The Atbai

The Bisharin are scattered over the Batn al-Hajar (Nubian Desert) and in the Nile valley where they have settled in their own villages and practice agriculture. Bi ri Aliab are sedentary in Aswan; many live in small numbers on the peripheries of many small villages in Upper Egypt near markets and along major routes. In 1306 AH (c. 1945?) the no of Bisharin in Aswan was considerable with 6-7 tents (g û) (tents – bait birsh in Arabic) and mud houses of the Nile valley. A camp there was established in Aswan around 1870 - 1875. The Bisharin of Qous (near the suq, with 7-8 tents and several houses c. 20 near the Nile; also near Qous are Kimeil b who speak Ababde (Ashab b), Qift (all living in proper houses, c. 25 in all, some decorated inside with matting, others traditional matting tents) and Karm Omran (N of Luxor, 50 houses inhabited by Bisharin who all wear the turban: a 20yr old in 1950 said he spoke no Bishari, his father understood but spoke only Arabic, and his grandfather knew the langauge of his ancestors better than Arabic: pos less, all mud houses, no tents) had lived there for a long time and become assimilated, don’t speak Bedauwye correctly being a drole mixture of Bishari and Arabic; probably mostly Bisharin Hamedor b, Qamhat b (=true Bejas, more ancient than the bisharin, except the Shentirab and the Ababda are counted among the Qamhat b), have forgotten their ancestry. Bisharin Qamhat b are believed to be true Bejas, more ancient than the Bisharin, except the Shentirab and the Ababda are counted among the Qamhat b. Qamhat was a great personality, chief of the tribe, but became poor, all the tribe and its members were associated with other tribes.

The Ababda are closely related to the Ali b and Hamador b sections of the Bisharin with whom they have intermarried. Like the Bisharin, Nubians and Abyssinians, the Ababda are also given under the general name of Ethopians in some travel literature. The Ababda are found between the Nile and the Red Sea in Upper Egypt, that is from Asyut southwards to the cataracts of the Nile around Aswan: the greater part of tribe are found east of Luxor, in Diráw/Daraw, trading with Aswán, and in the north Atbai.

Classical Travellers

Strabo (c. 25—19 bc) and Heliodorus (ad 300), Diodorus Siculus (c. 50 bc) who quoted Agatharchides of Cnidus (c.170—120 BC), and Pliny’s Naturalis Historiae (AD 75) were sources for later travellers like Linant de Bellefonds and Wilkinson. Pliny described the Blemmyes as headless people with eyes and ears sunk below the level of their shoulders – as seen on the medieval Mappa Mundi (c. ad 1290). The map contains descriptions of many of the imagined inhabitants, including the Troglodytes, characterised by Solinus (ad 200) as exceptionally villainous who capture wild animals by leaping on them. The Blemmyes are depicted with mouths and eyes on their breasts (based on Pliny, Isidore and Solinus), as a wild Ethiopian race frequently invading Egypt who hung their heads when captured, hence the description.

Medieval Arab writers discuss the Blemmyes, the Buga, gold mines, and even the prosperous commodities market of Nub’ia. Ibn Jubayr (1180); Abu al-Fidá (1273—1331); the lost book of Ibn Selim al Assuani (ad 971) that Taqi al-Din Ahmad al-Maqrizi (1364-1441) used as a source – just as Burckhardt and Linant in turn used al-Maqrizi;Ibn Batuta (1326); and the Portuguese seaman Don João Castro (1500—1548) are all useful sources. Ibn Selim al Assuani in a lost book entitled 'Nubia, Mukurra, Alwa, the beja, and the Nile', he described 'groups of pastoralist beja dependant on large herds of camels and fine cattle. The numerous tribes soke their own langauge, some being pagan and devil worshippers, They dwelt in caves or skin tents; their basic food was milk, beeef and lamb. They carried spears and round bull-hide shields, as well as poisoned arrows. The Portuguese, Don João Castro (1500-1548) travelled primarily in the Red Sea area following footsteps of Vasco de Gama in looking for a route to India. He describes the Beja as ‘never at peace with their neighbours, but continually at war with everybody. They have no King or great Lord over them, but are divided into tribes and Parties, over each of which there is a Sheykh. They build no Towns, nor other fixed habitations; their Custom being to wander from one place to another with their cattle.’ According to an Elizabethan translation of Heliodorus, ‘The Blemminges ... carried bows and arrows made of dragons bones’.

Endurance

Linant deBellefonds

The journey did not really produce the results as regards mineral wealth, at least not enough for commercial exploitation; the viceroy attempted to develop the mines of wadi Allaqi but it was abandoned as too remote and difficult.

