The Rubatab people () constitute one of many

riverine A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of its course if it run ...

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

s of Northern

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

. They inhabit the region of the

Fourth Cataract The Cataracts of the Nile are shallow lengths (or whitewater rapids) of the Nile river, between Khartoum and Aswan, where the surface of the water is broken by many small boulders and stones jutting out of the river bed, as well as many rocky ...

of the

Nile The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the List of river sy ...

, roughly equating to the

Abu Hamad District Abu Hamad is a district of River Nile state, Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to th ...

. Similar to their neighbouring tribes, the mid-stream

Manasir The Manasir people () constitute one of many Sunni Arab riverine tribes of Northern Sudan. They are not to be confused with the Manasir (tribe), Manasir of the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, Persian Gulf region in the Arabian Peninsula-based ma ...

and the downstream Shaiqiyah (الشايقيّة), the Rubatab are an Arab tribe in the Northeastern Sudan, with an archaic Arabic mother tongue. Their tribal homeland traditionally stretches north of

Berber, Sudan Berber () is a town in the River Nile state of northern Sudan, north of Atbara, near the junction of the Atbara River and the Nile. Overview The town was the starting-point of the old caravan route across the Nubian Desert to the Red Sea at Su ...

until the town of Abu Hamad. The Rubatab border the

Ababda people The Ababda ( or ) are an Arab or Beja tribe in eastern Egypt and Sudan. Historically, most were Bedouins living in the area between the Nile and the Red Sea, with some settling along the trade route linking Korosko with Abu Hamad. Numerous tra ...

, the

Bishari tribe The Bishari (, or , romanized: ; Beja: ) are a Cushitic ethnic group who live in parts of Northeast Africa. They are one of the major divisions of the Beja people. Apart from local dialects of Arabic, the Bishari speak the Beja language, which b ...

, and the

. The Rubatab, a group consisting of around 38,000 people in 1991, are a sub-group of the

Ja'alin tribe The Ja'alin, Ja'aliya, Ja'aliyin or Ja'al () are an Arab or Arabised Nubian tribe in Sudan. They claim Arab descent. The Ja'alin formerly occupied the country on both banks of the Nile from Khartoum to Abu Hamad; Citation: ''The Anglo-Egyptian ...

, one of the three prominent Sudanese Arab tribes in northern Sudan. Like the Ja'alin, they consider themselves Arab, even though various scholars have classified the Ja'alin as a "Afro-Arab hybrid", a mix of "the indigenous Africans and the Arabs who came to the Sudan between the 9th and the 14th centuries." Earlier Western scholars have used various phrases to describe this mix--"as having bastardized Arab blood, paganized Islam, and creolized Arabic".

History and customs

In a 1918 article published in the '' Sudan Notes and Records'', British administrator and archeologist

John Winter Crowfoot John Winter Crowfoot CBE (28 July 1873 – 6 December 1959) was a British educational administrator and archaeologist. He worked for 25 years in Egypt and Sudan, serving from 1914 to 1926 as Director of Education in the Sudan, before accepting a ...

translated a description of the tribe's history and customs sent to him by a Rubatab sheik. He described the land his people lived on as poor and barren, and their food and clothing as austere. Inheritances are shared among the heirs, and each family keeps a genealogy. Education is only for the children of religious families. Wives are in charge of the household, and husbands may not beat their wives, though her guardian may. Polygamy is practiced; Adulterous women have to prove their innocence by holding a red-hot poker, and may be killed (by their guardian) if their hands are burned, which is proof of their guilt. Clans believe in various

wali The term ''wali'' is most commonly used by Muslims to refer to a saint, or literally a "friend of God".John Renard, ''Friends of God: Islamic Images of Piety, Commitment, and Servanthood'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008); John ...

s, whom they bring offerings particularly at the various stages of a child's maturation--head shaving, circumcision, marriage. Belief in

houri In Islam, a houri (; ), or houris or hoor al ayn in plural form, is a maiden woman with beautiful eyes who lives alongside the Muslim faithful in Jannah, paradise. They are described as the same age as the men in paradise. Since hadith states ...

s is also widespread: they are said to have "white skins and long flowing hair and live in the river", from which they sometimes emerge to drag men into the Nile river where they have underwater villages. They further believe, according to the sheik, that

a Wali can swallow his enemy flesh and bones, one of the Walis being called Fiki Suliman Balla' el Rijãl: and that another, called Fiki 'ljal, orders a hippopotamus to come out of the river and turn his
Sakia A sāqiyah or saqiya (), also spelled sakia or saqia) is a mechanical water lifting device. It is also called a Persian wheel, tablia, rehat, and in Latin tympanum. It is similar in function to a scoop wheel, which uses buckets, jars, or scoops ...
like a bull; when the hippopotamus refuses to work, he beats it with a wooden sword one cubit long and it turns the wheel at once.

Marriage customs, according to the sheik, dictate that typically a girl marry the son of her paternal uncle, regardless of age or wealth, and if he dies she has to marry her dead husband's next of kin or lose her inheritance. Fathers decide on marriages, and the bride's mother's consent is necessarily only if the bridegroom is a stranger. The groom's mother has to provide a dowry, the

mahr In Islam, a mahr (in ; ; Bengali: দেনমোহর; ; ; ; also transliterated ''mehr'', ''meher'', ''denmohor, mehrieh'', or ''mahriyeh'') is the bride wealth obligation, in the form of money, possessions or teaching of verses from the Qur ...

and the tu'ma; the former was typically land and date trees, the latter money given to the father of the bride. Weddings are village feasts that include dancing and children playing. This communal feast is preceded by an elaborate gift giving ceremony and the singing of a song called the Sumar, which praises the virtues of the bridegroom and his family. A wedding contract is drawn up and read in public. A note by " A. J. C. H." claims to have heard a story that explains why the Rubatab occupy the worst land in the district. Once upon a time, all the land between Khartoum and Dongola was owned by a sheik who had five sons, and before he died he pleaded with them to not have any quarrels between them. The oldest son, Robat, called all the brothers together to divide their dead father's land, and said, "1 am the eldest and I will set you an example that we may all live together in peace as our father wished. I will take first choice and will choose the rocky lands south of Abu Hamed"--the current dry and hard land of the Rubatab.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rubatab Tribe Sudanese Arabs Ethnic groups in Sudan