group  occurs  again  in  Sinai,  where  in  191 5,  among  the 
seven  sections  of  Sowarka  inhabiting  the  north-east  extremity  of 

1  Cp.  Carbou,  II,  51  ff.,  and  1,  18. 

2  Ibid,  ii,  86-89. 

3  A  fraction  of  the  Awlad  Rashid  are  also  incorporated  among  the  Mahamid  Um 
Gellul  in  Darfur  (see  later). 

4  Voy.  au  Ouadai,  p.  16.  Carbou  {loc.  cit.)  speaks  of  the  Awlad  Rashid  of  Bornu  as 
a  "fraction  des  Djo'ama"  {i.e.  Gawama'a),  but  the  statement  sounds  rather  curious. 

5  Carbou,  loc.  cit.  The  other  two  main  divisions  in  Wadai  are  given  as  "  Hamida  " 
[Ahamda  ?]  and  "  Azid."  In  Bornu  they  are  divided  into  "  Hemediya"  and  "  Sawa- 
rima."  Nachtigal  (Voy.  au  Ouaddi,  p.  72)  treats  the  Zebada  as  a  distinct  tribe  and 
says:  "lis  rassemblent  beaucoup  aux  Oulad  Rachid,  sont  a  peine  cuivres,  bien 
batis  mais  fort  peu  civilises  el  tres  pillards." 

6  The  title  "  'Akfd  el  Zebada"  survived  in  Wadai  until  the  French  occupation 
as  that  of  one  of  the  important  functionaries  of  the  Sultanate. 

7  El  Tunisi,  Voy.  au  Ouaday,  p.  250.  He  gives  the  Arabic  spelling  as  5j*)j. 
Zebfd  is  "a  large  trading  port  nearly  opposite  to  Masuah"  [Massowa]  (Bruce, 
Vol.  in,  Bk.  ill,  p.  184). 

8  See  Chap.  13  in  this  Part. 

9  Cp.  the  case  of  the  "Beni  Mansur,"  called  "Manasir,"  on  the  river  and 
"Manasra"  in  Darfur  and  Kordofan  (see  Chap.  1  (d)  above). 


298 


THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP 


III.  3.  XXII. 


the  peninsula,  I  found  two  who  were  named  respectively  Ziud  and 
Rowashda. 

There  are  also  a  few  Ziud  incorporated  among  the  Humr  Felaita1 
in  Kordofan. 

In  dealing  with  the  Hawazma  attention  was  drawn  to  the  con- 
nection that  existed  between  that  tribe  and  the  Beni  Harb  of  Arabia. 
The  same  connection  appears  to  exist  in  the  case  of  some  at  least  of 
the  Beni  Rashid,  for  the  Zebaydia  (corresponding  to  the  Zebada  of 
the  west)  are  properly  a  section  of  the  Beni  '(5f  branch  of  the  Beni 
Harb2. 


(2)    THE  NAWAfBA,  MAHRIA,  MAHAMfD,  'ERAYKAT 

AND  'ATAYFAT 

XXIII  There  remain  to  be  considered  the  five  camel-owning  tribes 
of  northern  Darfur  and  Wadai  who  are  of  the  same  stock  as  the 
Bakkara.  Three  of  these,  the  Nawaiba,  the  Mahria  and  the  Ma- 
hamid, have  been  already  mentioned  as  composing  in  the  south  of 
Darfur  the  great  tribe  of  the  Rizaykat:  the  fourth  is  the  'Eraykat, 
and  the  fifth  the  'Atayfat. 

All   alike   claim   the   Guhayna   connection  and   either  entered 
Darfur  and  Wadai  in  the  fourteenth  century  or  rather  later3. 

XXIV  The  Mahamid  are  spoken  of  by  el  Tunisi,  who  passed  through 
their  country4,  as  a  powerful  tribe  containing  many  subdivisions  and 
owning  great  herds  of  camels,  horses  and  other  wealth  in  northern 
Wadai5.  He  says,  too,  that  they  have  "presque  la  nuance  claire  des 
figyptiens6."  In  his  work  on  Darfur  he  also  mentions  them  among 
the  Fezara  ["Fararah"]  group  in  the  north7. 

Nachtigal  includes  the  Mahria,  the  Nawaiba,  the  'Eraykat  and 
the  'Atayfat  in  the  term  Mahamid.   He  says  of  them8: 

Les  Mahamid's  peuvent  fournir  au  moins  quatre  mille  cavaliers.  lis 
sont  rougeatres  et  ont  bon  caractere;  on  les  dit  pieux,  bienfaisants  et 

1  See  list  of  subsections  on  p.  286,  above. 

2  Burton,  Pilgrimage...,  II,  120.  He  calls  them  "  Zubayd...near  Mecca,  a  numer- 
ous clan  of  fighting  thieves." 

3  M.  Carbou  speaks  (n,  77)  on  the  authority  of  Slatin  (Bk.  1,  Ch.  2)  of  the 
genesis  of  the  Nawaiba,  Mahria  and  Mahamid  as  being  due  to  the  policy  of  the 
Sultan  Muhammad  Fadl  who,  having  subdued  the  Rizaykat,  transplanted  many  of 
them  to  northern  Darfur  where  they  "eventually  developed  into"  the  three  tribes 
mentioned.  This  is  misleading.  Muhammad  Fadl  may  have  transplanted  Rizaykat 
to  the  north,  but  they  were  only  rejoining  their  kinsfolk  there  and  were  absorbed 
into  them  afresh.  4   Voyage  au  Ouaday,  p.  512. 

5  Ibid.  pp.  250,  251.    Cp.  Barth,  Vol.  in,  App.  7,  p.  545. 

6  Voyage  au  Ouaday,  p.  400.  Contrast  Carbou,  11,  80,  "un  type  noir  aux  traits 
reguliers." 

7  Voyage  au  Darfour,  p.  129.  8   Voyage  au  Ouadai,  p.  72. 


in.  3.  xxiv.  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  299 

hospitaliers ;  ils  parlent  l'arabe  le  plus  pur.  lis  habitent  au  Nord-Ouest 
du  Dar  Mimi1....Les  fractions  de  cette  tribu  sont  nombreuses,  j'ai  pu 
reconnaitre  les  suivantes:  les  Oulad  Djellou2,  les  Oulad  Cheik3,  les  Oulad 
Yassin3,  les  Oulad  Zed3,  les  Nedja's,  les  Seif  ed  din3  (ou  Seifan),  les 
Naouaiba's,  les  Erekat's,  les  Mahariye's  (Mehriya?),  les  Oulad  Djenab, 
les  Hamdiya's,  les  Et  teiyifat's4. 

These  Nachtigal  classes  among  the  camel-owning  nomads.  His 
estimate  of  their  character  was  not  accurate.  They  are  and  always 
have  been  inveterate  raiders;  " intelligent^,  astucieux,  menteurs5"; 
lax  in  their  religion  and  resentful  of  all  control.  Among  them  is  a 
smattering  of  Kura'an6. 

The  number  of  camel-owning  Mahamid  in  northern  Darfur 
since  the  " Mahdia"  has  been  inconsiderable  in  comparison  with 
those  living  farther  west,  but  about  1908  a  number  of  Mahamid 
(Awlad  Shaik)  from  Wadai,  commonly  known  as  "Um  Gallul," 
migrated  into  Darfur  and  settled  with  the  Shotia  and  Awlad  Shaik 
sections  north  of  el  Fasher — where  they  say  they  had  been  some 
three  or  four  generations  previously,  before  they  went  to  Wadai.  In 
1914  some  of  these  migrated  still  farther  east  and  went  to  Kordofan. 
In  19 1 6,  on  the  death  of  'Ali  Dinar,  they  returned  to  Darfur. 

The  subdivisions  of  the  northern  Mahamid  in  Darfur  correspond 
fairly  closely  to  those  of  the  Bakkara  branch  who  form  a  third  of 
the  Rizaykat  :  they  are  as  follows : 

A.  Awlad  Shaik 

1.  Um  Sayf  el  Din 

2.  Um  Gallul  (a)  Awlad  Gilal 

(1)  Awlad  'fD 

(b)  Awlad  Mablul 

(c)  ,,      Bilayli 

(d)  ,,      el  Rifayik 

(e)  ,,      Tako 
(/)  „      Rashid7 

B.  Awlad  Yasin.     Already  mentioned   as   being  cattle-owners   and 

living  in  an  intermediate  position  between  the  southern  Bakkara 
and  the  camel-owners. 

C.  Shotia 

D.  Awlad  Zayt.    Partly  camel-  and  partly  cattle-owning.    They  live 

round  Tina,  between  el  Fasher  and  Gebel  Marra. 

1  I.e.  in  Wurada  district:  see  Carbou,  II,  79. 

2  Presumably  the  "Um  Gallul"  mentioned  later. 

s  Cp.  subsections  of  Mahamid  among  the  Rizaykat  as  given  above,  and  Carbou 
11,  83. 

4  I.e.  the  'Atayfat,  for  whom  see  later. 

5  Carbou,  11,  80,  quoting  Lieut.  Lucien.  6  Carbou,  II,  83. 

7  Awlad  Rashid  from  Wadai  who  have  attached  themselves  to  the  Um  Gallul. 


300 


THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP 


III.  3.  XXV. 


XXV  The  Nawaiba  of  the  north  are  the  same  in  type  as  the 
Mahamid  but  fewer,  and  live  among  them.  In  addition  to  these  and 
the  Nawaiba  among  the  Rizaykat  in  the  south,  there  is  an  inde- 
pendent Bakkara  tribe  of  Nawaiba  in  south-eastern  Wadai1. 

XXVI  The  Mahri'a  fall  under  the  same  classification  as  the  Ma- 
hamid and  Nawaiba,  and  are  usually  mentioned  in  company  with 
them2.  Those  in  Darfur  live  with  the  Mahamid  between  Kuttum 
and  Gebel  Marra  at  the  present  day  and  are  not  numerous.  Their 
sections  are: 


/  HAMDANfA 

!  Um  Ahmad 
-I  Awlad  Henani 
„      'Ali 
Bishara 


( Awlad  Kaid 
„      Bazki 
„      Sa'id 
Dirai 


XXVII  Akin  to  them  and  generally  claimed  to  be  Mahria  are  the 
camel-owning  'Atayfat3  who  live  round  Mellit  and  in  Anka  district 
to  the  north.  There  they  are  subdivided  into  Awlad  Baraka,  Awlad 
'Agayl  and  Awlad  Gowna.  They  say  they  have  also  two  sections, 
Hagaia  and  Awlad  Nusr  in  Wadai,  and  one,  the  'Akakiz,  in  southern 
Darfur  with  the  Rizaykat. 

XXVIII  The  'Eraykat  also  belong  to  the  same  group4.  They  were 
chiefly  in  north-western  Darfur  until  the  time  of  the  Sultan  Muham- 
mad Fadl,  but  that  ruler  attacked  them  and  decimated  their  numbers 
and  delivered  their  grazing-grounds  over  to  the  Mahamid  and  others. 
The  survivors  fled  northwards.  At  present  most  of  the  'Eraykat  are 
camel-owners  round  el  Fasher  and  in  the  north-west.  Some  are 
further  afield  in  the  Ennedi  district  with  the  Bedayat  and  in  Dar 
Tama5.  El  Tiinisi6  also  mentions  them  as  a  rich  Bakkara  tribe  in 
south-western  Wadai,  but  his  story  to  the  effect  that  their  name  was 
derived  from  el  'Irak,  i.e.  Mesopotamia,  and  that  they  were  con- 
nected with  the  Beni  Lakhm  and  Gudham  ("Djouzamides")  was 
probably  pure  invention.  The  'Eraykat  of  Darfur  are  divided  into 
Zebelat  on  the  one  hand  and  a  group  consisting  of  Dimaysat, 
Nasria,  Awlad  Kerru  and  MiNAwfA  on  the  other. 

1  Nachtigal  mentions  them  as  camel-owners  in  Wadai:  see  Voy.  au  Ouadal, 
pp.  40,  50,  72,  109;  and  cp.  map  to  el  Tunisi's  Ouaddy  and  Carbou,  loc.  cit. 

2  E.g.  see  Nachtigal,  Ouadal,  pp.  65,  70,  72,  93 ;  Tunisi's  map,  etc.  See  also 
Carbou,  II,  78-79. 

3  Their  name  is  no  doubt  formed  from  a  diminutive  of  '"utfa"  (see  note  to 
MS.  D  3,  132).  It  also  occurs  as  that  of  a  section  of  'Anaza  in  northern  Arabia, 
(Burckhardt,  Notes...,  1,  4). 

*  Cp.  Nachtigal,  Ouadal,  p.  72.  B  Carbou,  II,  pp.  74,  75 

8  Ouaday,  p.  250  and  map. 


THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  301 


APPENDIX 

The  genealogical  trees  of  the  Bakkdra 

The  genealogical  trees  of  the  Bakkara  which  follow  are  taken  from  various 
sources. 

Tree  I.  Was  compiled  about  1906  from  oral  information  by  Mr  J.  W. 
Sagar,  Inspector  in  the  Nuba  Mountains  Province,  on  the  authority  of  the 
Hawazma.  The  spelling  of  the  names  has  been  adapted. 

Tree  II.  Was  compiled  subsequently  from  oral  information  by 
Capt.  A.  L.  Hadow,  Inspector  in  the  Nuba  Mountains  Province,  on  the 
authority  of  the  Hawazma  and  Humr  Felaita.  The  spelling  of  the  names 
has  in  this  case  also  been  adapted. 

Tree  III.  Quoted  from  The  Anglo-Egyptian  Sudan  (1,  334),  on  the 
authority  of  "  Kubr  Abdel  Rahman,  Sheikh  of  the  Guberat  section  of  the 
Taaisha."    Spelling  of  names  left  unaltered. 

Tree  IV.  Quoted  from  Dr  Helmolt  in  The  History  of  the  World,  p.  585, 
chiefly  on  the  authority  of  Nachtigal.    Spelling  of  names  left  unaltered. 

Tree  V.    Compiled  by  myself  from  oral  information  given  by  the 
ndzir"  of  the  Humr  Felaita.    For  further  details  see  my   Tribes..., 
145-148. 


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CHAPTER  4 

The  Guhayna  Group  (continued) 

(a)  THE  KABABISH1 

I  The  Kababish  perhaps  present  a  more  interesting  study  in  racial 
composition  than  any  other  tribe  in  the  Sudan. 

At  the  present  they  are  outwardly  a  homogeneous  whole  under  the 
control  of  a  supreme  sheikh  ("ndzir")  to  whose  authority  the  sheikhs 
of  the  subtribes  and  the  individuals  alike  bow.  They  are  also  the 
largest  and  most  wealthy  tribe  of  camel-owning  nomads  in  the  country. 
The  term  "  tribe"  is  therefore  quite  applicable  to  them;  but  none  the 
less  they  are  really  a  congeries  of  heterogeneous  Arab  elements2, 
modified  to  some  extent  by  Hamitic  (Bega  and  Berber)  and  negro 
(slave)  admixture,  but  more  essentially  Arab  than  the  majority  of  the 
nomadic  tribes  and,  a  fortiori,  than  any  of  the  sedentary  population. 

II  The  growth  of  the  tribe  to  its  present  state  is  the  result  of  a 
series  of  accretions  which  have  been  taking  place  for  several  centuries, 
and  the  particular  cause  responsible  for  this  process  has  been  the 
geographical  advantages  offered  by  the  country  inhabited  by  the 
Kababish.  This  comprises  the  whole  of  the  high  land  of  which  the 
line  Um  Badr-Katul-Kagmir-Um  Inderaba  is,  approximately  speak- 
ing, the  southern  boundary. 

On  the  north  the  Kababish  are  only  limited  by  the  deserts  of  the 
Sahara.  Westwards  they  wander  beyond  the  Wadi  el  Melik  to  the 
Darfur  border,  and  on  the  east,  in  the  dry  season,  they  water  their 
flocks  in  the  Wadi  Mukaddam.  There  is  also  a  large  section  of  the 
tribe  in  Dongola  Province,  chiefly  nomadic  but  having  some  cultiva- 
tion in  the  Nile  valley. 

In  northern  Kordofan  they  have  certain  patches  of  cultivation  in 
the  vicinity  of  their  chief  watering  places,  but  the  cultivators  are  only 
dependants  left  behind  for  the  purpose  while  the  tribe  as  a  whole  is 
grazing  further  afield,  or,  occasionally,  poor  men  who  have  only  a 
few  sheep  and  goats. 

1  See  also  MacMichael,  Tribes...,  Chap,  xv,  and  in  Vol.  xl,  iqio,  of  Journ. 
Anthrop.  Instit. 

2  Their  heterogeneity  is  indicated  by  the  diversity  of  their  camel-brands.  There 
is  no  single  brand  peculiar  to  the  tribe  nor  any  trace  of  such.  Each  main  division, 
however,  has  a  brand  common  to  all  its  members.  These  are  specified  in  my 
brochure  on  Camel  Brands  used  in  Kordofan,  and  certain  of  them  are  mentioned  in 
the  course  of  this  chapter. 

20 — 2 


308  *     THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  111.4.11. 

The  natural  features  of  the  country  they  inhabit  are  eminently 
suitable  for  the  breeding  of  camels  and  sheep,  and  in  its  southern 
portion  for  cattle  rearing.  To  one  familiar  with  these  level  or  gently 
undulating  stony  tracts,  intersected  by  numerous  more  fertile  shallow 
valleys  and  dotted  with  rocky  outcrops,  a  description  of  the  highlands 
of  Nejd  in  Arabia,  taken  apart  from  its  context,  reads  as  though  it 
must  refer  to  the  Kababi'sh  country. 