During his journey he developed a map (published by 1884) and published L’Etbaye in the year after the journey, in 1833. Map remained the most complete record of the region for many years. An earlier plan was made by Leake in 1819 1:850,000 following info from Burckhardt, marks the course of the Nile. Makes the way direct N-S across the desert betw Berber and Aswan without the moutains of Allaqi and Dejaab. Caillaud also made a plan in 1822 1:5.000.00), noted many imprefections later corrected by Linant who also marked centres of population, villages etc. The resulting map mentions 2 routes of Linant N-S from Corosco to Abu Hamed by Gebel Rafit, following a route parallel to the desert caravan route to Sennar via the long loop of the Nile: same as that used by Bruce; W-E from Nile to Red Sea along wadi Allaqi across Gebel Hegette, Gebel Gerf and Elba. After crossing the mountains of Hégatte, El Beda and Gerf, he then attempted to climb Mount Elba, a montain situated near the Red Sea.

He had difficulty penetrating as far as Jabal Elba, reputed for its richness and sanctity (108) which was inhabited by robber clans especially the Hamadorab, under Ahmad Gourabieh. and Shinerab. He was the first stranger to penetrate this region – a region encircled with legends. According to local legend the massive mountain is sacred because the ancestor of the Bisharin, a mysterious Couca, disappeared there. He was turned to stone and his collosal statue might be found again in the heart of the hight mountains where it profers oracles. One thing is certain, the region was then, and still is, closed to strangers. Linant found, whatever else, that the local Bisharin used their unique geographical position to pillage passing caravans and stray traffic of their Arab neighbours. He and Bonomi began their ascent. When Bonomi was injured, Linant continued to climb alone, through luxurious vegetation that contrasted sharply with the arid deserts all around. As he ascended he started to have second thoughts: the night was cold and demoralising, the camels factious and the dangers reinforced by the resentment of the local Bisharin. He abandoned the attempt to find Couca, decended rapidly and made for the Nile.

After he abandoned his attempt to climb Mt Elba followed a NW direction to explore the length of the Atbai and its E side; caravn passed near the wells of Meisah and Beida, and went along wadis Khashab, Hodein, Rod el Kharouf, Kharit and reached the Nile at Derrawé.

Linant's map of Etbai was in 2 parts; (1) the extreme West, r bank of Nile to massif of Gebel Rafit, ie the area inhabited by the Ababda; subdivided into 4 regions. (2) Centre E inc Wadi Allaqi, mts of Hegatte, Gerf and Elba; inhab by Bisharin and subdiv into 14 regions.

Comparisons with Linant’s map agains the geological map of the SE Egypt by Ball (1912) (scale 1:75,000); that of Hume (1934) scale 1:375,000 and the topographic Survey of Egypt (Cairo, 1929) have shed light on the originality and weaknesses of Linant’s map.

There are various mentions of the Abadba in studies of Upper Egypt in the nineteenth century as guides across the Eastern Desert and in al-Qusayr and Aswan, but few sources mention the Bisharin. Even at the end of the nineteenth century, the Bisharin were essentialy beyond the control of the Egyptian authorities. In April 1889 raid on Bisharin port of Halaib by Osman Digna. Atbai Bisharin remained almost uneffected by Mahdiyya, unlike Atbara Bisharin. Ahmad Muhammad Nasr, from the Bisharin al-Kurbeil b, died about 1903 and father of Ali Karar Ahmed in 1306 AH, in Aswan, was the the first sheikh of the Bisharin and the Meleik b in Aswan to negotiate with the Egyptian government.

Camels and smugglers

The Camel Corps also provided the only administration in the deserts for it was ‘not a question of seizing a few camel-loads of smuggled salt but the Government’s prestige itself was at stake’. Eventually the Desert Directorate was organised into the Middle and Upper Egypt Districts responsible for the Nile as far as Aswan, its headquarters at Ain el Shems and Asyut, with 170 men in the Camel Corps (500 men by 1907).

In 1902 Sir Eldon Gorst, then Egyptian Financial Adviser visited the Eastern Desert to examine progress made in mining industry accompanied by the von Dumreicher. They reached Fatira after three days ride from Qina and visited ancient Roman mines. They had been successively worked until the Middle Ages, with some attempts to revive them in the 1830s, then abandoned –and were reworked again from 1902 to 1930s by an English company.  ‘There is plenty of good gold there, but it lies in pockets instead of seams and appears only sporadically.’ As Dumreichter noted, working expenses were high, ‘though much diminished since motor-lorries have superseded camel caravans’ (150)–the end of an era!

Camels continued to be sold in Darâw,n rwy as escribed in the 1929 Baedeker: ‘ a large village w several mosques, marks the boundary betwe the Arabic and Nubian lang; station of the udan Pioneer Mission (German). Tues large and interesting market to which Bisharin and Ababda bring 100s of camels to be sold; These tribes can be studied here much better than at their now much diminished camping ground at Aswan. Both speak a peculiar lang, allied to Egyptian and other e. African (Hamitic) idioms. They support themselves by cattle-raising and by trading in charcoal, sheep, camels which they fetch from the Eastern Desert. The Bisharin have a curious head-dress of plaited hair.’ (363) By 1920, the ancient routes as described by Wilkinson were seldom used, yet by 1931 it was crossed by many caravans, motor-cars and lorries travelling between Qena and the Bisharin mining districts.

