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The early history of the Kingdom of Kush , located along the Nile region in what is now northern Sudan, is intertwined with the history of ancient Egypt , with which it was politically allied over several regnal eras. By virtue of its proximity to Egypt , the Sudan participated in the wider history of the Near East , with the most popular episodes being the 25th dynasty and the Christianization of the three Nubian kingdoms Nobatia , Makuria and Alodia in the sixth century.
As a result of Christianization, the Old Nubian language stands as the oldest recorded Nilo-Saharan language earliest records dating to the eighth century in an adaptation of the Coptic alphabet. While Islam was already present in the Sudanese Red Sea coast and the adjacent territories since the 7th century, the Nile Valley did not undergo formal Islamization until the 14thth century, following the decline of the Christian kingdoms.
The kingdoms were succeeded by the Sultanate of Sennar in the early 16th century, which controlled large parts of the Nile Valley and the Eastern Desert , while the kingdoms of Darfur controlled the western part of Sudan. Two small kingdoms arose in the southern regions, the Shilluk Kingdom of , and Taqali of , near modern-day South Sudan , but both northern and southern regions were soon seized by Muhammad Ali of Egypt during the s.
Resentment toward the oppressive rule of Muhammad Ali and his immediate successors is credited for stirring up resentment toward the Turco-Egyptian rulers that contributed to the Sudanese struggle for independence led by Muhammad Ahmad in Since its independence in , the history of Sudan has been plagued by internal conflict, viz. These people produced simple decorated pottery, lived in round huts and were most likely herdsmen, hunters, but also consumed land snails and there is evidence for some agriculture.
These people produced decorated pottery and lived from farming and cattle breeding. Mahal Teglinos was an important place about 10 hectare large. In the center were excavated mud brick built houses. Seals and seal impressions attest a higher level of administration. Burials in an elite cemetery were marked with rough tomb stones. They produced pottery with simple incised decoration and lived in simple round huts.
Cattle breeding was most likely the economical base. Northern Sudan's earliest historical record comes from ancient Egyptian sources, which described the land upstream as Kush , or "wretched. Over the centuries, trade developed. Egyptian caravans carried grain to Kush and returned to Aswan with ivory , incense , hides , and carnelian a stone prized both as jewellery and for arrowheads for shipment downriver.
The history here is fraught and is frequently misinterpreted by both sides. Esarhaddon's successor Ashurbanipal sent a general with a small army which again defeated and ejected Taharqa from Egypt. So, while timing is of the essence, so too is the question of financing. It directly provisioned various smaller Nuer commanders, thus winning them away from Riek Machar's forces. Single mature dating the world, it was presented as a great opportunity in one of the best moments of his career but that opportunity, he never arrived.
Egyptian governors particularly valued gold in Nubia and soldiers in the pharaoh 's army. Egyptian military expeditions penetrated Kush periodically during the Old Kingdom. Yet there was no attempt to establish a permanent presence in the area until the Middle Kingdom c. To fill the vacuum left by the Egyptian withdrawal, a culturally distinct indigenous Kushite kingdom emerged at al-Karmah , near present-day Dongola.
After Egyptian power revived during the New Kingdom c. Although Egypt's administrative control of Kush extended only down to the Fourth Cataract, Egyptian sources list tributary districts reaching to the Red Sea and upstream to the confluence of the Blue Nile and White Nile rivers. Egyptian authorities ensured the loyalty of local chiefs by drafting their children to serve as pages at the pharaoh's court. Egypt also expected tribute in gold and workers from local Kushite chiefs.
Once Egypt had established political and military mastery over Kush, officials, priests, merchants, and artisans settled in the region. The Egyptian language became widely used in everyday activities. Many rich Kushites took to worshipping Egyptian gods and built temples for them. The temples remained centres of official religious worship until the coming of Christianity to the region during the sixth century. When Egyptian influence declined or succumbed to foreign domination, the Kushite elite regarded themselves as central powers and believed themselves as idols of Egyptian culture and religion.
With the withdrawal of the Egyptians, there ceased to be any written record or information from Kush about the region's activities over the next three hundred years. Piye founded a line of kings who ruled Kush and Thebes for about a hundred years.
The dynasty's interference with Assyria 's sphere of influence in the Near East caused a confrontation between Egypt and the powerful Assyrian state, which controlled a vast empire comprising much of the Middle East , Anatolia , Caucasus [ citation needed ] and the Eastern Mediterranean Basin from their homeland in Upper Mesopotamia.
Sennacherib's successor Esarhaddon went further, launching a full-scale invasion of Egypt in BC, defeating Taharqa and quickly conquering the land. Taharqa fled back to Nubia, and native Egyptian princes were installed by the Assyrians as vassals of Esarhaddon. However, Taharqa was able to return some years later and wrest back control of a part of Egypt as far as Thebes from the Egyptian vassal princes of Assyria. Esarhaddon died in his capital Nineveh while preparing to return to Egypt and once more eject the Kushites. Esarhaddon's successor Ashurbanipal sent a general with a small army which again defeated and ejected Taharqa from Egypt.
