The Bisharin are a mostly Sufi Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 tribe of the Beja

Beja people

The Beja people are an ethnic group dwelling in parts of North Africa and the Horn of Africa.-Geography:The Beja are found mostly in Sudan, but also in parts of Eritrea, and Egypt...

 nomad

Nomad

Nomadic people , commonly known as itinerants in modern-day contexts, are communities of people who move from one place to another, rather than settling permanently in one location. There are an estimated 30-40 million nomads in the world. Many cultures have traditionally been nomadic, but...

ic ethnic group

Ethnic group

An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...

. They inhabit the eastern part of the Nubian Desert

Nubian Desert

The Nubian Desert is in the eastern region of the Sahara Desert, spanning approximately 400,000 km² of northeastern Sudan between the Nile and the Red Sea. The arid region, a largely sandstone plateau, has lots of wadis flowing towards the Nile. There is virtually no rainfall in the Nubian,...

 in Sudan

Sudan

Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...

 and southern Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, living in the Atbai between the Nile River and the Red Sea

Red Sea

The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...

, north of the Amarar

Amarar

Amarar is an African bedouin tribe of the Beja people inhabiting the mountainous country on the west side of the Red Sea from Suakin northwards towards Kosseir. Between them and the Nile are the Ababda and Bisharin Beja tribes and to their south dwell the Hadendoa . The country of the Amarar is...

 and south of the Ababda

Ababda

The Ababda or Ababde – the Gebadei of Pliny, and possibly the Troglodytes of other classical writers – are nomads living in the area between the Nile and the Red Sea, in the vicinity of Aswan in Egypt...

. The population is about 42,000. Most of the tribe move within the territory of Sudan, where they have political representation in the Beja Congress

Beja Congress

The Beja Congress is a political group comprising several ethnic entities, most prominently the Beja, of the eastern region of Sudan. It was founded in 1957 by Dr. Taha Osman Bileya together with a group of Beja intellectuals, as a political platform for the politically and economically...

. "Bisharin" is also the name of their spoken dialect.

The Bisharin tend animals, including camels, sheep, goats, buffalo and cattle. They have a breed of chicken named after them called Bigawi, which was carried to Fayoum in ancient times. This important African breed is better known as the Fayoumi. For those along the Nile River, farming is a way of life; they grow cotton, sugar cane, corn, dura, wheat, sesame, fruits and vegetables and raise poultry.

External links

• Perceptions of the Ababda and Bisharin in the Atbai