III.2.VL THE GUHAYNA GROUP 241

by the Abu Gin and the Abu Rof families respectively^. The former

are a family of Hammada, the latter of Beni Hasan, but the sections

subject to them have always been drawn from a medley of all the Rufa'a of the south, not even all the Hammada being subject to Abu Gin nor all the Beni Hasan to Abu Rof. In fact the titles "Rufa'a

EL Shark" and " Rufa'a el Huoi " refer to an administrative and not

a genealogical division of the southern branch of the tribe.

Generally speaking the Rufa'a el Shark spend the rainy season

in the Butana and round Kala'a Arang, while the Rufa'a el Huoi remain in the west, moving northwards to Gebel Moya and Manakil,

Early in the Dervish revolt these southern Rufa'a or " Guhayna "

twice attacked Sennar in the Mahdist interest and suffered great

losses at the hands of 'Abd el Kadir Pasha^.

In 1887 the Khalifa ordered the "Abu Rof" of the day to bring

his whole tribe to Omdurman. On his refusal a strong force was sent

against him and the flower of the "Guhayna" were slain and their herds confiscated^.

VI As in the south it is impossible to draw any but a purely ad-

ministrative and geographical line between the eastern and western groups of "Guhayna," so, too, one would find it very difficult to

specify any real difference in race between the sedentary Rufa'a of the north and the semi-nomadic " Guhayna " of the south. The same

sections are common to both, though their proportional distribution

of course varies. It will be simplest to give a list of the chief Rufa'a

subtribes in order and to specify incidentally where each has its main habitat. It may be noted that the names of many of the smaller

sections are chiefly familiar as being applied to villages on the Blue Nile which were originally built by Rufa'a but which are now in part occupied by later immigrants.

The list is as follows

:

A. Kawasma

/I. 'Abdullab^

2. Mahamid

13. Um Arosa

4. 'ItaybAb

5. 'Azazab

etc.

^ It is said there have been over t%venty successive Abu Rofs and Abu Gins, but this is doubtfuL The earliest mention of either occurs in Bruce, who about 1772 speaks of "Wed Abroff and all the Jeheina Arabs." Tremaux, ii, 29, quoting Lejean (1862) says: "Les Abou-Rof ont rebattu...les negres Denka compris dans le quadrilatere de Tangle forme par le Saubat at le Nil Blanc."

2 Slatin, Chaps, iv and xi. 3 Ibid. Ch. xii.

* These are dealt with later, separately.

M.S.I. 16