The 'Ajl bin Lujaym, to whom the location of al-'Ajla in the land of al-Ma'din may have been attributed, and Umm Safiyya, as al-Maqrizi and other historians say, is Safiyya bint Kamil bin Asad bin Khuzayma. The indications that the Kawahla were among the tribes of the land of al-Ma'din are beyond doubt. They are the most important Arab tribe in Sudan that had close ties with the Beja in terms of proximity and lineage, and learned their Beja language. The Kawahla are among the Arab tribes that migrated to Sudan early on. Some of them headed to Kordofan before the Turkish rule (Muhammad Ali's conquest of Sudan) and settled around latitude 15 degrees North. Their wealth is based on camels and the livestock that follow them. Pasture conditions may force them to penetrate into the lands of others, as happens in the dry season when they resort to the al-Khayrat region around Bara, then migrate north when the rains fall, settling in the lands of the Kababish, where they are forced to pay a fee for water. The Kawahla have mixed extensively with others, and some of them have spread among the Nuba tribes. A large section of the Beja tribes merged with them until each Beja group was attributed to Bani Kahil. Then the rest of the Kawahla settled in the lands of the Beja and headed to central and western Sudan. It is almost certain that the Kawahla, or most of them, entered Sudan from the east and arrived directly from the Arabian Peninsula. They began their life there by occupying the coastal region, or a large part of it, from Suakin in the north to 'Aydhab in the south, where they mixed with the Beja, learned their language, and intermarried with them. They may have had the greatest impact in spreading Islam and Arab culture among them. A branch of them settled in Atbara and the Blue Nile, and another branch around the White Nile from latitude 12 degrees to the region of Jabal Awliya in the north.