The Funj Kingdom of Sennar — Introduction

Crawford: The Sinarian Funj state

Broadcast date

Introduction

One should write books as letters are written, that is, with a strong sense of who he is addressing. This book was written for those who know Sudan and are familiar with its people and places. The book, then, attempts to empty into a coherent whole the atoms of history that remained after the end of the Turkish occupation and the Mahdism, in a clearly understandable historical plan. I have tried not to lose the thread, avoiding getting involved in discussing the details. However, I fear that I have lost it in a page or two, because this matter is inevitable and difficult to overcome due to the current level of knowledge, a level that represents a stage similar to the ancient stage of art in which total control over the material was not achieved. Until many of the gaps are filled and problems of historical importance are solved, writing a well-footprinted novel becomes possible at the expense of ignoring these problems or arriving at immature conclusions, based on insufficient evidence. Thus, the clarity achieved in this way is deceptive. The novel may be easy to read, but at the same time it may not be worth reading.

Some readers of this book may think that the effort is disproportionate to the result, and that those three centuries of barbaric political corruption do not deserve to be called history, but I completely disagree with this point of view, as the Romans often had a similar belief regarding our own early history, a history that was also full of barbarism and political corruption. The Romans certainly did not bother to examine and record the history of Britain in the Iron Age, and they could have done that easily, and therefore we are now poorer for that. Perhaps the Africans of the future would want to know their origins, just as we want to know ours today. The British - unlike the Romans - took the trouble to collect manuscripts and record traditional beliefs and history, which made the time appropriate to make a preliminary attempt at synthesis, and this book is the result of that synthesis.

This book is limited in time to the stage of the Funj kings, and spatially limited to the region controlled by those kings. However, it is not considered a final book. Rather, it is quite the opposite. Rewriting it is necessary when archaeological excavations are evacuated in one of the main Funj cities, such as Arbagi, for example, and when the seas of the Nile reveal their hidden secrets. Then it will be possible to write a book that will make this book an antique book, like a map. Bruce. There is no doubt that there is much that requires achievement in all fields of research. This is because aerial photography - a technology that is considered new even though it is more than a few decades old - has not been applied to any of the ancient sites in Sudan, except for a few of them in Darfur, and if it had been done in one of them, I would have used it in this book.

It would have been possible to learn a lot if we had conducted a careful survey of the Nile and its tributaries, where ancient cities and villages abound. One of the best sources has now been published in a nutshell, that is, the book Tabaqat Wad Dhaif Allah. There is an urgent need to publish a translation of this source from the original manuscript after subjecting it to the rules of source criticism. There is another need to publish the book The History of the Funj, in which there are several manuscripts, provided that this is an organized translated edition. Then there are many European sources, such as Linan de Bellefon's diary and his map, which are available in original manuscripts, and there is good material that is still buried in the archives of what has been published, such as Petermann Mithailongen's book, which was published in the middle of the nineteenth century. Despite these praiseworthy beginnings, excerpts of which I worked to publish in the Sudan Yearbook in blogs, much is still awaiting implementation, especially with regard to eastern Sudan. Eritrea, the two most historically important regions of the White Nile, also remains to be collected some lists of tribal leaders in the eastern regions outside the scope of the massive work carried out by MacMichael.

The examples cited in this book indicate that they are reliable examples when compared with external sources. There are many inscriptions scattered on early Islamic tombstones that are still scattered in the desert, not copied and in danger of destruction. These domes are almost the only remaining remains of the Funj monuments of architectural interest. I tried to obtain good photographs of one of them, but I failed in my effort, due to the lack of any. From those photographs. Which prompted me to take pictures of some of them myself.

Also, spelling names correctly and accurately has been a source of much concern, as it is truly unfortunate in this regard that there is no convincing system that can be resorted to. Hence, I found it necessary, when quoting or summarizing the narrations of others, to adopt their spelling of names so that the matter would not be confusing if unexpected changes were made. In addition, there is no general agreed-upon system for transferring the letters of one language to the letters of another language, and hence it was inevitable in this book to choose a fixed system for writing names orthographically.

Thanks

This book is indebted to the many discussions that took place with researchers who are more knowledgeable than me. Thanks to them, I was able to avoid committing many minor mistakes. However, while I thank them for the favor they have given me, I would like it to be understood that they are not responsible for anything in this book unless specifically indicated. I have followed my own path in writing this book, whether for better or for worse, and I do not want others to bear the burden of the consequences of an action I have done. I rewrote the chapter on the origin of the Funj for a second time thanks to one of those discussions that took place with these researchers, and because some of them may not agree with me in some of the conclusions that I presented in this book, I thought it would be better to skip mentioning names and just express my gratitude to all of them.

