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CHAPTER 1

The Pre-hlamic Arabian Element

I With the country which roughly speaking Hes south of the

twelfth parallel of latitude we are not here concerned as to all but

a limited extent it falls outside the sphere of the Arab. Tribes of

Arabs, it is true, pasture their herds at certain seasons south of this

line, and in some cases cultivate: the Bakkara tribes of southern Kordofan and Darfur and the Selim Bakkara on the White Nile

are the most notable examples of this : but allowing a few exceptions due to the suitability of the sub-tropical zone for cattle-breeding it

is fairly accurate to say that the country south of the twelfth parallel

is not yet arabicized in the sense that is true of the drier zones of

country further north, where the Arab, or soi-disant Arab, is in undisputed possession.

It is proposed in these first chapters to give some general idea of

the ethnic characteristics of the people who inhabited this northern

portion of the Sudan^ before the period of Muhammadan immigration.

II Now, it is well to realize in advance, the fact that the Muham- madan settlement in the Sudan caused a profound modification of

the pre-existing native stock is apt to obscure the other equally

important fact that long before the Islamic period Arabian races had been crossing over into Egypt and the Sudan. Let us then, as a first

step in the discussion of our subject, attempt to estimate the extent

to which non-Muhammadan immigration to the Sudan took place from Arabia during this earlier period.

III It would be a most surprising fact if the connection between

the two sides of the Red Sea had not been intimate from the earliest dawn of history, for their inhabitants were to a large extent cognate

races 2 and the passage was an easy one.

The merchant led the way. From the most ancient times trade

in aromatic gums, ivory and gold flourished between Arabia and the

ports of Egypt, the Sudan and Abyssinia^. Settlements arose on the

African coast and traders carried their wares at least as far as the

^ I limit the meaning of the term " Sudan " throughout to the country at present so called. This excludes Abyssinia and Eritrea.

* Cp. Elliot Smith, Ancient Egyptiam, p. 87.

' See Periplus, Introduction and p. 60; Crowfoot, Joiirn. Roy. Geogr. Soc. May 19H, pp. 523, 524.