Khartoum,(Sudanow)-The Social customs that were practiced by the Sudanese who live along the Nile or near itover the past century, rolled up some change due to variables of time and vicissitudes age and variability. some are still practiced even today in some parts of the riverain Sudan ,as brand Professor Abdullah Tayeb said, who collected and wrote many of these habits in Articles in the magazine (Sudan notes and records), a magazine concerned with documenting the life and history of Sudan.

Professor Abdullah Tayeb show in these articles, which he wrote it in 1955 -1956-1964-1998 years,  the customs of the people of Sudan in the Nile valley from Woman's pregnancyup to marriage .

The Professor Abdullah Tayeb Institute for the Arabic language, University of Khartoum, recently published this set of articles after being translated by Mohamed Osman Makki.

D. Siddiq Omar Siddiq Director of the Institute, the importance of this articles and its place in the studying of Sudan Folklore motivated us to translate it in to Arabic.

 He goes on saying it is  One of the venerable knowledge which accounted for, as a multitude of research, was (Sudanese Folktale) which he wrote  in Arabic, then he translated it into English with his own pen, not mentioning his other encyclopedic works, such as what he wrote in a research connected to the Sudanese colloquial Arabic Language to the Academy of Arabic Language in Cairo, and the scattering works of interest, in the numerous articles in magazine and lectures. 

Abdullah Tayeb said himself ," Even as I now write this paper ,most of us are aware of the rapid  change that are daily transforming Sudanese life from that of a medieval community deeply rooted in tradition, to that of an Afro-Arab nation newly born under the impact of western civilization-Many styles and modes of life-as I knew it in my boyhood-have completely disappeared, Many are in the process of fading away, And some, very few indeed, can still be described in the distant villages and among the more conventional  homes. It is in the interest of students of sociology, anthropology and history to make a record of all these, before the final break-up of the old patterns takes place and new fashions and ways of living and behavior prevail.

And we will publish them on (SUDANOW) pages in this thread, and we'll start onset also began by Abdullah Tayyib himself, a customs relating to pregnancy and pre-and post-natal and related nifaas. then evolve with it in human life at the stage of early childhood, games, boyhood, education, work and marriage.

On the last issues we spoke about the customs, From Birth to Puberty Birth and Early Infancy, then the child, the child hair, the games, the girls games and  here we will starts with:

education

Education is subject that deserves complete study by itself for it covers so many fields. Take for example training in many fields. Take for example traditional straitening in matters of agriculture, hunting grazing fighting ang local industrial skills. Each of these requires wide survey of the social strata of the community in cases of very highly skilled treat, construction of water wheels, all these were termed ( basarah) the training was done by families and passed from Barents . and passed from parents to sons and daughters according to the nature of the skill. Treatment of mental and nervous diseases and much of medical lore was part of the training of the fake the religious teacher.

 Training in fighting was tribal business. Hunting of crocodiles and hippopotami was often a craft passed from father to son.

Religious education .formerly covered abroad field much of which has not been taken over by secular education,  Bart of it was based by oral traditdition. This was greater Bart as every man and woman had the ri share of it according to the nature of the religious order  to which their family owed allegiance and the traditional fake in whom they believed in many cases of the formal training of educating Sufi leaders was done by oral tradition. Sometimes, some of these would reach high place of eminence in the order either by gradual promotion. Ro by the bounty of god as in the case of Marisa in the service of one of the  case of seaman wad lad awadiya. Whist he was carrying jar of Marisa in the service of one of the Marisa- selling slave women he was encountered  by group of saintly travelers. They asked him to give them darn he gave them of his Marisa without hesitation.

This was an act of spontaneity  generosity . the Marisa was transferred into water in the mouths

The holy. And they brayed for sacman thus may give you of the cub of the elect whereupon he was seized by  the ecstasy of the elect and became one of the foremen saints.

Vernacular literature abound in the stories of saints. Also contains much of the fundamental teaching of lslam including the standard sufi biography of the prophet and many anecdotes from the

Vernacular literature abound in the stories of saints. Also it contains much of the fundamental teaching of Islam including the standard Sufi biography of the Prophet and many anecdotes from the traditions. The average man and woman were thus not entirely ignorant of their religious background. May knew far more in this respect than their sophisticated counterparts of today, especially among the younger generation, despite the fact many of these read and write.