When  the  obstacle  of  the  Christian  kingdom  of  Dongola  had  been 
swept  away  at  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century  by  the  Arabs, 
and  the  tribes  of  Guhayna  and  their  allies  poured  into  the  Sudan, 
many  of  these,  finding  the  eastern  desert  sufficiently  occupied  by 
other  Arab  and  Bega  tribes,  betook  themselves  to  the  hardlv  less 
congenial  tracts  lying  west  of  the  river.  It  has  already  been  explained1 
that  these  parts  were  not  previously  unoccupied.  The  Arabs  found 
there  bands  of  negro-Hamitic  Tibbu  and,  in  the  hills,  colonies  of 
"Nuba,"  and  it  may  have  taken  them  several  centuries  to  establish 
a  complete  ascendancy  over  the  plains.  The  fringe  of  hills  from 
el  Haraza  to  Kaga  they  never  attempted  to  conquer,  and  it  was  not 
until  five  or  six  generations  ago  that  they  had  entirely  extirpated  the 
Nuba  from  the  far  less  formidable  and  now  uninhabited  hills  lying 
farther  north  and  well  within  the  present  " ddr"  el  Kababish. 

III  The  name  of  Kababi'sh  {sing.  Kabbashi)  is  popularly  derived 
in  the  usual  manner  from  a  purely  fictitious  ancestor  called  Kabsh2, 
but  is  more  properly  to  be  connected  with  the  word  "kabsh"  a  ram3. 
At  what  period  the  name  was  adopted  there  is  no  evidence4.  The 
names  of  certain  of  the  subtribes  and  what  little  can  be  learnt  of 
their  past  history  confirm  the  conclusion,  to  which  one  would  arrive 
in  any  case  on  historical  grounds,  that  they  came  originally  from  the 
northern  portion  of  the  Hegaz. 

Let  us  take  examples : 

IV  The  section  which  lives  round  Um  Inderaba  and  Um  Sidr  and 
is  essentially  a  sheep-breeding  community  is  the  Awlad  'Ukba. 
Tradition  tells  us  that  they  were  "the  original  Kababi'sh5"  and  held 

1  See  Part  I,  Ch.  2. 

2  He  generally  appears  as  "son  of  Afzar" — who  again  is  descended  from 
"  'Abdulla  el  Guhani,"  the  intent  being  to  connect  the  Kababish  suitably  with  the 
Fezara  and  Guhayna  groups. 

3  Cp.  the  formation  of  Ma'aza  from  "ma'az"  (he-goats),  and  of  "'Anaza" 
from  " anz"  (she-goats),  and  perhaps  of  " Shoa"  from  "slid"  (sheep).  Cp.  Carbou, 
II,  20,  and  Burton,  Land  of  Midian,  1,  336. 

4  The  Kababish  use  the  word  "  takabbasha"  to  describe  the  collecting  together 
of  the  various  component  parts  into  a  single  tribal  whole. 

5  The  first  of  the  present  sections  to  join  them  are  said  to  have  been  the 
RowahJa  (sing.  Rahli)  and  the  Awlad  '(3n.  These,  according  to  very  vague  tradition, 
were  followed  by  the  Seragab,  Awlad  Hawal  and  Nurab. 


Hi.  4.  iv.  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  309 

the  sheikhship  some  ten  generations  ago,  until  the  Ribaykat  sup- 
planted them.  It  is  also  said  that  of  the  Awlad  'Ukba  who  crossed 
into  Egypt  from  Arabia  a  part  passed  through  Tripoli  and  eventually 
drifted  into  the  ranks  of  the  Fellata  in  West  Africa,  that  others 
are  incorporated  in  the  great  Awlad  'Ali  tribe  of  the  Libyan  desert1, 
and  that  a  third  portion  settled  in  the  Syrian  desert. 

This  is  quite  enough  to  identify  the  Awlad  'Ukba  of  Kordofan 
with  the  Beni  'Ukba  who  still  live  among  the  Huwaytat  on  the 

o  •  •       • 

Arabian  coast  round  Makna,  Muwayla  and  Ziba2,  and  in  company 
with  the  Muzayna  in  Sinai3. 

In  an  earlier  chapter  we  have  already  met  these  Awlad  'Ukba  as 
a  branch  of  the  Beni  Gudham. 

Dr  Wallin,  who  made  their  acquaintance  near  'Akaba  in  1848, 
quotes4  various  Arabic  authorities  as  to  their  ancient  history. 

Ibn  Fadlulla  el  'Omari5  (1301-1348)  says  they  are  responsible  for 
convoying  pilgrim  caravans  part  of  the  way  between  'Akaba  and 
el  Medina.  Ibn  Khaldun6  corroborates  this,  and  adds:  "In  Afrikia, 
in  the  west,  there  are  some  of  them,  as  well  as  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Terabulus"  (Tripoli).  He  also  speaks  of  the  Beni  Wasil  of 
Egypt7  as  "a  branch  of  the  Beni  'Ukba  son  of  Moghraba8  son  of 
Gudham  of  the  Kahtania9." 

The  Beni  'Ukba  told  Wallin10  that  in  old  days  their  territories 
used  to  be  more  extensive,  and  that  they  had  been  divided  at  the 
commencement  of  Islam  into  Musalima  and  Beni  'Amr,  and  they 
described  how  they  had  been  gradually  ousted  from  their  more 
northernly  territories  by  the  Huwaytat. 

Burton  tells  us11  at  length  how  after  years  of  struggle  against  odds 
the  Beni  'Ukba  were  compelled  to  conclude  peace  with  the  Huway- 
tat on  terms  so  disadvantageous  as  to  be  dishonourable12,  and  to 

1  For  the  Awlad  'Ali  see,  e.g.,  Junker,  p.  33  ff. ;  Klippel,  pp.  10,  etc. 

2  Cp.  Burton,  Land  of  Midian,  I,  161  ff.,  Wallin,  p.  299,  etc. 

3  Wallin,  p.  298.  I  found  the  Beni  'Ukba  still  in  the  localities  mentioned  when 
I  visited  the  Arabian  coast  with  the  Red  Sea  Patrol  in  1915. 

4  Journ.  Roy .  Geogr.  Soc.  Vol.  xx,  1851, p. 301.  Burton  was  familiar  with  Wallin 's 
work  and  also  cites  the  Arabic  authorities  and  gives  a  long  account  of  the  traditional 
history  of  the  tribe  (Land  of  Midian,  I,  161  ff.). 

5  Referred  to  by  Wallin  as  "the  author  of  Al-Mesaliku-1-Absar."  See  Huart, 
p.  326.   He  is  also  known  as  Abu  el  'Abbas  Shihab  el  Din  Ahmad  (Wallin,  p.  343). 

6  Wallin  speaks  of  him  as  "the  author  of  Al-'Ibar."  The  reference  to  Ibn 
Khaldun  is  Vol.  1  (ed.  de  Slane),  pp.  9-1 1. 

7  Q.v.  ap.  Klippel,  pp.  5-6. 

8  "Moghraba"  should  perhaps  be  "Mahria":  see  Wustenfeld,  Tab.  5. 

9  Other  passages  quoted  are  merely  genealogical  in  tenour. 
10  Q.v.  p.  300.  u  Loc.  cit. 

12  Burton  says  "these  hard  conditions  were  actually  renewed  some  twenty-five 
years  ago"  (i.e.  about  1850). 


3io 


THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP 


III.  4.  IV. 


give  up  their  privilege  of  escorting  the  pilgrims.  He  also  relates  the 
tale  of  their  wars  with  the  Ma'aza  in  the  early  sixteenth  century,  and 
with  the  Beli  who  lived  south  of  them. 

Most  of  the  Beni  'Ukba  who  went  to  Egypt  joined  the  Beni 
Hilal  and  appear  among  the  subtribes  of  that  great  congeries  as 
enumerated  by  Ibn  Khaldun  and  el  Makrizi. 

Leo  Africanus  (c.  1495-1552)  refers  to  them  as  "  Hucban" :  "  The 
kingdom  of  Hucban  are  next  neighbours  unto  the  region  of  Melian, 
who  receive  certain  pay  from  the  King  of  Tunis.  They  are  a  rude  and 
wilde  people,  and  in  very  deade  estranged  from  al  humanitie:  they 
have  (as  it  is  reported)  about  1500  horsemen1."  At  what  period,  or 
by  what  route,  they  came  to  northern  Kordofan  there  is  no  direct 
evidence. 

V  Another  large  branch  of  the  Kababish,  a  rich  camel-owning  folk, 
are  the  'Atawia  (sing.  'Atawi).  The  form  "  'Atawia  "  is  the  equivalent 
of  "Beni  'Atia,"  and  I  have  little  hesitation  in  connecting  these 
people  through  the  'Atiat  (or  'Atawani)  Beduin  of  the  Thebaid2 
with  the  Beni  'Atia  of  Arabia,  whose  name  so  frequently  occurs  in 
conjunction  with  that  of  the  Guhayna,  Fezara  and  Beni  Hilal. 

The  fact  that  the  'Atawia  in  Kordofan  all  use  the  brand  Y 
and  that  the  Beni  'Atia  of  Arabia  use  A  merely  strengthens  the 
conviction3. 

At  the  time  of  the  Hilalian  invasion,  in  which,  it  will  be  remem- 
bered, the  Fezara  also  took  part,  the  Beni  'Atia  were  reckoned  a 
section  of  the  Athbeg,  the  largest  branch  of  the  Beni  Hilal,  and 
settled  in  the  Algerian  province  of  Constantine4.  Ibn  Khaldun  says 
they  there  became  enfeebled  and  disappeared ;  and  if  a  large  number 
of  them  detached  themselves  from  the  Beni  Hilal  to  migrate  to  the 
Sudan  this  would  account  for  the  fact. 

However  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  there  were  some 
3000  of  them  in  Constantine  and  some  500  in  the  Sahara.  They  are 
regarded  there  as  Berbers5. 

1  Leo,  1,  144.  Marmol  (c.  1520  a. d.,  Bk.  I,  Vol.  I,  p.  80)  borrows  this  account 
without  acknowledgment  from  Leo  and  adds  that  they  had  10,000  infantry  as  well. 

2  Klippel,  pp.  5  and  8.  He  speaks  of  them  as  "d'origine  berbere"  and  groups 
them  with  the  Beni  Wasil. 

3  There  are  still  many  Beni  'Atia  in  Arabia.  Palgrave  in  1862  computed  their 
numbers  at  about  6000.  He  places  them  in  the  northern  Hegaz  between  el  Jowf 
and  Muwayla  and  says  they  and  the  HarD  infest  the  pilgrim  road  to  Medina  (Vol.  II, 
pp.  86  and  208,  and  map  in  Vol.  1).  Doughty  {Wanderings...,  pp.  164,  175,  278) 
mentions  them  as  subject  to  H^yil  and  living  with  the  Guhayna  near  Tayma. 
Wallin  (q.v.  p.  310)  met  them  with  the  Ma'aza  in  el  Hisma  east  of  Muwayla  and  at 
Tebuk.    For  their  brand  see  Doughty,  Travels,  1,  125. 

4  See  Ibn  Khaldun,  ed.  de  Slane,  pp.  28  fT. 

5  Carette,  p.  445.  The  Fezara  are  mentioned  in  company  with  them. 


HI.  4.  vi.  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  311 

The  'Atawia  of  Kordofan  are  generally  considered  to  be  Ka- 
wahla by  origin,  but  this  may  mean  no  more  than  that  when  the  bulk 
of  the  Kawahla  joined  the  Kababish1  the  'Atawia  came  with  them. 

There  are  also  cattle-owning  'Atawia  farther  south  among  the 
Rizaykat  Bakkara,  and  we  have  already  seen  that  "  'Ati'a"  is  one  of 
the  most  generally  accepted  and  best  known  of  the  traditional  Bak- 
kara ancestors. 

VI  The  Nurab,  the  richest  and  also  the  ruling  section  of  the  Kaba- 
bi'sh, claim  to  be  properly  Rikabia  from  el  'Afat  in  Dongola2.  The 
Seragab  are  said  to  be  Ken  an  a3.  The  Berara  are  Ga'aliin4.  The 
Awlad  Sulayman  say  they  are  an  offshoot  of  the  great  tribe  of  the 
same  name  which  was  once  settled  between  the  Great  Syrtes  and 
Fezzan  and  which  terrorized  Borku  Bornu  and  Kanem  in  the  nine- 
teenth century5. 

The  Awlad  '(3n,  a  sheep-owning  section  round  Gabra,  were 
probably  identical,  some  generations  ago,  with  the  '£)nia  branch  of 
the  Shai'kia. 

The  'Awai'da6  say  their  eponymous  ancestor  'Aid  was  a  famous 
"feki"  from  Aden.  As  they  do  not  appear  under  their  present  name 
in  the  manuscripts  one  might  be  apt  to  suppose  that  they  were  new- 
comers to  Africa,  who  since  their  arrival  had  absorbed  the  families 
of  Bega  Kanuz  and  Shaiki'a7  which  are  to  be  found  among  them. 
But  it  is  much  more  likely  that  the  true  'Awaida,  who  have  absorbed 
these  foreign  families,  are  of  common  stock  with  the  'Aidab  of  Don- 
gola, whom  we  have  met  previously  both  among  the  Shaiki'a  and  the 
Bedayri'a. 

For  a  time  the  'Awai'da  were  with  the  Rufa'a  in  the  East  between 
the  Rahad  the  Binder  and  the  Atbara  rivers,  and  a  certain  number 
of  them  remain  there  still8.  But  the  greater  number  crossed  the  river 
and  joined  the  Kababish.  This  probably  occurred  about  the  beginning 
of  the  nineteenth  century9. 

1  Q.v.  sub  Kawahla  (Chap.  5  to  follow). 

2  See  D  1  cxiii.  3  Cp.  sub  Kenana  (Chap.  6). 

4  They  probably  joined  the  Kababish  comparatively  recently.  They  alone  of 
all  the  sections  brand  their  camels  on  the  left  side. 

5  See  note  to  Tunisi's  Voy.  au  Ouaddy,  p.  660;  also  for  a  full  account  of  them 
see  Carbou,  1,  85-103,  and  31-35,  and  Barth,  Vol.  Ill,  Chap.  XL,  pp.  61  ff.  Those 
now  settled  in  the  Chad  region  are  of  the  Tripolitan  Arab  type. 

6  Sing.  'Afdi.  7  Viz.  the  'Adlanab  section. 

8  The  only  sections  I  have  met  have  been  some  Kanzab  and  Musiab  at  'Id 
el  'Awaida  in  el  Kamlin  district. 

9  Their  division  into  Zurruk  and  Bayyid  {i.e.  dark  and  light)  has  reference  to 
the  colour  of  their  camels  and  not  to  themselves.  Dark  camels  are  the  rule  among 
the  "south  and  middle  tribes,  Harb,  Metayr,  and  Ateyban"  in  Arabia  (Doughty, 
Wanderings...,  11,  125). 


312  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP 

VII  The  subdivisions  of  the  Kababish  are  as  follows:1 


III.  4.  VII. 


8. 

9- 

io. 


(b) 
(e) 


B. 


NOrAb2 

1.  RlBAYKAT 

I  (a)  Ayayid 

DeraywAb 

FeruhAb 

AhaymerAb 

BAtAb 
1  (/)  Um  Sirayh 
DAr  Kebir 
DAr  Um  Bakhi't 
AwlAd  el  Kir 
NekAda 
Dar  Sa'bd 

KlBBAYSHAB 

(a)  NAs  Wad  Yusef 
MesA'i'd 

NAs  Wad  ShethAn 
NAs  Wad  Dukushayn 

AwlAd  'Awad  el  SiD 

AwlAd  NuAi 

HowArAb3 

(a)  AwlAd  DAbo 

(b)  „      'Ali 

(c)  Rahuda 
AwlAd  HawAl4 
i.  DAr  Hamid 

2.  DAr  Mahmud 


(b) 
(c) 
(d) 


i. 

2. 

3- 

4- 

5- 
6. 


C.  Awlad  '(3n5 
LabAbis 
BerAsha 
KurunAb 
DAr  el  HAg 
TamAsi'h6 
LikayritAb 

D.  Awlad  Terayf7 
i.  MeraykAt 

2.    'fsHAB 

3.  'Alowna8 

4.  GerAmda 

E.  GhilayAn7 

F.  TowAl9 

G.  'AwAida10 

1 .  El  ' AwAida  el  Zurruk 

(a)  NAs  Walad  Rahma 

(b)  „  „  Makbul 
,  (c)  „  ,,  el  HilAli 
Y(J)  „  „  RAbih 
1(e)  „  „  el  Beshir 

(/)     „        „       el  Ni'ama 


2.  El  'AwAida  el  Bayyid 

(a)  BishArAb 

(b)  'AdlAnAb 
\(c)  SununAb 


r 


1  The  list  given  by  Parkyns  includes  also  Ahamda  ("  Lahamdy"),  Guhayna, 
Kawahla,  Batahfn,  Shenabla,  Kerriat  and  Ghazaya,  all  of  which  have  now  broken 
away.  In  each  case  it  was  only  a  section  of  these  tribes  which  was  living  under  the 
aegis  of  the  Kababish  at  the  time. 

2  Their  distinctive  camel-brand  is  the  "ba'ag"  ("rip  in  the  belly"),  a  long 
horizontal  line  on  the  right  side  of  the  stomach.  Nearly  all  add  one  or  two  short 
"dhira'as"  on  the  foreleg.  For  details  re  these  and  other  Kababish  camel-brands 
see  my  Camel  Brands...,  pp.  16  et  seq. 

3  These  include  an  element  of  Doalib  (Rikabia  or  Danagla). 

*  Their  distinctive  brand  is  a  " Ku'"  (a  mark  on  the  upper  joint  of  the  foreleg). 
"Ku'"  =  a  joint. 

5  Probably  of  Shaikia  origin.  See  p.  220,  and  p.  99  for  the  Lababis  among  the 
FQr.   There  are  "Awlad  'Ona"  Beduin  in  Egypt  (see  Klippel,  p.  6). 

fi  I.e.  "  Crocodiles." 

