ABSTRACT
My interest in the process of Islamization in Sudan during the Funj Sultanate and under Ottoman rule was evoked by more contemporary events. Studying the Sudan during the twentieth century both under colonial rule and since independence, I became rather puzzled by the central role played by what was known as “Popular Islam” not only in the social and cultural make-up of the country, but also in its politics. The two major Islamic movements which flourished both during the Condominium and since independence, namely the Khatmiyya and the Ansar, seemed to be able to pull the strings of any political movement or party which sought to play an independent role in the emerging state. My quest for an answer was at first limited to the more immediate and contemporary circumstances. The fact that Sudan was ruled during the first half of the twentieth century by two colonial powers, one Christian and one Muslim, seemed to solve part of the problem. It enabled each of the two Muslim movements to seek the support of one of the antagonistic co-domini, England or Egypt. Thus the Ansar because of their hatred of the Egyptians favored the British, whilst the Khatmiyya because of antagonism with the Ansar adopted the motto “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” and took shelter behind Egypt. Consequently, these two “popular Islamic sects,” as they came to be known in Anglo-Egyptian discourse, seemed to reign supreme in Sudanese society and politics despite the anti-sectarian policy of the colonial rulers. An additional answer could be sought in the complexity of the religious and ethnic composition of the country. With approximately one-third of the Sudan lying south of latitude 10°N, the population of which was mostly of African descent and non-Muslim, it seemed natural that Muslim movements with a missionary zeal would seek to play a prominent role in attempting its Islamization. This tendency was strengthened by British “Southern Policy,” seeking to stop Islam from penetrating into these “closed districts” and inviting Christian missionaries to undertake the education of southern children in order to prepare the ground for their proselytization. Once again the fact that there were two colonial patrons with opposing aims, one Christian and one Muslim, enabled Muslim movements in the North to exploit this antagonism in order to further their own goals. Finally, I was, of course, aware that both the first colonial period, the so-called “Turkiyya” in the years 1821–25, as well as the Mahdist movement which ruled in Sudan from 1885–98, left their marks on the Sudanese scene and especially on its Islamic character. However, the more I studied pre-Condominium Sudan, the more I realized that the roots of the influence of Sufism or Popular Islam, which later was abbreviated as “Sectarianism,” lay in the pre-colonial period when the Islamization of Sudan took place. I therefore decided to devote this paper to that period and to the failed attempts undertaken under Turco-Egyptian rule to bring Sudanese Islam into line with Azharite concepts of so-called Islamic orthodoxy. 1
