Dar al-Manasir

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View from Mount Musa to Dar al-Manasir. All photos show the land before the 2009 flood
Local map of the region in Shiri

Dar al-Manasir ("Land of Manasir"; Arabic دار المناصير, DMG Dār al-Manāṣīr ) is the region on the fourth cataract of the Nile in the Nubian north of Sudan .

geography

Until the flooding by the Merowe Dam , the cataract was the most difficult part of the Nile in Nubia to pass . The area is inhabited by the Nubian ethnic group of Manasir , from whom it takes its name. Until the flooding, the cataract could not be navigated with larger boats. Dar al-Manasir can only be reached on sandy and stony slopes.

At the height of the island of Muqrat, the Nile changes its course to the north and flows for a distance of 280 kilometers in a south-south-westerly direction before flowing again to the north. In the middle of this S-shaped course between the Bayudah Desert and the Nubian Desert , the rugged rocky mountains of the cataract forced the Nile to split into different branches and thus to form small islands.

Upriver lives to Abu Hamad of the tribe of Rubatab , downstream beyond the village Birti live Shaiqiyah . Dar al-Manasir stretches for about 130 km along the Nile; most of the villages were on the left bank of the river, called the "western side". The center of Dar al-Manasir was made up of 14 islands in the river oasis , twelve of which were inhabited: al-Qanaweit (القناويت), Shiri (شري), Kidir (كدر), Sherari (شرري), Sur (سور), Us (اوز), Tibit (…), Dumag (دماج), Buni (بوني), Arag (ارج), Dirbi (دربي) and Birti (برتي).

The climate is dry with annual rainfall of up to 50 mm in good years. The temporal and spatial distribution of precipitation in the rainy season from August to October varies greatly. The rainy season coincides with the flood season of the Nile.

economy

Date and doum palms in Dar al-Manasir

The Manasir farm on a small scale in the immediate vicinity of the Nile. Small areas with alluvial sediments and seasonally flooded land are intensively irrigated and built on. The most important sales product in the region are dates. In rainy years, when there is plenty of pastureland there, many Manasir men go to the adjacent Bayudah Desert.

administration

Dar al-Manasir belongs to the state of Nahr an-Nil . The center of the administration with the only local police station, a branch of the agricultural bank and secondary schools for both sexes is the place Shiri on the island Shiri.

Dar al-Manasir is one of the most neglected areas in Northern Sudan; here there is practically no infrastructure such as paved roads, bridges, ferries or hospitals. The reservoir of the Merowe Dam , which was completed in early 2009, flooded Dar al-Manasir with all the islands and agricultural areas. The residents were relocated.

literature

  • T. Gray: The Fourth Cataract. Sudan Notes and Records. Vol. 30, 1949, pp. 120-121
  • N. MCL. Innes: The Monasir Country. Sudan Notes and Records. Vol. 14, 1930, pp. 185-191.
  • Abdelrahim Mohamed Salih: The Manasir of the Northern Sudan: Land and People. A Riverain Society and Resource Scarcity. Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3896453076

Web links

Commons : Dar al-Manasir  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 18 ° 59 ′  N , 32 ° 25 ′  E