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NUBIA

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Originally appearing in Volume V19, Page 844 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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NUBIA , a region of See also:

north-See also:east See also:Africa, bounded N. by See also:Egypt, E. and W. by the Red See also:Sea and the Libyan See also:Desert respectively, and extending S. indefinitely to about the See also:latitude of See also:Khartum. It may be taken to include the See also:Nile valley from See also:Assuan near the First See also:Cataract southwards to the confluence of the See also:White and See also:Blue See also:Niles, stretching in this direction for about 56o m. between 16° and 24° N. Nubia, however, has no strictly defined limits, and is little more than a See also:geographical expression. The See also:term appears to have been unknown to the ancients, by whom every-thing See also:south of Egypt was vaguely called See also:Ethiopia, the See also:land of the dark races. It is first associated historically, not with any definite geographical region, but with the Nobatae, a See also:negro See also:people removed by See also:Diocletian from See also:Kharga See also:oasis to the Nile valley above Egypt (Dodecaschoenus), whence the turbulent Blemmyes had recently been driven eastwards. From Nuba, the Arabic See also:form of the name of this people, comes the See also:modern Nubia, a term about the precise meaning of which no two writers are in See also:accord. Within the limits indicated the See also:country consists mainly of sandy desert and rugged and arid See also:steppes and plateaus through which the Nile forces its way to Upper Egypt. In this See also:section of the See also:river there occurs a continuous See also:series of slight falls and rapids, including all the See also:historical " six cataracts," beginning below Khartum and terminating at See also:Philae. Between those places the river makes a See also:great S-shaped See also:bend, the region See also:west of the Nile within the See also:lower bend being called the Bayuda Desert, and that east of the Nile the Nubian Desert. The two districts roughly correspond to the conventional divisions of Upper and Lower Nubia respectively. Except along the narrow valley of the Nile only the southernmost portion of Nubia contains arable land. The greater See also:part is within the almost rainless See also:zone.

An auriferous See also:

district lies between the Nile and the Red Sea, in 22° N. Politically the whole of Nubia is now included either in Egypt or the Anglo-See also:Egyptian See also:Sudan, and has no administrative existence. See also:Ethnology.—As an ethnical expression the term Nuba or Nubian has little value. Rejected by the presumable descend-ants of Diocletian's Nobatae, who now See also:call themselves See also:Berber or Barabara, it has become synonymous in the Nile valley with " slave," or " negro slave." This is due to the large number of slaves See also:drawn by Arab dealers from the Niiba negroes of See also:Kordofan, who appear to constitute the See also:original stock of the Nubian races (but see HAMITIC RACES). On the other See also:hand, the name has never included all the inhabitants of Nubia. Peoples of three distinct See also:stocks inhabit the country—the comparatively See also:recent Semitic Arab intruders, mainly in Upper Nubia, the See also:Beja (? Hamitic) See also:family of tribes (the See also:Ababda, See also:Bisharin, See also:Hadendoa, Beni-Amer, &c.), everywhere between the Nile and the Red Sea; and the Nubians (Nuba or Barabira), in Lower Nubia, where they are now almost exclusively confined to the See also:banks of the Nile, from Assuan southwards to See also:Dongola. Ethnologically these modern Nubians are a very mixed people, but their See also:affiliation to negroes or negroids, which is based on See also:physical and linguistic grounds, is confirmed by what is known of the See also:history of the Nilotic peoples. The first inhabitants of the region beyond Egypt appear to have been the Uaua, whose name occurs in an inscription on a See also:tomb at See also:Memphis of the Vlth See also:Dynasty, and again constantly in subsequent See also:inscriptions down to the See also:time of the See also:Ptolemies, as the See also:chief negro See also:race to the south of Syene. (For the history of the country during this See also:period see ETHIOPIA). It thus appears that throughout the historic period down to the arrival of the See also:Romans the Nile-country above Egypt was occupied by a negro people. Egyptian monuments are found as far south as See also:Mount Barkal (Napata), but no Egyptian settlements beyond Syene.

Hence these Uaua negroes probably remained unaffected, or very slightly affected, by See also:

