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 aff^ected 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 FERTfx, 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