7  Both  sections  use  an  "  'amud"  as  brand  on  the  right  side  of  the  camel's 
neck. 

8  Cp.  list  of  subsections  of  Beni  Helba  and  of  Kenana. 

9  Connected  on  the  one  hand  with  the  Rufa'a  (q.v.)  and  on  the  other  with  the 
Shabarka  (q.v.  sub  Rufa'a).  Their  brand  is  the  "shabiil,"  or  " shaiba"  (q.v.  on 
pp.  210  and  280). 

10  Their  brand  is  a  very  long  "shdbit"  on  the  right  shoulder. 


Ill 

.4.  vm                    THE  GUH 

AYN1 

^  GROUP 

H 

'Atawia1 

L. 

Seragab5 

i.  Farisab 

1.  Dar  Sa'ad 

2.  BakarAb 

2.  Ganadba 

3.  DAr  'Ali 

3.  Derimia 

(a)  Dar  SulaymAn 

4.  Mahalab 

4.  Manofalab 

5.  NAs  Wad  el  Fezari 

5.    KUFAR 

6.  Ghegayria 

6.  Shiga yab 

7.  ShukhunAb 

J. 

Awlad  'Ukba 

M 

.  RowAhla6 

1.  Dariab 

1 .  DAr  Abu  Ginna 

2.  Dar  'Ali 

2.  DAr  Gami'a 

3.  Shilaywab 

3.  NishAba 

4.  Hamdab 

4.  MesArAb 

5.  Dar  'Omar 

5.  GegAdil 

6.  Dar  Abu  Nisay'a 

6.  'AwAi'dAb 

7.  Karasob 

N. 

HammadAb 

8.  Shenashim 

1.  RahOdAb 

9.  Dar  Muhammad 

2.  TeraykAt 

10.  Sa'adullAb,  or  Sa'adi'a2 

3.  BishAra 

K. 

BerAra3 

O. 

AwlAd  SulaymAn 

1.  Um  Ghaybish 

1.  GhanAwAb 

2.  NAs  Atayrinna 

2.  DAr  Musa'ad 

3.    'ASAYFIR4 

3.  AbbAtin 

4.  NAs  Wad  Matar 

4.  AwlAd  Hamdulla 

5,  Dar  'Ali 

P. 

Bashi'r7 

6.  Zeragni 

Q. 

'IsAwia8 

3!3 


VIII  The  above  sections  of  KabAbish  are  all  in  Kordofan.  The 
following,  of  whom  the  Um  Matu  are  the  largest  and  the  ruling  clan, 
are  in  Dongola  Province.  A  certain  number  of  them  are  sedentary, 
but  the  majority  are  nomadic  and  occupy  the  Kab  valley  west  of  the 
river.  They  contain  many  elements  of  Mahass  and  other  Danagla. 


A.  Um  Matu9 

(a)  GhodayrAb 

(b)  BelulAb 


c)  'AzozAb 
\  (d)  DAr  Ahmad 
e)  Um  Kelba 


1  For  their  brand  see  above. 

2  Probably  Mahass,  see  ABC  VIII. 

3  Ga'aliin :  see  above.  Their  brand  is  a  long  "  'amud"  on  the  left  side  of  the  neck. 

4  I.e.  "Sparrows." 

5  Kenana:  see  above.  Their  brand  is  a  "  hadd"  on  the  right  side  of  the  throat, 
resembling  that  of  the  Awlad  'Ukba. 

6  Sing.  "Rahli."  Their  brand  is  a  " shura"  across  the  throat. 

7  There  is  a  small  independent  tribe  of  Bashir,  semi-nomadic,  in  Darfur.  These 
latter  are  cattle-owners  and  live  immediately  south  of  el  Fasher  (see  p.  296). 

8  Properly  Gamu'ia  (q.v.).    Few  in  number  and  attached  to  the  eastern  sections 
of  Kababish. 

9  Cognate  to  the  Seragab.  Their  brand  is  an  '"asaba"  ("sinew")  on  the  right 
foreleg.  The  Gungonab  also  use  the  "  'asaba." 


3  H  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  in.4.viii. 

B.  Meraysab1  G.  BilaylAt 

C.  Gungonab  H.  Dar  Bashut 

D.  'AwAida  J.    DelAdim 

E.  BAy'udab  K.  DAr  HAmid2 

F.  AhaymerAb 

IX  It  has  been  mentioned  that  the  NurAb  are  at  present  the  ruling 
section.  They  have  held  that  position  for  eight  generations,  that  is  to 
say  since  Kurban  of  the  Ribaykat  surrendered  the  chieftainship  to 
his  sister's  son  Keradim  of  the  Nurab3,  whose  descendants  have  since 
inherited  it  in  succession  to  one  another  though  not  always  from 
father  to  son4. 

X  The  Kababi'sh  are  first  mentioned  by  Bruce  in  1768- 1773,  but 
so  few  travellers  had  visited  the  Sudan  before  him,  and  the  records 
of  such  as  did  so  are  so  scanty  that  one  certainly  cannot  assume  that 
the  tribe  was  not  called  Kababi'sh  for  scores  of  years  previously. 

Speaking  of  Wad  'Agib's  collecting  tribute,  as  the  representative 
of  the  King  of  Sennar,  from  the  nomads  of  the  Bayuda  desert,  Bruce 
says5:  "though  lately  the  Beni  Gerar,  Beni  Faisara  [i.e.  Fezara]  and 
Cubbabeesh  have  expelled  the  ancient  Arabs6  of  Bahiouda  [i.e.  the 
Bayuda],  who  pretend  now  only  to  be  the  subjects  of  Kordofan." 
Again,  he  says7  that  the  road  across  the  Bayuda  is  impassable 
because  of  the  "Beni  Faisara,  Beni  Gerar  and  Cubbabeesh... which 
come  from  the  westward  near  Kordofan  from  fear  of  the  black 
horse8  there,"  and  have  taken  all  the  wells.  The  Kababish  are 
"very  numerous  and  extend  far  north  into  the  great  desert  Selima 
and  to  the  frontiers  of  Egypt9." 

Browne10  says  of  them  that  they  infested  the  vicinity  of  Bir  el 
Malha  (i.e.  Bir  Natrun)  in  his  day  and  lived  by  plundering  the 
caravans  from  Egypt. 

El  Tunisi11  says  they  assisted  Hashim,  the  Sultan  of  the  Musa- 
ba'at  of  Kordofan,  in  his  wars  against  Ti'rab,  Sultan  of  Darftir, 
towards  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

Burckhardt12  in  1813,  referring  to  Dongola,  says:  "The  Bedouin 
tribe  of  Kobabish  reside  in  the  country  and  are  continually  making 
incursions    into    Darfour,    from    whence    they    carry    off   slaves." 

1  Use  a  "  hadd"  as  brand. 

2  Use  a  " hildl' "  ("crescent  moon")  on  the  neck. 

3  Note  this  evidence  of  the  ancient  custom  of  Dongola  whereby  the  sister's 
son  inherits. 

4  See  MacMichael,  Tribes...,  p.  194,  and  genealogical  tree  opposite. 

5  Vol.  vi,  Chap.  x. 

6  Probably  such  as  the  Kerriat  are  meant.  7  hoc.  cit. 

8  Probably  the  cavalry  of  the  Fur,  then  paramount  in  northern  Kordofan. 

9  Bruce,  loc.  cit.  10  Pp.  188  and  247. 
11   Voy.  au  Darfour,  p.  67.  12  Nubia,  p.  67. 


in.  4.  xi.  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  315 

Cailliaud  (1821)  mentions  them  as  exporting  salt  from  northern 
Kordofan  and,  when  the  Turks  conquered  the  Sudan,  pretending 
to  submit  but  paying  none  of  the  tribute  demanded  of  them. 

In  the  Turkish  days  they  were  largely  engaged  in  the  transport 
trade,  but  were  fleeced  and  swindled  unmercifully  by  the  Turks  who 
had  always  the  advantage  of  being  able  to  seize  the  Kababish  herds 
when  the  hot  weather  drove  them  to  the  river  and  the  well-known 
watering-places1. 

In  1883  the  Mahdi  seized  el  Tom,  the  head  sheikh,  and  beheaded 
him.  Many  of  the  Kababish  sections  then  joined  the  Dervishes,  but 
the  Nurab  and  some  others  retired  into  the  deserts  and  defied  them 
under  Salih  Bey  Fadlulla. 

Salih  Bey  was  killed  near  Gebel  el  'Ain  in  1887,  and  until  the 
reoccupation  the  Kababish  practically  ceased  to  exist  as  a  corporate 
entity.  Then,  however,  they  collected  in  their  deserts  and  took 
advantage  of  the  unsettled  state  of  affairs  to  raid  the  Hamar  and 
Zayadia,  their  quondam  foes,  who  had  all  been  Dervishes,  and  so 
enormously  increased  their  wealth  in  stock. 

The  present  chief  of  the  tribe,  which  is  now  richer  than  at  any 
previous  period,  is  'Ali  the  son  of  the  el  Tom  beheaded  in  1883. 

XI  To  sum  up:  the  Kababish,  for  so  long  as  anything  is  known 
about  them  at  all,  have  been  a  widely  distributed  but  coherent  camel- 
owning  congeries  roaming  the  steppes  between  Dongola  and  Darfur. 
The  chief  difference  between  the  tribe  of  the  present  day  and  that  of 
the  nineteenth  and  previous  centuries  is  that  it  is  less  vexed  by  the 
competition  of  other  tribes  in  its  spacious  grazing  grounds. 

The  Beni  Gerar  have  been  forced  southwards  and  have  become 
semi-sedentary.  The  Dar  Hamid  too  have  built  villages  in  their  own 
country  to  the  south  and  only  send  a  small  proportion  of  their  popu- 
lation to  the  grazing  grounds  of  the  Kababish.  The  Zayadia  nomads 
are  decimated  in  number :  a  few  graze  with  the  Dar  Hamid  in  Kordo- 
fan ;  the  rest  are  either  sedentary  or  live  in  Darfur.  The  Hawawir  are 
on  fairly  amicable  terms  with  the  Kababish  and  graze  almost  where 
they  will  with  them.  Such  raiding  as  is  done  is  at  the  expense  of  the 
wild  Bedayat,  Kura'an  and  Midobis  of  northern  Darfur,  and  takes 

1  See  Pallme  and  Parkyns.  The  latter  says  the  Kababish  of  Kordofan  were 
"  taxed  2000  camels,  which  impost  is  now  changed  into  the  carriage  of  4000 
loads  of  gum  from  Al  Obeid  to  Dongola,"  and  also  100  horses,  and  2000  dollars  of 
i5pt.  (collected  not  in  cash  but  in  smooth-paced  riding  camels  assessed  by  the 
Turks  at  about  a  quarter  of  their  real  value),  and  a  certain  number  of  sheep  and 
the  price  of  fifty  slaves.  Salim  Fadlulla,  the  head  of  the  tribe,  had  met  Muhammad 
'Ali  Pasha  in  Khartoum  in  1838-9  and  obtained  certain  concessions,  but  they  were 
of  little  real  value.  In  1858,  according  to  Petherick  (Upper  Egypt,  p.  328),  the  tribe's 
annual  tribute  to  Egypt  was  5000  camels. 


316  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  iii.4.xi. 

place  far  to  the  north  of  the  Wadi  el  Melik,  in  the  cold  winter  months. 
So  far  from  appearing  to  tend  towards  a  more  sedentary  existence,  the 
Kababish,  as  their  herds  have  increased  under  the  Pax  Britannica, 
have,  if  anything,  become  more  universally  nomadic1. 

(b)  THE  MOGHARBA  OR  MOGHRABfN 

XII  From  the  word  "Moghrabi,"  the  singular  of  Mogharba  or 
Mograbin,  through  the  Latin  Maurus,  has  arisen  the  anglicized 
"Moor,"  and  from  "Moghrab  el  Aksa,"  "the  extreme  west,"  the 
name  "Morocco."  It  must  not,  however,  be  assumed  that  all  the 
Mogharba  in  Egypt  or  the  Sudan  came  from  Morocco :  it  is  unlikely 
that  any  of  them,  a  certain  number  of  individuals  of  the  merchant 
class  excepted,  did  so. 

The  term  was  loosely  applied  during  the  time  of  the  later  Mam- 
luks  and  of  Muhammad  'AH  Pasha  to  all  the  Beduin  tribesmen  who 
lived  west  of  Egypt.  Take,  for  instance,  the  following  from  Burck- 
hardt2: 

The  temple  of  Ebsambal 3  serves  as  a  place  of  refuge  to  the  inhabitants 
of  Ballyane,  and  the  neighbouring  Arabs,  against  a  Moggrebyn  tribe  of 
Bedouins,  who  regularly,  every  year,  make  incursions  into  these  parts4. 
They  belong  to  the  tribes  which  are  settled  between  the  Great  Oasis  and 
Siout.  When  they  set  out,  they  repair  first  to  Argo,  where  they  commence 
their  predatory  course,  plundering  all  the  villages  on  the  western  bank  of 
the  river;  they  next  visit  Mahass,  Sukkot,  Batn  el  Hadjar,  Wadi  Haifa,  the 
villages  opposite  Derr,  and  lastly  Dakke;  near  the  latter  place,  they  ascend 
the  mountain,  and  return  through  the  desert  towards  Siout.  The  party 
usually  consists  of  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  horsemen,  and  as  many 
camel-riders:  no  one  dares  oppose  them  in  Nubia;  on  the  contrary  the 
governors  pay  them  a  visit,  when  they  arrive  opposite  to  Derr,  and  make 
them  some  presents.  The  incursions  of  this  tribe  are  one  of  the  principal 
reasons  why  the  greater  part  of  the  western  bank  of  the  Nile  is  deserted. 

XIII  It  was  from  such  Mogharba  that  the  armies  of  Isma'i'l  Pasha 
and  of  the  Defterdar  were  largely  recruited  preparatory  to  the  con- 
quest of  the  Sudan5.  That  the  Berber  element  was  perhaps  as  strong 
as  the  Arab  in  these  Mogharba  will  be  clear  from  preceding  chapters, 
but  there  is  no  reason  on  that  account  to  consider  the  term  "Arab" 

1  For  a  discussion  of  this  point  by  a  comparison  of  present  conditions  with 
those  described  by  Parkyns  in  1850,  see  my  Tribes...,  pp.  189  ff. 

2  Nubia,  p.  92.  3  I.e.  Abu  Simbel. 

*  Burckhardt  notes  elsewhere  (p.  lxxvii)  "The  Arabs  who  inhabit  Thebes  and 
the  adjacent  country,  are  originally  Moggrebyns."    See  also  Volney,   Travels..., 

1,76,77. 

5  See  Cailliaud,  11,  50,  51.  He  defines  them  thus:  "  Les  Arabes  Mohgrebins 
sont  ceux  qui  habitent  la  cote  de  Barbarie  la  plus  rapprochee  de  l'Egypte." 


III.  4.  xv.  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  317 

as  less  applicable  to  them  than  to  the  generality  of  the  nomad  tribes 
of  the  northern  Sudan. 

During  the  Turkish  period  a  steady  stream  of  these  Mogharba 
was  poured  into  the  Sudan  and  nearly  all  of  these  remained  there  as 
irregular  cavalry  and  police,  being  employed  in  slave-hunting  forays, 
tax-collecting,  etc.1  A  certain  number  also  settled  in  the  towns  and 
villages  as  traders  or  cultivators. 

XIV  At  the  same  time  it  is  clear  that  even  more  Mogharba  were, 
previous  to  the  Turkish  conquest,  already  established  on  the  Blue 
Nile  and  elsewhere,  and  these  may,  to  some  small  extent,  have  acted 
as  the  decoy  which  led  a  few  of  the  later  arrivals  to  take  up  their 
abode  in  the  same  district. 

Cailliaud,  who  accompanied  Isma'il  Pasha's  expedition,  found 
these  Sudanese  Mogharba  established  at  Soba,  Wad  el  Shaib, 
el  Kamh'n  and  Abu  'Ushera,  all  of  which  are  within  a  hundred  miles 
of  Khartoum2 ;  and  there  is  still  a  large  nomadic  camel-owning  tribe 
of  Mogharba  between  Soba  Abu  Delayk  and  the  Butana  which  has 
been  established  there  for  many  generations3.  This  tribe  bears  no 
resemblance  in  features  or  mode  of  life  to  the  colonies  formed  of 
descendants  of  Moghrabin  or  Mogharba  who  entered  the  Sudan  in 
the  nineteenth  century  and  subsequently.  The  latter4  are  recog- 
nizable by  their  sallow-pinkish  complexions  and  general  resemblance 
to  the  Moorish  tribesmen  of  the  North  African  littoral  as  they  are 
to  be  seen  in  the  coast  towns  at  present,  whereas  the  nomad  Mogh- 
arba of  the  Sudan  are  hardly  to  be  distinguished  from  the  average 
nomads  and  are,  if  anything,  rather  darker  in  complexion  than  they. 

XV  These  Mogharba  claim  descent  from,  that  is  to  say  may  have 
some  vague  connection  with,  a  certain  Ahmad  Zarruk,  a  Sherifi  of 
the  Shadhali  sect  in  Tunis,  and  the  nisba-writers  bear  out  their 
contention5.  The  only  detailed  genealogical  tree  I  have  seen,  that  of 

1  See  Pallme,  pp.  207-212,  and  Werne,  pp.  138-139,  where  good  descriptions 
of  them  are  given. 

2  He  calls  them  (n,  207-211)  "Arabes  Maq'arbehs,"  and  it  is  significant  that 
it  apparently  did  not  occur  to  him  that  the  name  was  identical  with  that  of  the 
"  Mohgrebins "  whom  he  describes  elsewhere  as  accompanying  the  army  as 
irregulars.  The    c   (gh)  and  the  J>  {k,  or  q)  are  so  often  confused  together  in  the 

Sudan  as  to  be  almost  interchangeable  in  proper  names,  but  the  same  is  not  the 
case  in  Egypt.    Hence  the  correct  preservation  of  the  £  in  "Mohgrebins"  and  its 

alteration  to  a  Jf  in  the  case  of  the  "  Maq'arbehs"  who  had  been  some  time  in  the 
Sudan. 