Taharqa died in Nubia two years later. His successor, Tantamani , attempted to regain Egypt. He successfully defeated Necho I , the puppet ruler installed by Ashurbanipal, taking Thebes in the process. The Assyrians then sent a powerful army southwards. Tantamani was heavily routed, and the Assyrian army sacked Thebes to such an extent it never truly recovered. Egypt's succeeding dynasty failed to reassert full control over Kush. For several centuries thereafter, the Meroitic kingdom developed independently of Egyptian influence and domination, which passed successively under Iranian , Greek , and, finally, Roman domination.
A well-managed irrigation system allowed the area to support a higher population density than was possible during later periods. The kandake or queen mother's role in the selection process was crucial to a smooth succession. The crown appears to have passed from brother to brother or sister and only when no siblings remained from father to son. However, the Nile continued to give the region access to the Mediterranean world. The Roman commander quickly abandoned the area, however, deeming it too poor to warrant colonization.
Meanwhile, the old Meroitic kingdom contracted because of the expansion of the powerful Kingdom of Aksum to the east. On the turn of the fifth century, the Blemmyes established a short-lived state in Upper Egypt and Lower Nubia, probably centered around Talmis Kalabsha , but before they were already driven out of the Nile Valley by the Nobatians. The latter eventually founded a kingdom on their own, Nobatia. In or and again in they invaded Nubia but were repelled, making the Nubians one of the few who managed to defeat the Arabs during the Islamic expansion.
Afterwards the Makurian king and the Arabs agreed on a unique non-aggression pact that also included an annual exchange of gifts , thus acknowledging Makuria's independence.
From the mid 8th-mid 11th century Christian Nubia went through its Golden Age , when its political power and cultural development peaked. Afterwards Makuria continued to exist only as a petty kingdom. In the Funj are recorded to have founded the kingdom of Sennar , in which Abdallah Jamma's realm was incorporated. A subsequent Ottoman attempt to capture Dongola was repelled by the Funj in During the 17th century the Funj state reached its widest extend, [56] but in the following century it began to decline. The coup of kicked off a policy of pursuing a more orthodox Islam, which in turn promoted the Arabization of the state.
West of the Nile, in Darfur , the Islamic period saw at first the rise of the Tunjur kingdom , which replaced the old Daju kingdom in the 15th century [70] and extended as far west as Wadai. In —21, an Ottoman force conquered and unified the northern portion of the country.
The new government was known as the Turkiyah or Turkish regime. They were looking to open new markets and sources of natural resources.
Historically, the pestilential swamps of the Sudd discouraged expansion into the deeper south of the country. Although Egypt claimed all of the present Sudan during most of the 19th century, and established a province Equatoria in southern Sudan to further this aim, it was unable to establish effective control over the area. In the later years of the Turkiyah, British missionaries travelled from modern-day Kenya into the Sudan to convert the local tribes to Christianity. In , a religious leader named Muhammad Ahmad proclaimed himself the Mahdi "guided one" and began a war to unify the tribes in western and central Sudan.
His followers took the name " Ansars " "followers" which they continue to use today, in association with the single largest political grouping, the Umma Party once led by a descendant of the Mahdi, Sadiq al Mahdi. Taking advantage of conditions resulting from Ottoman-Egyptian exploitation and maladministration, the Mahdi led a nationalist revolt culminating in the fall of Khartoum on 26 January The interim governor-general of the Sudan, the British Major-General Charles George Gordon , and many of the fifty thousand inhabitants of Khartoum were massacred.
The Mahdi died in June He was followed by Abdallahi ibn Muhammad , known as the Khalifa , who began an expansion of Sudan's area into Ethiopia. Following his victories in eastern Ethiopia, he sent an army to invade Egypt, where it was defeated by the British at Toshky. The British become aware of the weakness of the Sudan.
Sudan was proclaimed a condominium in under British-Egyptian administration. The Governor-General of the Sudan, for example, was appointed by "Khedival Decree", rather than simply by the British Crown, but while maintaining the appearance of joint administration, the British Empire formulated policies, and supplied most of the top administrators. In , a Belgian expedition claimed portions of southern Sudan that became known as the Lado Enclave.
The Lado Enclave was officially part of the Belgian Congo. By they had a firm administrative hold on these areas and they planned on annexing them to French West Africa. An international conflict known as the Fashoda incident developed between France and the United Kingdom over these areas. In , France agreed to cede the area to the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.
From , the United Kingdom and Egypt administered all of present-day Sudan as the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, but northern and southern Sudan were administered as separate provinces of the condominium.
In the very early s, the British passed the Closed Districts Ordinances which stipulated that passports were required for travel between the two zones, and permits were required to conduct business from one zone into the other, and totally separate administrations prevailed. Islam was discouraged by the British in the south, where Christian missionaries were permitted to work. Condominium governors of south Sudan attended colonial conferences in East Africa, not in Khartoum, and the British hoped to add south Sudan to their East African colonies.
Most of the British focus was on developing the economy and infrastructure of the north.