AMARAR, a tribe of African “Arabs” inhabiting the mountainous country on the west side of the Red Sea from Suakin northwards towards Kosseir. Between them and the Nile are the Ababda and Bisharin tribes and to their south dwell the Hadendoa. The country of the Amarar is called the Etbai. Their headquarters are in the Ariab district. The tribe is divided into four great families: (1) Weled Gwilei, (2) Weled Aliab, (3) Weled Kurbab Wagadab, and (4) the Amarar proper of the Ariab district. They claim to be of Koreish blood and to be the descendants of an invading Arab army. Possibly some small bands of Koreish Arabs may have made an inroad and converted some of the Amarar to Islam. Further than this there is little to substantiate their claim.
See Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, edited by Count Gleichen (London, 1905); Sir F. R. Wingate, Mahdism and the Egyptian Sudan (London, 1891); A. H. Keane, Ethnology of Egyptian Sudan (London, 1884).