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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: NEW-NUM |
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NUBIA , a region of north-east Africa, bounded N. by Egypt, E. and W. by the Red Sea and the Libyan Desert respectively, and extending S. indefinitely to about the latitude of Khartum. It may be taken to include the Nile valley from Assuan near the First Cataract southwards to the confluence of the White and Blue 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 geographical expression. The term appears to have been unknown to the ancients, by whom every-thing south of Egypt was vaguely called Ethiopia, the land of the dark races. It is first associated historically, not with any definite geographical region, but with the Nobatae, a negro people removed by Diocletian from Kharga oasis to the Nile valley above Egypt (Dodecaschoenus), whence the turbulent Blemmyes had recently been driven eastwards. From Nuba, the Arabic form of the name of this people, comes the modern Nubia, a term about the precise meaning of which no two writers are in accord. Within the limits indicated the country consists mainly of sandy desert and rugged and arid steppes and plateaus through which the Nile forces its way to Upper Egypt. In this section of the river there occurs a continuous series of slight falls and rapids, including all the historical " six cataracts," beginning below Khartum and terminating at Philae. Between those places the river makes a great S-shaped bend, the region west of the Nile within the 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 part is within the almost rainless zone. An auriferous 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-Egyptian Sudan, and has no administrative existence.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 call themselves 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 drawn
original
recent
The first inhabitants of the region beyond Egypt appear to have been the Uaua, whose name occurs in an inscription on a tomb at Memphis of the Vlth Dynasty, and again constantly in subsequent inscriptions down to the time of the Ptolemies, as the chief
Mount
The Blemmyes, remaining pagan
In the 7th century the 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 Christian kings of Dongola (q.v.) until the 14.th century, when the Arabs became masters of the whole region. Still later another element was added to the population in the introduction by the 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 mahogany brown and deep bronze to an almost black shade, with tumid lips, large black animated eyes, doli-chocephalic head (index 73, 72), hair often woolly or strongly frizzled, and scant beard worn under the chin like the figures of the fugitives (Uaua?) in the battle-pieces sculptured on the walls of the Egyptian temples. At the same time the nose is much larger and the zygomatic arches less prominent than in the full-blood negro. The Nilotic Nubians are on the whole a strong 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 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 mandi, Mahommed Ahmed, found his chief
Language.Little is known of the language of the 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 MSS. are medieval and are written chiefly in Greek letters, and in form and character resemble Coptic. They are, with one exception, written on parchment and contain lives of saints, &c., the exception being a legal document. The most noteworthy of these MSS. was found near Edfu, in Upper Egypt, early in the 2oth century and purchased for the British Museum in 1908. Eutychius, patriarch of Alexandria about 930, included " Nubi " among the six kinds of writing which he mentions as current among the Hamitic peoples, and " Nubi " also appears among a list
The modern Nubian tongue, clearly the descendant of the Nubian of the MSS., is very sonorous and expressive. Its distinctly negro character is betrayed in the complete absence of grammatical gender, in its primitive vowel-system and highly-developed process of consonantal assimilation, softening all harsh combinations, lastly, in the peculiar infix j inserted between the verbal root and the plural pronominal object, as in ai tokki j-ir =I shake them. As in Bantu, the verb presents a multiplicity of forms, including one present, three past and future tenses, with personal endings complete, passive, interrogative, conditional, elective, negative and other forms, each with its proper participial inflexions. In Lepsius's grammar the verbal paradigm fills altogether iio pages. Of the Nilotic as distinguished from the Kordofan branch of the Nuba language there are three principal dialects current from Assuan along the Nile southwards to Meroe, as under: I. NORTHERN: Dialect of Bann- Kenz or Mattokki, from the first cataract to Sebfl` and Wadi al-`Arab, probably dating from the Diocletian period. II. CENTRAL : The Mahan or Maria, from Korosko to Wadi Haifa (second cataract). Here the natives are called Saidokki, in contradistinction to the northern Mattokki. The northern and southern varieties are closely related to each other, differing considerably from the central, which shows more marked affinities with the Kordofan Nuba, possibly because the Saidokki people are later arrivals from Kordofan. For topography, &c. and archaeology, see SUDAN Anglo-Egyptian and EGYPT. End of Article: NUBIA If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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