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The Nubias and Arabs
Contacts between Nubians and Arabs long predated the coming of
Islam, but the arabization of the Nile Valley was a gradual
process that occurred over a period of nearly 1,000 years. Arab
nomads continually wandered into the region in search of fresh
pasturage, and Arab seafarers and merchants traded in Red Sea
ports for spices . Intermarriage and assimilation also
facilitated arabization. After the initial attempts at military
conquest failed, the Arab commander in Egypt, Abd Allah ibn
Saad, concluded the first in a series of regularly renewed
treaties with the Nubians that, with only wity arrangements
whereby both parties agreed that neither would come to the
defense of the other in the event of an attack by a third party.
The treaty obliged both to exchange annual tribute as a goodwill
symbol . This formality was only a token of the trade that
developed between the two, not only in these commodities but
also in horses and manufactured goods brought to Nubia by the
Arabs and in ivory, gold, gems, gum arabic, and cattle carried
back by them to Egypt or shipped to Arabia.
Acceptance of the treaty did not indicate Nubian submission to
the Arabs, but the treaty did impose conditions for Arab
friendship that eventually permitted Arabs to achieve a
privileged position in Nubia. For example, provisions of the
treaty allowed Arabs to buy land from Nubians south of the
frontier at Aswan. Arab merchants established markets in Nubian
towns to facilitate the exchange of grain and slaves. Arab
engineers supervised the operation of mines east of the Nile in
which they used slave labor to extract gold and emeralds. Muslim
pilgrims en route to Mecca traveled across the Red Sea on
ferries from Aydhab and Sawakin, ports that also received
cargoes bound from India to Egypt.
Traditional genealogies trace the ancestry of most of the Nile
Valley's mixed population to Arab tribes that migrated into the
region during this period. Even many non-Arabic-speaking groups
claim descent from Arab forebears. The two most important
Arabic-speaking groups to emerge in Nubia were the Jaali and the
Juhayna . Both showed physical continuity with the indigenous
pre-Islamic population. The former claimed descent from the
Quraysh, the Prophet Muhammad's tribe. Historically, the Jaali
have been sedentary farmers and herders or townspeople settled
along the Nile and in Al Jazirah. The nomadic Juhayna comprised
a family of tribes that included the Kababish, Baqqara, and
Shukriya. They were descended from Arabs who migrated after the
thirteenth century into an area that extended from the savanna
and semidesert west of the Nile to the Abyssinian foothills east
of the Blue Nile. Both groups formed a series of tribal
shaykhdoms that succeeded the crumbling Christian Nubian
kingdoms and that were in frequent conflict with one another and
with neighboring non-Arabs. In some instances, as among the
Beja, the indigenous people absorbed Arab migrants who settled
among them. Beja ruling families later derived their legitimacy
from their claims of Arab ancestry.
Although not all Muslims in the region were Arabic-speaking,
acceptance of Islam facilitated the arabizing process. There was
no policy of proselytism, however, and forced conversion was
rare. Islam penetrated the area over a long period of time
through intermarriage and contacts with Arab merchants and
settlers. Exemption from taxation in regions under Muslim rule
also proved a powerful incentive to conversion.
The Rule of the Kashif
For several centuries Arab caliphs had governed Egypt through
the Mamluks. In the thirteenth century, the Mamluks seized
control of the state and created a sultanate that ruled Egypt
until the early sixteenth century. Although they repeatedly
launched military expeditions that weakened Dunqulah, the
Mamluks did not directly rule Nubia. In 1517 the Turks conquered
Egypt and incorporated the country into the Ottoman Empire as a
pashalik (province).
Ottoman forces pursued fleeing Mamluks into Nubia, which had
been claimed as a dependency of the Egyptian pashalik. Although
they established administrative structures in ports on the Red
Sea coast, the Ottomans exerted little authority over the
interior. Instead, the Ottomans relied on military kashif
(leaders), who controlled their virtually autonomous fiefs as
agents of the pasha in Cairo, to rule the interior. The rule of
the kashif, many of whom were Mamluks who had made their peace
with the Ottomans, lasted 300 years. Concerned with little more
than tax collecting and trading, the military leaders terrorized
the population and constantly fought among themselves for title
to territory
The Funj
At the same time that the Ottomans brought northern Nubia into
their orbit, a new power, the Funj, had risen in southern Nubia
and had supplanted the remnants of the old Christian kingdom of
Alwa. In 1504 a Funj leader, Amara Dunqas, founded the Black
Sultanate (As Saltana az Zarqa) at Sannar. The Black Sultanate
eventually became the keystone of the Funj Empire. By the
mid-sixteenth century, Sannar controlled Al Jazirah and
commanded the allegiance of vassal states and tribal districts
north to the third cataract and south to the rainforests.
The Funj state included a loose confederation of sultanates and
dependent tribal chieftaincies drawn together under the
suzerainty of Sannar's mek (sultan). As overlord, the mek
received tribute, levied taxes, and called on his vassals to
supply troops in time of war. Vassal states in turn relied on
the mek to settle local disorders and to resolve internal
disputes. The Funj stabilized the region and interposed a
military bloc between the Arabs in the north, the Abyssinians in
the east, and the non-Muslim blacks in the south.
