Post by alexandrian on May 26, 2005 0:00:22 GMT -5
Baladi said:
You still don't understand,Alexandrian. Which is fine because you have never really lived in Sa3eed or any other region in Middle or Upper Egypt. Nor do you know the history of this region.
Most of the police officals and represenatives for Sa3eed are chosen from the Ashraf tribes or the Hawwara tribes. Not saying these people are pure Arabs but there definately were bedouins settled in Sohag and other areas of Middle and Upper Egypt during the Islamic era.
During the 13-14th centuries around the time of the Mamelukes there was bitter conflicts between fellahin and Hawwara Bedouin tribes.
Yes, many groups across Northern and North-eastern claim Arabic ancestry but many of the people in these areas do have Arab ancestry. Especially in certain villages in Egypt that were settled by Arab tribes.
The following is a nice article written on the subject:
Marginalized Violent Internal Conflict In The Age Of Globalization: Mexico And Egypt
Arab Studies Quarterly (ASQ), Summer, 1999 by Dan Tschirgi
he authority of central governments in Upper Egypt was cemented through clientelist ties with leading families of the ashraf and arab groups. Even the Nasserist regime did not substantially undermine this political-administrative arrangement. Although land reform benefited peasant farmers to a degree, members of the landed classes used a variety of means to retain much of their holdings. Cairo continued to staff the higher ranks of the local police and security apparatus with personnel from the ashraf and arabs.(29)
Religion was central to the development of Upper Egyptian society. The ashraf claimed direct descent from the Prophet, while the arabs traced their lineage to a group of tribes from Arabia. On the other hand, the status of the fellahin rested on the belief that they descended from Egypt's pre-Islamic community and had converted to Islam, a history that placed them inescapably beneath both the ashraf and arabs.(30) Copts have occupied an ambivalent position in the social scale; as Christians they are considered inferior to Muslims but their individual status effectively depends on more material criteria.
In Muslim as well as Christian communities, and particularly at the lower socio-economic levels, religious practices are strongly imbued with non-orthodox folk elements, some of pharaonic origin. Although orthodox Islam is well grounded in urban areas, the countryside is the domain of a rich folk-religion, replete with beliefs in the magical, miraculous and occult.(31) The influx of villagers into Egyptian cities and towns, which by the 1970s led increasingly to the "ruralization" of these centers, provided fertile fields for anti-modernist, fundamentalist movements. Urban mosques often became centers for the recruitment of rural migrants into militant organizations.(32)
www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2501/is_3_21/ai_57476490/pg_3
YOu know that is all simple bullshit. MPs change on a termly basis, they are not derived from some ARabian tribal elite and you know it as well as I. THe pictures above are not of clans claiming to be Ashraf they are of the Hanashats and teh Abdul-Halims. 90% of people in the village fall into either family. They are no magical Arab elite. Many Copts come from humble origins in Middle Egypt (between Assiut and Minya) and look perfectly Caucasian. Just look at the Sawirises. You're probably some bitter Nubian or Sudanese who feels inferior to actual Egyptians.
