This black-skinned southern Arab is best represented today by the Mahra,
Qara, and Shahra tribes of Oman and Hadramawt and the Jaali’in,
Sha’agiya and Kabbabish of the Sudan and would also include a significant
number of the Saharan Bedouin tribes from Senegal, Gambia, Nigeria, Mali,
Chad as well as the southern regions of Libya, Algeria, Morocco and Egypt.
Undoubtedly a modified version of South Arabia’s original inhabitants, these
groups show an affinity to both the so-called ‘Hamites’ of East Africa
(Somalis, Sudanese, Abyssinians) and the South Indian Dravidians, and
they possibly represent a ‘genetic link’ between these two populations.
Speaking of the Qara, J. E. Peterson notes: “European observers have made
much of their physical resemblance to Somalis or Ethiopians”. Se his “Oman’s
diverse society: Southern Oman,” The Middle East Journal 58 (Spring 2004):
261.
Not long ago Sir Richard Francis Burton in his travels to Arabia met men
from the bani Harb (Children of Harb) tribe, who were the ruling clan of the