According to legend, Hungarians who had only recently been brought under the control of the
Ottoman Empire formed a part of the
Ottoman army that was fighting in southern Egypt. Supposedly, a portion or the entirety of the fighting unit remained there and intermarried with the local
Nubian women. According to local Magyarabs, their ancestor was
Ibrahim el-Magyar, a general who came from
Buda (present-day
Budapest) in 1517. He married a local
Nubian woman; together, they had a son called Ali. Ali had five sons (Selami, Mustafa, Djelal Eddin, Musa and Iksa), and Ali's five sons were the ancestor of all Magyarabs. Magyarabs have been members of the World Federation of Hungarians (
Magyarok Világszövetsége) since 1992 and still consider themselves as
Hungarians. They were not discovered by Europeans until 1935, when
László Almásy, who was himself Hungarian, and his co-worker, the German engineer and explorer
Hansjoachim von der Esch, happened upon the tribe in the region of
Nubia. Representatives of the tribes later attempted to make contact with Hungarian officials but failed to do so because of the outbreak of
World War II. These people now have a mixed-race appearance because the intermarriage with the local Nubian population, and they do not speak
Hungarian. Around 1934, however, Esch, who spent several weeks with the population of the Magyarab island at
Wadi Halfa, put together a list of non-
Arabic words that were used only on that island and, according to him, were recognized by Almásy as similar to Hungarian words. His notes showed that all Magyarab in
Wadi Halfa were convinced that their ancestors came from "Nemsa" (the Arabic word for
Austria), which might refer to any region of
Austria-Hungary. He was told by the leader of the Magyarab island village that their ancestors had arrived in Egypt/Sudan as a group of "Austrian" soldiers, led by a man called Shenghal Sendjer, which Esch assumed to have been originally
General Sendjer or Senger. == Magyarab communities ==