Formal  literary education was provided by the institution of the Khalws. The word is derived from  an Arabic root indicating seclusion in the wilderness. The idea was that the religious teachers sought to be alone in pursuit of mystics mediation  or asceticism. Then as Quran teaching and all literary education became associated with the fekki who practiced seclusion and  asceticism in one way or another, the word Khalwa came to mean the Quran School. In a way the term admirably describes it, as most of the Khalwas during the funj days, and even it, as most the Turko Egyptian regime, belonged to individuals or family groups the secluded themselves away from the moral struggle of tribal and inter-tribal life. As time went on, the prestige  of khalwa was such that even the most powerful chieftains paid homage to the khalwa  fekkies. This may party explain why the Mahadi succeeded in  a comparatively short time against  apparently far greater odds. This may also party explain why the more recent national movement found it necessary to seek the patronage of the powerful sects of the Khatmiya and the Ansar before any effective negotiations could be started. A study of the religious orders of the Sudan, how they started and how at last they reached unchallenged favour   or disintegrated falls outside the scope of this paper. We may refer, however, to the various books of the Manaib and Tabagat and to some of the contemporary  works on this theme such as articles in Sudan and Triming ham's Islam in the Sudan. Even these last two unquestionably very able treatises represent only pioneer work on the subject.

An example illustrating the element of changing religious orders may be seen in the practice

Of Shabab. We will be concerned mainly with the manner in which pupils, particularly the younger ones of the pre-marriage age group (that is to say between seven and eighteen)

The Khawa teacher recovered no fees as such. He was professional religious mendicant-a "fagir". In some areas he was also a peasant smallholder or occasionally a trader in a small way, this was the time of the "fugara" of Damer. The fekki lived mainly on small presents made to him on certain days of the week. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and on other occasions when an individual pupil celebrated reaching one step further in his studies. Even in peasant and trading communities such as Damer and Berber, there would be junior instructors whose livelihood mainly depended on the gifts of their pupils. The leaders of the orders would receive presents, symbols of respect and prestige from the secular tribal Chieftains and the King of Sennar, during the Turkish regime the provisional governors played this role.g Hussein Oasha Khalifa in relation to Al Sheikhi Muhammad al Khkeir Berber.

Tuesday was the day for collecting firewood, for the Khalwa day went far into the night and began a good deal earlier than sunrise. The fekki's own household would get its portion of the wood. Gathering of firewood was called Fazah. The word is derived from the Arabic root faza servility whatsoever was attached to fazah-it was just a duty, and it was an occasion for an outing. Tie pupils would do the hewing of wood last of all, spending a good portion of the morning chasing rabbits, swimming of fighting among themselves.

Wednesday was the day of the Karama, the offering . The pupils would go out in small groups of two or three or sometimes singly, and beg grain and beams from the houses of the village. What they gathered was collected together in the evening. A pot of balila would be made from which all members of the khalwa could eat. The remainder of the grain and beans would go the Fakki's household.

The occasion denoting go the promotion of a pupil is called sharafa. There are sura of the Quran called Sharafa (derived from sharaf= honour) arrival at which, as the pupil progresses in his effort to learn the Quran by heart, indicates a definite stage of achievement. A pupil may leave the khalwa and say later on that he had indeed not learned the entire Quran by heart, but reached the sharafa of Yasin (for example). The more elementary the stage, the smaller the present to be expected and the humbler the food to be provided on the occasion. Meat is to be expected on the occasions of sharafa Yasin, Al Furgan, Al khahf, Al  A'raf and Al Baqarah. The "well – to – do" would sacrifice a ram on each of these or similar occasions. A calf might be sacrificed on the occasion of "Al baqarah" which may be likened to a graduation day. The presents given to the fekki on these occasions varied according to the wealth of the pupil's father or guardian and the measure of his generosity.

The fekki also also received other presents called bayad to which we have already referred in our first article-for treatment  of ailment such as headaches, nausea, mental depression and many children's maladies.  For more serous diseases and upsets help would be sought from more specialized religious medical authorities. Very often khalwa  fekkis would not touch serious mental cases because (according to them) they have covenants with the jann not to interfere with their victims. The latter would spare them and their children from their malicious onslaughts and mischief in return. The Ghubush and  the Maghazib refused mental cases.

A pupil of the Khalwa was called huwar, plural henian . The word is Arabic for a young camel, the master as the young came follws its mother. A child would go the Khalwa as any age between five and fifteen, the earlier the better. A slave-wman presenting her master's son to the fekki is reported to have said.

