BARABRA

barabra, a name for the complex nubian races of the egyptian sudan, whose original stock is hamitic-berber, long modified by negro crossings. the word is variously derived from _berberi_, _i.e._ people of berber, or as identical with _barabara_, figuring in the inscription on a gateway of tethmosis i. as the name of one of the 113 tribes conquered by him. in a later inscription of rameses ii. at karnak (_c._ 1300 b.c.) _beraberata_ is given as that of a southern conquered people. thus it is suggested that barabra is a real ethnical name, confused later with greek and roman _barbarus_, and revived in its proper meaning subsequent to the moslem conquest. a tribe living on the banks of the nile between wadi haifa and assuan are called barabra. (see further nubia.)