Mahas

The Mahas are a sub-group of the Nubian people located in Sudan along the banks of the Nile. The Mahas have been referred to as Nubians since the creation of Lake Nasser when indigenous people of several different cultures were made to relocate. Some Mahas villages are intermixed with remaining remnants of the largely extinct Qamhat Bishari tribe. Just as Ababda people are Bejas that are bilingual in Arabic and Beja, and sometimes described as Bedouins the Qamhat Mahas are ethnic Beja speaking a Nubian language.

The Mahas may be descendants of the Medjay culture of the North East African Gulf. The Medjay culture apparently stemmed from the Pre-dynastic period of Egypt and developed parallel with that of the ancient Egyptians with much intermarriage between the respective cultures.

Priceless Mahas cultural antiquities are being lost exponentially with continued damming of the Nile River.