BEJA

distrito ("district"), southern Portugal. It is the largest distrito in Portugal and produces olives, olive oil, wheat, rye, cork, and dairy and leather products. Mining for copper, silver, lead, and zinc has been inaugurated near Beja city at the Castro Verde project. In 1974 the Portuguese government initiated an agrarian reform program by which most of the estate holdings of the distrito were forcibly turned into cooperatives farmed by formerly landless agricultural workers. Reversed decisions by a new government, however, returned some of these holdings to their original owners beginning in 1978. Area 3,948 square miles (10,225 square km). Pop. (1990 est.) 173,200. Arabic Bujah, nomadic people grouped into tribes and occupying mountain country between the Red Sea and the Nile and 'Atbarah rivers from the latitude of Aswan southeastward to the Eritrean Plateau-that is, from southeastern Egypt through The Sudan and into Eritrea. Numbering about 1,900,000 in the late 20th century, the Beja are descended from peoples who have lived in the area since 4000 BC or earlier. Some of the Beja speak a Hamitic language called To Bedawi, and some speak Tigre; many also speak Arabic. They were Christian in the 6th century but have been Muslim since the 13th. Most of the Beja prefer to live apart from their neighbours, and many are said to be indifferent to trade and modernization. Essentially pastoralists, the Beja wander over vast distances with their flocks and herds of cattle and camels on whose produce-milk, butter, and meat-they subsist almost entirely. The Beja trace their ancestry through the father's line, and their kinship organization resembles that of the Arabs. Authority is vested in the heads of kin groups. Men are permitted under Muslim law to have two or more wives, but only the rich do so. A man is expected to marry his father's brother's daughter, and livestock is presented to the bride's family. Boys are circumcised, and girls are subjected to clitoridectomy. Formal groups based on age are lacking. city, capital, and concelho (township), Beja distrito ("district"), southern Portugal, southeast of Lisbon. According to legend Beja was founded by Ulysses, and it was called Pax Julia by the Romans. The city is partly enclosed by walls of Roman origin with two Roman gateways. Afonso I captured Beja in 1162 in his campaigns against the Muslims to extend his territories. The city has a castle featuring four towers, among them a Gothic keep of white marble. The castle was built on Roman foundations by King Dinis and was completed in 1310. Situated nearby is the convent where Maria Alcoforado (1640-1723), a nun, wrote the Lettres portugaises, love letters later important in French literature, to a French officer who had seduced her. Grain and fruit are grown and cattle and pigs are raised on the plains lying around the city. Pop. (1981) city, 19,968; (1987 est.) concelho, 36,500.