Maher Habbob’s Nubian Proverbs presents the fruits of decades of collecting proverbs from his native Nubian region in Fadicca (Nobiin). The five hundred proverbs gathered in this volume give a vivid picture of the Nubian imagination and represent a priceless archive of cultural heritage threatened by ongoing assimilation and cultural genocide.
The proverbs are presented in Nubian script, accompanied by a transliteration in Roman script, an a literal translation and paraphrase in English.
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Napin koogoon faddan koodo sarmi. “Who owns gold needs who owns silver.” (People need each other to live.)
Siiw uus arki uuska kaari. “Bad sand looks for bad clay.” (Like attracts like.)
Gusseen tuun edaana. “A call to prayer inside the grain silo.” (Said about someone who speaks and advises, but no one listens or follows their advice.)
Maher Habbob is a Fadicca (Nubian) scholar working in Egypt on Nubian heritage, folklore, and language. He is author of Mo’jam al-amthal el-noubeya [A Dictionary of Nubian Proverbs] (2014) and collaborated on the research for Thayer Scudder's Aswan High Dam Resettlement of Egyptian Nubians (Springer, 2016). His research has appeared in Akhbar al-adab, Al-Thaqafa al-Gadida, Amkenah Magazine, and Dotawo. He lives in Aswan, where he works as a tour guide.
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