III. 2. IX. THE GUHAYNA GROUP 245

IX The 'AbdullAb. The 'Abdullab are now a small and scattered

family living round Khartoum North, and here and there on the Blue

Nile below Rufa'a, with a little riverain cultivation and a few cattle,

sheep and goats. But, poor as they are, they take a legitimate pride

in being the descendants of that famous 'AbduUa Gema'a of Kerri, an Arab of the Kawasma branch of the Rufa'a^, who helped 'Omara Dunkas, the first Fung king, to extirpate the Nuba and 'Anag from

the Gezira and found the kingdom of Sennar, and who was himself

the founder of a line of hereditary viceroys with their headquarters

near the junction of the Niles. For several generations the successors

of the great 'AbduUa, whose sphere extended from the Shabluka

cataract to Arbagi, resided at Kerri, but—it is not known exactly when^—they moved their capital to Halfayat el Muluk.

The official title that they bore was ^'Mdngil" or '^Mdngilak,"

a non-Arabic term applied to several of the Fung viceroys in dif-

ferent parts^, but par excelle?ice to the reigning 'Abdullabi.

A list of the successive 'Abdullab sheikhs was compiled by

Cailliaud in 1821, but the relationships are not made clear and there

are errors of detail: certain names too have been included which probably belonged to well-known relatives of the " Mdngils*' rather than to the actual holders of office.

A second list made some seventeen years ago by Na'um Bey Shukayr, and quoted by Budge, is even less accurate. A comparison

of these with the MSS. "D 3 " and "D 7" and a pedigree* lent me by a direct descendant of the " Mdngils^' suggests the following

genealogical table as being reasonably correct. It is not complete and it may contain inaccuracies, but it is at least more correct, as far

as it goes, than the older lists quoted, A common source of confusion

has been ignorance of the fact that every " Mdngil" after the time of

'Agib I, the son of 'Abdulla, was known, sometimes by his own name, but more commonly by that of "Wad Agib."

^ In the 'Abdullabi pedigree three generations interpose between 'Abdulla and Rafa'i (ancestor of the Rufa'a).

- It was perhaps between 1779 and 1790 as Muhammad el Amin, who is speci-

fically alluded to in D 7 as " Sheikh of Kerri," was their headman during that period.

' See Appendix to this section. The 'Abdullab appear also to have practised the Fung custom of slaying their king, for which see p. 50, and (Part IV) MS.

* It only gives a single line ot names from son to father. These names are marked with an asterisk in the following tree. The figures mark the order of suc- cession : the letters refer to the footnotes that follow.