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Origins: The Fund̲j̲ appear in the early 10th/16th century as a nomadic cattle-herding people, gradually extending their range down the Blue Nile from Lūl (or Lūlū), an unidentified district, to Sinnār. The foundation of Sinnār, subsequently the dynastic capital, is ascribed to ʿAmāra Dūnḳas in 910/1504-5. Hypotheses of remoter Fund̲j̲ origins among the Shilluk, in Abyssinia, or among the Bulala, are unsubstantiated, while the Sudanese tradition of their Umayyad descent is a typical device for the legitimation of a parvenu Muslim dynasty. Fund̲j̲ kings to the establishment of…

, one of the principal routes linking bilād al-Sūdān with the north, obtained its name from the forty days’ travelling-time required to traverse it. W. G. Browne, the only European to have gone the whole way (in 1793) took 58 days from Asyūṭ to “Sweini” (al-Suwayna) near the southern terminus. Muḥammad ʿUmar al-Tūnusī in 1803 covered the same distance in 60 days. Starting from Asyūṭ, the route ran to the K̲h̲ārd̲j̲a oasis, an outpost of Ottoman Egypt. Thence it proceded across the …

, although strictly signifying the Fulānī [ q.v.], is used in the Nilotic Sudan generally for Muslim immigrants from the western Bilād al-Sūdān , and in particular for those from northern Nigeria. The term has largely superseded the older Takārīr or Takārna (which had a similarly loose application), presumably after the Fulānī conquests under ʿUt̲h̲mān dan Fodio. The Takārīr/Fallāta immigrants are primarily pilgrims en route to Mecca: their first appearance in the Nilotic Sudan can hardly have been before the establishment of ¶ Muslim sultanates in Dār Fūr [ q.v.] and Waddāī during …

(II) bi’llāh , Abu ’l-Ḳāsim Aḥmad b. al-Ẓāhir Muḥammad, the first ʿAbbāsid “shadow” caliph in Cairo. When the Mongols captured Bag̲h̲dād (656/1258), he and a number of other ʿAbbāsids were released from confinement, and he took refuge among the Arab tribesmen of ʿIrāḳ. A group of Arabs brought him to Cairo, where he was given a ceremonious welcome by the sultan, al-Ẓāhir Baybars, on 9 Rad̲j̲ab 659/9 June 1261. Four days later, his genealogy was formally attested by the chief judge, who performed the bayʿa to him followed by the sultan, the dignitaries and …

( El Fasher ), the capital of Dār Fūr [ q.v.], formerly a sultanate, now a province of the Republic of the Sudan. The term fās̲h̲ir , meaning a royal residence, more precisely signified an open space, serving for public audience by a sultan, or as a market-place, and was also used in Sinnār under the Fund̲j̲ [ q.v.], and in Waddāī, where war a appears as a synonym (see J. L. Burckhardt, Travels in Nubia , London 1819, 486). The fās̲h̲ir of the Fūrāwī sultan was established in 1206/1791-2 at Wādī Tandaltī, on a sandy ridge, overlooking a seasonal lake. Around this royal resid…

(II) bi’llāh , Abu ’l-Faḍl al-ʿAbbās, tenth ʿAbbāsid “shadow’’ caliph in Egypt, son of al-Mutawakkil (I) Muḥammad by a Turkish concubine, Bay K̲h̲ātūn. He succeeded his father on 1 S̲h̲aʿbān 808/22 January 1406. Accompanying the sultan al-Nāṣir Farad̲j̲ [ q.v.] on his expedition against the rebel amīr s, S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ al-Maḥmūdī (governor of Aleppo) and Nawrūz al-Ḥāfiẓī (governor of Tripoli), he fell into their hands when the sultan was defeated at al-Lad̲j̲d̲j̲ūn on 13 Muḥarram 815/25 April 1412. There was virtual anarchy…

