Beja Tribe

Bisharin Warrior, painted by Jean-Leon Gerome in the late 1800’s.

The Bejas attach a high importance to their hair. Their prominent crown of fuzzy hair (called tiffa in their language) has characterized the Beja for centuries. Bejas believe that they are the descendants of Sekhmet and her human consort. Some Egyptian Bejawi clans believe that they are descendants of Maahes Warrior Chiefs of High Priests of Amun at Thebes . Priest-Kings Pinedjem I, Psusennes I and Osorkon the Elder and their armies are believed to be the ancestors of Egypt's Western Desert Bejawi. Omdas Sheikh Qamhat Khawr al`allaqi was last remnant of one of Egypt's oldest surviving lineages. His death in 1936 was widely considered the death knell for the Qamhat Bisharin. Egyptologist Heinrich Brugsch traced Qamhat Khawr kiji tribal clans through female lines to the 20th Dynasty Wehem Mesut. Egyptologist Zakaria Goneim traced their ancestress mother to an even earlier dynasty.

The Beja are found mostly in Sudan, but also in parts of Eritrea, and Egypt. They are classified as a Cushitic language group.

Subdivisions

Most of them live in the Sudanese states of Red Sea around Port Sudan, River Nile, Al Qadarif and Kassala, as well as in Northern Red Sea, Gash-Barka, and Anseba Regions in Eritrea, and southeastern Egypt. There are smaller populations of other Beja ethnic groups in Egypt's Eastern Desert. Some Beja groups are nomadic. The Kharga Oasis in Egypt is home to a large number of Qamhat Bisharin who were displaced by the Aswan High Dam. Jebel Uweinat is a revered by the Qamhat.The Bejas contain smaller clans, such as the Bisharin, Hedareb, Hadendowa (or Hadendoa), the Amarar (or Amar'ar), Beni-Amer, Hallenga and Hamran, some of them partly mixed with Bedouins in the east and Berber in the west.[citation needed] The European colonial masters and the explorers became fascinated with the Bejas which they often described in eulogistic terms.

Assuwan type of the Bisharin Race.

Boy from a Beja tribes.

Beja are divided to 5 main branches-Hadandawa,Beniamier,Amarar,Ababda and Halanga.They are famous as good sword and knife makers and also by special ritual dance

FUZZY WUZZI WOMAN OF THE WEST

Her way of gumming her hair over a great light framework connects her with the Beja Nile race and the Baggara Fuzzy Wuzzies who were broken at Omdurman