ARABS. The term Arab as used in the Sudan signifies any people professing Islam, however dark-skinned they may be, so that while the term has an obvious cultural value it is strictly speaking of little ethnic significance. But in a broad sense the word may be taken to denote a congeries of tribes claiming, even if they have it not, a predominantly Caucasian ancestry, boasting a particular historic tradition, and speaking a Semitic language. In this sense, in contrast with the older stocks of the Sudan, the Arabs are comparatively new comers. In spite of an early slow infiltration via the Abyssinian hills and spasmodic driftings towards the Nile Valley from Mediterranean lands, it seems cer tain that the Arabs did not exert any considerable influence in the northern Sudan before the decay of the Christian kingdoms of Dongola and `Alwah after the 13th century. There seem to have been only two great movements into the Sudan, the first taking place in the 13th and I4th centuries as the result of the con quest of the Christian Kingdom of Dongola, the second following the Turkish conquest of Egypt in the 16th century. This seems to be the view taken by MacMichael, but before his work appeared J. W. Crowfoot, using material published (in Arabic) by Naum Bey Shoucair, had pointed out the influence exerted in the Arabization of the Sudan by the Fung, who appear in history as a horde of blacks under a leader tracing his ancestry to the Beni Ommayya. Makrizi (1366-1442) shows how completely at an earlier date the kingdoms of Dongola and `Alwah barred the way to Arab penetration up the Nile valley, but there was no precise knowledge of the factors that led to the downfall of this barrier until the publication by MacMichael of a hitherto untranslated passage in Makrizi referring to the Guhayna, who, in the pre Islamic period occupied Nejd and the neighbourhood of Medina, where a section dwells to this day. Many migrated to Egypt, taking part in the conquest. They reached Aswan by the ninth century, and by the fourteenth century had penetrated far into Nubia. "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 marriage. Thus was their Kingdom disintegrated, and it passed to certain of the sons of the Guhayna on account of their mothers, according to the custom of the infidels as to the succession of the sister or the sister's son. So their Kingdom fell to pieces, and the A'rab of Guhayna took possession of it. But their rule showed none of the marks of statesmanship . . . they remain nomads following the rainfall like the A'rab of Arabia." This dual policy of following the rainfall and of intermarriage led to the rapid spread of those mixed stocks all now calling them selves Arab, though this process was for some time confined to the country north of the confluence of the two Niles and the Arabization of the Central Sudan was in great part a result of the conversion to Islam of the Fung, who, assisted by Arab immigrants, did much to overthrow the Kingdom of 'Alwah. But in spite of the spread of Islam no great spread of Arab mode of life or thought seems to have taken place in the central Sudan, the land being divided into small kingdoms subject to the Sultan of Sennar. The country may have continued in much the same condition for some three centuries, though doubtless throughout the whole of this period Arabic influence was slowly spreading. The last phase began scarcely a hundred years ago. The Egyptian conquest of the Sudan by Mohammed Ali broke down the last remains of the independent kingdoms, indeed the tendency of the whole of the last century, including the great upheaval with which it terminated, was towards the destruction of the older groupings and modes of thought and the substitution of the Arab tribal system and Arab speech.
Tribal Divisions.—The Arabs of the Sudan are divisible into two great moieties, one calling themselves Guhayna and tracing their origin to the eponymous founder of the tribe, the other claiming descent from `Abbas, the uncle of the Prophet. Thus in the Sudan the name Guhayna is used in a broad as well as in a narrow (tribal) sense. In the latter it is restricted to certain nomads inhabiting the Sennar Province, but in the wider sense it is understood to include the Baggara and the vast group of camel nomads in Kordofan, all of whom if pressed will claim descent from Abdulla el Guhani. The other great division of the Sudan Arabs, even larger and more loosely knit than the Guhayna, that claiming `Abbas as their ancestor, may be called the Ga'aliin. In the main this group is sedentary. The fusion of the Arabic element with the older settled inhabitants of Nubia was so close that MacMichael applies the term Ga'aliin-Danagla to this great moiety, which includes most of the riverain tribes as well as a number of seden tary tribes in Kordofan.
Apart from this genealogical and to a great extent ethnological classification there is another used by the Arabs themselves, i.e., the broad division into nomads and sedentaries, the former being again divided into camel-nomads (Ahl Ibl), and cattle folk (Bakkara) (q.v.), who are mainly nomads, while the sedentaries may be considered to fall into two much less well defined groups, namely riverain cultivators, i.e., users of the sakia and other seden tary villagers. However there are sedentary sections or divisions of many nomad tribes, and the condition of minor groups may vary from time to time. The distinction between camel and cattle men is more radical, and is largely determined by geography, for camels should not be taken south of latitude i 3 ° N., owing to fly, whereas cattle, which require more water, are successfully pastured south of this latitude as far as the Bahr el-Arab and westwards into southern Darfur. Moreover the great nomadic tribes, such as the Kababish and Kawahla, have a smaller infusion of negro blood than the riverain tribes of the north or the seden taries of Kordofan, though the amount varies from tribe to tribe and even in different divisions of the same tribe, the richest divi sions, i.e., those possessing most slaves, tending to contain the highest proportion of members with negro or negroid features, so that most black blood is often found in the richest and most influ ential divisions of these tribes.
