III. 1. VI. THE GA'ALlfN AND DANAGLA GROUP 201

(a) THE BEDAYRfA, SHUVVAYHAT AND TERAYFfA

VI The Bedayria are at present more or less evenly divided between

riverain Nubia and Kordofan, while a few live further west in Darfur

;

but the true home of the race lies between the Gawabra and the

Shai'kia territories in Dongola province.

In the eighteenth century, and for an unknown period previous

to it, the chief "mek" lived at Old Dongola, and subject ^'meks" at

el Khandak, Tankasi Island, Abkur and Dufar^, and at the present day it is still probably true to say that of the semi-Arab semi- Nubian Danagla more are Bedayria than not^.

Their chief branch is the Dahmashi'a^. At some early period, probably the beginning of the fourteenth

century, a number of Bedayria and Shuwayhat^ found their way to Kordofan, carried thither, it seems, by a general wave of "Ga'ali" movement to the south-west consequent upon the Arab subjugation

of Dongola^, and settled round the present site of el Obeid and took to cattle-breeding and cultivation.

Of the history of the Bedayria either in Dongola or Kordofan we know but little. In the former province during the period of

Shaiki'a ascendancy the Bedayria were subject to their more war-

like congeners^, and the oppression they suffered induced many to

^ Cp. Nicholls, pp. 7, 8.

^ Sir C. Wilson spoke of them in 1887 as a Nuba [i.e. Nubian] people with an admixture of Arab blood still speaking a "rotana" among themselves.

^ For its subdivisions see Tree to " AB." One of them, it may be noted, is the 'Aidab, a name which we shall again meet with among the Shaikia. It would seem that some of the descendants of 'Aid are with one tribe and some with the other, while others again are attached to the Kababish. To what tribe 'x\id himself belonged

is uncertain, but perhaps he is the 'Aid father of Ghulamulla (q.v. genealogical tree

to D i), in which case his alleged Sherifi descent would explain his popularity as an ancestor. There is a tribe called 'Aid near Balbays in the Sharkia Province of Egypt who are said to be Kahtanites descended from Guzam (Gudham), and it is not impossible that some connection may be traceable between these and the 'Aidab of the Sudan. Compare the cases of the Rashaida (Rowashda), Ziud, Muzayna, Kerrarish (Kerarsha), and Gubarat. For the 'Aid see Na'um Bey, Hist. Sinai, pp. 108-9.

* Or perhaps the Shuwayhat were only a branch of Bedayria. I have assumed the contrary because the MSB. make Shuwayh the brother and not the son of Bedaj-r.

" A well and hill named Bir Serrar, lying a day's journey north of Bara, are named after Serrar the son of Kerdam who is said to have brought his family to Kordofan and settled there. Serrar is ancestor not only of the Bedayria but of almost the whole "Ga'ali" group. His date was about the end of the thirteenth century (see Introd. to Part IV).

® Burckhardt, Nubia, p. 68. "Between the city of Dongola and Merawe is the Wady of the Arabs called Bedayr, whose chiefs have, till lately, been tributary to the Sheygya."