Beat him if he tells lies. Teach him manners. The Khalwa for the majority who did not intend to get through the entire Quran and later on follow a religious career, meant a term of formal character training. The occasions of the Fazah and the Karama provided ample opportunities for developing  what is now called the "team spirit". The manner of behavior required in front of the Sheikh or his representative was later to become the prototype of behavior in the presence of one's elders. The heiran had many occasions to eat with their fekki and his juniors and these were the occasions of he heiran had many occasions to eat with their fekki and his juniors and these were the occasions of celebrations referred to above  and also on the occasions of Sadaga, the food offered in commemoration of the dead. On most of these occasions there was meat and this was rare item of food to be encountered only occasionally. Hence the manners of communal eating practiced in the Khalwa could be most instructive. A story is told by way of humour to indicate what would happen, as an example of bad manners, on some of these occasions . A dish of rice crowned with meat was served, round which sat a group of the heiran. An uncouth outside, of middle age, came to the occasion actually tricky and naughty, although apparently observing good manners of eating. The old man coveted a delicious bit of meat on top of the crown and began to work towards it, manicuring into his side of the dish; whilst he was doing this, a naught boy was burrowing under the mound of rice and bead, towards the same objectives. At the critical moment,  the morsel tumbled gaily into the boy's part of the dish. The old man got up shaking his first in fury and protested, "this what comes out of eating us with small brats".

This discipline of the Khawa was harsh. "Bastinado" and hitting with firewood sticks at random were among the commonest of disciplinary measures. The saying is that when a huwar is presented to the fekki , the family of the huwar say, "to us belongs the bone, to you the flesh", thus indicating that the fekki could beat, flog and chastise the boy as much as he thought fit to do. Nevertheless, the system was not entirely devoid of sound educational policy. The brashness itself was part and parcel of the ferocity of the environment at large> The training of the herian fitted in the khalwa at all. A part from this, the methods used in teaching religions at large were on the whole based, the though sometimes rather crudely, on sound educational principles. The little huwar  of five, six or seven at first went to the  khalwa and was given sayings to chant  these contained  a big nucleus of knowledge, such as the ninety-nine names of God. Then he was made to learn the letters of the alphabet, the sand being used for illustrating their shapes. He then began to make similar shapes, by tracing at first and later from memory and then the simple combinations of consonants with long and short vowels  would be taught. By  this time the would be given a wooden tablet,and characters were written on it by a more advanced huwar or the fekki himself. Later on he began to write the letter. The next stage would be to read verses from the shorter suras of the Quran, beginning with the fatha. Then later he began to write. Thus the methods of the analytical approach to the alphabet and the synergetic method of learining to read and write a sentence as a whole were combined. I believe this  is a faster way of teaching the elements of dictation than the method now used of progressing analytically from the individual character to the formation of words, then sentences. Kitab al Alfal, the standard text-book now used in the elementary schools in the Sudan, timidly partakes of the synthetic method when it introduces the individual characters and parts words or sentences like: Hamad wa-al-Jamal or al jamal jama Hamad.

The tablet (Loh)

There was always a stock of wooden tablets in the Khalwa, but very often individual huwars brought their own; yhis was very common in the case of the more advanced huwars who took a pride in their tablets (Lohs). The tablets were made very commonly from usher and sometimes from Hijlij. The isher Lohs were cheaper and had a coarser surface, the hijlij Lohs were dearer and their surface was surface, the hijlij Lohs were deared and their surface was smoother. However, the saying is that usher was quicker in making the huwar learn the Quran for he was ambitious to reach the stage when he would use the better loh of hijlij. Perhaps the relative scarcity of the hijilij in the rive rain regions  accounts for this saying. The tablet is rectangular or square in shape, with a star or crescent-shaped top. The huwar used to write the day's portion to be learnt on one side. The portion he wrote each day was the one he was expected to recite on the training of the following day. So by midday both sides of the tablet were written on.

Each morning the huwar took the lohs to wash off the writing he had already recited. As this Holy Writing was not to be eashed at random anywhere, there was a special stone basin (hajar al mihaya) provided for this task. The water washed into the basin, however, go splashed all round it and the act was more symbolic than anything. However, this washing water was not later used for drinking for the purpose of getting the Baraka (the blessing) of the Quran, the reason being that the surface of the loh was always whitened with stone before writing. So what washed off it had the lime-stone is not used, the writing is therefore not very clear and the ink does not easily stick to the wood. The lime-stone which is used for whitening the tablet is the crude stone. Many of the rive rain hills  abound with it.

