3IO THE GUHAYNA GROUP iii.4.iv.
give up their privilege of escorting the pilgrims. He also relates the
tale of their wars with the Ma'aza in the early sixteenth century, and
with the Beli who lived south of them.
Most of the Beni 'Ukba who went to Egypt joined the Beni HiLAL and appear among the subtribes of that great congeries as enumerated by Ibn Khaldun and el Makri'zi.
Leo Africanus (c. 1495-1552) refers to them as "Hucban": "The kingdom of Hucban are next neighbours unto the region of Melian, who receive certain pay from the King of Tunis. They are a rude and
wilde people, and in very deade estranged from al humanitie: they
have (as it is reported) about 1500 horsemen^." At what period, or by what route, they came to northern Kordofan there is no direct
evidence.
V Another large branch of the Kababish, a rich camel-owning folk,
are the 'Atawi'a (sing. 'Atawi). The form " 'Atawi'a" is the equivalent
of " Beni 'Atia," and I have little hesitation in connecting these
people through the 'Atiat (or 'Ataw^ani) Beduin of the Thebaid^
with the Beni 'Atia of Arabia, whose name so frequently occurs in
conjunction with that of the Guhayna, Fezara and Beni Hilal. The fact that the 'Atawia in Kordofan all use the brand Y and that the Beni 'Atia of Arabia use A merely strengthens the
conviction^.
At the time of the Hilalian invasion, in which, it will be remem-
bered, the Fezara also took part, the Beni 'Atia were reckoned a
section of the Athbeg, the largest branch of the Beni Hilal, and
settled in the Algerian province of Constantine*. Ibn Khaldun says
they there became enfeebled and disappeared ; and if a large number
of them detached themselves from the Beni Hilal to migrate to the Sudan this would account for the fact.
However in the middle of the nineteenth century there were some 3000 of them in Constantine and some 500 in the Sahara. They are
regarded there as Berbers^.
^ Leo, I, 144. Marmol (c. 1520 a.d., Bk. i, Vol. i, p. 80) borrows this account without acknowledgment from Leo and adds that they had 10,000 infantry as well.
^ Klippel, pp. 5 and 8. He speaks of them as "d'origine berbere" and groups them with the Beni Wasil.
* There are still many Beni 'Atia in Arabia. Palgrave in 1862 computed their numbers at about 6000. He places them in the northern Hegaz between el Jowf and Muwayla and says they and the Harb infest the pilgrim road to Medina (Vol. 11, pp. 86 and 208, and map in Vol. i). Doughty {Wanderings..., pp. 164, 175, 278) mentions them as subject to Hayil and living with the Guhayna near Tayma. Wallin (q.v. p. 310) met them with the Ma'aza in el Hisma east of Muwayla and at Tebuk. For their brand see Doughty, Travels, I, 125.
* See Ibn Khaldun, ed. de Slane, pp. 28 ff.
* Carette, p. 445. The Fezara are mentioned in company with them.