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CHAPTER 1
The Gd'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 said^ 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 SnAiKfA, the Batahi'n, the Gawama'a and Bedayria of Kordofan, and many others. And the
percolation of these "Ga'aU" 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
^ See BA, cxxxii, e.g.