The ink used for writing the Quran, and indeed for all writing, was made of soot, gum Arabic and water. First gum Arabic would be ground into powder, then soot from underneath the cooking post would be gathered and carefully mixed with the gum. The preventive of the soot had to be reasonably high, round 70 percent. Then little lumps were made of the mixture. These were placed in a clay jar later to become the ink-pot from which smaller ink- pots were supplied. Small empty glass jars could equally serve for this purpose, but the clay jars were believed to be better for maturing the mixture placed un them, because of being porous. The lumps of ink were not placed directly one upon the other but separated by layers of cow's tail hair. Rags were as they tended to become messy and smelly: water was poured in reasonable proportion to the lumps used, then the jar was closed by means of mud or cow's hair or empty maize cobs. The pot was left to mature, the maturing first indicated by the occurrence of fermentation or was tested by tasting with the tip of the tongue. The ink thus made was black and rich in colour very similar to what is now commonly called shini or Indian ink made from soot and gum is called amar.

The pen was often made form a segment of dura cane, but other stronger reeds when available, were also used. When sharpening the end of the cane, great skill required for making the right inclination – usually anything between an angle 54and an angle of 30

The khalwa day for the elders begins sometimes before the dawn prayers round about 4 a.m., but for the majority it starts at or just before sunrise. The lessons commence with prayers: reading the Fatha and perhaps some dates was be thrown for the children to pick. The dates are believed mildly to contain Baraka.

The huwars then sat in a semi-0 circle on the ground round the fekki who would dictate to them. In winter a room called the qu'ramiya was used as the class root and this had an earth-floor, but on one side of it there was always to be found a flat broad shelf that resembled a table in son far as it was placed on crude wooden stand that supported it as pillars support a roof. The tablets, when the day's lessons were over, were placed flat-flat-side down on their shelf. On the walls were to be four alcoves fro placing the ink-pots. On the occasions of sharafa the tablets decorate for the sharafa would be hanging on the walls. The greater the number of pupil the more of these were to be seen.

The huwar revived the ramiya  from the fekki , the ramiya being the text denoting a portion of dictation from the Quran, literally meaning a "throwing". The huwar reads the last verse, three or four words of the verse to follow from memory, and so on . As there were many pupils each shouting the last words had written at the same time, some fekki showed great skill in sorting out similar hints and answering with correct continuation which shold be written each table. When the dictation of the complete day's portion was over, the fekki corrected the lohs with each huwar individually.

The portions differed in size according to how far the huwar had advanced. In some khalwas the advanced students, at the time of the correction, were go hints about the meaning of the verses. Thus the learning by heart was not entire parrot-like.

After the raniya dictation-and the sihha (correction), the hearing by his commenced. By middy the huwar dispersed and then they began again together about 3 o'clock. There was then a break before the first evening parayers. Wednesdats this started much earlier because of the karama. Usually before sunset the very junior fuwars were dismissed. Ater the evening prayers the Quran was lit and the teenagers and advanced huwars sat round it, evening progressed, the huwars stood up to   recite. This was called the ardah, and the recital was very formal, the rules of Quran recession strictly being observed. The huwar recited from a standing position, and if his recital was accurate the fekki passed him and allowed him to go. Just before the time of the second evening prayers the fekki dismissed the junior teenagers. Those who had not been able to recite their day's portion would have to repeat it the following day-this is called qiuah or tagiyim, which literally means staying for a long period in one place.

The more advanced students stayed for some time after the evening prayers and then  they too were dismissed. When dismissing the pupils, each section of them-the juniors, the teenmissing the pupils, each section ones-the fekki said the prayers of the fatha. That was sufficient indication for the class of huwars who were meant to leave.

They very advanced students – those who had completed reading the Quran and were not perfecting the art of recitation stay or those who were stydying a shari'a or grammar, might sty up late in the night and then rise early. But very few khalwas had these senior categories (e.g. Um Fubban-Koran; Famer- grammar).

Moring was a half day-the huwar did not come back in the afternoon. Friday was a holiday and a market day.

Thursday evening and Sunday evening were occasions for Taraga services, immediately after the second evening prayers. They younger as well as the older attend, and the older ones for purposes of devotion.

The occasion of the sharafa was an important on in the khalwa, the more advanced the stage of the sharafa, the greater its importance. First the loh was decorated with a pattern of a rectangular frame with a dome or mithal on top. The mithal is a formalized figure of the prophet's sandals. The black amar was used for making the framework of the decoration, then red and green dyes and yoke of the egg were used for colour  variations.

The boy honored with the sharafa, together with one or two friends, went about village begging for karama- that it to say presents which would bring blessings to the donor. What they were given they brought to the fekki. Then the boy's family also contributed; almost all the contributions were grain, beans and dates. But more recently money was substituted ; nowadays the custom has almost disappeared, as indeed have most of the khalwas.

The boy's family then sent food to the khalwa and the boy requested the fekki  to dismiss the heiran after the meal.