László Almásy with Magyarabs in the 1930s
Hidden along the Nile near Wadi Halfa, in the borderlands of Egypt and Sudan, lies a remarkable community whose traditions are said to preserve the memory of a distant Hungarian past. Known as the Magyarabs, they trace their ancestry to Hungarian soldiers who were reportedly brought to Nubia in the 16th century and settled there as border guards. Centuries later, their story came to the attention of Hungarian explorer László Almásy, who encountered the community during his 1934 expedition.
László Almásy, the Hungarian explorer who inspired The English Patient, was one of the most renowned figures in Hungarian African exploration. He is credited with discovering the Zarzura Oasis and the Cave of the Swimmers, as well as mapping a significant portion of the Sahara.
He is said to have been the first European and Hungarian to encounter members of this community.
The encounter took place during a motor expedition to Nubia (southern Egypt and northern Sudan) in 1934–1935. In the memoirs of Henry Cecil Jackson, Governor of Sudan, it was noted that while traveling from Sudan toward Egypt, near Wadi Halfa, Count Almásy noticed that the local people were speaking a language reminiscent of Hungarian. After asking where they were from, he learned that they lived on the island of Magyar-narki, whose name means “the island of the Hungarians.”
Almásy described the details of this encounter—including his conversation with the Hungarian Arabs living on an island in the Nile near Vádi Halfa and with representatives of the tribe—in his book “In the Air… on the Sand…” (originally titled in Hungarian as Levegőben, homokon), published in 1937.
Almásy learned that the ancestors of the Magyars had been settled there more than 400 years earlier by Sultan Selim II as border guards. Almásy had to continue his journey to Cairo, where he received documents detailing the history of the Magyars. After his departure, Hansjoachim von der Esch continued researching the history of the Magyars in Wadi Halfa. On the island of Magyararti, he collected about 150 Hungarian words, and the people told him:
We men are descended from the Hungarian people; nothing about our past has ever been recorded in books, but we have preserved our history and still know very well today where we came from.”
Based on his literary research, Esch discovered that Sultan Selim I invaded Egypt in 1517 and brought captive men from Slavonia, Syrmia, Transylvania, and Bosnia, who found a home there after the fighting ended.
Their leader, Ibrahim al-Magyari—that is, Ábrahám Magyar—remained there with 20–25 cavalrymen, and they married local women. From this union, Ibrahim al-Magyari had a son named Musa, who also married a local girl, and the Hungarian tribe of Wadi Halfa is said to trace its origins to them. The population of the Magyars is estimated at 30,000–40,000.
The broader historical context is also notable: in 1516, Gábor Pécsváradi, a Franciscan monk, personally spoke with Hungarians serving in the Turkish army passing through Jerusalem, which he also recounted in a letter addressed to János Bánffy, the royal cupbearer. The monk spent 33 months in the Holy Land and recounted his experiences in a book titled Journey to Jerusalem.
The next Hungarian expedition reached the village of the Magyars in 1965.
István Fodor, the distinguished Arabist and interpreter, spent several months in Wadi Halfa during the flooding that preceded the construction of the Aswan High Dam. He researched the history, behavior, customs, and culture of the Magyar people, as well as their attitudes toward Hungarians and their Hungarian heritage.
In addition, he collected proverbs such as “Ál-Mágyárí lá jiszálli fíl-meszgyid,” meaning “A Magyar does not pray in the mosque.” This saying dates back to the time when the Magyars were still Christians. But here is another proverb: “Rá’sz el-mágyár zejj el-hágyár,” meaning “the Hungarians’ heads are as hard as stone,” and another one: “the Magyars wear hats.”
Magyar women carve a cross into raw Nubian bread before placing it in the oven. They also draw a cross on the foreheads of newborns, even though they converted to Islam long ago.
Prior to the Second Congress of the World Federation of Hungarians, the organization’s then-president, Sándor Csoóri, was asked to recognize the Magyarabs into the World Federation. Sándor Csoóri sent them a certificate of admission and three plane tickets so that their representatives could attend the congress. When they received the certificate, their eyes filled with tears, and they said, “We are honored by the invitation, but we do not need the plane tickets, because we are not poor people.” They came to Budapest nearly 500 years later, as if they had never left.
Via sopronmedia.hu; Featured photo: Demokrata.hu
The post The Magyarabs of Wadi Halfa: Hungary’s Forgotten Tribe in Africa appeared first on Hungary Today.
The Magyarabs of Wadi Halfa: Hungary’s Forgotten Tribe in Africa 2026
IUSTITIA.BG – Investigations 2009-2026 2026-08-23 07:12:25
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