ABSTRACT
Largely because of its location on the remote periphery of the central Islamic lands, the Sudan was only loosely connected to the great cult centres of orthodox Islam, Cairo, Mecca and Medina. The northern Sudanese were mostly adherents of Sufism. The leaders of this heterodox, ‘popular Islam’ ranged from individual ‘holy men’ (fakis), to the heads of Sufi orders (tariqas). The former were often itinerant mystics; the latter were often scholars of the Quran and Muslim law as well as Sufi adepts. From the late eighteenth century, reformed sufi orders, inspired by pilgrims returning from Mecca and Medina, made headway in the Sudan. The Sammaniyya, Majdhubiyya, Idrisiyya and Khatmiyya offered a new concept of Islam, acceptance of formal Islamic law and hostility towards the ignorant but revered fakis.
