Bishari tribe

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Bisharin tribe
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Bishari
Historical photograph of a group of Bishari people by G. Lekegian, c. 1895
Total population
42,000[citation needed]
Regions with significant populations
 Sudan15,000 (1992)[1]
 EgyptUnknown
Languages
Beja (Bidhaawyeet), Arabic
Religion
Islam
Related ethnic groups
other Beja

The Bishari (

Afroasiatic family of the Cushitic
branch.

Photo of a Bisharin man from Augustus Henry Keane's Man, Past and Present (1899)

Demographics

The Bishari live in the eastern part of the

Nile valley, an area of limestone, mountains, with sandstone plateaus.[2]

The Bishari population numbers around 42,000 individuals. Most people of the tribe move within the territory of Sudan, where members have political representation in the Beja Congress.[3]

Language

The Bishari speak the Beja language as a mother tongue. It belongs to the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic family.[4]

The Beja inhabiting Sudan also speak Sudanese Arabic as a second language.[4] In 1949, a member of the Bishari tribe stated that when they meet a stranger, they immediately ask "'Are you biggaweijet (=Bišari) or belaeijt (Arab)?'" and continued "‘...We call our language biggawija and it contains many elements of Arabic (belaeijet).'"[5]

Economy

The Bishari are traditionally nomadic people, working in

husbandry of camels, sheep, and goats in the southern part of the Eastern Desert. This area is largely unexplored. Of all the tribes in the area, they live in the more remote areas.[6] The Bishari and the Bishari Qamhatab, believed to be ancient Bishari, have traded agricultural commodities with other people since ancient times.[6][2][7]

Religion

The Bishari are mostly

Muslims.[3] In the 10th century CE, the Muslim geographer Al-Maqdisi wrote that the Bishari were Christians.[8] Throughout their history, the Bishari tribes have practised numerous different religions, including varieties of paganism, then Christianity and now Islam. Although they are recognised as Muslims, Islam is not deep rooted in the culture. Often of equal importance are traditional beliefs. Many continue to fear the influence of jinn, or bad spirits, which they believe are all around and cause sickness and disputes between neighbours. [9]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Languages of Sudan". Ethnologue. Retrieved 27 September 2023.
  2. ^ a b Starky, Janet. "Perceptions of the Ababda and Bisharin in the Atbai". University of Durham. Archived from the original on 10 March 2006. Retrieved 23 November 2016.
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-2-8288-0081-9. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 2009-06-17. Retrieved 23 November 2016.
  4. ^ a b "Bedawiyet". Ethnologue. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
  5. ^ Starkey, Janet (June 2001). "Perceptions of the ʿAbabda and Bisharin in the Atbai". Sudan Studies (26): 40.
  6. ^ a b "Egypt People". Britannica. Archived from the original on 24 November 2016. Retrieved 23 November 2016.
  7. ISBN 9789774160943
    . Retrieved 23 November 2016.
  8. ^ al-Maqdisī, Abū Nasr Muṭahhar (1899–1919). Huart, Charles (ed.). Le Livre de la Creation et de l'Histoire d'Abou Zaid. Paris: Publ. de l'Ecole des Languages Vivantes Sier IV. p. 148.
  9. ^ "Beja, Bisharin in Sudan".

Further reading

Egypt: Handbook for Travellers : Part First, Lower Egypt, with the Fayum and the Peninsula of Sinai, by Karl Baedeker, (1885)

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Bishārīn".
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