3  A  few  of  them  are  also  settled  in  the  Gezfra  near  Manakil  and  elsewhere. 

4  At  el  Fasher  in  particular  there  is  a  large  and  recent  mercantile  community 
of  Moghrabin  commonly  called  "  Fezzan." 

5  See,  e.g.,  D  1  clxxiv,  clxxv. 


3*8 


THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP 


III.  4.  XV. 


the  li,omda"  Fag  el  Nur  of  the  Desisab  section,  traces  his  descent 
through  a  series  of  Sayyids,  including  Ahmad  Zarriik,  to  the  Imam 
'Ali  in  thirty-two  generations,  but  there  is  no  reason  to  assume  that 
the  tree  is  much  better  than  a  detailed  fake1. 

The  common  tradition  in  the  tribe  is  that  they  immigrated  from 
the  neighbourhood  of  Fez  "some  five  hundred  years  ago,"  or  "in 
the  days  of  Soba."  They  claim  much  of  the  rainland  behind  the 
village  of  Soba  to  belong  to  them,  and  even  allowing  that  it  is  with  an 
eye  to  substantiating  their  claim  to  cultivation-rights  that  they  desire 
to  imply  to  a  Government  official  that  they  are  the  earliest  owners, 
and  have  been  there  since  the  days  of  the  Christian  kingdom  of  'Aloa, 
there  is  nothing  inherently  improbable  in  their  claim,  and  one  has  at 
least  fairly  good  evidence,  the  biography  of  'Abdulla  Wad  Hasoba 
el  Moghrabi2,  that  some  of  them  have  lived  there  since  the  sixteenth 
century.  The  darkness  of  their  complexion  proves  a  long  sojourn  in 
the  south,  and  it  is  even  possible  that  some  of  their  ancestors  were 
once  the  inhabitants  of  those  hostels  which  Ibn  Selim  describes  as 
inhabited  by  Muhammadans  at  Soba  towards  the  close  of  the  tenth 
century  a.d.3 
XVI  The  main  sections  of  the  nomad  MoghArba  are  as  follows : 


KlBAYDLAB 

Deraysab 
HasobAb4 
'Akrabab 
'AwadullAb 

'AWLAB 

Bayyada 
turabiin 
Hasabullab 
KokalAb 


Chiefly  to 
the  east 
of  Khartoum 


Between  Abu 
Delayk  and 
'Alwan 


KerAdi's 

Sa'abAb 

GidayAb 

FasAlAb 

Mikaybalab 

FerahAb 

NurAb 

IrwayhAb 


Chiefly  in 
the  Gezi'ra 


Near  Abu 
Delayk 


The  camel-brand  of  these  MoghArba  is  the  "timaysih,"  a  hori- 
zontal line  under  the  right  eye.  The  word  is  the  diminutive  of  "  tim- 
sdh,"  a  crocodile,  and  to  the  MoghArba  the  brand  as  described  sug- 
gests a  crocodile  lying  asleep  on  the  river  bank5. 

1  Curiously  enough  Fag  el  Nur  himself  has  the  sallow  complexion  and  strikingly 
Jewish  cast  of  countenance  of  a  modern  Moor.  This  may  well  be  due  to  careful 
preservation  of  the  blood  of  the  ruling  family  from  all  contamination  with  purely 
Sudanese  admixture. 

2  See  D  3  36  and  141. 

3  See  p.  171. 

4  I.e.  descendants  of  the  Wad  Hasoba  mentioned  above. 

6  Compare  the  cases  of  the  Hawawfr  (Chap.  8)  and  Kababish  who  both  include 
a  section  called  "Tamasih"  ("Crocodiles"). 


in.  4.  xviii.  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  319 

(c)  THE  HAMAR1 

XVII  The  nisbas  say  little  of  the  Hamar,  and  that  little  is  con- 
tradictory. One  account2  says  they  are  a  branch  of  Beni  Tamim; 
another3  that  they  are  a  mixture  of  Beni  Ommayya,  Beni  'Abbas, 
'Anag,  Ashraf  and  Fur;  two  others4  say  they  belong  to  the  Guhayna 
group. 

The  tradition  among  the  Gharaysia  section  of  the  tribe  is  that 
they  are  Himyarites  from  el  Yemen  who  migrated  into  the  Sudan  in 
the  time  of  Haggag  ibn  Yusef,  i.e.  in  the  second  half  of  the  seventh 
century.  They  crossed  the  Red  Sea,  it  is  said,  and  settled  first  round 
Taka  {i.e.  Kassala) :  then  they  moved  to  the  Blue  Nile ;  and  then,  after 
awhile,  to  Darfur5,  where  they  took  up  a  more  permanent  abode. 

The  story  of  their  sojourn  round  Taka  lends  a  certain  support  to 
the  tradition — otherwise  unsupported — of  their  connection  with  the 
Hamran  Arabs  of  that  district6;  and  the  coincidence  between  the 
name  of  their  commonest  camel-brand,  the  "  shabiil,"  and  that  of  the 
Shabul  section  of  the  Manasi'r — a  tribe  alleged  by  Sir  C.  Wilson  to 
be  related  to  the  'Ababda — is  a  small  piece  of  evidence  in  favour  of 
their  alleged  movement  from  the  direction  of  the  Red  Sea7. 

XVIII  Our  knowledge  of  their  history  in  Darfur  remains  practically 
a  blank  until  the  beginning  of  the  last  century  when  they  attained  to 
a  considerable  power  under  the  leadership  of  a  certain  el  Hag 
Muna'am  of  the  'Asakira  division8.  It  is  not  improbable  that  as  a 
tribal  entity  they  had  hardly  existed  previously  and  that  by  origin 
they  were  simply  a  conglomeration  of  various  Arabs  who  decided  to 
colonize  the  almost  well-less  tracts  where  good  crops  can  be  grown, 
but  where  the  chief  water-supply  is  derived  from  melons  and  water 
stored  in  the  hollow  trunks  of  baobabs9  during  the  rainy  season.  It 
is  variously  alleged  among  the  Hamar  either  that  Mekki,  the  son,  or 
Ibrahim  el  Melih,  the  great-grandson,  of  el  Hag  Muna'am,  was  the 
first  man  to  inaugurate  the  practice  of  hollowing  the  baobab  and 

1  Much  of  the  information  here  presented  is  taken  from  Chap,  xn  of  The 
Tribes  of  Northern  and  Central  Kordofdn.  But  details  have  also  been  added  from  a 
short  account  of  the  Hamar  compiled  from  their  oral  traditions  by  'Abd  el  Wahhdb 
Ahmad  'Awadulla,  headmaster  of  el  Nahud  school  in  1913. 

2  See  D  1  xxviii.  3  See  D  1  cxlviii. 

4  See  BA  lxxviii  and  ABC  li.  The  Hamar  are  also  found  classed  with  the 
Bakkara. 

5  Darfur  at  that  time  comprised  what  is  at  present  western  Kordofdn,  i.e.  the 
country  west  of  el  Nahud.  The  Hamar  were  for  long  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Um 
Shanka  on  both  sides  of  the  present  boundary.  6  See  BA  lxxviii. 

7  So,  too,  the  Beni  Fadl,  who  are  closely  related  to  the  Manasir,  contain  a  section 
called  Hadarma  {i.e.  Hadareb). 

8  Riippellin  1824-5  met  mm  ("Hadgi  Minhim")  in  Kordofdn  (Reisen...,  p.  148). 

9  The  "  tubeldi" :  Adansonia  digitata. 


320  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  iii.4.xviil 

using  it  as  a  reservoir,  thus  rendering  habitable  vast  tracts  hitherto 
useless1.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  one  occasionally  finds  (more  often 
in  the  west  than  in  the  east)  an  old  tree  in  which  the  opening  is 
differently  placed  to  that  usually  made  by  the  Hamar,  and  the  work 
is  then  attributed  to  the  'Anag.  On  this,  if  on  no  other  ground,  one 
would  suppose  that  the  use  of  the  baobab  for  water-storage  is  fairly 
ancient,  but  died  out,  and  was  revived  by  the  Hamar  as  the  necessity 
arose  for  them  to  expand.  As  they  progressed  eastwards  they  cer- 
tainly tapped  virgin  areas. 

XIX  As  soon  as  the  Hamar  became  at  all  powerful  they  parted  into 
two  main  divisions,  the  'Asakira  {i.e.  "Soldiers")  and  the  Dekakim, 
and  very  shortly  afterwards — probably  about  the  time  of  the  Turkish 
conquest  of  Kordofan — the  bulk  of  both  moved  eastwards  as  a  result 
of  quarrels  with  the  other  Arab  tribes  of  eastern  Darfur2  and  the 
insufficiency  of  their  own  territories  there. 

Those  of  them  who  stayed  behind  round  Um  Shanka  and  the 
districts  now  known  as  Dam  Gamad3  and  Zernakh4,  etc.,  remained 
independent  under  Darfur5. 

The  rest  pushed  eastwards,  and  the  family  of  el  Hag  Muna'am 
settled  more  or  less  permanently  round  Farshaha6,  and  that  of  the 
Sheikh  of  the  Dekakim  in  Shek  el  Dud7,  farther  to  the  west.  But 
their  people  remained  nomad  between  el  Odaya  and  Foga,  and  east- 
wards as  far  as  Abu  Haraz  and  Gebel  Abu  Sinun,  and  in  the  rains 
sought  more  distant  grazing  grounds  along  the  Wadi  el  Melik  with 
the  Kababish,  Beni  Gerar,  Zayadia  and  Dar  Hamid,  and  even 
raided  as  far  east  as  the  Bayuda  desert8. 

The  result  was  that  every  year  in  the  rains  and  winter  the  Hamar 
found  themselves  engaged  in  a  series  of  petty  inter-tribal  raids  and 
forays,  which  in  their  traditions  are  glorified  under  the  name  of  wars9. 

1  For  many  generations  there  have  been  wells  at  Um  Shanka,  but  the  country 
east  of  it  was  a  desert  until  about  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  when  the 
baobabs  were  exploited.  There  were  no  wells  at  el  Nahud  until  the  Dervish  epoch. 
The  "  tubeldi"  in  western  Kordofan  is  usually  called  a  "  homraia'''' — presumably 
because  the  bark  has  a  pink-red  sheen  over  it  and  the  fibre  has  a  dull  brick 
colour.  That  the  tribe  especially  concerned  with  these  trees  should  be  called 
"Hamar"  (i.e.  "red")  is  probably  no  more  than  a  coincidence. 

2  Cp.  Pallme,  p.  142. 

3  Meaning  "blood  has  clotted."  Fights  for  "tubeldis,"  etc.,  were  very  frequent 
there.  4  The  name  of  a  fly.  fl  Cp.  Cuny,  p.  190. 

6  Cp.  Petherick,  Upper  Egypt...,  p.  314,  and  Cuny,  pp.  189-190. 

7  Literally  "Lion's  Valley."  8  Cuny,  p.  65. 

9  In  the  "war"  with  Dar  Hamid,  it  is  said,  each  side  was  accompanied  by  a 
poet  who  encouraged  his  own  people  by  the  recital  of  verses.  The  Hamar  say 
maliciously  that  the  men  of  Dar  H^mid  were  so  utterly  destroyed  that  their  women 
went  round  in  a  band  to  neighbouring  tribes  offering  themselves  in  marriage  at  a 
reduced  dowry,  and  only  so  kept  the  tribe  in  existence. 


in.  4.  xxi.  THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP  321 

The  most  serious  and  numerous  of  these  were  with  the  Kababish, 
with  whom  the  Hamar  were  at  perpetual  feud1. 

The  power  of  the  Hamar  increased  so  rapidly  that  by  1876  Ensor 
considered  them  "  the  richest  of  all  the  nomads  in  this  part  of  Africa, 
far  exceeding  in  number  the  nomad  portion  of  the  Kabbabbeesh, 
and  almost  equalling  the  whole  of  that  tribe  including  the  settlers  on 
the  banks  of  the  Nile2."  They  lost  nearly  all  their  wealth  in  the  Der- 
vish days,  and  at  the  reoccupation  the  Kababish  looted  from  them 
much  of  what  was  left. 

XX  They  are  now  almost  entirely  sedentary,  but  fairly  rich  in  camels 
and  sheep.  They  occupy  large  tracts  of  gum  forest  and  cultivation 
north  of  el  Odaya  Abu  Zabad  and  Abu  Haraz,  and  west  of  Abu 
Sinun  and  Mazrub. 

None  of  the  Hamar  remain  in  Darfiir,  if  one  except  a  small  colony 
of  Sahanin  (Awlad  Sahnun)  who  live  with  the  Zaghawa  in  the 
north  round  Hashaba  and  are  said  to  be  Hamar  in  origin. 

The  'Asakira,  the  Dekak^m,  and  the  Gharaysia,  of  whom  the 
last-named  split  away  from  the  Dekakim  between  1873  and  1877, 
are  now  each  under  a  separate  ndzir. 

XXI  The  subdivisions  of  the  Hamar  are  as  follows : 


[.  El  'Asakira 

A.  El  Ghishimat 

1.  Awlad  Gami'a 

((a)  Awlad  Ma'ayz 
[  (b)  Shenabir 

1  (c)  Gharara 
[(d)  Marazik3 

< 

2.    SlDAYRAT 

3.  Awlad  Ma'ali 

4.       „      Ghasi 

.5.       „      'Ali 

B.  Beni  Badr 

fi.  Meramra4 

(a)  Milaha 
[2.  Sa'adat 

(a)  Awlad  Ghanum 

(b)  Mahalhil 

- 

(c)  NAs  Zayd 

(d)      „      EL  SOL 

(e)     „    Matlub 

1  Cp.  Petherick,  Upper  Egypt...,  p.  316,  and  Cuny,  pp.  64-67. 

9'  Ensor,  p.  86.  The  " dhia"  (blood-money)  for  murder  at  this  period  is  said  to 
have  been  100  camels,  of  which  the  sheikh  took  thirty. 

3  Plural  of  Marzuk,  i.e.  =  Awlad  Marzuk.  The  same  name  occurs  among  the 
subdivisions  of  the  Mahass  and  of  the  Gawama'a.  *  Dar  Ilamid  in  origin. 

M.S.  1.  21 


322 


THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP 


III.  4.  XXI 


C.  El  KhamsAt 

"1.  Mayamin 

j(a)  AwlAd  Subuh 

[(b)    BUDRANIA 

2.  MenAdir 

3.  GikhaysAt1 

(a)  Um  Haysin 

•* 

(b)  Awlad  DhiAb 

' 

(c)  Abu  DAn 

(d)  MERAHiL 

(e)  NAs  Muamar 

4.  MenAna 

^5.  KhayraysAt 

D.  El  TarAdAt 

i.  Dama'i 

r(a)  SubayhAt 

(1)  NAs  S6deri 

(b)  Gelada 

(c)  TayAisa 

(1)  AwlAd  'Ali 

(2)  GawAbra 

. 

(3)  Nowara 

(4)  'ABBAsiA 

< 

(d)  Fawadil 

(e)  Ghanaymia2 

(1)  NAs  Abu  Gebel 

(2)     „    'Ali 

(3)     „    BelAl 
U)     „    Gamu'a3 

(/)  NoaykAt 

( g)  AwlAd  Khadra 

Ah)  'AbAdia 

[(i)  NAs  Abu  Guma'a 
[(2)  Gerayni 

II.  El  DekakIm 

A.  WAilia4 

,1.  NAs  HAzil 

2.      „      EL  HURR 

3.     „    Abu  Hamaydan 

i 

4.     „    Hamir 

5.     „    Harush 

6.     „    Raha 

7-     » 

Abu  7 

LWIN 

8.  Abu  GemAnIn 

1  Originally  Shendbla  'Awamra.        2  Originally  Gawama'a.        3  Cp.  Gamu'fa. 
4  Said  to  be  related  to  the  Kawahla,  but  not  to  be  confused  with  the  Walfa 
(q.v.  D  3,  2  note).  There  are  also  Beni  Wail  west  of  Darfur  (see  Carbou,  II,  14). 


III.  4.  XXI. 


THE  GUHAYNA  GROUP 


323 


B. 

NAs  Abu  Zayd 

,  1 .  Nas  Sari 

(         /(«)  Nas  Gabr 

[(b)    AWLAD  SUBAYH 

1 2.  Nas  'Abd  el  SalAm 

I3.     „    Faragulla 

^4.    „    Abu  Tenu 

C. 

El  Sha'ibAt 

D. 

Awlad  Shadwan 

E. 

,,       'Amir 

F. 

,,      Bur'as 

G. 

,,         SlHAIA 

1 .  Nas  el  Sod 

2.     ,,    Feraywa 

4 

3.      „     RlBAYH 

4.     „    Abu  Na'amir 

5.      „      MUSELLAM 

6.     „    Khala 

H. 

El  Gema'ania 

J. 

El  Gharaga 

III.  El  Gharaysia 

A. 

El  HadAhda 

,  1 .  Awlad  Hammad 

2.  Awlad  Um  Butnayn 

3.   DUBtJBA 

4.  Awlad  SherIf 

5.  Awlad  Nimr 

6.  Bera'i'm 

B. 

Awlad  Shighan 

1 .  Nas  IsMA'f l 

2.  Um  Kisayba 

3.  NAs  Nusr 

- 

4.  „    Abu  Merakih 

5.  „    Muhammad 

6.  HomrAn 

C. 

Awlad  Guayd 

f  1 .  NAs  Abu  Higaywa 

2.  NAs  Turfa 

3.  Awlad  'Adi 

< 

4.  HabAbish 

5.  NAs  Murmi 

6.  Sa'adia 

7.  Awlad  GAbir 

^8.  NAs  SahArif 

D. 

