Mahas
The Mahas (
For millennia, the Mahas tribe had resided in the region that constitutes present day north Sudan.
The Mahas in the “Three Towns” are largely from Nubian descent.[1] Lobban argues that they are of the completely Arabized Nubians.[1] The Mahas of this stock do not maintain strong ties with the Nubians in the north and east.[1] They know little of the Nubian language.[1] Inhabiting the north of Sudan and south of Egypt at a time when Islam was expanding south up the Nile, the Mahas of this group were Arabized relatively early.[1] As Mahas families became established in the Three Towns, they were almost exclusively of Mahas descent.[1] The Three Towns area was composed of Nubian, Arab, Sudanic, Nilotic, and European groups.[1] However, within the Mahas communities, there was a strong inclination for preserving the Mahas lineage.[1] Marriage was predominately between the Arab communities in the Nile valley.[1] It was rare to encounter marriages between the Mahas communities and the Sudanese Darfuris and southern regions of present-day Sudan.[1] The emphasis of cultural homogeneity within the Mahas communities was strengthened with Islamic values at that time that perpetuated egalitarianism.[1]
At that time, traditional society embraced socio-economic differences among the people of the region.[1] Servants, former slaves, and farmworkers from the west and south of Sudan constituted the bottom of the hierarchy.[1] Among the Mahas, there was different access to power at the top.[1] Some Mahas family groups brought in a substantial amount of turnover through agricultural land holdings.[1] Other Mahas groups saw religious advisors, omdas (mayors), and high-ranking military officers, business men, and public servants as the conflux of power.[1]
The Mahas community established at Tuti Island, at the convergence of the Blue and White Nile, is among the oldest Mahas communities.[2] The Mahas have occupied their site on Tuti Island for about five hundred years.[2] The site is exclusively homogenous to the Mahas.[2] In the 15th century, The Mahas fukahaa of Tuti were seen as key to the islamization of Sudan.[2] As the first to build permanent structures in the Khartoum area, the Mahas may be credited with initiating the modernization of Sudan.[2] The “Three Towns” area is the current center of modern-day Sudan.[2]
By the early 16th century, the Mahas ethnic community were established in the area.[2] Most of the Mahas communities were established by a prominent Muslim scholar and leader called the fukahaa[2]. Each fukahaa would bring their respective families to the site of the community.[2] In addition to the home the family would build, there would also be a religious school, or khalwa[2]. As the community grew, it would include multiple homes, the khalwa, and the local mesjid, or mosque[2]. When the founding scholar died, a typical Mahas community would also include a gubba, or tomb, that would be the center of the municipal's cemetery.[2] For larger Mahas villages, there would often be a market and areas for craft specialization whereas the inhabitants of the community could sell, exchange, and buy crafts, livestock, and various produce.[2]
Several prominent Mahas figures gave rise to the “Three Towns” area. In 1691, Sheikh Arbab El Agyed established a community and Islamic regional center in Khartoum.[2] Born in Tuti island around the 17th century, Agayed was related to Mohammed Busati, a religious scholar responsible for spreading Islam in the state of Kordofan.[2] The khalwa he established attracted around 500 students, 300 of them being Nubians.[2] The masjid in the community lasted until the conquest of Sudan by the Turkish and Ottoman Empire.[2] This community turned into the first permanent settlement in (western) Khartoum.[2] The Mahas encountered the destruction of Agayed's masjid and community throughout Turkish rule.[2] Today, the site is still remembered to be a couple of blocks south of the Blue Nile.[2] It is said that around, or maybe later, than 1646, the Sheikh Hamad was born on Tuti Island.[2] He was a part of the religious order and a student of the El Agyed.[2] For reasons not known, the Sheikh moved to settle on the western shore of the white Nile.[2] We see that his village and settlement on the white Nile as the first settlement of Omdurman.[2]
Sheikj Idiris wad Muhammad el Arbab was one of the first Mahas fukahaa to serve as a religious advisor in the region.[2] He is seen as the founder of the Qadriya tariqa, or way, in Sudan.[2] He was considered to have magical powers that aligned with curing the sick, restoring youth, and curing sterility.[2] He was famous for giving out roughly sixty plates of food to his followers who were in need every day.[2] Because of his generous and exuberant reputation, he was awarded the acres of land that now constitute the Eilafun region in Khartoum.[2]
References
External links
- http://www.spicey.demon.co.uk/Nubianpage/mahas.htm The Mahas Survey