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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
The Funj were a people of uncertain origin who, in the early sixteenth century, established themselves in the valley of the Blue Nile with their capital at Sennar (Sinnār), and acquired the hegemony over the Muslim Arab tribes of the Nilotic Sudan. The present investigation attempts an analysis of the documentary information on the inception of the Funj hegemony. It develops certain criticisms made by Dr. A. J. Arkell in his article, ‘Fung origins’ (Sudan Notes and Records, XV, 2, 1932, especially pp. 209–13), in connexion with an hypothesis, which he has since abandoned, that the Funj were Shilluk. It does not deal with the controversial general problem of Funj origins.
1 Various hypotheses are suggested in the following articles in Sudan Notes and Records (Khartoum): Chataway, J. D. P., ‘Notes on the history of the Fung’, SNR, XIII, 2, 1930, 247–58Google Scholar; Nalder, L. F., ‘Fung origins’, XIV, 1, 1931, 61–6Google Scholar; Arkell, A. J., ‘Fung origins’, XV, 2, 1932, 201–5Google Scholar; Robertson, J. W., ‘Fung origins’, XVII, 2, 1934, 260–5Google Scholar; Henderson, K. D. D., ‘Fung origins’, XVIII, 1, 1935, 149–53Google Scholar; Arkell, A. J., ‘More about Fung origins’, XXVII, 1946, 87–97Google Scholar; H, K. D. D.enderson, letter, XXXII, 1, 1951, 174–5Google Scholar; Shinnie, P. L., letter, XXXII, 2, 1951, 349Google Scholar; Arkell, A. J., letter, XXXIII, 1, 1952, 181–Google Scholar; Henderson, K. D. D., letter, XXXIV, 2, 1953, 315–16Google Scholar; Paul, A., ‘Some aspects of the Fung sultanate’, XXXV, 2, 1954, 17–31Google Scholar; Palmer, Richmond, letter, XXXVII, 1956, 135.Google Scholar
See also, Crawford, O. G. S., The Fung kingdom of Sennar, Gloucester, 1951, 143–62Google Scholar; Galil, Chater Bosayley A. (Al-Shāṭir Buṣaylī ‘Abd al-Jalīl), Ma'ālim ta'rīkh Sūdān waādī al-Nīl, Cairo, 1955, 1–67.Google Scholar
2 MS Bruce 18, ff. 54b–57a.
3 The chronological problems presented by this and other lists are studied by Crawford, O. G. S., op. cit., 163–7.Google Scholar
4 Described, with a summary-translation, notes, and extracts from the Arabic text, by MacMichael, H. A., A history of the Arabs in the Sudan, Cambridge, 1922, II, 217–323 (Manuscript D3)Google Scholar. Other extracts are given, with an introduction and translation, by Hillelson, S., Sudan Arabic texts, Cambridge, 1935, 172–203Google Scholar. An important study of the work was made by Hillelson, , ‘Tabaqât Wad Ḍayf Allah: studies in the lives of the scholars and saints’, Sudan Notes and Records, VI, 1923, 191–230Google Scholar. Two uncritical editions of the text have been published: K. al-ṭabaqāt fī khuṣūṣ al-awliyā' wa-l-ṣālihīn wa-l-‘ulamā’ wa-l-shu‘arā’ fī-l-Sūdān, ed. Ṣadīq, Ibrāhīm, Cairo, 1930Google Scholar; K. ṭabaqāt Wad Ḍayfallāh fī awliyā' wa-ṣālihīn wa-‘ulamā’ wa-shu‘arā' al-Sūdān, ed. Mandīl, Sulaymān Da'ūd, Cairo, 1930Google Scholar. I have used the former edition in this article, not having had access to any manuscripts.
1 Described with a summary-translation and notes by MacMichael, , op. cit., II, 354–430 (Manuscript D7).Google Scholar
2 MS Or. 2345.
3 Shibeika, Mekki (Makkī Shibayka), Ta'rīkh mulūk al-Sūdān, Khartoum, 1947.Google Scholar
4 Shoucair, Naum (Na'ūm Shuqayr) Ta'rīkh al-Sūdān, Cairo, [1903], II, 72.Google Scholar
5 Bruce, James, Travels to discover the source of the Nile, Edinburgh, 1805, VI, 369–71.Google Scholar
6 Welled Ageeb, i.e. Walad (colloquially, Wad) ‘Ajīb. The Awlād ‘Ajīb were the ruling clan of the ‘Abdallāb tribe. Bruce's usage may be anachronistic, since the first ‘Ajīb was traditionally the son and successor of the eponymous ancestor of the ‘Abdallāb, ‘Abdallāh Jammā’, who, again traditionally, was the contemporary of ‘Amāra Dūnqas, the first Funj ruler. But see my criticism of the tradition below, pp. 10–11.
7 Qarrī, 
.
8 Al-Bayūḍa, 
.
9 Al-baḥr al-abyaḍ, the White Nile.
10 Arbajī, 
, on the Blue Nile near the modern town of al-Ḥaṣāḥayṣa.
