When
the Maaza arrived in the Eastern Desert is unclear.
It has been said that, in the eighteenth century,
250 Maaza families left northwestern Arabia on the
same date to come to Egypt. The Maaza themselves
say that Arabian Maaza had for long traded with
the people of Egypt, exchanging their goat cheeses
and dates for grain, cloth and sometimes livestock.
When the Maaza had established themselves in the
Eastern Desert, they continued their age-old custom
of raiding to augment their nomadic pastoral livelihood.
They found that the peasants of the Nile Valley
were easy targets for their raiding parties. Their
raiding habits eventually got them into trouble
and in 1803, they suffered a serious setback at
the hands of Mohammad Ali, who later ruled Egypt
(1805 – 1848).
The Maaza live in a patriarchal society, tracing
their lineage from father to son back to the founder
of the tribe, Ma‘iiz ibn-al-Jabal, who lived
“long ago” in northwestern Arabia.
Now that raiding is no longer an acceptable way
of life, their lifestyle is that of true pastoral
nomads. They follow the available water and herbage,
setting up their beit ash-sha‘ar, ‘houses
of hair’ (tents) for a while and moving on
when necessary.
Their relationship with their environment is an
intimate one and they know and understand the plants
and animals. They know when and where the plants
grow and whether they are good for food, medicine
or forage. They understand the animals and their
habits and movements and they have their own conservation
ethic.
The Maaza way of life is, inevitably, being eroded
with time but, harsh as it was and is, it is a good
life -a life of the freedom they value so highly
and a life of honor.
