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Beja figure on Twelfth Dynasty ancient Egyptian tomb. The Beja are traditionally Cushitic-speaking pastoral nomads native to northeast Africa, referred to as Blemmyes in ancient texts. The geographer Abu Nasr Mutahhar al-Maqdisi wrote in the tenth century that the Beja were at that time Christians. [11]
Beja, nomadic people grouped into tribes and occupying mountain country between the Red Sea and the Nile and Atbara rivers from the latitude of Aswān southeastward to the Eritrean Plateau—that is, from southeastern Egypt through Sudan and into Eritrea. Numbering about 1.9 million in the early 21st.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
May 4, 2023 · To support their nomadic lifestyle, the Beja people use tents that can easily be built and taken down by the women of a clan.
Nov 8, 2023 · The Beja people are a distinct social and cultural ethnic group in Sudan and Egypt that have suffered from neglect and marginalisation. They constitute the most extensive non-Arab ethnic group from the Red Sea to the Nile.
Dec 20, 2017 · The Beja people are subdivided into clans, and while most of them speak their own language, there are certain sub-clans which do not. Bisharin, Hedareb, and Hadenowa are some of the most prominent Beja lineages.
Beja have traditionally followed a nomadic way of life, mostly as camel herders. Colonial economic ventures attracted various groups from outside the region when mechanized farming was introduced in the 1940s.
The Beja nomads live in portable tents that are put up and dismantled by the women. The tents are curved in shape and are made of woven palm fronds. The more settled farmers live in mud-walled houses.