El 

SUBAHA1 

1  These  are  not  Hamar  by  race,  though  subject  to  them.  They  are  said  to  be 
Korobat  (see  Chap.  8). 


21- 


CHAPTER  5 
The  Kawdhla  Group 

(a)  THE  KAWAHLA1 

I  The  Kawahla  are  invariably  connected  in  tradition  with  Zubayr 
ibn  el  'Awwam  of  the  tribe  of  Kusai,  one  of  the  first  and  most  famous 
converts  to  Islam,  slain  at  the  "  Battle  of  the  Camel"  in  656  a.d.2 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  nucleus  of  the  tribe  entered  the  Sudan 
by  way  of  the  Red  Sea,  but  the  period  of  their  immigration  is  not 
known.  They  are  first  mentioned  by  Ibn  Batiita  as  inhabiting  the 
country  round  Suakin  in  1353  and  speaking  the  Bega  tongue3. 

It  is  common  for  such  of  the  Bisharin  and  'Ababda  as  claim  an 
Arab  descent  to  speak  of  their  tribes  as  descended  from  "  Kahl,"  and 
the  Kawahla  reciprocate  by  including  the  Bisharin  and  'Ababda, 
and  sometimes  even  the  Beni  'Amir  or  Um  'Ar'ar  ("Amarar"), 
under  the  term  Kawahla4. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  there  is  a  strong  Arab  element 
common  to  all  three  tribes. 

II  At  the  present  day  the  Kawahla  are  widely  distributed,  but 
they  fall  into  two  main  groups.  The  most  important  and  united  of 
these  are  the  very  rich  nomad  camel-owning  tribe  of  Kordofan. 
Until  the  Dervish  revolt  these  formed  a  branch  of  the  Kababish  and 
had  probably  moved  westwards  and  joined  that  tribe  shortly  before 
the  Turkish  conquest.  It  is  improbable  that  they  did  so  very  much 
earlier,  since,  had  they  done  so,  they  must  in  the  course  of  years  have 
become  more  firmly  welded  into  the  tribal  whole,  to  the  detriment  of 
their  own  individuality,  than  was  ever  the  case5. 

1  Sing.  Kahli. 

2  The  name  Kahil  was  not  uncommon  in  Arabia.  Wiistenfeld  mentions  five 
persons  of  this  name.  From  one  of  them,  Kahil  ibn  Asad,  were  descended  the 
Kahilia  (q.v.  Abu  el  Fida,  pp.  196-7),  but  there  is  nothing  further  to  connect  these 
with  the  Kawahla  now  in  the  Sudan.  The  word  "Kahala"  (^J^a)  in  the  Sudan 
means  "to  clear  out  [a  well],"  i.e.  to  remove  the  muddy  deposit  at  the  bottom. 

3  See  p.  188. 

*  Wilkinson  (p.  386)  and  Tremaux  (1,  169)  respectively  mention  "Gowal£eh" 
and  "  Kawoali "  among  the  chief  divisions  of  the  'Ababda.  In  a  list  of  these  divisions 
by  Mr  Jennings  Bramly  I  find  the  name  as  "  Gawalia." 

5  The  'Atawia  section  of  Kababish  are  said  to  be  Kawahla  by  origin,  but 
probably  joined  the  Kababish  long  before  the  rest  of  the  Kawahla.  In  consequence 
they  have  become  an  integral  part  of  the  former  tribe  and  did  not  leave  it  in  the 
"M  undid." 


III.  5.  IV. 


THE  KAWAHLA  GROUP 


325 


The  other  main  group  of  Kawahla,  though  more  numerous, 
forms  a  much  less  coherent  whole,  and  while  certain  sections  of  it 
lead  a  nomadic  life  south  of  Sennar  and  on  the  banks  of  the  Atbara 
theDinder  and  theRahad,  many  others  have  become  entirely  sedentary 
and  have  built  villages  on  the  White  Nile,  in  the  Gezira,  and  as  far 
east  as  the  Abyssinian  border. 

III  Travellers  to  the  Sudan  in  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  cen- 
turies speak  of  the  Kawahla  ("Cohala,"  "  Kaouahlehs,"  etc.)  as  one 
of  the  chief  tribes  east  of  the  Blue  Nile1. 

Burckhardt2  and  Cailliaud  both  mention  that  about  1814-1819 
they  and  the  Shukria  were  at  mortal  feud  with  the  Ga'aliin  tribes 
to  the  east  of  Shendi  and  on  the  Atbara. 

IV  The  subdivisions  of  the  Kordofan  division  are  as  follows : 


A.  Dar  Hamid 

B.  El  Berakna 

C.  El  Halayifa 

D.  El  Bedariin 

E.  El  'Ababda 


1.  Hashuna 

2.  awlad  gerays 


3- 

.4- 


Shinaytir 
Zayd 


F.  Um  'Amar 

G.  Dar  Bahr 


1 .  NAs  wad  el  Matayrik 

2.  NAs  wad  el  Azrak 

1.  AWLAD  RAHAL 

2.  AWLAD  'ARABI 

1 .  NAs  WAD  el  Misayk 

2.  NAs  Bab 

3.  Um  Radi 

4.  Nafar 


fi.  Awlad  el  Sheikh 
[2.  Awlad  el  Dibayd 


H.  El  Bekayrab  Ci.  Awlad  Sulayman 
1 2.  Awlad  Adam 
[3.  Kurun 

J.    El  Gihaymab3 

K.  El  Ghazaya  j  1.  El  'Omarat 

[2.  Awlad  Terayf 

L.  El  Nifaydia   (1.  El  Utiab 
1 2.  El  Mulkab 
(3.  El  Kuara 

Of  these  several  are  not  true  Kawahla.  The  rich  'Ababda  section 
are  an  offshoot  of  the  tribe  of  that  name  from  the  eastern  deserts ;  but 

1  See,  e.g.,  Bruce,  iv,  416;  Cailliaud,  II,  236;  III,  71,  108,  etc. 

2  Nubia,  p.  346. 

3  A  few  nomad  Gihaymab  also  occur  in  Berber  district. 


326  THE  KAWAHLA  GROUP  iils.iv. 

it  is  noteworthy  that  they  held  the  sheikhship  of  the  whole  tribe  for 
two  generations1. 

The  Dar  Hamid,  who  hold  the  sheikhship  at  the  present  day  and 
are  the  wealthiest  of  all  the  sections,  belong  to  the  Guhayna  group2 
and  joined  the  Kawahla  after  the  advent  of  the  latter  to  Kordofan. 

These  western  Kawahla  spend  the  dry  season  (December  to 
June)  in  the  Khayran  near  Bara,  unless  they  have  been  able,  by  digging 
wells  at  Um  Badr,  to  defer  their  retirement  south-east  for  another 
month  or  two.  They  graze  their  herds  in  the  Khayran  and  there- 
abouts free  of  payment,  but  as  having  no  proprietary  rights  they  are 
compelled  to  pay  for  the  water  they  draw  from  the  wells.  Cultivation 
they  have  none3.  When  the  rains  fall  the  whole  tribe  moves  north- 
westwards to  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Wadi  el  Melik  and  remain 
there  for  so  long  as  grass  and  water  permit4. 

V  The  eastern  Kawahla  are  not   composed   of  sections  whose 
parentage  is  entirely  distinct  from  that  of  the  western  group. 

They  divide  the  whole  tribe  into  thirteen  sections  each  descended 
from  a  different  son  of  Kahil.  However,  the  names  of  these  thirteen 
sons  vary  to  some  extent5  and  it  is  useless  to  attempt  an  accurate 
grouping  of  the  subdivisions  under  their  names.  The  best  known  of 
the  subdivisions  are  the  following6: 

[Berakna.    Chiefly  in  Kordofan. 
-  Kamalab 

[Kimaylab.  A  small  nomad  group  of  these  also  lives  in  Berber  district. 
Marghumab7.   A  section  of  these  is  with  the  Shukria  near  Abu 

Delayk.  A  few  others  are  nomadic  in  Darner  district  (Berber). 
Delaykab8 
AsAwida 
/Hasania9 
Gimaylia 
Ghazalab 
'UrwAb.    On  the  White  Nile,  chiefly  the  west  bank,  south  of  the 

GAMU'fA. 

Sonaytab 

1  Gadulla  Balilu  in  the  Dervish  days,  and  his  son  'Abdullah  after  the  reoccu- 
pation  till  1910. 

2  See  above,  p.  256. 

3  The  only  Kawahla  cultivation  west  of  the  White  Nile  is  that  belonging  to 
some  sedentary  'Ababda  and  others  in  the  White  Nile  Province. 

4  The  colony  of  so-called  Kawahla  in  the  Nuba  mountains  near  Gebel  Kedir 
are  escaped  slaves  or  freedmen  and  not  true  Kawahla  at  all. 

5  See  C  1  for  the  variations. 

6  The  brackets  give  some  indication  as  to  which  sections  are  most  closely  con- 
nected with  one  another. 

7  See  D2,  xxvn  and  D3,  74  ("Markumab"). 

8  See  sub  Batahin.  9  Dealt  with  separately :  see  later. 


Hi.  5.  vi.  THE  KAWAHLA  GROUP  327 

/Lababis 

HamaydAnia 

'Amria 

Keramia 
^  Gebalia 

f  Bedariin.    Chiefly  in  Kordofan  and  on  the  White  Nile. 
[Shara'ana.   Sedentary,  in  the  Gezira. 
f  'Ababda1 
\BishAriin2 

'Atawia.   Now  a  section  of  the  Kababi'sh. 

Yezidab,  or  YezidIa,  or  Beni  Yezid.  A  very  small  section.  I  once 
met  a  small  encampment  of  them  near  'Aydag  living  under  the 
wing  of  the  Mesallamia  of  Um  Dubban. 

Nifaydia.  Chiefly  in  Berber  Province.  Some  are  sedentary  in  the 
Gezira. 

FuAfDA3 

Shadaida 

GhazAya 

Su'UDIA 

Kawamla 
/WAlia4 

GelAlia 
-  BAkia 

Khalafia 
^MutArfa 
/SalAtna3 

Muhammad  Ab 

kurayshab 

NowArAb5 

RimaytAb 

Beni  Sa'Id 

Muhammad i'a.  On  both  sides  of  the  White  Nile:  a  section  rich  in 
cattle  and  sheep. 

AhAmda 

VI  Some  separate  account  must  be  given  of  two  of  the  above 
divisions6,  namely,  the  AhAmda  and  the  HasAnia. 

1  See  above.  2  Cp.  the  case  of  the  'Ababda. 

3  The  names  Fuaida  and  Salatna  occur,  together  with  the  Geraba'a  (for  which 
cp.  BA  xcvn),  as  names  of  subtribes  in  the  peninsula  of  Sinai:  that  of  the  first- 
named  also  among  the  semi-nomadic  tribes  of  Arabs  north  of  Aswan  mentioned 
by  Sir  C.  Wilson. 

4  See  D  3,  2  note. 

5  Or"Nurab." 

6  In  the  trees  attached  to  C  i  will  be  found  also  the  names  of  several  smaller 
Kawahla  sections. 


328  THE  KAWAHLA  GROUP  iii.s.vi. 

(b)  THE  AHAMDA 

The  Ahamda  sometimes  appear  in  the  nisbas  of  the  Ga'alii'n 
group,  and  figure  there  as  closely  akin  to  the  Gawama'a  and  the 
Gima'a1.  The  Kawahla  nisba  shows  them  as  Kawahla2.  The 
Bakkara  include  them  in  their  genealogies  but  evidently  regard  them 
as  an  inferior  folk :  the  Humr  Felaita,  for  instance,  speak  of  "  Ahamda 
who  was  raped  by  a  Nuba  "  as  ancestress  of  the  Ahamda. 

The  Hammada  (Rufa'a)  also  claim  the  Ahamda  to  be  descended 
from  the  same  ancestor  as  themselves.  The  most  usually  accepted 
oral  tradition  has  it  that  Hammad,  the  ancestor  of  the  Ahamda,  was 
a  Kahli  and  that  for  some  reason  he  denied  his  tribe  and  was  therefore 
nicknamed  "el  Nuaykir"  ("the  little  apostate"). 

The  Ahamda  are  a  semi-nomadic  tribe,  some  of  whom  are  in  the 
northern  part  of  the  Gezira,  in  the  Blue  or  the  White  Nile  Province, 
and  to  the  east  of  the  Blue  Nile,  while  others  are  more  sedentary  and 
own  a  considerable  tract  of  country  to  the  west  of  the  White  Nile, 
south  of  Kosti3. 

Many  of  the  Ahamda  are  settled  permanently  in  villages  through- 
out the  year;  but  the  majority  of  the  easternmost  group,  during  the 
rains,  push  some  distance  eastwards  to  cultivate  in  the  wddis 
between  the  river  and  the  Butana  and  to  graze  their  flocks.  As  the 
supplies  of  water  in  the  hafirs  and  of  grass  diminish  they  retreat 
to  the  river.  During  this  process  quarrels  usually  arise  between  them 
and  the  Hasania  and  the  Batahi'n.  Having  finally  returned  to  the 
vicinity  of  the  Blue  Nile  these  Ahamda  similarly  quarrel  with  the 
Mesallamia  Mahass  and  others  on  analogous  grounds. 

They  are,  wherever  found,  but  more  particularly  in  the  east,  a 
small  decadent  and  dirty  type  of  Arab,  owning  a  fair  number  of 
cattle,  many  sheep  and  goats,  and  a  few  small  herds  of  camels.  Some 
of  the  Ahamda  who  are  now  under  the  White  Nile  Province  were, 
in  pre-Mahdist  days,  farther  west  and  north  and  formed  a  section 
of  the  Kababish4,  but  the  bond  between  the  two  tribes,  which  was 
never  more  than  purely  artificial  and  utilitarian,  no  longer  exists, 
and  except  for  a  few  individuals,  there  are  no  Ahamda  now  in  the 
steppes  of  northern  Kordofan. 

Others  used  to  be  mixed  with  the  Awlad  Hamayd  and  other 

1  See  BA  and  An.  2  See  C  i  {a)  and  (b). 

3  In  1814  there  were  some  "Hamda"  in  Shendi  district  whom  Burckhardt 
(q.v.  p.  345)  understood  to  be  "acknowledged  as  relations  by  the  Arabs  of  the  same 
name  who  inhabit  the  neighbourhood  of  Luxor  and  Karnak  in  Upper  Egypt; 
Luxor  has  hence  received  the  name  of  el  Hamdye." 

4  Cp.  note  on  p.  312. 


III.  5.  VII. 


THE  KAWAHLA  GROUP 


329 


Bakkara  between  the  White  Nile  and  Gebel  Dair,  but  these  have 
now  for  the  most  part  settled  in  the  " ddr"  south  of  Kosti. 
The  following  are  some  of  the  subdivisions  of  the  Ahamda: 

Zeraykab 


Zeraykab 

Subhab 

Berarig 

'Edayfab 

Ghadayin 

KlSAYBAB 

Ma'ala 

ZUMAMAB 


In  the  Blue  Nile 
Province,  on  either 
side  of  the  river, 
but  chiefly  to  the 
east. 


Mughamsa 

Shawarab 

Sahawat 

Shakalia 

Dawiab 

WlTAYDAB. 

Gama'nab. 


In    the   White    Nile 
Province. 


On  the  Atbara. 

In  Kayli  district,  east 


and  north-east  of  Khartoum. 


(c)  THE  HASANIA  AND  THE  HUSAYNAT 


VII  The  Hasania,  in  spite  of  the  enormous  losses  which  they 
suffered  in  the  Dervish  days1,  are  the  largest  of  the  tribes  which 
were  originally  included  in  the  term  Kawahla,  but  which  are  now 
independent  of  the  parent  stock. 

They  are  divided  into  two  main  groups.  The  first  is  in  the  White 
Nile  Province  and  is  very  numerous.  Those  on  the  west  bank  are 
mainly  a  cattle-owning  people  and  do  not  extend  far  inland  from 
the  river :  they  have  large  herds  and  form  a  great  part  of  the  popula- 
tion between  Ketayna  and  el  Dueim2. 

Those  on  the  east  bank  are  semi-nomadic  owners  of  camels 
cattle  and  sheep,  and  cultivate  an  extensive  riverain  area.  The 
following  are  some  of  their  subdivisions: 


1.  'Imayri'a 

2.  Rahmab 

3.  Ghulamab 

4.  RafadAb 


5.  kushkushab  9.  glmaylia 

6.  Maghawir  10.  Kasirab 

7.  nagagir  ii.  klraymbab 

8.  GAWAWIT  12.    RlMAYLAB 


13.  Nakiab 

14.  HowayliAb 

15.  Ganuka 

16.  GODAB 


The  second  group  of  Hasania,  with  herds  of  camels  and  sheep 
and  some  cattle,  wanders  farther  afield,  north,  north-east,  north-west 
and  east  of  the  junction  of  the  Niles,  to  the  Bayiida  desert  and 
Gebel  Gilif  and  Gakdul  on  the  one  hand,  and  to  the  Butana  on  the 
other.  In  Berber  Province  they  include  Karafish,  NAGAGfa, 
Bilaylab,  Hammadab,  Hamidab,  etc. 

The  Husaynat  are  mostly  on  the  White  Nile  and  are  divided 
into  Bawazi  and  Shitawi'a.  Both  sections  are  semi-nomadic. 


1  See  Slatin,  Ch.  xni. 

2  See  Petherick,  Central  Africa...,  11,  85. 


CHAPTER  6 

The  Kendna  and  Deghaym 

I  KenAna.  The  Ken  ana  of  the  Sudan  claim  to  be  an  offshoot  of 
the  great  Kenana  tribe  of  Arabia,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that 
there  is  good  foundation  for  their  claim.  But  whether  their  Arab 
ancestors  ever  formed  a  branch  of  the  Kenana  whom  we  have  already 
met  in  Egypt,  or  whether  they  immigrated  quite  independently  by 
way  of  the  Red  Sea,  is  not  certain:  the  latter  supposition  is  the  more 
probable  and  more  in  accord  with  their  own  traditions. 

