Mahas

The Mahas are a sub-group of the Banu Khazraj and the Nubian people located in Sudan along the banks of the Nile. The Mahas are descendants of the Banu Khazraj and have intermarried with the Nubians after migrating to Sudan. They are further split into the Mahas of the North and Mahas of the East. The Northern Mahas people are the vast majority and intermarried with the rest of the Sudanese people unlike the Eastern Mahas people who preferred to keep their Bedouin and Hejazi culture rather than intermarrying with tribes. Some of the Mahas of the Butana are also from the Rashaida tribe. Some Mahas villages are intermixed with remaining remnants of the largely extinct Qamhat Bishari tribe. Just as Ababda people are Bejas that are bilingual in Arabic and Beja, and sometimes described as Bedouins the Qamhat Mahas are ethnic Beja speaking a Nubian language. Some Mahas of the Butana area have intermarried with the Rashaida people.

Priceless Mahas cultural antiquities are being lost exponentially with continued damming of the Nile River.

Location

Imagery ©2013 TerraMetrics, Map data ©2013 Google

Note: Zoning and Region were not highlighted or marked, simply we put in a single latitude and longitude to sum the general area. This is not the entirety of the tribal region.

References

• The Mahas Survey Project at Khartoum University

Mashakayla, Karma, Dolgo, Urdwan, Sudla, Malajab, Simit, Koka are places in the Mahas region.

External links

• http://www.spicey.demon.co.uk/Nubianpage/mahas.htm The Mahas Survey
• http://digitalcommons.ric.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1125&context=facultypublications