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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Sudan
Index
Contacts between Nubians and Arabs long predated the coming
of Islam, but the arabization of the Nile Valley was a gradual
process that occurred over a period of nearly 1,000 years. Arab
nomads continually wandered into the region in search of fresh
pasturage, and Arab seafarers and merchants traded in Red Sea
ports for spices and slaves. Intermarriage and assimilation also
facilitated arabization. After the initial attempts at military
conquest failed, the Arab commander in Egypt, Abd Allah ibn Saad,
concluded the first in a series of regularly renewed treaties
with the Nubians that, with only brief interruptions, governed
relations between the two peoples for more than 600 years. So
long as Arabs ruled Egypt, there was peace on the Nubian
frontier; however, when non-Arabs acquired control of the Nile
Delta, tension arose in Upper Egypt.
The Arabs realized the commercial advantages of peaceful
relations with Nubia and used the treaty to ensure that travel
and trade proceeded unhindered across the frontier. The treaty
also contained security arrangements whereby both parties agreed
that neither would come to the defense of the other in the event
of an attack by a third party. The treaty obliged both to
exchange annual tribute as a goodwill symbol, the Nubians in
slaves and the Arabs in grain. This formality was only a token of
the trade that developed between the two, not only in these
commodities but also in horses and manufactured goods brought to
Nubia by the Arabs and in ivory, gold, gems, gum arabic, and
cattle carried back by them to Egypt or shipped to Arabia.
Acceptance of the treaty did not indicate Nubian submission
to the Arabs, but the treaty did impose conditions for Arab
friendship that eventually permitted Arabs to achieve a
privileged position in Nubia. For example, provisions of the
treaty allowed Arabs to buy land from Nubians south of the
frontier at Aswan. Arab merchants established markets in Nubian
towns to facilitate the exchange of grain and slaves. Arab
engineers supervised the operation of mines east of the Nile in
which they used slave labor to extract gold and emeralds. Muslim
pilgrims en route to Mecca traveled across the Red Sea on ferries
from Aydhab and Sawakin, ports that also received cargoes bound
from India to Egypt.
Traditional genealogies trace the ancestry of most of the
Nile Valley's mixed population to Arab tribes that migrated into
the region during this period. Even many non-Arabic-speaking
groups claim descent from Arab forebears. The two most important
Arabic-speaking groups to emerge in Nubia were the Jaali and the
Juhayna
(see Ethnic Groups
, ch. 2). Both showed physical
continuity with the indigenous pre-Islamic population. The former
claimed descent from the Quraysh, the Prophet Muhammad's tribe.
Historically, the Jaali have been sedentary farmers and herders
or townspeople settled along the Nile and in Al Jazirah. The
nomadic Juhayna comprised a family of tribes that included the
Kababish, Baqqara, and Shukriya. They were descended from Arabs
who migrated after the thirteenth century into an area that
extended from the savanna and semidesert west of the Nile to the
Abyssinian foothills east of the Blue Nile. Both groups formed a
series of tribal shaykhdoms that succeeded the crumbling
Christian Nubian kingdoms and that were in frequent conflict with
one another and with neighboring non-Arabs. In some instances, as
among the Beja, the indigenous people absorbed Arab migrants who
settled among them. Beja ruling families later derived their
legitimacy from their claims of Arab ancestry.
Although not all Muslims in the region were Arabic-speaking,
acceptance of Islam facilitated the arabizing process. There was
no policy of proselytism, however, and forced conversion was
rare. Islam penetrated the area over a long period of time
through intermarriage and contacts with Arab merchants and
settlers. Exemption from taxation in regions under Muslim rule
also proved a powerful incentive to conversion.
Data as of June 1991
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