(usual Ar. form, Bud̲j̲a), nomadic tribes, living between the Nile and Red Sea, from the Ḳina-Ḳuṣayr route to the angle formed by the ʿAṭbarā and the hills of the Eritrean-Sudanese frontier. The principal modern tribes are the ʿAbābda [ q.v.], Bis̲h̲ārīn [ q.v.], Ummarār, Hadanduwa and Banī ʿĀmir. The ʿAbābda now speak Arabic; the others (except the Tigre-speaking sections of B. ʿĀmir) speak tu-Beḍawiye, a Hamitic language. The Bed̲j̲a subsist mainly on their herds of camels, cattle, sheep and goats. Since grazing is sparse, they move u…

(Barbar):(1) Tribal territory. The name originally signified the territory of the Mīrafāb (Mayrafāb), an Arabic-speaking tribe claiming kinship with the Ḏj̲aʿliyīn. It extended on both banks of the Nile from the Fifth Cataract (lat. 18° 23′ N.) to the river ʿAṭbarā. The Mīrafāb included both riverain cultivators and semi-nomads. The ruler ( makk ) was a vassal of the Fund̲j̲ sultan of Sinnār. On the death of a makk, the sultan nominated his successor from the ruling family of Timsāḥ. He also levied, at intervals of four or five years, a tribute of gold, horses a…

Arabic-speaking nomads of the Sūdān, occupying territories from Lake Chad to the White Nile between 9° and 13° N. Their livelihood is the herding of cattle ( baḳar ), whence their name. The dry season is spent in the southern river-lands. With the rains, they move northwards to the seasonal grasslands. Grain sown on this journey is harvested on the return. Baḳḳāra origins are obscure; the genealogies reflect existing groupings rather than give evidence of descent. They are probably connected with the …

(variant, Kasalā; conventional spelling, Kassala), a town and province in the east of the republic of the Sudan, extending from the frontier of Egypt to that of, Ethiopia. Geographically, the province contains five distinct types of country. (1) A rough triangle in the south, bounded by the railway, the river Rahad and the Ethiopian frontier, where al-Ḳallābāt (Gallabat) is the principal town, is a westward extension of the central clay plains of the Sudan. (2) North of This is the Buṭāna, a pla…

(i) The history of the institution of the caliphate A study of the caliphate, its institution and subsequent developments, has never been attempted in its entirety until the present. The principal reason is that it has not seemed possible to conduct such a survey independently of historical studies relating to different reigns, which are still in most cases insufficient, or even non-existent, whereas studies of doctrine, while more advanced, have not been developed to the same extent with regard to the v…

(conventional spelling, Gerri), a site on the east bank of the main Nile in the Sudan, lying at the southern end of the Sabalūḳa gorge, about 44 miles north of the confluence of the Blue and White Niles. At the convergence of the route along the Nile and one across the Bayūḍa desert crossing the Nile at this point, Ḳerrī was a settlement of political importance from the 10th/16th to the 12th/18th century as the seat of the ʿAbdallābī s̲h̲ayk̲h̲s , who levied tribute on the nomads during their annual migration-cycle, and, as the principal vassals of the Fund̲j̲ [ q.v.] of Sinnār, were regarded …

, form generally used by Arabic authors for the name of the Turkish Og̲h̲uz people. The origin of the Og̲h̲uz, which for long was obscure because of the diversity of the transcriptions of the names of peoples in the Chinese, Arabic, Byzantine and other sources, seems to have been clarified by J. Hamilton, Toguz Oghuz et On-Uyghur , in JA, ccl/1 (1962), 23-64. At the beginning of the 7th century A.D. there was formed, among the eastern Turkish T’ie-lo tribes, a confederation of Nine Clans = Toḳuz Og̲h̲uz (a form known to the Arabic authors), who revolted…