In  the  Sudan  at  the  present  day  they  are  for  the  most  part  Bak- 
kara,  breeders  of  cattle  and  horses,  and  are  divided  by  the  river  into 
two  main  divisions.  One  of  these,  the  larger,  owns  cattle  camels  and 
sheep  and  lives  south  of  Singa  and  Sennar,  on  either  side  of  the  Blue 
Nile,  with  the  Rufa'a  group.  In  the  rains  these  move  northwards, 
out  of  the  fly  infested  area,  to  the  Butana  on  the  one  side  and  the 
Sekadi  Moya  district  on  the  other.  They  fall  into  the  three  groups  of 
Seragia,  Abu  Rihan  and  Koatil1. 

The  other  division  of  Kenana  grazes  in  Kordofan  with  cattle  and 
sheep  over  parts  of  the  same  country  as  the  far  more  numerous 
Hawazma.  A  branch  of  them  have  also  found  their  way  south  into 
the  Shilluk  country  and  have  settlements  on  the  west  bank  of  the 
Nile  as  far  south  as  the  tenth  parallel  of  latitude. 

The  main  sections  of  the  Kenana  are  given  as  follows  by  their 
tribesmen  in  Kordofan. 

A.  Sowarab 

i.  Awlad  Yasin.   Chiefly  in  the  Gezira. 

2.  Zoayda 

3.  Isayba'a.   Chiefly  in  the  Gezira. 

B.  SERAGfA 

1.  Awlad  Dali2.   Chiefly  in  the  Gezira. 

2.  Um  Belal 

3.  Awlad  Roaya 

4.  Zaydan 

6.   H^LIA        }  Chiefly  ln  the  GeZira- 

1  A  subsection  of  the  Bisharfn  ('Aliab)  of  the  Eastern  Desert  is  also  called 
Koatil  (plural  of  Katul).  The  Seragfa  clearly  correspond  to  the  Seragab  section  of 
Kababish,  who  claim  to  be  of  Kenana  descent. 

2  Some  of  these  live  near  Tekali ;  others  with  the  rest  of  the  Kenana  in  Kordofan. 
The  former  have  with  them  a  few  of  the  Sowarab  section  also. 


in.  6.  ii.  THE  KENANA  AND  DEGHAYM  331 

7.  Abu  Rihan  1 

p  x  {  Chiefly  in  the  Gezira. 

10.  Baylab  J 

C.  Asala'a1 

1.  Awlad  GuberAn     ^ 

2.  „      Huzil 

3.  Su'fJDIA 

4.  'Amaria 

5.  Awlad  Rishayd 

D.  DA'tJDiA 

1.  Manasir 

(a)  NAs  Hamduk 

E.  Fahri'a 

F.  'Alowna2 


Chiefly    in    the    Gezira.     A    few    in 
Kordofan. 


Chiefly  in  the  Gezira. 


II  The  tradition  is  that  the  ancestor  of  the  Ken  ana3 

was  el  Sayyid  Ahmad  Zabad  el  Bahr,  a  "fekir"  of  Mekka,  descended 
from  Hamza  the  youngest  son  of  the  Prophet's  grandfather  'Abd  el 
Muttalib.  After  his  death  one  of  his  sons,  Mansur,  quarrelled  with  the 
other  sons  as  to  the  succession  and  left  Mekka  for  Egypt  with  his  younger 
brother  'Abdullahi.  Hence  he  was  nicknamed  "El  Hardan"  (one  who 
sulks  and  isolates  himself).  From  Egypt  Mansur  passed  up  the  Nile  to 
the  Sudan.  The  GAMu'iA...and  the  Mahass  of  Dongola  each  provided 
him  with  a  wife  and  he  begot  six  sons,  Yasin,  'Ali  Abu  el  Fahra,  Hammad 
Asla'a,  Sowar,  Idris  Serag  and  'Alwan.  These  were  the  forefathers  of  the 
sections  of  KenAna  now  in  the  Sudan,  excepting  the  Da'udia  who  are 
descended  from  'Abdullahi. 

The  Seragab  section  of  the  KabAbish  are  also  said  to  be  descended 
from  Idris  Serag.... 

The  earliest  Kenana  arrivals  in  the  Sudan  are  said  to  have  settled 
finally  at  Gebel  Kurun,  south  of  Tekali,  and  subsequently  to  have  come 
into  conflict  with  a  party  of  KawAhla  settled  in  the  neighbourhood,  and 
to  have  driven  them  to  the  south.  According  to  the  Kenana  "nisba" 
Mansur  lived  sixteen  generations  ago  and  seventeen  generations  after 
'Abd  el  Muttalib. 

Thus  it  would  seem  that4 

some  Kenana  emigrated  from  Arabia  into  Egypt  about  the  beginning 
of  the  fourteenth  century,  and  pushed  their  way  up  the  river  as  far  as 
Dongola,  and  there  temporarily  settled  and  intermarried,  and  later  split 
into  various  sections,  of  whom  a  part  went  south  with  their  kinsmen  and 
a  part  eventually  attached  themselves  to  the  KabAbish. 

1  Burckhardt  mentions  Asala'a  ("Aszale,  *JL»*n)I")  in  Wadai  and  west  of  it 
(Nubia,  pp.  479-480). 

2  The  same  name  occurs  among  the  Kababish  and  the  Beni  Helba. 

3  The  following  quotation  is  from  my  Tribes...,  p.  168. 

4  Ibid.,  p.  !86. 


332        THE  KENANA  AND  DEGHAYM     iii.e.m. 

Ill  DEGKAYM.  The  pedigree  of  the  Deghaym  is  not  given  in  the 
nisbas,  and  in  fact  I  have  only  once  seen  them  mentioned,  viz. 
in  D2. 

In  725  a.h.  (1325  a.d.)  Ibn  Batuta  crossed  the  desert  between 
Kus  and  'Aidhab  in  the  company  of  a  party  of  Deghaym,  but  he 
tells  us  nothing  of  them1. 

Immediately  before  the  " Mahdia"  the  tribe  was  living  on  the 
White  Nile,  and  in  1881  they  joined  the  Mahdi  together  with  the 
Kenana2,  but  they  were  all  but  exterminated  at  the  battle  of  Abu 
Tlayh  ("Abu  Klea")  in  1885,  and  they  have  never  recovered. 

1  See  Burckhardt,  Nubia,  p.  533  (^o*£.>). 

2  The  famous  "amir"  'Ali  wad  Helu  was  one  of  their  number.    See  Slatin, 
Ch.  iv. 


CHAPTER  7 
The  Rikdbia 

I  The  Rikabia  are  a  distinctively  Arab  colony  settled  in  Dongola, 
and  having  ramifications  elsewhere  in  the  Sudan,  but  they  do  not 
recognize  the  name  Danagla  as  applicable  to  them  and  evince  a 
somewhat  exclusive  pride  in  their  nobility  of  descent.  Their  ancestor, 
they  say,  was  a  descendant  of  Husayn  the  son  of  AH  ibn  Abu  Talib, 
the  Sherif  Ghulamulla  ibn  'Aid,  who  settled  in  Dongola  about  the 
second  half  of  the  fourteenth  century  and  conferred  the  benefits  of 
his  learning  on  the  ignorant  autochthonous  population.  He  came  to 
Dongola  by  way  of  the  Red  Sea  from  the  Yemen1. 

II  We  have  seen  that  the  NurAb  section  of  Kababish  express  pre- 
tensions to  be  an  offshoot  of  the  Rikabia.  There  is  also  in  Kordofan 
a  large  but  scattered  family  known  as  the  Doalib,  i.e.  descendants  of 
Dolib,  with  settlements  at  Gebel  el  Haraza  and,  farther  south,  at 
Khursi  and  Bara2.  These  also  call  themselves  Rikabia.  They  formed 
a  colony  in  northern  Kordofan  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth 
century  and  rapidly  attained  a  very  definite  ascendancy  over  the 
northern  hillmen.  At  the  same  time  they  took  to  wife  the  women  of 
the  "Nuba"  and  Shabarka3  and  so  helped  to  produce  the  mixed 
population  of  the  present  day4. 

Other  so-called  Rikabia  and  related  tribesmen  from  Dongola  had 
probably  settled  at  el  Haraza,  Abu  Tubr,  Um  Durrag  and  farther 
south  long  before  the  main  Doalib  immigration5,  but  they  can  hardly 
be  distinguished  from  the  Danagla  immigrants  whom  we  have 
already  alluded  to  as  continually  trickling  into  Kordofan  under  the 
name  of  Bedayria,  GawAbra,  etc.,  and  may  be  here  ignored. 

The  Doalib  in  Kordofan  were  a  very  intelligent  and  capable 
family,  and  during  the  Turkish  regime  were  given  positions  of  trust 

1  See  Introduction  to  Part  IV,  BA  clxxix  and  D  5  (d). 

2  There  are  some  of  them,  too,  incorporated  in  the  Howdrab  section  of  Kaba- 
bish (q.v.). 

3  Q.v.  on  p.  243. 

4  It  is  they  of  whom  Cuny  speaks  (Voy.  pp.  46,  50,  142,  143,  158)  as  "  Berbers," 
or  "  Dougalawi,"  from  Debba  inhabiting  the  hills  of  northern  Kordofan  and  speak- 
ing a  "rotana"  of  Dongolawi  corrupted  by  Zaghawa  and  Kungara.  So,  too, 
Browne,  late  in  the  eighteenth  century,  spoke  of  the  people  of  el  Haraza  as  mostly 
"of  a  reddish  hue"  (see  Browne,  App.  6,  p.  566). 

5  See  pp.  93  and  94  (with  notes)  of  Tribes  of  Northern  and  Central  Kordofan. 


334 


THE  RIKABf A  in.  7.  ii. 


as  tax-collectors  and  minor  officials.  The  headman  of  the  Doalib  at 
el  Haraza  was  also  recognized  as  holding  an  overlordship  over  the 
northern  hills,  and  members  of  his  family  to  the  present  day  hold 
analogous  positions  at  el  Haraza  and  as  far  west  as  the  Kaga  hills. 

Ill  Other  Rikabia  have  wandered  to  other  parts  of  the  Sudan :  the 
people  of  Wad  'Ishayb,  the  'Ishaybab,  on  the  Blue  Nile  near  el 
Kamlin,  for  instance,  claim  descent  from  a  Rikabi  feki  who  settled 
there  about  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century1 ;  but  the  main 
body  remains  in  Dongola,  and,  owing  to  its  alleged  nobility  of  descent 
and  the  numerous  holy  men  it  has  produced2,  is  regarded  with  con- 
siderable respect.  The  mere  Dongolawi  who  wishes  to  represent 
himself  as  of  good  birth  normally  chooses  to  call  himself  a  Rikabi. 

1  A  biography  of  'Ali  wad  'Ishayb  is  given  in  D  3  No.  60.  There  is  a  small 
nomadic  group  of  'Ishaybab  in  Darner  district  (Berber  Province),  but  they  are 
said  to  be  a  branch  of  the  Um  'ar'ar. 

2  See  D  3  Tree  No.  1  and  references  therein. 


CHAPTER  8 
The  Hawdwir,  Gelldba  Howdra,  Wdhia  and  Korobdt 

I  In  an  earlier  chapter1  some  account  has  already  been  given  of 
the  career  of  the  Howara  Berbers  who  settled  in  Upper  Egypt  and 
became  arabicized.  We  saw  how  in  Burckhardt's  time  they  were 
in  occupation  of  both  sides  of  the  Nile  and  were  still  rich  and 
prosperous2.  Until  the  time  of  Muhammad  'Ali  they  had  been 
extremely  powerful,  owing  chiefly  to  the  excellence  of  their  cavalry, 
and  acknowledged  no  authority  but  that  of  their  own  chiefs.  The 
family  of  the  great  chief  Hamam  Abu  Yusef  had  "  assumed  the  whole 
Government  of  Upper  Egypt,  south  of  Siout,  and  the  Mamelouks 
had  been  obliged  to  cede  it  to  them  by  treaty."  Hamam  also  extended 
his  authority  into  northern  Nubia  "which  he  several  times  visited  as 
far  as  Mahass3." 

The  rule  of  the  Howara  was,  however,  accused  of  being  oppres- 
sive and  extortionate4)  especially  towards  the  Copts,  many  of  whom 
were  used  as  slaves,  and  shortly  before  Muhammad  Ali's  accession 
the  Mamluks  attacked  Hamam  and  succeeded  in  defeating  and  killing 
him.  But  they  were  unable  to  subdue  the  tribe  as  a  whole,  and  it 
remained  powerful  until  after  the  fall  of  the  Mamluks,  when  Ibrahim 
Pasha  finally  crushed  it.  He  is  said  to  have  slain  2000  of  the  Howara. 

II  HawAwir.  The  Hawawir  nomads  of  Dongola  Province  belong 
to  this  stock  and  preserve  the  tradition  of  their  Berber  ancestry.  They 
are  a  large  and  fairly  rich  tribe  of  camel-owners  and  in  the  rainy 
season  move  to  the  west  and  north-west  with  the  KABABfsH.  Their 
main  divisions  are  as  follows5: 

1  Part  II,  Appendix  to  Chap.  1. 

2  Burckhardt,  Nubia,  App.  in,  pp.  531-533. 

3  Ibid.  p.  135.    Cp.  Hamilton,  p.  257.    For  other  details  see  MS.  D  4  ix. 

4  Denon,  who  accompanied  Napoleon's  expedition,  on  the  contrary,  heard  of 
Hamam  as  a  champion  of  the  oppressed  and  of  his  time  as  a  sort  of  golden  age 
for  the  Arabs  of  Upper  Egypt.  They  spoke  "du  temps  du  cheikh  prince  Ammam, 
oil  on  ne  traitoit  pas  d'impositions  arbitraires,  mais  de  ce  qui  pouvoit  fitre  le  plus 
utile  a  tous."  (Voyages...,  1,  303.)  MS.  D4  describes  Hamam  as  farming  out 
Nubia  in  very  cynical  fashion. 

6  The  camel  brands  of  several  of  these  divisions 

are  well  known,   namely  the  Lam  Alif  (a)  of  the  \  /  \A                    it  K 

Rubab  and  the   'erik  (b)  of  the  'Abbasab.   But  the  Y  \ \  r* 

most   distinctive  of   all  their  brands   is   the   Kildid  / \  '"~"\ 

mahgdn  (c)  which  is  used  on  the  right  side  of  the  d  DC 
neck  by  most  of  the  Hawawfr. 


336  THE  HAWAWiR,  GELLABA  HOWARA,       in.  8.  il 


HARARfN 

(Hamasin 

'Tamasih1 
'Amrab 

MUALKA 

J  Salhab 

RUBAB 

|G6tab 

Fakakin 

HOBAZAB 

[Fezarab 

'Abbasab 

III  GellAba  HowAra.  The  Gellaba  Howara  are  more  numerous 
in  Darfur  than  in  Kordofan.  In  the  latter  province  they  have  villages 
between  el  Obeid  and  Bara  and  in  Um  Ruaba  district.  The  people  of 
these  relate  that  their  ancestors  came  from  Upper  Egypt,  and  claim 
relationship  with  the  Hawawir.  Their  land  they  obtained  from  the 
Gawama'a  some  eight  to  nine  generations  ago.  In  type  they  are  very 
dark  and  degraded  and  entirely  unlike  the  sallow  Hawawir  of  the 
north,  who  hold  them  in  contempt.  Their  divisions  in  Kordofan  are: 

[Kawamna 
)  Adawia 

DikayrAb 

awlad  kaysan 

From  their  title  of  "Gellaba"  it  is  likely  that,  as  they  state, 
they  came  originally  as  pedlars;  and  in  Darfur  the  majority  of  them 
are  engaged  in  trade  at  the  present  day  or  live  close  to  the  capital, 
el  Fasher.  These  latter,  like  their  relatives  in  Kordofan,  still  remember 
their  Upper-Egyptian  origin.  The  chief  branch  of  them  is  the  Wahia. 

IV  Kor6bAt.  The  Korobat  are  generally  reckoned  so  cognate  to 
the  Gellaba  Howara  as  to  be  all  but  identical  with  them.  They  are 
confined  to  the  western  Sudan,  Kordofan  and  Darfur  that  is,  and  the 
greater  part  of  them  are  settled  in  north-western  Darfur  near  the 
Kimr  border. 

Nachtigal  tells  us  that  they  at  one  period  inhabited  Dar  Kimr  and 
were  driven  thence  by  the  Fur2.  Both  he3  and  Barth4  include  them 
also  among  the  "  Arabs  "  of  Wadai,  and  the  former  states  they  claimed 
to  be  of  Yemenite  stock.  At  the  present  day  those  in  Darfur  allege 
a  descent  from  the  Beni  Shayba  of  Arabia.  Their  subdivisions  they 
give  as : 

'Abu  Um  Bukr 
Awlad  el  Feki 

„      Abu  Amna 

„      Finei' 

„      Maskin 

1  The  word  means  "crocodiles."    Compare  the  tribal  brand  of  the  Mogharba 
on  the  Blue  Nile,  also  of  Berber  extraction  (p.  318). 

2  Sah.  und  Sudan,  III,  455,  ap.  Carbou,  II,  94. 

3  Ibid,  in,  71. 

4  in,  545- 


ill.  8.  iv.  WAHIA  AND  KOROBAT  337 

Other  Korobat  live  at  Sherkayla  in  eastern  Kordofan,  and  it  is 
said  that  to  their  number  also  belong  the  Subaha  section  of  the 
Hamar  round  Um  Bel  in  western  Kordofan. 

The  people  of  Kaga  in  northern  Kordofan,  too,  state  that  there 
were  settlements  of  Korobat  in  their  hills,  together  with  the  Birked, 
a  century  or  so  ago. 


