www.ebizguides.com
            
            
              12
            
            
              General Information
            
            
              
                
                  The Mahdi tomb in Omdurman
                
              
            
            
              Arab tribes appear to have moved into the country
            
            
              in the middle of the 15th century. History places the
            
            
              final overthrow of the kingdom in 1504, as a result of
            
            
              an alliance between immigrant Arabs from the north
            
            
              and a people of the Funj.
            
            
              
                The Funj Kingdom
              
            
            
              The Funj and their allies established a Muslim
            
            
              kingdom that lasted for 300 years. The influence of
            
            
              these “Black Sultans”, with their capital at Sennar,
            
            
              extended at the height of their power from the Third
            
            
              Cataract in the north to Fazugli in the south. They
            
            
              even ruled Kordofan for a few years in the second
            
            
              half of the 18th century. A strong Christian kingdom in
            
            
              Abyssinia prevented their expansion to the east. The
            
            
              Sultanate was really little more than a fragile feudal
            
            
              confederation, the land being parcelled out among
            
            
              kinglets that enjoyed considerable independence.
            
            
              Eventually the failure to build up a centralised
            
            
              administration and the weakness of the royal house
            
            
              itself brought about the disintegration of the kingdom,
            
            
              and at the end of the 18th century one after the other
            
            
              of the chieftains was thrown off their allegiance to
            
            
              Sennar. By 1820, the authority of the Funj scarcely
            
            
              extended north of Khartoum.
            
            
              
                Turko–Egyptian Rule
              
            
            
              In 1820, Muhammad Ali, the Turkish Pasha of Egypt,
            
            
              sent two military expeditions south and westward
            
            
              into Sudan, capturing Sennar and El Obeid in the
            
            
              following year. Thus began the period of Turko–
            
            
              Egyptian rule in Sudan, which lasted till 1885. A new
            
            
              capital was established at Khartoum and the country
            
            
              was divided into provinces and districts, with Turks
            
            
              or Egyptians in charge. It appears that Muhammad
            
            
              Ali invaded Sudan mainly in the hope of obtaining
            
            
              gold and black men to enlist in his army which he
            
            
              intended to use in his schemes against his own
            
            
              master, the Ottoman Sultan. The new government
            
            
              remained little more than a tax collecting body, and a
            
            
              prosperous slave trade ensued between Sudan and
            
            
              Egypt. In about 1850 the first Christian missionaries
            
            
              arrived in southern Sudan. During the reign of the
            
            
              Khedive of Egypt, Ismail (1863–79), there were a
            
            
              number of changes. He had plans for the creation
            
            
              of a large empire south of Egypt. To realize this end,
            
            
              he conquered Darfur in 1874 with the active help
            
            
              of Zubeir Pasha, and by 1876 he had established
            
            
              outposts along the Nile as far as the Great Lakes.
            
            
              Communications were improved by connecting
            
            
              Darfur and Egypt via Khartoum with a telegraph line.
            
            
              He employed European explorers and administrators
            
            
              like Sir Samuel Baker and Colonel Gordon. Under
            
            
              Gordon’s administration a concerted attempt to
            
            
              abolish the slave trade was made, which met with
            
            
              some success. Little was done, however, to develop
            
            
              the resources of the country. Generally speaking, the
            
            
              Turko–Egyptian government of Sudan was doomed
            
            
              to failure. The appointed officials lacked public
            
            
              spirit, were unpopular among the people and were
            
            
              considered to be a burden on the country.
            
            
              
                The Mahdiya
              
            
            
              In 1881, the religious leader Mohamed Ahmed El
            
            
              Mahdi instigated a revolt against the government.
            
            
              His rebellion, which was a movement for both
            
            
              religious and political reform, was widely successful.
            
            
              It triumphed with the capture of Khartoum where
            
            
              General Gordon, who was the last Turkish rule
            
            
              governor, was killed in 1885. He is now buried in
            
            
              Omdurman.
            
            
              On the advice of the British, who occupied Egypt
            
            
              since 1882, the Turko–Egyptian government
            
            
              withdren. Although the Mahdi died in the same year,
            
            
              Sudan under his successor, the Khalifa Abd Allah,
            
            
              remained independent until 1898.