On the physical side it may be suggested that the great majority of the nomads are dolichocephalic, though stature and build vary; skins are of every colour, and noses of every form, nor can the shape of the nose and the colour of the skin be correlated.
Details concerning particular Arab tribes are given in Mac Michael's works. Belonging to the Ga'aliin group are the Ga'aliin proper, and most of the northern riverain tribes such as the Gawabra and Bedayria (who might with as much truth be classed as Danagla, inhabitants of Dongola, i:e., Nubians), the Rubatab, the Batahin, the Shaikia and also many of the tribes of Kordofan, including the Gawama'a (perhaps the most negroid of Kordofan Arabs), the Gima'a and the Ghodiat. To the Guhayna, using the term in its wider sense, belong the Rufa'a, the Shukria and the great mass of camel nomads of Kordofan such as the Kababish and their rivals the Kawahla, the Lahawiin and the Dar Hamid (the last with many sedentary sections). The Guhayna proper are now represented by a small group of tribes in The neighbour hood of Kassala where they are subject to the Shukria. The designation Fezara, common in writings of the i8th and earlier i9th centuries, when it was applied to certain of the strongest camel-owning nomads, e.g., the Dar Hamid, is now scarcely used in Kordofan.
Mode of Life.—The typical organization of the Arabs is repre sented by the tribe, under the control of a sheikh, an office nor mally hereditary but sometimes elective. Within the. tribe are a number of sections with patrilineal descent, themselves often formed by smaller groups, the term kliasham beit being some times applied to the true section and sometimes to one of its smaller divisions. Each section has its own sheikh, subordinate to the tribal sheikh, and much importance is attached to the preser vation of the tribal and sectional genealogies (nisba). The size of a tribe or section may fluctuate from time to time with the popu larity and strength of its sheikh or leader; a strong and just man will attract to his unit families or groups of families from other tribes, and these in time may give rise to sections or lose their identity in that of their adopted unit. Among the sedentary popu lation tribal organization is naturally weaker than among the nomads.
The daily life of the town Arabs of the Sudan probably varies but little from that of their fellow-townsmen throughout the Near East, and perhaps much the same may be said of the seden tary agriculturists. That of the nomads is conditioned by the severity of the dry season and the organized effort that is required to meet it. Movements of families are no casual wanderings, nor except in the wet season, are groups of tents to be found scat tered over the country, but all movement takes place en masse, the whole life of the tribe being regulated by the supply of water and of grass for men and cattle. Since permanent watering places are few ( their use formerly often led to fighting, and even now adays is a fruitful source of bad feeling) it is necessary each year to dig temporary wells in localities in which the water bearing strata come within reasonable distance of the surface. This re quires considerable man-power, hence the common dry season unit is a (tribal) section under its sheikh.
Although the Arabs of the Sudan observe the outward forms of Islam, including the fast at Ramadan and abstention from alcohol, there is a strong and widespread cult of the dead in one form or another, a belief which is hardly counterbalanced by confidence in the efficacy of holy writings. Thus, while almost every Arab wears a charm (hegab), which in fact or theory contains a pas sage from the Koran, the most valid oaths are sworn not upon the Holy Book but upon the shrine of some local holy man. The belief in the evil eye (q.v.), is universal, and many of the sedentary Arabs are as superstitious—using the word to signify unorthodox belief—as are the Egyptian peasantry with whom they share the names of some of their spirits. The nomadic tribes on the other hand, if less religious in that their fear of the super natural is less, are free from many unorthodox beliefs of their settled co-religionists. Among the leading men at least of the Kababish the writer found none of that fear of the dark or of empty spaces, or belief in a f rit, which is common in the mixed population of the towns, nor as far as he could discover are the zar and zikr—religious exercises inducing auto-hypnosis, and sometimes hystero-epileptic seizures—which are frequent enough among the town dwellers and villagers, found among the nomads.
But though the precepts of the Koran with regard to marriage, inheritance, and so forth, are followed where there is an explicit direction, there is everywhere an important substratum of pre Islamic or non-Islamic beliefs, habit and custom being largely governed by an older social condition, which, if not matrilineal, at least had many matrilineal traits. Thus among the nomads of Kordofan the wedding tent is built in that part of the settlement in which live the bride's people, who provide by far the greater part of the tent material and its furniture ; so too in the payment of blood money, it is not only relatives of the slayer's clan who provide this but his mother's people are also expected to con tribute. Another most interesting series of pre-Islamic customs are described by Crowfoot (Sudan Notes and Records, Vols. I., 1918, II., 1919, V., 1922), in connection with the marriages, cir cumcision and pregnancy, of the riverain Arabs, and in northern and central Kordofan, though these customs are not found among the nomads of the west nor the Baggara of the south. Essentially these ceremonies centre round certain insignia called jirtik, the name being applied both to the rites and collectively to the insignia worn, one of the most important elements being a bracelet on which is threaded a blue or green stone, or sometimes a particular kind of glass bead. Usually the various ornaments are previously dipped in milk, and are worn thereafter during forty days. It is to be noted that in the case of marriage the jirtik ornaments can only be worn once, whether by boy or girl, so that even if mar riage has not been consummated neither party wears the jirtik insignia for a second wedding.