The Funj are an ethnic group in present-day Sudan. The Funj set up the

Funj Sultanate The Funj Sultanate, also known as Funjistan, Sultanate of Sennar (after its capital Sennar) or Blue Sultanate due to the traditional Sudanese convention of referring to black people as blue () was a monarchy in what is now Sudan, northwestern E ...

with Abdallah Jamma and ruled the area for several centuries. The Funj rose in southern Nubia and had overthrown the remnants of the old Christian kingdom of

Alodia Alodia, also known as Alwa ( grc-gre, Aρουα, ''Aroua''; ar, علوة, ''ʿAlwa''), was a medieval kingdom in what is now central and southern Sudan. Its capital was the city of Soba, located near modern-day Khartoum at the confluence of t ...

. In 1504 a Funj leader named

Amara Dunqas Amara Dunqas was the first ruler of the Kingdom of Sennar, which he ruled from 1504 - 1533/4. "Dunqas" is an epithet meaning "bent down, with an inclined head", referring to the way of how he required his subjects to approach him. According to Ja ...

, founded the Black Sultanate at Sannar (the capital). The Black Sultanate soon became the keystone of the Funj Empire. The origins of the Funj are not clearly known. However, there are three different hypotheses regarding their origin. The Funj claimed to be descendants of

Banu Umayya Umayyad dynasty ( ar, بَنُو أُمَيَّةَ, Banū Umayya, Sons of Umayya) or Umayyads ( ar, الأمويون, al-Umawiyyūn) were the ruling family of the Caliphate between 661 and 750 and later of Al-Andalus between 756 and 1031. In the ...

through those who escaped the slaughter of their family by the Abbasids and fled to

Abyssinia The Ethiopian Empire (), also formerly known by the exonym Abyssinia, or just simply known as Ethiopia (; Amharic and Tigrinya: ኢትዮጵያ , , Oromo: Itoophiyaa, Somali: Itoobiya, Afar: ''Itiyoophiyaa''), was an empire that historica ...

and thence into the

Nubian Nubian may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Nubia, a region along the Nile river in Southern Egypt and northern Sudan. *Nubian people *Nubian languages *Anglo-Nubian goat, a breed of goat * Nubian ibex * , several ships of the Britis ...

territory. Since the

Ja'alin The Ja'alin, Ja'aliya, Ja'aliyin or Ja'al ( ar, جعليون) are an Arab or Arabised Nubian tribe in Sudan. The Ja'alin constitute a large portion of the Sudanese Arabs and are one of the three prominent Sudanese Arab tribes in northern Sudan ...

claimed descent from the Abbasids and the

Abdallab The Abdallabi (or Abdallab) are people living in central Sudan who claim descent from Abdallah Jamma’a. They were an important political force between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. For a short time the Abdallabi succeeded in establishi ...

from the

Juhayna The Juhaynah ( ar, جهينة, also transliterated as ''Djuhaynah'' and ''Johaynah'') are a nomad tribe of the Arabian Peninsula and the largest clan of Banu Quda'a. They are one of the most powerful Arabian tribes that rule important parts of ...

, the Funj may have claimed Umayyad descent to express their superiority to their subject peoples.

James Bruce James Bruce of Kinnaird (14 December 1730 – 27 April 1794) was a Scottish traveller and travel writer who confirmed the source of the Blue Nile. He spent more than a dozen years in North Africa and Ethiopia and in 1770 became the first Eur ...

, in his book ''

Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile ''Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773'' is a multi-volume account by the Scottish traveller James Bruce (1730–94) of his journeys in the Horn of Africa, which includes an eye-witness ...

'', theorized that the Funj descend from the

Shilluk people The Shilluk ( Shilluk: ''Chollo'') are a major Luo Nilotic ethnic group of Southern Sudan, living on both banks of the river Nile, in the vicinity of the city of Malakal. Before the Second Sudanese Civil War the Shilluk also lived in a number ...

. Bruce wrote his book after 22 years of travel through

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

and

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. The third hypothesis is that they are descendants of the remnants of the Kingdom of

Nubians who escaped further south to replenish their supplies and resources and returned to establish their state. The most cited source is that they are Nubians who mixed with

Arabs The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

Notable people

Nasra bint ʿAdlan Nasra bint ʿAdlan, Arabic: نصرة بنت عدلان (fl.1800s - 1850s) was a Sudanese noblewoman, power-broker, estate manager and enslaver, whose court was visited by Karl Richard Lepsius. Biography Bint 'Adlan was born in the early 1800s, ...

, noblewoman and power broker

Notes

References

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External links

* Ethnic groups in Sudan Muslim communities in Africa Nubia {{Sudan-ethno-group-stub