, A nomadic Bed̲j̲a [ q.v.] tribe, now occupying two areas: (a) the ʿAtbāy, or western slopes of the Red Sea Hills, between approximately 23° and 19° N; (b) the banks of the ʿAṭbarā and adjoining lands between about 17° and 16° N. The tribe is divided into two main clans: (a) Umm ʿAlī, in the north-eastern ʿAtbāy; (b) Umm Nād̲j̲ī, in the south-western ʿAtbāy and on the ʿAṭbarā. Tribal genealogies indicate a connection with the Arab Awlād Kāhil (Kawāhla), who, in the 14th century, lived near ʿAyd̲h̲āb…

(for Barābira; sing. Barbarī): Nubianspeaking Muslims inhabiting the Nile Banks between the First and Third Cataracts. The tenu includes the Kunūz, Sukkūt and Maḥas. The name Barābra is not commonly used by these peoples of themselves, and is stated by Lane (i, 177, col. 3) to be a late and modern application of the term used by earlier writers for the Berbers of the Mag̲h̲rib. The Danāḳla [ q.v.], who live above the Third Cataract, are linguistically and physically allied to the Kunūz but do not regard themselves as Barābra. The territory now inhabited by the B…

, a geographical region of Egypt, which today, as usually in the past, forms an administrative province. The Fayyūm, which derives its name from the Coptic, Phiom (“the Sea”), is a roughly triangular depression, about 35 miles from north to south, and about 49 miles from east to west. It is in Middle Egypt, lying in the Libyan Desert, east of the Nile valley. The cliffs separating it from the river valley are breached at one point, thereby admitting a stream which branches off from the Nile near Asy…

(Arabic, Dunḳula, Dunḳulā; obsolete forms, Dumḳula, Damḳala), the name of two towns in Nubia; more generally, the riverain territory dependent on these towns. All lie within the present Republic of the Sudan. The arabized Nubians of Dongola are called Danāḳla, a regional, not a tribal, designation. (1) Old Dongola (Dunḳula al-ʿad̲j̲ūz), on the right bank of the Nile, is on the site of a pre-Islamic town, the capital of the Christian kingdom of al-Maḳurra. It was besieged by an army under ʿAbd Allāh b. Saʿd b. Abī Sarḥ [ q.v.] in 31/652, but the Muslims withdrew after concluding a convention ( b…

6. In the Mamlūk Sultanate In the early Mamlūk sultanate, mawkib designates specifically the royal ride which formed an item in the sultan’s installation ceremonies. The term is explicitly used by Ibn Tag̲h̲rībirdī ( Nud̲j̲ūm , vii, 41) on the accession of al-Manṣūr ʿAlī b. Aybak: “He rode on Thursday, 2 Rabīʿ II [655/19 April 1257] with the insignia of the sultanate from the Citadel to Ḳubbat al-Naṣr in an awe-inspiring procession ( mawkib hāʾil ). Then he returned and entered Cairo by Bāb al-Naṣr. The amīr s dismounted and marched before him…. Then al-Manṣū…

, (Ḏj̲ird̲j̲ā; an obsolete form Dad̲j̲ird̲j̲ā is also found), a town and province of Upper Egypt. The name is said to be derived from a monastery of St. George (V. Denon, tr. A. Aikin, Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt , London 1803, ii, 25). The town originated in the late 8th/14th century ¶ as the tribal centre of Hawwāra [ q.v.], who dominated Upper Egypt for the following two centuries. About 983/1576, the power of this tribe was broken, and Girgā. became the seat of the governor of Upper Egypt, who was also kās̲h̲if of the Girgā district. The governors, who are variously referred to as ḥākim al-Ṣ…

, the eldest son of Muḥammad ʿAlī [ q.v.], general, and viceroy of Egypt. He is often described as Muḥammad ʿAlī’s “adopted” son. Amīna, a relative of his foster-father, the governor ( čorbad̲j̲i̊ ) of Kavalla in Macedonia, was certainly a divorced woman when Muḥammad ʿAlī married her in 1787, and it cannot be denied that Muḥammad ʿAlī had a certain preference for his son Ṭūsūn, who died on 28 September 1816; there was certainly also a rivalry between Ibrāhīm and Ṭūsūn. The year of his birth is decisive, h…