III. 2. III. THE GUHAYNA GROUP 239 DWAYH Mesallamia The Bakkara tribes Mahamid, Mahria, etc. Kababish (certain sections only) Mogharba Hamar The Kababish, the Hamar, the Bakkara, the Mahamid group and the " Fezara" group of the above are all in Kordofan or west of it ; the remainder are nearly all in the Gezira or east of it.

(a) THE RUFA'A GROUP, THE GUHAYNA PROPER, THE LAHAWlfN, THE 'ABDULLAB AND THE INERRIAB III The RufA'A. The Rufa'a, descendants of Rafa'i, that is, generally appear in the "nisbas" among the Guhayna group and are said to have sojourned among the Bega and in Abyssinia before moving down to the valley of the Nile. This tradition is corroborative of the statement quoted by Quatremere that in 680 a.h. (1281 a.d.)

a battle was fought between the Guhayna and the Rufa'a in the desert of 'Aidhab. The two tribes mentioned have been close neighbours for many generations, not only in Africa but also in Arabia: Burckhardt, writing in 1814, says: While I was at Shendy an Arabian came from Souakin, who was of the tribe of Refaay {j), which is related to the great tribe of Djeheyne (ijych.), near Yembo; he told me that he had heard that there were descendants of his own tribe of Refaay settled to the south of Sennaar, and that he intended to visit them... as they had always manifested kindness to their relatives in the Hedjaz, especially to such as had undertaken the journey for the purpose of saluting them.

The Rufa'a of the Sudan themselves now claim to be distinct from the Guhayna in origin, though admitting that much intermarriage has been taking place for centuries, and perfunctorily claim descent from a Une of Sayyids. This however may partly be due to the fact that the 'Arakiin, many of whom are "holy men," claim to be AsHRAF, and the Rufa'a are placed in the dilemma of having either to repudiate the claim of the 'Arakiin to be Ashraf or deny the fact that the 'Arakiin are a branch of the Rufa'a. They have chosen the obvious course of saying that the Rufa'a are all Ashraf. The fact of the matter is that soi-disant Ashraf have intermarried with them; but, generally speaking, they are a composite tribe containing more See A 2, XXXV, An, lviii, D 6, xxxv.

Vol. II, p. 172, quoting MS. Arab 672, p. 421.

* Nubia, p. 323. * See later sub 'Arakim.