عرب سودانيون | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Sudanese Arab from the tribe ofManasir | |
| Total population | |
| ~35 million (70% of the population)[1] | |
| Languages | |
| Sudanese Arabic | |
| Religion | |
| Sunni Islam | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Arabs,Nubians,[2]Beja,Cushites,Nilo-Saharans |
Sudanese Arabs (Arabic:عرب سودانيون,romanized: ʿarab sūdāniyyūn) are the inhabitants ofSudan who identify asArabs and speakArabic as their mother tongue.[3] Sudanese Arabs make up 70% of the population ofSudan;[4] however, prior to the independence ofSouth Sudan in 2011, Sudanese Arabs made up 40% of the population.[5] They areSunni Muslims and speakSudanese Arabic.
The Sudanese Arab ethnic group finds its origins in the centuries-long admixture of indigenous African populations with Arab immigrants as well as from cultural andlinguistic shifts to anArab identity, culture, and language leading to a unique cultural identity. Prior toArabization,Sudan was mainly inhabited byCushitic-speaking groups like theBeja andNilo-Saharan peoples such as theNubians, whose civilizations, including the ancient kingdoms ofKush andMeroe, left their mark on the region's early history. Particularly famous is the developmentally high architectural, artistic, and political achievements of the Nubians along the Nile.[6][7]
The transformation toward an Arab identity accelerated with the arrival of Arab tribes during the 15th–19th centuries. These tribes, such as theJuhaynah andRufa'a, broughtIslam and theArabic language, which became widely spread across Sudan. This interaction was characterized by marriage, trade, and assimilation of the indigenous people into Arab-Islamic culture. The Arabic language became the primary medium of communication and a symbol of social and religious prestige that contributed to cultural change.[8][9]
ThisArabization was not, however, uniformly experienced. Whereas the northern and central regions became identified with Arabism, thesouthern andwestern parts of the Sudan retained very distinctlanguages, traditions, andreligions, more often than not resisting assimilation. This complex ethnic and cultural history informs the Sudanese Arab group today, which is the single largest ethnic bloc and enjoys the greatest influence over political, social, and cultural development in the country.[10][11]
Arab tribes arrived in Sudan in three main waves, beginning with theJa'alin in the 12th century. The Ja'alin trace their lineage toAbbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib and their culture was closely linked with that of theBedouin inArabia. The second main wave was the migration of theJuhaynah before the 17th century in two main subgroups, theBaggara andKabbabish. The final main wave was the migration ofBani Rashid in the mid-19th century.[3]
The great majority of the Sudanese Arabs tribes are part of larger tribal confederations: theJa'alin, who primarily live along theNile river basin betweenKhartoum andAbu Hamad; theShaigiya, who live along the Nile betweenKorti and Jabal al-Dajer, and parts of theBayuda Desert; theJuhaynah, who live east and west of the Nile, and include theRufaa people, theShukria clan and theKababish; theBanu Fazara orFezara people who live inNorthern Kordofan; theKawahla, who inhabit eastern Sudan, Northern Kordofan, and White Nile State; and theBaggara, who inhabitSouth Kordofan and extend toLake Chad. There are numerous smaller tribal units that do not conform to the above groups, such as the Messelemiya, the Rikabia, theHawawir people, the Magharba, theAwadia and Fadnia tribes, the Kerriat, the Kenana people, the Kerrarish, the Hamran, amongst others.[12]
Sudan also houses non-Sudanese Arab populations such as theRashaida that only recently settled in Sudan in 1846, after migrating from theHejaz region of theArabian Peninsula.[13] Additionally, other smaller Sudanese groups who have also been Arabized, or partially Arabized, but retain a separate, non-Arab identity, include theNubians,Copts, andBeja. Most Sudanese Arabs speak modernSudanese Arabic, with western Sudanese tribes borderingChad like theDarfurians generally speakingChadian Arabic. Sudanese Arabs have large variations in culture and genealogy because of their descent from a combination of various population groups.[14] Other Arab population in Sudan that are not Sudanese Arab, i.e. those that are recent arrivals to the region exist, and most of them such as theAwadia and Fadnia tribes, theBani Hassan, Al-Ashraf andRashaida tribes generally speakHejazi Arabic instead of the more widespreadSudanese Arabic.