M.S.I.  22 


CHAPTER  9 

The  'Ababda1  and  Kerrdrish 

m 

I  The  Ababda  are  a  tribe  of  Upper  Egypt,  but  as  they  have  several 
branches  in  the  Sudan  some  brief  account  of  them  will  be  given. 

As  being  neighbours  of  the  Bisharin  and  having  intermarried 
with  chem  they  have  naturally  come  to  be  considered  as  of  the  same 
original  stock,  but  the  'Ababda  have  very  much  more  of  the  Arab  in 
their  composition  than  have  any  of  the  Bega  races2  and  in  fact  prob- 
ably represent  the  Arabs  who  were  settled  in  the  Thebaid  before  the 
final  Muhammadan  conquest  of  the  Sudan.  The  'Ababda  in  Shendi 
district  told  Burckhardt  that  they  and  the  Ababda  of  Egypt  were  all 
descended  from  "  Selman,  an  Arab  of  the  Beni  Hilal3."  There  is  no 
reason  compelling  one  to  deny  their  connection  with  that  tribe;  and 
they  appear  also  to  have  intermarried,  as  one  would  expect,  with  the 
Awlad  Kanz4. 

Their  northern  limit  is  roughly  the  Kena-Kusayr  road,  and  the 
greater  part  of  the  tribe  frequents  the  country  east  of  Luxor  Diraw 
and  Aswan,  and  the  northern  Atbai5. 

II  The  Ababda  are  divided  into  three  main  groups,  the  Ashabab, 
the  Fukara  and  the  Abudiin  or  Shinatir6.  The  Ashabab  is  the 
largest  and  most  powerful  of  these  divisions,  and  both  it  and  the 
Abudiin-Shinatir  group  are  practically  confined  to  Egypt7. 

Of  the  Fukara  the  best-known  branch  is  the  Milaykab,  many 
of  whom  are  within  the  Sudan  boundary,  though  there  are  others  of 
them  over  the  border  and  round  Diraw8. 

1  The  word  '"Ababda"  is  a  plural  formed  from  "  'Abadi."  '"Abadi"  also 
means  a  Nestorian  Christian  (see  el  Mas'udi,  ed.  Sprenger,  pp.  247,  251). 

2  Cp.  Crowfoot,  Some  Lacunae...,  p.  5.  Such  'Ababda  as  speak  To-Bedowi 
have  learnt  it  from  the  Bisharin.  Quatremere  (11,  158)  thought  them  probably 
"descendants  of  the  ancient  Bega." 

3  Nubia,  p.  345. 

4  Burckhardt  says  (loc.  cit.  p.  145)  of  the  KenQz,  i.e.  the  modern  modified  form 
of  Awlad  Kanz,  "They  frequently  intermarry  with  the  Arabs  Ababde."  Belzoni 
{Narrative...,  pp.  304-313)  says  the  'Ababda  "never  intermarry  with  any  of  their 
own  people." 

5  Ibid.  pp.  148  et  seq.  and  map,  and  A.  E.  Sudan,  p.  93.  Belzoni  (1815)  speaks 
of  them  {loc.  cit.)  as  extending  from  near  Suez  to  "  the  Bishariin,  on  the  coast  of  the 
Red  Sea,  below  the  latitude  of  230." 

6  Some  call  the  Shinatir  a  section  of  the  'Abudiin  and  others  call  the  'Abudiin 
a  section  of  the  Shinatir.    "  Shinatir"  in  Himyaritic  means  earrings. 

7  Burckhardt  (p.  149)  mentions  individuals  of  the  'Ashabab  ("Ashabat")  as 
having  settled  on  the  Nile  in  Nubia  and  intermarried  with  the  inhabitants. 

8  Diraw  is  the  nominal  headquarters  of  'Abd  el  'Azim  Bey  el  Khalifa,  the  best 
known  of  the  'Ababda  sheikhs,  but  he  frequently  resides  at  Berber.  Cp.  Burckhardt, 
pp.  211  and  345. 


in.  9.  in.      THE  'ABABDA  AND  THE  KERRARfSH  339 

It  is  this  branch  which  from  time  immemorial  has  controlled  the 
camel  transport  over  the  Butn  el  Hagar  between  Korosko  and  Abu 
Hammad  and  has  thereby  become  wealthy1.  A  few  'Ashabab  and 
'Abudiin  live  with  them. 

There  is  also  a  considerable  colony  of  'Ababda,  of  a  stock  much 
mixed  with  the  Ga'aliin  elements  among  which  they  live2,  based  on 
el  Hosh,  a  few  miles  west  of  Shendi.  They  number  some  850  men 
and  own  perhaps  2000  camels  and  33,000  sheep  and  goats. 

Until  the  second  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  other  'Ababda 
were  settled  at  Dongola,  "where  they  had  acquired  great  wealth  and 
influence3":  these  latter  were  compelled  by  the  immigrant  Mamluks 
to  retire  to  Egypt. 

THE  KERRARfSH 

III  Connected  with  the  'Ababda,  though  remotely,  are  the  Ker- 
rarish.  A  portion  of  these  were  until  lately  in  Upper  Egypt4,  but 
most  of  them  graze  their  camels  and  flocks  in  the  deserts  west  of 
Dongola  and  south  of  the  latitude  of  Haifa.  Others  have  long  been 
settled  on  the  Nile,  more  particularly  to  the  south  of  the  Mahass 
country  and  on  Arko  Island. 

"  These  Bedouin,  a  remote  branch  of  the  Ababde,"  says  Burckhardt 5  in 
1 81 3,  "pasture  their  cattle  on  the  uninhabited  banks  of  the  river,  and  on 
its  islands,  from  Derr  southwards,  as  far  as  Mahass  and  Dongola,  where 
they  are  said  to  be  more  numerous  than  in  Nubia.  They  are  poor... but, 
notwithstanding  their  poverty,  they  refuse  to  give  their  daughters  in 
marriage  to  the  Nubians,  and  have  thus  preserved  their  race  pure.... The 
Kerrarish  are,  for  the  most  part,  in  the  service  of  the  governors  of  Nubia, 
to  whom  they  are  attached  as  a  corps  of  guards,  and  guides,  and  accompany 
them  in  their  journeys  through  their  dominions. ...They  are  a  very  honest 
and  hospitable  people." 

Others,  he  adds,  worked  as  guides  to  merchants  or  made  a  living 
by  collecting  senna  and  nitre  from  the  deserts. 

1  Isma'fl  Pasha  had  700  of  them  as  irregulars  with  him  in  the  expedition  of 
1821.  Cailliaud  (q.v.  11,  p.  51)  characterizes  them  as  the  worst  soldiers  in  the  army, 
accustomed  rather  to  trade  and  guide  than  to  fight. 

2  They  contain  Hasanab,  Magadhib,  Sulaymania,  Kanzab,  Harirab,  Bisharab, 
Mukabirab,  etc. 

3  Ibid.  p.  67. 

4  There  are  also  "Kerarsha"  near  Tor  in  the  Sinai  Peninsula,  subdivided  into 
Nasirat  and  Awlad  Tihi  (see  Na'um  Bey,  Hist.  Sinai...,  pp.  112-3). 

5  Nubia,  pp.  30,  31. 


CHAPTER  10 

The  Kerriat 

I  The  Kerriat  form  a  small  camel-owning  tribe,  the  members  of 
which  at  present  rank  as  nomad  Arabs  and  do  not  obviously  differ  in 
type  from  their  western  neighbours  the  Kababish  and  Hawawir. 

The  name  "Kerriat"  does  not,  however,  appear  in  the  nisbas 
and  the  tribe  seems  to  be  really  a  heterogeneous  collection  of  Arabs 
grafted  upon  some  more  ancient  stock. 

Their  grazing-grounds  have  always  been,  and  are  still,  west  and 
north  of  Omdurman,  to  the  east  of  the  Wadi  el  Mukaddam;  but  in 
practice  they  go  farther  westwards  in  the  rainy  season,  and  a  few  of 
them  remain  throughout  the  year  as  far  inland  as  el  Sana.  None  of 
them  are  sedentary  or  own  any  land  upon  the  river. 

Their  name  suggests  that  the  substratum  upon  which  the  tribal 
edifice  was  reared  were  dwellers  round  Gebel  Kerri,  the  ancient  seat 
of  the  Abdullab  near  the  Shabliika  cataract,  and  the  common  state- 
ment, which  has  also  been  volunteered  to  me  by  Kerriat  themselves, 
to  the  effect  that  they  are  'Anag  by  origin,  bears  out  this  view1.  Their 
chief  sections  are  the  Adalin,  the  Mihaymidab  and  the  Sonaytab. 

II  They  are  wont  to  intermarry  largely  with  the  Hawawir,  and  it 
is  noticeable  that  the  most  distinctive  camel  brand  used  by  the  latter 
is  practically  identical  with  that  placed  by  the  Kerriat  on  their  she- 
camels2. 

1  At  the  same  time  such  Kerriat  as  I  have  questioned  on  the  point  deny  any 
connection  between  the  names  "Kerri"  and  "Kerridt." 

2  The  Hawawir  brand  referred  to  is  the  kildid  mahgdn,  viz.  1 1  T,  on  the  right 
side  of  the  neck  (see  MacMichael,  Camel  Brands...,  p.  31).  The  Kerriat  place  the 
kildid  in  the  same  place,  but  only  on  she-camels,  in  the  form  1 1  P . 

As  I  gave  no  account  of  the  Kerriat  brands  in  the  work  referred  to  above,  I  may 
add  them  here. 

1.  The  Adalin.  (a)  On  males:  a  short  sdt  above  the  thifina,  a  shurdba,  and  a 
khurus,  all  on  the  right.  On  the  left  a  kutfa  and  a  zaiayt  (or  zalat).  (b)  On  females: 
the  kildid  as  described,  a  shurdba,  and  a  sot,  all  on  the  right. 

2.  The  Mihaymidab.  (a)  On  males:  a  khurus  on  the  left;  and  on  the  right  a 
dukka  on  the  neck,  afera'a  (i.e.  tip  of  ear  cut  off),  and  a  ddmi'.  All  or  any  of  these 
marks  is  used,    (b)  On  females :  the  kildid  as  described:  some  add  a  ddmi'. 

3.  The  Sonaytdb.  (a)  On  males:  a  ddmi'  and  a  s6t  on  the  right,  (b)  On 
females:  the  kildid  as  described,  and  afera'a,  a  ddmi'  and  a  sot,  all  on  the  right. 

N.B.   A  khurus  is  a  horizontal  cut  half-way  down  the  edge  of  the  ear. 

A  zaiayt  or  zalat,  is  a  brand  made  round  the  back  of  the  ear  just  above  the 
base. 

The  meaning  of  the  other  technical  terms  used  will  be  found  in  Camel  Brands.... 

The  fact  that  the  one  brand  which  is  common  to  the  whole  tribe,  and  which 
may  therefore  be  called  the  tribal  brand  proper,  is  placed  not  on  males  but  on  females 
may  well  be  a  relic  of  a  matrilinear  period. 


CHAPTER  11 

The  Southern  Mahass 

I  The  Mahass  proper,  those  living  in  the  cataract  country  between 
Dongola  and  Haifa,  are,  of  course,  not  Arabs  in  any  sense  of  the  word. 
There  are,  however,  a  number  of  Mahass  settled  farther  south, 
particularly  in  Dongola,  Berber,  Khartoum  and  the  Blue  Nile  Pro- 
vinces, who  have  become  so  assimilated  by  intermarriage  to  the  Arabs 
that  they  are  as  worthy  of  inclusion  in  any  work  dealing  with  the 
Arabs  of  the  Sudan  as  are  most  of  the  other  sedentary  tribes. 

The  Mahass  proper  are  Barabra,  but  Barabra  containing  much 
more  of  the  negro  and  less  of  the  Arab  element  than  is  found,  for 
instance,  in  the  Barabra  north  of  Haifa  or  in  Dongola1.  As  has  been 
explained2,  the  causes  of  their  isolation  are  mainly  geographical,  but 
it  would  seem  that  some  few  Arabs  must  at  some  period  have  found 
their  way  into  the  country  of  the  Mahass  and  so  given  the  latter 
some  excuse  for  claiming  descent  from  Kuraysh3  or  the  Ansar. 

II  At  some  early  date,  perhaps  about  the  time  of  the  foundation  of 
the  Fung  kingdom,  some  of  these  Mahass,  with  pretensions  to  a 
noble  lineage4  and  a  certain  amount  of  education,  left  their  own 
country  and  established  themselves  as  holy-men  among  the  more 
ignorant  medley  of  Arabs  Fung  and  Nuba  in  the  south.  Thus  arose 
the  Mahass  settlements  on  the  lower  reaches  of  the  Blue  Nile  and 
round  Khartoum,  at  Aylafun,  where  the  tomb  of  Idrfs  wad  Arbab5 
is  still  tended  by  his  descendants,  at  Kutrang6,  el  Rekayba,  el  Kamlin7, 
Kalkol8,  Tuti  Island,  el  Halfaya9,  etc. 

1  Cp.  Burckhardt,  p.  58.  He  calls  the  Mahass  "perfectly  black;  their  lips  are 
like  those  of  the  Negro,  but  not  the  nose  or  cheekbones." 

2  P-  13- 

3  Cp.  Burckhardt,  pp.  64  and  133.  He  speaks  of  "a  branch  of  Kuraysh"  as 
"  possessing  itself  of  Mahass." 

4  They  claimed  to  be  Khazrag,  i.e.  among  the  number  of  the  "Ansar"  who 
settled  in  Upper  Egypt  (see  ABC,  IX,  etc.). 

5  Q.v.  D3,  141. 

6  The  last  syllable  of  "Kutrang"  is  said  to  be  connected  with  "Anag."  The 
old  red-brick  ruins  here  lie  a  mile  or  two  north  of  the  village,  but  are  a  mere 
shapeless  mound. 

7  The  original  Mahass  settlement  here  is  said  to  have  been  known  as  Feranib, 
but  the  name  has  now  disappeared  (see,  however,  D  2,  vii).  The  true  form  of 
"Kamlin"  is  "Kamnin"  (see  ABC,  VI  and  D  3,  109).  'Aylafun,  Kutrang  and 
Kamlin  ("Alfon,  Cotram  and  Camin")  are  mentioned  by  Poncet  in  1698  (p.  17). 

8  The  Mahass,  it  is  said,  were  preceded  here  by  the  Zenafla. 

9  See  D  3,  154.  Certain  Mahass,  too,  have  joined  the  Awlad  'Ukba  section  of 
Kababish  (see  p.  313,  and  "ABC,"  v  and  vm). 

22 — 3 


342  THE  SOUTHERN  MAHASS  111.11.11. 

To  acquire  rich  lands  on  the  river  bank  and  intermarry  with  the 
numerous  subtribes  of  Guhayna  who  pastured  their  flocks  inland 
and  cultivated  a  rain-crop  in  the  wddis  was  an  easy  step.  The 
same  process  has  been  seen  at  work  in  northern  Kordofan,  where 
immigrant  Danagla  took  advantage  of  the  nomad  Arabs'  ignorance 
of  artificial  irrigation  and  contempt  for  manual  labour,  except  in  so 
far  as  it  might  be  done  by  their  slaves,  to  acquire  a  hold  over  all  the 
best  basins  of  the  Khayran  at  the  expense  of  the  Dar  Hamid.  The 
M  ah  ass  in  the  same  way  forestalled  the  Rufa'a  on  the  Blue  Nile. 
In  both  cases  the  result  has  naturally  been  some  degree  of  jealousy 
and  dispute. 

Ill  Though  these  M  ah  ass  are  essentially  and  always  sedentary 
they  divide  themselves  theoretically,  and  on  the  Arab  model,  into 
subtribes.  Such  are  the  following;  all  of  whom  are  emigrants  by 
origin,  living  south  of  Berber  Province : 

i.  Ghardakab1  (a)  MuhammadabI  On  Tuti  Island,  at  'Aylafun,  Be- 
(b)  B arakAt  J     shakira  East,  Shigla  and  Elti. 

2.  Subahab        (a)  Darhalab.   At  H.  el  Nuba. 

3.  'Onab.   At  Beshakira  West,  and  on  the  site  of  Khartoum  before 

that  town  was  built  by  Khurshid  Pasha. 

4.  Mirinab.   On  Tuti  Island. 

5.  Kh6galab2.   At  el  Kubba  and  on  Tuti  Island. 

6.  Wawissi3.   In  Kayli  district,  north  of  Khartoum. 

7.  Genna  el  Hag.    In  the  Gezira. 

8.  Awl  ad  Fellata.  At  Kutrang. 

9.  Awlad  Mani'a.   At  el  Rekayba. 

Appendix  on  certain  Burial  Customs  on  the  Blue  Nile 

Some  of  the  burial  customs  in  vogue  on  the  lower  Blue  Nile  may  be  of 
Nubian  (Barabra)  origin  and  due  to  the  settlements  of  Mahass  in  those 
parts.  They  are  not  used  by  the  Fung.  Beckett  (Cairo  Scient.  Journ. 
No.  59,  Aug.  191 1)  in  an  article  on  "Nubia  and  the  Berberine"  says  that 
after  the  burial  and  the  filling  in  of  the  grave  there  is  feasting  for  seven 
days  and  that  the  feast  is  again  repeated  after  forty  days,  "and  this  time 
all  who  come  bring  with  them  pebbles  gathered  from  the  desert  around. 
Over  these  pebbles  the  Koran  is  read  by  the  Sheikh  of  the  village  and  each 
person  then  deposits  those  he  brings  on  the  grave,  which  is  completely 
covered  with  them."  Pots  of  water  are  put  near  the  heads  of  the  graves 
and  replenished  by  the  relatives  of  the  deceased,  and  near  the  pots  are 
stuck  palm  branches. 