foreign elements until about the 3rd See also:century A.D. Their domain then began to be encroached upon from the east by the Blemmyes, who have been identified with the See also:present Beja of the Nubian desert. It was owing to their incessant raids that Diocletian withdrew the See also:Roman garrisons above the cataracts, and called in the warlike Nobatae to protect the Egyptian frontier from their attacks. These negro Nobatae, originally from Kordofan, as is now evident, had advanced to the Great Oasis (Kharga) in Upper Egypt, whence they passed into the Nile valley between the cataracts. Here they absorbed the older Uaua of kindred stock, and ultimately came to terms with the Blemmyes. The two races even became intermingled, and, making See also:common cause against the Romans, were defeated by Maximinus in 451. The Blemmyes, remaining See also:pagan after the Nubas had embraced See also:Christianity (6th century) were soon after driven from the Nile valley eastwards to the kindred Megabares, Memnons and other nomads, who, with the See also:Troglodytes, had from time immemorial held the whole See also:steppe region between the Nile and the Red Sea from Axum to Egypt. Here their most collective name was Bugaitae (BovyaeLrat), as appears from the Axumite inscription, whence the forms Buja, Beja, which occur in the See also:oldest Arab records, and by which they are still known. In the 7th century the See also:Arabs who had conquered Egypt penetrated into Lower Nubia, where the two Jawabareh and Al-Gharbiya tribes became powerful, and amalgamated with the Nubas of that district. Their further progress south was barred by the See also:Christian See also:kings of Dongola (q.v.) until the 14.th century, when the Arabs became masters of the whole region. Still later another See also:element was added to the See also:population in the introduction by the See also:Turkish masters of Egypt of a number of Bosnians. These Bosnians (Kataji as they called themselves) settled in the country and intermarried with the Arabs and Nubians, their descendants still holding lands between Assuan and Derr.

Hence it is that the Nubians of this district, fairest of all the race, still claim Arab and Osmanli (Bosnian) descent. Nevertheless, the Nubian type remains essentially negro, being characterized by a very dark complexion, varying from a See also:

mahogany See also:brown and deep See also:bronze to an almost See also:black shade, with tumid lips, large black animated eyes, doli-chocephalic See also:head (See also:index 73, 72), See also:hair often woolly or strongly frizzled, and scant See also:beard worn under the See also:chin like the figures of the fugitives (Uaua?) in the See also:battle-pieces sculptured on the walls of the Egyptian temples. At the same time the See also:nose is much larger and the zygomatic See also:arches less prominent than in the full-See also:blood negro. The Nilotic Nubians are on the whole a strong See also:muscular people,essentially agricultural, more warlike and energetic than the Egyptians. Many find employment as artisans, small dealers, porters and soldiers in Egypt, where they are usually noted for their honesty, and See also:frank and cheerful temperament. Since the overthrow of the native Christian states all have become Mahommedans, but not of a fanatical type. Although a native of Dongola, the See also:mandi, Mahommed Ahmed, found his chief support, not among his countrymen, but among the more recently converted Kordofan negroes and the See also:nomad Arabs and Beja. (For ethnology see also HAMITIC RACES, BEJA, ABABDA, BISHARIN, HADENDOA, &C.). See also:Language.—Little is known of the language of the See also:ancient Nubians or of its connexion, if any, with the language, known as Meroitic, of the " Ethiopians" who preceded them. The hieroglyphs and inscriptions in Meroitic belong mostly to the first six centuries A.D.; the existing Nubian See also:MSS. are See also:medieval and are written chiefly in See also:Greek letters, and in form and See also:character resemble Coptic. They are, with one exception, written on See also:parchment and contain lives of See also:saints, &c., the exception being a legal document. The most noteworthy of these MSS. was found near See also:Edfu, in Upper Egypt, See also:early in the 2oth century and See also:purchased for the See also:British Museum in 1908.

Eutychius, See also:

patriarch of See also:Alexandria about 930, included " Nubi " among the six kinds of See also:writing which he mentions as current among the Hamitic peoples, and " Nubi " also appears among a See also:list of six writings mentioned in an ancient See also:manuscript now in the See also:Berlin Museum. The modern Nubian See also:tongue, clearly the descendant of the Nubian of the MSS., is very sonorous and expressive. Its distinctly negro character is betrayed in the See also:complete See also:absence of grammatical gender, in its See also:primitive vowel-See also:system and highly-See also:developed See also:process of consonantal assimilation, softening all harsh combinations, lastly, in the See also:peculiar infix j inserted between the verbal See also:root and the plural pronominal See also:object, as in ai tokki j-ir =I shake them. As in See also:Bantu, the verb presents a multiplicity of forms, including one present, three past and future tenses, with See also:personal endings complete, passive, interrogative, conditional, elective, negative and other forms, each with its proper participial inflexions. In See also:Lepsius's See also:grammar the verbal paradigm fills altogether iio pages. Of the Nilotic as distinguished from the Kordofan See also:branch of the Nuba language there are three See also:principal dialects current from Assuan along the Nile southwards to Meroe, as under: I. See also:NORTHERN: See also:Dialect of See also:Bann- Kenz or Mattokki, from the first cataract to Sebfl` and See also:Wadi al-`Arab, probably dating from the Diocletian period. II. CENTRAL : The See also:Mahan or Maria, from Korosko to Wadi See also:Haifa (second cataract). Here the natives are called Saidokki, in contradistinction to the northern Mattokki. The northern and See also:southern varieties are closely related to each other, differing considerably from the central, which shows more marked See also:affinities with the Kordofan Nuba, possibly because the Saidokki people are later arrivals from Kordofan. For See also:topography, &c. and See also:archaeology, see SUDAN § Anglo-Egyptian and EGYPT.

End of Article: NUBIA

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