The sultanate's economy depended on the role played by the Funj
in the slave trade. Farming and herding also thrived in Al
Jazirah and in the southern rainforests. Sannar apportioned
tributary areas into tribal homelands (each one termed a dar;
pl., dur), where the mek granted the local population the right
to use arable land. The diverse groups that inhabitated each dar
eventually regarded themselves as units of tribes. Movement from
one dar to another entailed a change in tribal identification.
(Tribal distinctions in these areas in modern Sudan can be
traced to this period.) The mek appointed a chieftain (nazir;
pl., nawazir) to govern each dar. Nawazir administered dur
according to customary law, paid tribute to the mek, and
collected taxes. The mek also derived income from crown lands
set aside for his use in each dar.
At the peak of its power in the mid-seventeenth century, Sannar
repulsed the northward advance of the Nilotic Shilluk people up
the White Nile and compelled many of them to submit to Funj
authority. After this victory, the mek Badi II Abu Duqn
(1642-81) sought to centralize the government of the confederacy
at Sannar. To implement this policy, Badi introduced a standing
army of slave soldiers that would free Sannar from dependence on
vassal sultans for military assistance and would provide the mek
with the means to enforce his will. The move alienated the
dynasty from the Funj warrior aristocracy, which in 1718 deposed
the reigning mek and placed one of their own ranks on the throne
of Sannar. The mid-eighteenth century witnessed another brief
period of expansion when the Funj turned back an Abyssinian
invasion, defeated the Fur, and took control of much of
Kurdufan. But civil war and the demands of defending the
sultanate had overextended the warrior society's resources and
sapped its strength.
Another reason for Sannar's decline may have been the growing
influence of its hereditary viziers (chancellors), chiefs of a
non-Funj tributary tribe who managed court affairs. In 1761 the
vizier Muhammad Abu al Kaylak, who had led the Funj army in
wars, carried out a palace coup, relegating the sultan to a
figurehead role. Sannar's hold over its vassals diminished, and
by the early nineteenth century more remote areas ceased to
recognize even the nominal authority of the mek.
Turkish
This state of affairs continued for almost 300 years until the
18th century. By then it became clear that the Mamelukes were
the real power in Egypt. It was then also that Napoleon invaded
Egypt, and finally broke the power of the Mamelukes. However,
Britain being an adversary of the French, decided to intervene
on behalf of the Ottoman Turks to regain control of their
wayward province. The Ottomans also sent Muhammad Ali as Pasha
(provincial governor) to restore Ottoman interests in the area,
for which he did exceedingly well. Removing the Mameluke power
structure from Egypt, but this time also removing any of them
that had fled to Sudan. He also forced the last of the Funj
Sultanates to surrender their authority when they refused to
give up the Mamelukes that had fled into their domain. This
period (1821 A.D. to 1885 A.D.) was known as the Turkiyah or
Turkish Regime, but for Sudan it was no better then the previous
state of affairs. They were again subject to parasitic taxation.
Mahdist
Muhammad Ahmad, a holy man who combined personal magnetism with
religious zealotry, emerged, determined to expel the British and
their Turkish puppets and restore Islam to its primitive purity.
He declared himself "El Mahdi" or the messenger of God. Gordon
was recalled by the British government to meet the threat.
However, the British government only gave him half-hearted
support and reinforcements were sent far too late, resulting in
the slaughter of the Anglo-Egyptian garrison stationed in
Khartoum and the murder of Gordon. The Mahdiyah (Mahdist regime)
then imposed strict traditional Islamic laws upon Sudan.
Regional relations remained tense throughout much of the
Mahdiyah period, largely because of the regime's commitment to
using the jihad to extend Islam throughout the world. The
movement temporarily shook off the yolk of colonialism but
failed even more in solving the problems within the country.
This would set the tone for much of the recent history of Sudan.
The British
By the close of the 19th century, the British decided to
reconquer Sudan as it posed a great threat to its interest in
Egypt, and as other colonial powers were working its way towards
Sudan from the south and East. The British reconquered Sudan
without much troubled but the Sudanese's economy had been all
but destroyed during Mahdiya. The population had declined by
approximately one-half because of famine, disease, persecution,
and warfare. The British then proceeded to rebuild the country
and its infrastructure, and with some minor revolts and during
World War One when a Sudanese Sultan sided with the Ottoman's
against the British, the country was relatively stable compared
to the previous era under Ottoman and then Mahdist rule. However
British policies also continued to widen the schism between
Northern and Southern Sudan. The British treated the South as
almost a separate state, and instituted a closed-door policy
between the two regions. This was in an attempt to control the
spread of Islam and Arabic influences towards the South. As a
result the South remained largely under-developed. The elite of
Southern Sudan being educated in English while the North was
Arabic and economically dominant
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