Contemporary research on the ethnic identity of theJa’aliyyin of the Northern Sudan directly challenges the indigenous genealogical tradition that took its present-day form in the tenth century sixteenth century AC. The indigenous tradition characterizes the Ja’aliyyin unequivocally as Arabs, who descended from al- 'Abbas, the paternal uncle of the Prophet Muhammad, (SAAS)' In contrast, MacMichael's A History of the Arubs in the Sudan, the baseline for all subsequent investigation argues that:

• In so far as the Ja’aliyyin congeries can be regarded as a single whole its homogeneity consists in the common Berberine or Nubian strain that exists in a very varying proportion in all its component parts.