Funj Sultanate

The Funj Sultanate, also known as Funjistan, Sultanate of Sennar after its capital of Sennar, or Blue Sultanate was a kingdom in what is now Sudan, northwestern Eritrea and western Ethiopia. Founded in 1504 by the Funj people, it quickly converted to Islam, although this conversion was only nominal. Until a more orthodox form of Islam took hold in the 18th century, the state remained an "African empire with a Muslim façade", coming to rule over an ethnically diverse population. It reached its peak in the late 17th century, but declined and eventually fell apart in the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1821, the last sultan, greatly reduced in power, surrendered to the Turco-Egyptian conquest without resistance.

The origins and ethnic affiliation of the Funj are still disputed, and scholars have expressed doubt that it will ever be solved. Some scholars theorise that they were either Nubians or Shilluk, while others contend that the Funj were not an ethnic group, but a social class. Other possible origins include in Bornu, Eritrea, or northern Ethiopia. Sudanese tradition varies, with some claiming the Funj rulers descended from the Umayyads. An 18th-century Funj copper drum featured an inscription that stated that Amara Dunqas was their "grandfather" who had come from a place called "Lul". The 19th-century Funj Chronicle also mentions a place called "Lulu", said to be the original home of the Funj before they migrated to Jebel Moya and eventually Sennar. "Lul"/"Lulu" may be identical with "Lam'ul" mentioned by the 16th-century traveller David Reubeni, who referred to it as "the king's city" located at the Upper Blue Nile eight days' journey south of Sennar.

In the 14th century a Muslim Funj trader named al-Hajj Faraj al-Funi was involved in the Red Sea trade. According to oral traditions the Dinka, who migrated upstream the White and Blue Nile since the 13th-century disintegration of Alodia, came into conflict with the Funj, who the Dinka defeated. In the late 15th/early 16th century the Shilluk arrived at the junction of the Sobat and the White Nile, where they encountered a sedentary people Shilluk traditions refer to as Apfuny, Obwongo and/or Dongo, a people now equated with the Funj. Said to be more sophisticated than the Shilluk, they were defeated in a series of brutal wars and either assimilated or pushed north.

There are two accounts on the founding of the Funj Sultanate in 1504. The first of which appears in the Funj Chronicle (dated to the 19th century) wherein Funj chief Amara Dunqas is said to have allied Abdallah Jammah to conquer Soba, however scholars consider the Abdallabi to have conquered Soba earlier on their own.

Before the Ottomans gained a foothold in Ethiopia, in 1555, Özdemir Pasha was appointed Beylerbey of the (yet to be conquered) Habesh Eyalet. He attempted to march upstream along the Nile to conquer the Funj, but his troops revolted when they approached the First Cataract of the Nile. Until 1570, however, the Ottomans had established themselves in Qasr Ibrim in Lower Nubia, most likely a pre-emptive move to secure Upper Egypt from Funj aggression. Fourteen years later they had pushed as far south as the Third Cataract of the Nile and subsequently attempted to conquer Dongola, but, in 1585, were crushed by the Funj at the battle of Hannik. Afterwards, the battlefield, which was located just south of the Third Cataract, would mark the border between the two kingdoms. In the late 16th century the Funj pushed towards the Habesh Eyalet, conquering north-western Eritrea. Failing to make progress against both the Funj Sultanate and Ethiopia, the Ottomans abandoned their policy of expansion. Thus, from the 1590s onwards, the Ottoman threat vanished, rendering the Funj-Ethiopian alliance unnecessary, and relations between the two states were about to turn into open hostility. As late as 1597, however, the relations were still described as friendly, with trade flourishing.

In the meantime, the rule of sultan Dakin (1568–1585) saw the rise of Abdallabi Sheikh Ajib I, who was subordinate to the Funj. A pitched battle was also fought, claimed by the Ethiopian sources to have been a victory, albeit this is posed doubtful by the fact that the Ethiopian troops retreated immediately afterwards. After the war, the two countries remained at peace for over a century.