The ones I want to thank first are those who are the custodians of the Welkam Trust, which is a trust established based on the will of the late Sir Henry Welkam. These trustees generously borne the cost of printing this book so that it would be a harmonious continuation of a story that had begun with an archaeological excavation of a Funj-era cemetery at Abu Qili near Sennar in 1914 during the last season of Sir Welkam’s work in Sudan.

I also express my thanks and gratitude to Mr. Frank Addison, who contributed to Abi Qili's volume by drawing maps from the preparatory models drawn up by me in pencil, without which this book would not be intelligible. Another favor rendered by Mr. Addison is his invaluable advice and assistance during the final stages of this work. I would also like to express my thanks to Mr. A.J. Arkle, the former Director of Antiquities and Anthropology in Sudan, and his successor, Mr. Peter Cheney, for their constant assistance and useful advice and for enabling me to obtain information on some of the specific issues that will be mentioned in the book. My thanks then go to Miss Rosalind Moss at the Griffith Institute [the Ashmonene Museum, Oxford] for her enormous assistance in connection with the documents held in the Museum, especially those published in this book, and thanks also to Mr. W. J. Crofoot for lending me books. And for his valuable advice in completing this book. Thanks also to Mr. Ralph Banks for allowing me to publish the drawings of W.J. Banks' drawings, most of which are by Linan de Bellefon, are currently on loan to the Griffith Institute, and are represented in plates 12, 13b, 16a, 18, 22, and 38 of this book. Thanks also to the Griffith Institute for similar permission in adding plates 5a, 13a, 35, 36, and 37 to this book.

Then I must extend my thanks to the Government of Sudan for allowing the publication of the two pictures representing Plates 25 and 26 in this book, and thanks also to Duke Northum Burland for another permission to publish the drawing in Plate 30, taken from the original he had at Allenwick Castle, and I owe my knowledge of this drawing to a visit I made to Miss Moss. Plate 27, representing Suakin in the year 1540, is taken from a manuscript copy made by de Castro, who recorded the details of the Red Sea voyage [see Kamver 1936:351], and is now in the possession of Mr. Sinelnikov, whom I would like to thank for allowing me to publish it in this book. I should mention here that the British Museum owns a copy of it, but it was partially destroyed, and knowledge of all this is due to Mr. W.G. Let the curator of maps at the British Museum and his successor, Mr. Skelton, sleep, and for that I owe my thanks to them.  As for the rest of the paintings in this book, they were either taken from published sources or are photographs that I took myself.

I am pleased to mention that after writing this book, I was enabled, at the invitation of the Government of Sudan - and I thank it once again - to visit the country in the first half of the year 1950, where I traveled south along the Blue Nile to Al-Rusairs, then to Suakin, then to Al-Fasher and Kutum, concluding my tour with a trip on board the old Nile ship Kribikan from Karima to Dongola and back. As a result of the notes I took during those trips, I made a number of additions and details to the typewritten text of the book. I am pleased to extend my sincere thanks to all those who I had the honor of generously adding to me, especially in Darfur and the Northern Directorate. I should also extend my sincere thanks to Mr. Peter Cheney for organizing a trip for me by car, and to his wife, Mrs., for providing me with a home in their crowded house in Khartoum.

Finally, this book owes a great deal of credit to Miss M.M. I was grateful to her for her care and patience in printing the entirety of this book from a handwritten manuscript, some of which must have been extremely difficult to read.

W.J. Crawford

Nurseling/Hampshire, March 1951

Postscript

At the time when this book was about to be printed, the second volume of the Ethiopian Franciscana arrived to me, but its late arrival prevented it from being used in this book. It seems that this book, although it was published in the year 1948, was not known in Britain. I had recently made inquiries about its publication, but was not successful.

Most of the documents published in this volume include little that is related to this book of mine, and I could have made some minor amendments if I had reviewed it before printing my book, with the exception of the date in Appendices 5 and 7. Perhaps it would be useful to mention that the second volume of the Ethiopian Franciscana was edited by Dr. Giovanni Maria Montano and printed at the College of San Bona Ventura Quarracci.

July 1, 1951