They are true nomad Arabs, having intermarried little with the Nuba, and have preserved most of their national characteristics.
They claim to rule the Kasu'or Meroitic Ethiopians; and the fifth inscription records an expedition along the Atbara and the Nile to punish the Nuba and Kasu, and a fragment of a Greek inscription from Meroe was recognized by Sayce as commemorating a king of Axum.
From Nuba, the Arabic form of the name of this people, comes the modern Nubia, a term about the precise meaning of which no two writers are in accord.
As an ethnical expression the term Nuba or Nubian has little value.
The northern and southern varieties are closely related to each other, differing considerably from the central, which shows more marked affinities with the Kordofan Nuba, possibly because the Saidokki people are later arrivals from Kordofan.