Manasir

The Manasir people (Arabic: المناصير) constitute one of many Sunni Arab riverine tribes of Northern Sudan. They are not to be confused with the Manasir of the Persian Gulf region in the Arabian Peninsula-based mainly in the United Arab Emirates. They inhabit the region of the Fourth Cataract of the Nile and call their homeland Dar al-Manasir. Similar to their neighbouring tribes, the upstream Rubatab (الرباطاب) and the downstream Shaiqiyah (الشايقيّة), the Manasir are an indigenous Nile culture who adopted Islam and speak Arabic as their first language. Unlike other riverine tribes of Sudan, a considerable part of their population lives as Bedouins in the adjacent Bayuda Desert. The nomadic life of herding their stock of goats, sheep and camels in desert valleys is however limited for many to the rainy season, coinciding with the annual inundation of the Nile.