ABSTRACT
THE Funj Sultanate was the most easterly of the chain of Muslim dynastic states which at one time stretched south of the Sahara through BilM a/-Sudan. Founded early in the sixteenth century by a king traditionally called 'Amiira Dunqas, its centre was on the Blue Nile, around the town of Sinniir. At the height of their power, the Funj sultans exercised a hegemony over the rulers and tribes of the Nile at least as far north as the Third Cataract. In a much debilitated form, the Sultanate lingered on until the early nineteenth century, when in 1821, Biidi VI, the last titular Funj ruler, submitted to the Turco-Egyptian forces sent by Mul).ammad 'Ali.