On  the  Blue  Nile,  round  el  Kamlin,  burmas  of  water  are  similarly 

1  Idrfs  wad  Arbab's  section. 

2  I.e.  descendants  of  Khogali  'Abd  el  Rahmdn  (D  3,  No.  154). 

3  A  large  sub-tribe. 


m.  ii.  in.  THE  SOUTHERN  MAHASS  343 

placed  by  the  graves  and  kept  full  for  a  few  weeks  after  the  burial.  After- 
wards they  are  apt  to  get  forgotten.  The  natives  gave  two  explanations  of 
the  custom:  one,  that  it  would  be  counted  in  God's  sight  to  the  merit  of 
the  deceased  that  the  birds  should  quench  their  thirst  at  these  burmas; 
the  second,  that  the  presence  of  the  water  would  alleviate  the  oppressive 
heat  of  the  tomb. 

As  regards  the  placing  of  pebbles  on  the  grave,  the  custom  maintains, 
but  with  important  variations.  Three  instances  may  be  quoted. 

1.  At  H.  Nuba.  (Between  el  Kamlin  and  Khartoum.  Population 
Mahass,  Ga'aliin,  'Ai'dab,  Hudur,  Kawahla,  Rufa'a  and  ShabArka.) 
The  cemetery  was  on  the  same  site  as  that  of  the  ancient  inhabitants.  In 
every  case  the  graves  of  the  present  generation  were  covered  with  small 
rounded  yellow  pebbles,  excepting  the  graves  of  newly  buried  persons. 
Asked  the  reason  of  this  exception  the  villagers  stated  that  seven  months 
must  always  elapse  after  the  burial  before  the  placing  of  the  stones  on  the 
grave.  If  unavoidable  circumstances  prevented  this  being  done  on  the 
exact  day  it  could  be  done  after  nine  months  instead  of  after  seven.  If 
not  done  after  nine  months  it  was  too  late  to  do  it  at  all.  To  do  it,  e.g.  after 
eight  months,  would  be  useless  and  wrong.  The  stones  must  not  be  spread 
on  the  grave  by  men  or  boys  or  girls  (virgins)  but  only  by  the  married 
women  of  the  village.  Fekis  took  no  part  in  the  ceremony  and  there  were 
no  particular  rites  to  be  observed  and  no  concomitant  festivities.  The 
custom  was  said  to  apply  to  all  the  villages  in  the  neighbourhood. 

2.  At  H.  Kutrang.  (About  five  miles  from  H.  Nuba  on  the  opposite 
bank  of  the  river.  Population  Rufa'a.  Village  of  Mahass  a  mile  or  so 
away.)  Questioned  as  to  the  custom  of  sprinkling  pebbles  on  their  graves 
the  people  said  these  were  placed  on  the  grave  at  the  expiration  of  either 
seven  or  nine  months,  neither  more  nor  less.  The  ceremony  was  invariably 
performed  by  the  old  women  only:  at  'Aylafun  it  was  done  by  the  men, 
but  nowhere  else  that  they  knew  of.  It  took  place  at  sunrise.  The  nearest 
relative  of  the  deceased  would  be  expected  to  provide  some  grease  (dihn) 
for  the  old  women  and  to  kill  a  sheep  as  kerdma  for  them.  The  old  women 
carried  out  the  duty  light-heartedly  and  laughingly,  all  working  together. 
The  same  evening  the  sheep  would  be  eaten  and  a  fatha  recited.  The 
villagers  would  all  contribute  corn  from  their  own  stores  for  this  feast.  If 
a  man  were  so  poor  that  he  could  not  afford  to  hold  this  feast  he  would  not 
have  the  stones  put  on  the  grave. 

3.  At  Aylafun.  (Between  Khartoum  and  H.  Nuba.  Population 
Mahass  claiming  descent  from  the  religious  sheikh  Idris  Arbab,  q.v.  in 
D  3.)  The  people  here  said  their  custom  was  to  sprinkle  pebbles  on  the 
graves  after  seven  months,  or  failing  that  after  nine,  or  failing  that  after 
eleven.  If  not  done  after  eleven  months  it  was  too  late.  The  ceremony 
was  performed  by  the  men  and  not  by  the  women. 


CHAPTER  12 

The  Hamrdn 

I  The  Hamran  Arabs  are  a  very  small  community  living  near  the 
Abyssinian  border,  but  they  have  become  well  known  on  account  of 
Sir  Samuel  Baker's  description  of  them.  He  met  these  "mighty 
hunters  with  the  sword"  on  the  Setit  River  in  1861  and  describes 
vividly  their  surpassing  courage  and  dexterity  in  the  chase  of  the 
elephant. 

The  earliest  notice  of  them,  however,  is  that  of  Bruce  in  the 
preceding  century1.  He  does  not  mention  them  by  name  but  his 
description  of  them  and  the  application  to  them  of  the  name  agdgir, 
elephant-hunters,  by  which  they  are  still  known,  establishes  their 
identity.  He  speaks  of  them  as  having  regular  ("  European  ")  features 
and  non-woolly  hair  and  being  "very  swarthy2."  They  were  deadly 
foes  of  the  Shangalla  tribes. 

Mansfield  Parkyns  calls  them3  "a  tribe  of  Bishary  origin,  which 
still  uses  the  Hadendawy  language,  like  its  mother  race.  They  may 
almost  be  considered  a  subtribe  of  Bisharin,  for  there  is  no  separation 
between  them." 

Baker  says4:  "The  Hamran  Arabs  are  distinguished  from  the 
other  tribes  by  an  extra  length  of  hair,  worn  plaited  down  the  centre 
and  arranged  in  long  curls."  They  carried  round  shields  of  rhinoceros 
hide. 

II  They  were  never  a  large  tribe  and  their  habitat  has  always  been 
the  banks  of  the  Setit  near  its  junction  with  the  Atbara.  At  the  present 
day  they  probably  number  only  a  few  hundred  souls:  the  majority 
were  killed  by  the  Dervishes.  The  survivors  still  bear  the  reputation 
of  being  as  great  Nimrods  as  their  fathers  were,  and  they  boast  them- 
selves to  be  purer  Arabs  than  any  of  the  surrounding  tribes. 

III  They  claim  to  have  immigrated  from  the  Hegaz  and  to  be  of 
noble  lineage.  If  the  MS.  "  D  6"  is  to  be  trusted  they  are  by  origin 
an  offshoot  of  the  Harb.  "BA,"  though  giving  no  details,  simply 
classes  them5,  with  the  Hamar,  in  the  Guhayna  group,  and  this  latter, 
as  there  has  been  frequent  cause  to  remark,  is  much  mixed  with  that 
of  the  Harb. 

1  Vol.  vi,  Bk.  viii,  p.  228. 

2  Baker,  Nile  Tributaries...,  p.  174,  also  notes  their  swarthiness.    Parkyns  calls 
them  "  deep  bronze." 

8  Life  in  Abyssinia,  II,  404.         *  hoc.  cit.  pp.  167-168.         5  See  para,  lxxviii. 


CHAPTER  13 

(a)  THE  RASHAfDA  AND  ZEBAYDfA 

I  The  Rashaida  are  recent  immigrants  from  Arabia.  A  number  of 
them  crossed  the  Red  Sea  and  took  up  their  abode  between  Tokar 
and  the  Eritrean  border  in  1846,  and  of  these  some  pushed  farther 
west  to  graze  on  the  Atbara  in  Berber  Province.  Until  the  Dervish 
revolt  they  were  a  comparatively  wealthy  people,  but  they  were  then 
plundered  unmercifully,  and  the  survivors  fled  for  refuge  to  Massawa. 
After  the  reoccupation  they  returned  to  the  Atbara  and  the  Kash, 
and  they  have  since  been  joined  by  considerable  numbers  of  other 
Rashaida  from  the  Hegaz.    Others  are  in  Eritrea. 

They  are  camel-owning  nomads  and  perhaps  number  at  present 
between  1000  and  2000  men  in  the  Red  Sea  and  Berber  Provinces1. 

The  Zebaydia  of  the  Eastern  Sudan  are  also  comparatively  recent 
immigrants  from  Arabia,  where  their  main  habitat  is  round  the  small 
port  of  Rabigh,  a  nest  of  pirates  between  Yenbu'  and  Jedda.  There 
their  immediate  neighbours  to  the  north  are  the  Guhayna2. 

II  It  has  already  been  mentioned  in  dealing  with  the  Beni  Rashid 
and  Ziud  Bakkara  of  Wadai  and  Bornu  that  the  former  really  include 
the  latter  and  that  one  of  their  main  divisions  are  the  Zee- ada,  who 
claim  a  Himyaritic  origin.  The  identity  of  the  names  "  Beni  Rashid," 
"Rowashda"  and  "Rashaida"  was  also  noticed;  also  the  fact  that 
the  Zebaydia  of  Arabia  are  a  section  of  the  Harb,  who  have  always 
been  neighbours  of  the  Guhayna  and  who  accompanied  the  latter  in 
large  numbers  to  the  Sudan  and  were  equally  concerned  with  them 
in  forming  the  Bakkara  congeries.  It  is  clear  therefore  that  the  influx 
of  Rashaida  and  Zebaydia  to  the  Eastern  Sudan  is  not  confined  to 
modern  times  but  that  it  had  its  counterpart  several  centuries  ago 
when  the  ancestors  of  the  Beni  Rashid  and  Ziud  crossed  over  to 
Africa,  and,  instead  of  remaining  in  the  east,  pushed  through  Kordo- 
fan  and  Darfur  and,  leaving  a  certain  number  of  their  men  among  the 
other  Bakkara  in  those  provinces,  settled  in  Bornu  and  Wadai. 

The  name  of  the  Zebaydia  is  a  very  ancient  one  and  is  taken  from 
Zebid,  a  town  in  the  Yemen.  The  town,  in  its  turn,  may  derive  its 

1  The  section  in  Berber  is  the  Zenaymat,  subdivided  into  Duf  'Afd,  Halamat, 
Duf  Beraghfth,  Huaygat,  Kezafza,  'Awazim  and  'Araynat.  Those  in  the  Red  Sea 
Province  are  Bara'asa  (subdivided  into  Duf  'Amri  Shenanfr  and  Geladin),  and 
Baratfkh  (subdivided  into  Manaffr,  'Ayamirat,  etc.). 

2  See  too  Burckhardt,  Notes...  11,  36  and  37. 


346  RASHAlDA,  ZEBAYDf  A,  HADAREB  AND  HUDUR  iii.13.ii 

name  from  the  Gebadei,  who  are  mentioned  by  Pliny  as  a  tribe  living 
on  the  west  shore  of  the  Red  Sea  in  the  first  century  a.d.1 

III  The  brand  of  the  Zebaydia  camels  is  a  curious  one,  namely 

vl/  placed  upon  the  quarter.    It  is  known  both  in  the  east  and  the 

west  of  the  Sudan,  and  it  is  identical,  but  for  the  dot,  with  the  brand 
still  used  by  certain  of  the  Beni  Sakhr  of  Arabia2. 

The  camels  of  the  Zebaydia  are  also  of  a  very  distinctive  type, 
easily  recognizable.  They  are  a  small,  thick-set,  dark  brown,  tun- 
bellied,  short-legged,  hardy  type  and  considerably  valued  for  trans- 
port work. 

(b)  THE  HADAREB  AND  HUDUR 

IV  HadAreb.  The  name  of  these  people  is  variously  spelt  Hadareb, 
Hadarba,  Hadarma,  or  with  a  d  in  place  of  the  D,  and  the  nisbas 
unite  in  saying  they  came  from  the  Hadramaut  in  the  early  days  of 
Islam  and  settled  among  and  coalesced  with  the  Bega  tribes  on  the 
Red  Sea  coast  in  the  vicinity  of  Suakin3.  Further  particulars  are 
scarce,  and  the  above  merely  sums  up  what  is  known  of  their  origin. 
The  following  is  Burckhardt's  account  of  them4: 

The  inhabitants  of  Souakin,  like  those  of  all  the  harbours  in  the  Red 
Sea,  are  a  motley  race;  one  principal  class,  however,  is  conspicuous;  the 
forefathers  of  the  chief  families  of  the  Arabs  of  Souakin  were  natives  of 
Hadramout,  and  principally  of  the  town  of  Shahher,  the  harbour  of  that 
country  in  the  Indian  ocean.  They  came  hither  according  to  some,  about 
a  century  ago;  others  state  that  they  arrived  soon  after  the  promulgation 
of  Islam;  it  is  from  them  that  the  collective  population  of  the  town  has 
obtained  the  name  of  Hadherebe  with  foreigners;  but  the  inhabitants 
themselves  draw  a  strict  line  of  distinction  between  the  true  Hadherebe, 
or  descendants  of  the  natives  of  Hadramout,  and  the  other  settlers,  whom 
they  term  Souakiny. 

In  a  note  Burckhardt  adds : 

The  people  of  Hadramout  are  famous  for  emigrating;  large  colonies  of 
them  are  found  in  all  the  towns  of  the  Yemen  and  Hedjaz.  The  greater 
part  of  the  people  of  Djidda,  and  the  lower  class  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Mekka,  are  from  the  same  country. 

The  government  of  Suakin,  when  Burckhardt  visited  it,  was  in 
the  hands  of  the  "Emir  of  the  Hadherebe,"  who  was  chosen  from 
among  the  five  patrician  ("Artayga")  families  of  the  tribe.  He  was 
nominally  dependent  on  the  Pasha  of  Jedda  and  had  little  or  nothing 
to  do  with  the  affairs  of  the  tribe,  being  chiefly  concerned  with  col- 

1  Pliny,  Bk.  vi,  para.  33.  Cp.  Crowfoot,  Some  Lacunae...,  p.  3.  The  root  of  the 
word  is  the  same  as  that  of  zibda,  the  Arabic  for  butter. 

2  See  Burckhardt,  Notes...  1,  199  and  Zwemer,  p.  279. 

3  See  in  particular  A  2,  xxxvin  and  D  6,  LI.  *  Nubia,  pp.  433-5  and  449. 


iil.i3.vi.  RASHAfDA,  ZEBAYDf  A,  HADAREB  AND  HUDUR  347 

lecting  customs  dues.  The  tribe  was  administered  by  its  own  sheikh 
and  was  on  bad  terms  with  all  the  Bega  tribes  of  the  interior. 

Earlier  in  the  same  work  Burckhardt,  speaking  of  Shendi,  says1: 

The  most  substantial  of  all  the  traders  who  at  present  frequent  the 
Shendy  market  are  the  people  from  Souakin,  or  as  they  are  more  commonly 
called  in  this  part  of  Africa,  the  Hadharebe,  or  Hadharame,  that  is,  people 
of  Hadremaut,  in  South  Arabia,  from  whence  they  draw  their  origin. 

He  notes  in  addition  that  the  caravans  of  the  Hadarba  also  visited 
Sennar  and  el  Obeid. 

V  The  Hadareb  are  great  travellers,  and  more  of  them  have 
wandered  eastwards  from  Hadramaut  to  Java  and  India  than  west- 
wards to  Africa.    Zwemersays: 

Large  colonies  of  Hadramis  emigrated  to  the  Dutch  Archipelago  more 
than  a  century  ago ;  intermarriage  between  the  Javanese  and  the  Arabs  is 
very  common;  and  the  Mohammedanism  of  the  Dutch  East  Indies  is 
entirely  of  the  Hadramaut  type2. 

VI  HunUR.  The  name  Beni  Hudur  appears  in  el  Mas'iidi3  as  that 
of  an  ancient  and  powerful  people  of  Arabia  of  unknown  origin  and 
locality,  to  whom,  on  account  of  their  iniquity,  God  sent  a  prophet 
in  the  Days  of  Ignorance.  Him  they  put  to  death,  but  the  prophet 
Baruch  then  applied  to  Bokht  Nasir  (Nebuchadnezzar)  who  attacked 
them  and  destroyed  them. 

The  term  Hudur,  as  used  at  present,  expresses  little  more  than 
Arab  traders  from  outside  the  Sudan.  At  Nuba  village  (Blue  Nile) 
there  are  some  who  are  said  to  be  Howara  by  descent,  and  there  are 
others  at  Elti  and  elsewhere  on  the  Blue  Nile.  The  town  of  Arbagi, 
before  its  destruction  by  the  Shukria,  is  said  to  have  been  peopled  by 
Hudur,  and  its  founder,  Hegazi  ibn  Ma'in,  the  ancestor  of  the  GelilAb 
of  Wad  Rawa,  is  usually  called  a  Hadari  instead  of  being  connected 
with  the  Guhayna  group  to  which  his  descendants  have  attached 
themselves4. 

To  the  same  group,  therefore,  may  belong  the  Dafiri'a,  Dekinab, 
Fukadab,  Farisab,  Garab,  Keringab  and  such  other  small  indeter- 
minate communities  in  the  same  neighbourhood  as  are  alleged  by  the 
Gelilab  to  be  descended  from  the  same  stock  as  themselves,  namely 
from  that  of  Hegazi  ibn  Ma'in. 

It  seems  more  than  probable,  as  their  name  suggests,  that  the  real 
Hudur  are  merely  Hadareb  under  a  variant  designation,  though  the 
term  has  come  to  be  used  colloquially  in  a  wider  and  vaguer  sense. 

1  Nubia,  p.  319.  -  Arabia...,  p.  77.  3  Ch.  xlvii,  Vol.  in,  pp.  304  ff. 

4  See  B  1  and  Tree.  The  Sheikh  who  gave  me  the  MS.  of  B  1  said  the  Gelilab 
belonged  to  the  Dubania  branch  of  Guhayna,  a  statement  borne  out  neither  by 
tradition  nor  his  own  pedigree. 


EO^D  OF  VOLUME 


£"?S  ^4ENGLAND  BY  J-  B.  PEACE,  M.A. 
AT     THE     CAMBRIDGE     UNIVERSITY     PRESS 


GN  Macraichael,    (Sir)   Harold 

o52  Alfred 

A7M3  A  history  of  the  Arabs 

v.l  in  the  Sudan 


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