From 1923 the HQ of Red Sea Province at Suakin which adminstered the Bisharin area during the condominium in Angloe-Egyptian Sudan. Posts were established in Tokar, Agig, Mohammed Ghol and Halaib (from where Atbai Bisharin supposedly adminstered; but also from time to time like some section of the Amarar by Berber Province; Red Sea province from 1923/4). Bisharin found tax evasion irresistable. In 1929 the Bisharin were unified under a single nazir. In Upper Egypt, from 10 May 1934, Ali Karar Ahmed was Bisharin Sheikh and of the Ababde Mekeik b in Aswan ; and was wekil nazir from 1942; his father was Karar Khairallah. British administrators, Sir Thomas Russell, Douglas Newbold, G.E.R. Sandars, T.R.H. Owen and other officers of the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium provide further insights into the Atbai in the early twentieth century, especially through the invaluable SNR.

3. Ethno detail

L. Keimer (1950) discusses the Medemia argun, the Egyptian palm found only in the Nubian desert, inhabited by the Bisharin between Korosko and Abou Hamed. Smaller fruit c.4cm, stone c.3cm than the doum palm and similar to fruit found in ancient Egypt, see Earl of Carnarvon and Howard Carter, Five Years exploration at Thebes 1912, pl. LXXIX. With fruit a little bigger than a chicken’s egg, the colour of a horsechestnut. Rossi p.25 called it Dum (Crucifera Thebaica) in 1858. <10m tall. Acc to a Bisharin in 1949 it was only found in 7 locations: Tarafaoui, Ganaiquan, Lik t, Shigr b, Mik t, Tenabi, Haou t (on Wadi Halfa 1:1.000.000 map of 1949); Marrat–possibly 5-600 in each locality. Bisharin call it d m; the male tree is called arg n.; also referred to in travellers reports as d m, dellah or dellakh, miznza.

The Bisharin nazir in Aswan in 1934 told Keimer that they eat powdered dom fruit mixed with milk (not the Egyptian dom); only men make cooking pots (ankaliout, pl: ankiliw t) though possibly in the mountains you may find a stout woman who performs this task. A steatite pot is called ankaliout aweidatt. Bisharin eat the mesocarp, also they make matting used to make their tents, sacks carried by camels, baskets, different types of cord etc from the leaves (being more resistant then those of the normal Egyptian palm).all used during the course of a traveller’s journey from dom; Needs less warer than the Egyptian dom.

Kol bottles made from the stones of the nuts of the medemia argun by Bisharin women used by the Bisharin of Aswan. They make a small opening in the form of a thin vertical tube. The Bisharin and ababda also use egyptian dom around Aswan and Daroau as the fruit of the medemia argunare difficult to find in Egypt.

Most Bisharin ethnographic material in Western museum, for example, an American, Dr Sterns, an American, obtained the 11 little baskets (kab t Sudanese Arabic, Nubian and Bishari) in 1915-16 from Bishari, Genâwi Ibrahim (or more likely, Dign b Ibrahim, an old Aliab Serarab Mellek) in Aswan. Describes in detail the techniques of manufacture with d m fibre and thin strips of leather from goats and gazelles; decorated with simple geometric patterns. The little baskets contain all the little objects dear to a female Bisharin– jewels, perfumes from the area of Jabal Elba, small quantities of sugar, they all smell of the odour of the Bisharin ie rancid butter and fat; made by Bisharin women.

Nubian examples are similar in shape but made of date palm, with different decorative motifs, usually painted red and green.

Other items were collected in Aswan in the 1950s and are to be found in Rotterdam, Museum voor Land-en Volkenkunde de Rotterdam especially from the Bisharin of Halaib on the Red Sea e.g. including a a steatite pot an pipe which were collected by L. Keimer in 1949-50. He also provided items for the Sect. De géographie, Univ,. Fouad 1er, Giza, Cairo, including kol containers made from dom nuts and other boxes of this genre m khal t (Ar-Bish) and a coffee-pot (gebana) of black steatite, probably originally Sudanese but bought in the Bisharin camp in Aswan.

Recent developments

Yet even today Mount Elba keeps its secrets and no one has yet fully explored the region although Dr Georg Schweinfurth criss-crossed the Eastern Desert many times. It remains a region encircled with legends. For fifteen years, a mission to inventory the region has been on the books at the Institut Francais d'Archeologie orientale. According to Pascale Linant de Bellefonds (through a communication from R. Vergnieux), an Egyptological expedition on foot is planned to discover the mystery of Couca, but the project has not yet got off the ground for numerous political reasons.

References