ABSTRACT
The history of the Sudan is the history of many different regions and groups. It is also the story of how these groups, sometimes acting together and sometimes in conflict, related to peoples and states in the surrounding areas. The special character of the Sudan's "unity in diversity" emerges clearly in any retelling of the history of the Sudan. For almost every era of Sudanese history, one of the critical questions for later scholars is to determine what represents specifically Sudanese or local elements and what reflects the influence of outside forces. At the crossroads of a great continent and astride a great river valley that opened the way for the movements of peoples, the Sudan seems throughout its history to have been both a bridge linking other major areas of the world and a unique meeting place for the diverse elements that settled there.
