(commonly bazinger , bazingir , basinger , besinger ), slave-troops, equipped with firearms; a term current in the (Egyptian) Sudan during the late Khedivial and Mahdist periods.

Etymology: The derivation is obscure. Sir Reginald Wingate’s assertion ( Mahdiism and the Egyptian Sudan , London 1891; 28, n. 1) that it was the name of a tribe may be rejected: it does not appear to come from any southern Sudanese language. Professor E. E. Evans-Pritchard’s statement (“A history of the kingdom of Gbudwe”, Zaire , Oct. 1956, no. 8; 488, n. 36) that it derives from a Nubian (?Dunḳulāwī) word, bezingr…