238 THE GUHAYNA GROUP iii. 2. i.

Guhani was not of the tribe of Guhayna at all^, and hence one is tempted at first to say that the tribes claiming descent from him are

unlikely to be Guhayna. The conclusion would be false however,

for the claim to be Guhayna preceded the claim to be the children of

'Abdulla el Guhani and was based on rather surer foundations. The

dragging in of 'Abdulla el Guhani was merely the ill-advised expedient

of a later generation.

II Before dealing with the tribes that compose the Guhayna group

it is as well to recall several facts : that the true Guhayna of Arabia

have occupied the neighbourhood of Yanbu' for at least 1300 years;

that there has been immigration of varying volume from this part of

the Hegaz at every period known to history; that many Guhayna

took part in the invasion of Egypt ; that a large force of them in the

ninth century invaded the Eastern Desert in company with the

Rabi'a; that by the middle of the thirteenth century they were said

to have "conquered the countries inhabited by the Nubians" and to be settled between Aswan, Nubia and Abyssinia; and that another

large body of them at the beginning of the fifteenth century was still

in Upper Egypt^.

There is therefore no reason to doubt that by the Fung period

there was a very large number of Guhayna—"fifty-two tribes" say

the "nisbas^"—on the Blue Nile near Soba, and even more in the

west, and that the great majority of the tribes which claim to be or

are alleged to be descended from 'Abdulla el Guhani are ultimately

connected with the Guhayna.

The following are the chief of these at the present day*

:

Rufa'a (including Kawasma, 'Abdullab, etc.) Lahawiin 'AwAmra, Khawalda, etc. ShukrIa Dar Hamid \ ZAvAnfA BeniGerarI ^j^^.p^^.^,, Baza A Shenabla Ma'Alia )

1 See note to BA, LVin, for full details.

^ See Part I, Chaps. 2 and 3. The term no doubt included a proportion of neighbouring tribesmen who were joined to the Guhayna by the fortunes of war and community of aims. ' BA, cxxiii.

* Many other "Guhayna" tribes of less importance are omitted. They can be found by reference to the trees of, e.g., BA. One or two tribes, e.g. the Mogharba,

are included because they appear as Guhayna in the "nisbas" and seem to be

related to the rest of that group in spite of the fact that they do not call themselves Guhayna.