The Funj sultan who ruled during the war, Rabat I, was the first in a series of three monarchs (including Badi II and Unsa II) Also in the mid-17th century, the Shaykiyya gained independence from the Abdallabi and subsequently the Funj.

Government

thumb|A drawing of a manjil of [[Fazughli by Frederic Cailliaud]]

The royal family traced their lineage to a legendary ancestress. The sultan's successor was chosen by the royal court from sons of previous rulers and Funj noblewomen. A nobleman's status depended on marrying a princess, such that each nobleman owed political favours to whom he received his wife from. They also donated their female kin as wives to their superiors, with the sultan typically having 600 noble wives, a senior nobleman 200, and a lesser lord 30. They were socially subordinate to their maternal uncle, and responsibility for executing the sultan after he were deposed by the royal court rested with the sultan's maternal uncle. Sumptuary laws were strict, such as mandating a social distance between noblemen and commoners, and severe breaches were punishable by enslavement.

The Sultanate also did their best to monopolize the slave trade to Egypt, most notably through the annual caravan of up to one thousand slaves. This monopoly was most successful in the seventeenth century, although it still worked to some extent in the eighteenth.

Rulers

The rulers of Sennar held the title of Mek (sultan). Their regnal numbers vary from source to source.

Amara Dunqas 1503–1533/1534 (AH 940)
Nayil 1533/1534–1550/1551 (AH 940–957)
Abd al-Qadir I 1550/1551–1557/1558 (AH 957–965)
Abu Sakikin 1557/1558 (AH 965) – 1568
Dakin 1568–1585/1586 (AH 994)
Dawra 1585/1586–1587/1588 (AH 994–996)
Tayyib 1587/1588 (AH 996) – 1591
Unsa I 1591 – 1603/1604 (AH 1012)
Abd al-Qadir II 1603/1604 (AH 1012) – 1606
Adlan I 1606–1611/1612 (AH 1020)
Badi I 1611/1612–1616/7 (AH 1020–1025)
Rabat I 1616/1617 (AH 1025) – 1644/1645
Badi II 1644/1645–1681
Unsa II 1681–1692
Badi III 1692–1716
Unsa III 1719–1720
Nul 1720–1724
Badi IV 1724–1762
Nasir 1762–1769
Isma'il 1768–1776
Adlan II 1776–1789
Awkal 1787–1788
Tayyib II 1788–1790
Badi V 1790
Nawwar 1790–1791
Badi VI 1791–1798
Ranfi 1798–1804
Agban 1804–1805
Badi VII 1805–1821

Hamaj regents

Muhammad Abu Likayik 1769 – 1775/6
Badi walad Rajab 1775/1776 – 1780
Rajab 1780 – 1786/1787
Nasir 1786/1787 – 1798
Idris wad Abu Likaylik 1798 – 1803
Adlan wad Abu Likayik 1803
Wad Rajab 1804 – 1806

Maps

File:Stefano Bonsignori - Sudan - Google Art Project.jpg|Map by Stefano Bonsignori (1579). The Funj ("Fuingi") are located at the top

File:Royaume de Sennar (Guillaume Delisle).jpeg|Map by Guillaume Delisle (1707)

File:D'Anville Afrique 1749 UTA (cropped).jpg|Map by Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville (1749)

File:Sultanate of Sennar on map by James Bruce.png|Map by traveller James Bruce, who visited Sudan in 1772

File:281 of '(Travels in Nubia.)' (11005370324) (cropped).jpg|Map by Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, who visited Sudan in 1814

File:Carte generale de l'Egypte et de la Nubie, à laquelle on a joint la Cyrénaïque et l'Arabie Pétrée, une partie du Soudan.jpg|Map by Frederic Cailliaud, who visited Sudan in 1820–1821

</gallery>

Funj Sultanate

Government

Rulers

Hamaj regents

Maps

See also

Annotations

References

Bibliography

Further reading