The variety of Arabic spoken by Sudanese Arabs has evolved from thevarieties of Arabic brought byArabs who migrated to the region after the signing of theTreaty of Baqt, a 7th-century treaty between the Muslim rulers of Egypt and the Nubian kingdom ofMakuria. Testimonies by travelers to the areas that would become modern-day Sudan, likeIbn Battuta, indicate that Arabic coexisted alongside indigenous Sudanese languages, with multilingualism in Arabic and non-Arabic Sudanese languages being well attested by travelers to the region up until the 19th century.[15][16] Sudanese Arabic has characteristics similar toEgyptian Arabic. As a point of difference, though, the Sudanese dialect retains some archaic pronunciation patterns, such as the letter ج, and it also exhibits characteristics of the ancientNobiin language that once covered the region.[17] Accordingly, linguists have identified a variety of influences fromNubian,Beja,Fur,Nilotic, and other Sudanese languages on the vocabulary and phonology of Sudanese Arabic.[18]
Sudanese Arabic is highly diverse. Famed Sudanese linguistAwn ash-Sharif Gasim noted that "it is difficult to speak of a 'Sudanese colloquial language' in general, simply because there is not a single dialect used simultaneously in all the regions where Arabic is the mother tongue. Every region, and almost every tribe, has its own brand of Arabic."[19] However,Gasim broadly distinguishes between the varieties spoken by sedentary groups along the Nile (such as theJa'aliyyin) and pastoralist groups (such asthe Baggara groups of west Sudan).[18] The most widely-spoken variety of Sudanese is variably referred to as Central Sudanese Arabic, Central Urban Sudanese Arabic, or Khartoum Arabic,[20] which more closely resembles varieties spoken by sedentary groups.
In 1889 the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain claimed that the Arabic spoken in Sudan was "a pure but archaic Arabic". The pronunciation of certain letters was like Hijazi, and not Egyptian, such as g being the pronunciation for the Arabic letter Qāf and J being the pronunciation for Jeem.[21]
In 2007, the mtDNA haplotype diversity for 102 individuals in Northern Sudan was analysed. The haplogroup distribution was 22.5% of Eurasian ancestry, 4.9% of the East African M1 lineage, and 72.5% of sub-Saharan affiliation.[22]
According toY-DNA analysis by Hassan et al. (2008), among Sudanese Arabs, 67% of Arakien, 43% ofMessiria, and 40% ofJa'alin individuals carry theHaplogroup J. The remainder mainly belong to theE1b1b clade, which is borne by 18% of Ja'aliyeen, 17% of Arakien, and 14% of Messiria. The next most frequently observed haplogroups among Sudanese Arabs are the European-associatedR1 clade (25% Messiria, 16% Ja'alin, 8% Arakien), followed by the Eurasian lineageF (11% Messiria, 10% Ja'alin, 8% Arakien), the Europe-associatedI clade (7% Messiria, 4% Ja'alin), and the AfricanA3b2 haplogroup (6% Ja'alin).[23]
Maternally, Hassan (2009) observed that over 90% of the Sudanese Arabs samples carried various subclades of theMacrohaplogroup L. Of thesemtDNA lineages, the most frequently borne clade wasL3 (68% Ja'alin, 40% Messiria, 24% Arakien), followed by theL2 (53% Arakien, 33% Messiria, 9% Ja'alin),L0a1 (13% Messiria),L1 (7% Messiria, 5% Ja'alin), andL5 (9% Ja'alin, 6% Arakien) haplogroups. The remaining ~10% of Sudanese Arabs belonged to sublineages of the Eurasian macrohaplogroupN (Arakien: 6% preHV1, 6%N1a, 6% N/J1b; Ja'alin: 9%preHV1; Messiria: 7% N/J1b).[24]
Dobon et al. (2015) identified an ancestral autosomal component of West Eurasian origin that is common to many modern Sudanese Arabs (as well as other North Sudan populations). Known as theCoptic component, it peaks among EgyptianCopts who settled in Sudan over the past two centuries. The scientists associate the Coptic component with Ancient Egyptian ancestry, without the later Arabian influence that is present among other Egyptians.[25] Hollfelder et al. (2017) analysed various populations in Sudan and observed close autosomal affinities between their Nubian and Sudanese Arab samples, with both groups showing notable admixture from Eurasian populations.[26] Genetic distance analysis in 1988, showed that theBeja ethnic group and theJa'alin tribe have more pronounced Arab genetic characteristics than the Hawazma and Messeria.[27]
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)