1 i.e. at the time of the migration northwards.
2 The name of the first Funj ruler is usually given as ‘Amāra Dūnqas (or Dunqas). His father's name is given in a late genealogy (MacMichael, , op. cit., II, 213)Google Scholar as Unsa (
) but this merely personalizes the fact that the early Funj kings belonged to a clan called the Unsāb. In Bruce's king-list (f. 54b), the name of the first king is given as ‘Amāra b. ‘Adlān.
3 For the significance of Nūba, see below, p. 9.
4 ff. 1b–3a. The Arabic text is continuous: I have divided the passage into numbered paragraphs for ease of reference.
5 See section (C), pp. 6–8.
1 
Shibeika reads 
‘continued increasing’.
2 
.
3 See section (C), pp. 6–8.
4 See section (C), pp. 6–8.
5 
.
6 Shibeika, , op. cit., pp. 1–2 of text.Google Scholar
1 
, presumably indicating the hard Egyptian gīm. The Sudanese pronunciation is Sagadī, usually represented by 
.
2 
for 
.
3 MacMichael, 's translation (op. cit., II, 358–9)Google Scholar gives ‘Funj’ in the first passage, ‘Anag’ [sic] in the second. This, while not removing the difficulties, is a further indication of the problems of logic and consistency which faced the various copyists.
1 Al-Maqrīzī, , Khiṭat (ed. Wiet), III, 2, 263Google Scholar; ch. xxxi, 2.
2 For variants on Sūba in medieval Arabic texts, see de Villard, U. Monneret, Storia della, Nubia cristiana, Roma, 1938, 153.Google Scholar
3 Wiet reads 
, but gives the alternative 
, whence the 
, ribāṭ, of the chronicler's paraphrase.
4 Maqrīzī, (III, 2, 252; eh. xxx, 2)Google Scholar gives his source as K. akhbār al-Nūba wa-l-Maqurra wa-'Alwa wa-l-Buja wa-l-Nīl by ‘Abdallāh b. Aḥmad b. Salīm al-Aswānī.
1 Maqrīzī, , III, 2, 258Google Scholar; ch. xxxi, 1.
2 The significance of the terms ‘Anaj and Nūba in Sudanese usage is judiciously discussed by MacMichael, , op. cit., II, 12–13Google Scholar. He concludes that’ there is no really clear distinction traceable in the mind of the native historian between any of the pre-Arab races of the Sudan. All are vaguely and indiscriminately heaped together under the names “NUBA” and “‘ANAG”’. de Villard, Monneret, op. cit., 150–1Google Scholar, who uses some of MacMichael's material, as well as other sources, wrongly regards ‘Anaj as a precise ethnic term and concludes that ‘Questi Anag nel XVI secolo si stendevano fino al Nilo e lo avevano oltrepassato ad oriente’. The name may possibly be a dialectal variation of ‘ilj, i.e. non-Arab.
1 Arkell, , ‘Fung origins’, 211–12.Google Scholar
1 The chronicler's siting of the gathering of the people at J. Mōya (regarded with suspicion by Arkell in the article cited above) is probably a consequence of his attempt to link the Sūba campaign with the coming of the Funj. Apart from the criticisms advanced by Arkell, it is an improbable base for an advance on Sūba because of its remoteness (approaching 200 miles) from its objective–a long distance to hold together a motley tribal host–and because an advance from J. Mōya would entail the additional hazard of crossing the Blue Nile. More probably the gathering of the people took place by J. Rōyān, at or near the site of the future ‘Abdallābī capital of Qarrī. There is a semantic connexion between the names of the two hills, Mōya being the Sudanese colloquial form of 
water’, while Rōyān indicates a link with the root 
‘to be well watered'. The proximity of this site to Sūba, about a third of the distance from J. Mōya, and the absence of an intervening river make it a more likely base. Furthermore, the supersession of a captured town by a new one, arising on or near the site of the camp of the victorious army, has parallels in later Sudanese history; e.g. the modern Dongola on the site of the Mamluk camp (orta, whence the Sudanese name, al-'Urḍī), Omdurman on the site of the encampment of the Mahdist army besieging Khartoum, and modern Berber, north of the old town, and again on the site of a Mahdist camp.
2 Penn, A. E. D., ‘Traditional stories of the ‘Abdullab tribe’, Sudan Notes and Records, XVII, 1, 1934, 59–82Google Scholar. The article appears to be the translation of an Arabic account by an unnamed ‘Abdallābī. The last ‘Abdallābī shaykh to be mentioned is Sh. Muḥammad al-Shaykh Jammā’, alive during the governor-generalship of Sir Lee Stack, who was assassinated in 1924.
3 Apart from resemblances between this narrative and that of the chronicle, the unnamed informant states that his father, from whom he had obtained much information, ‘was a close associate of that learned divine, the late Sheik Ibrāhīm ‘Abdel Dāfi’, who, as we have seen, was one of the redactors of the chronicle.
