A reading of the book: “The Christian Kingdom of the Doors and the Time of Anguish” by Dr. Ahmed Al-Muatasem Al-Sheikh

A reading of the book: “The Christian Kingdom of the Doors and the Time of Anguish” by Dr. Ahmed Al-Muatasem Al-Sheikh

Khaled Muhammad Farah/Tripoli

khaldoon90@hotmail.com

The second section included in this book was entitled: “The Time of Anj.” Inspired by this title, I say: If Dr. Ahmed Al-Muatasem’s effort had been limited only to trying to approach this name, which is shrouded in a shroud of magic and mystery, and which has continued to be associated among the Sudanese public with wondrous legends, including the legend of “The Destruction of Soba,” that would have been enough for its uniqueness, originality, and praiseworthy academic and intellectual boldness that should be counted in its favor. This is because we have seen that all researchers, both foreign and national, have suspiciously neglected to research this topic of “al-Anj” and neglected it almost completely. It is as if they thought it was a myth. And now he has come, thank God

The author’s introduction to this research, in his explanation of the motivation that led him to write it, stated the following: “This study attempts to investigate the issue of the Anj, who are repeatedly mentioned in the oral tradition and national manuscripts that date the end of the Kingdom of Alwa and the emergence of the Funj. The references to the Anj place them in the late Christian period after the fall of Dongola and its conversion to Islam in the first half of the fourteenth century AD, and before the emergence of the Funj state in the early sixteenth century. This period did not receive attention from the scholars of the Christian period, who focus on the Islam of Dongola, and the scholars of the Funj state, who focus their studies on the beginning of the Funj era in the sixteenth century. Thus, we find that this period, which extended for nearly two centuries, received little study, and the facts reached in the study of the Maqra region were generalized to it, or the hypotheses of the Funj period were projected onto it. See the book, p. 41.

In the context of the introduction, the author also mentions that the sources that mentioned references to “the Ang” or “the Ang” are summarized in three different sources: the first of which is what was reported about them by Arab historians in the Middle Ages, who referred to the “ang” as a population element confined to a place and in an unspecified destination. The second source is the national manuscripts, which mention the Anj when referring to the beginning of the Abdlab and Funj period. The third source, he said, is the oral heritage of the population groups in central Sudan.

The writer touched on brief references that came in the works of some researchers and historians specialized in the history of Sudan, its population and its tribes, such as: Arkell, de Villard, McMichael, Mekki Shabika, and Yusuf Fadl. The summary of these indications is that the “Anj” are the people who lived in areas of the Nile Basin, the Gezira, and parts of eastern and western Sudan during the period that preceded the establishment of the Funj Sultanate in 1504 AD. And peace!! Some historians, such as Professor Youssef Fadl Hassan, may add that the two names: “Nuba” and “Anj” are used synonymously in some national manuscripts. As for those working in archaeology who were interested in the Christian antiquities of Al-Maqraa and Alwa, the author mentions that they: “They did not add any importance to the references about Al-Anj in other sources. A book like Adams’ comprehensive book on archaeological studies in the regions of Al-Maqra and Alwa is devoid of any reference to Al-Anj. We find Crawford, who conducted an archaeological survey in the Middle Nile region, and specifically for the antiquities of the Christian period, when he encounters the word “Al-Anj,” trying to extract it to give it a meaning. Another, as well as Sheni, who carried out excavations in Soba. The evidence is that archaeologists did not pay attention to the national and oral narratives about Al-Anj, and did not try to benefit from them and include them in their archaeological activity reports (see the book, p. 43).

In his effort to prove the legitimacy of research into this issue of the “Ang” and its justification, and thus attempt to place it in its correct context within the framework of the medieval history of Sudan, or in other words: proving the historicity of these “Aang”, he cites an opinion by Dr. Abdullah Ali Ibrahim, which he previously expressed in his research paper entitled: “Writing Sudanese History and Oral Traditions” published in a book entitled: “Folklore and Development in Sudan.” It is a book edited by Professor Ahmed Abdel-Rahim Nasr, and it was published by the Institute of African and Asian Studies at the University of Khartoum, in 1989. The basis of this opinion is: Sudanese historians have dealt negligently with the oral heritage, and it has not been used seriously, nor has its vast potential been exploited, despite the fact that oral history has developed its own methods, and despite the fact that it represents a rich source of knowledge about the history of peoples, and therefore it must be used for in-depth writing of history.

Regarding the approach followed by the author in this study, which is pioneering in its field by all standards, the writer said that he followed an overlapping approach that attempts to benefit from all the information available in both traditional and non-traditional sources. However, he relied mainly on oral narratives that were collected, or that were contained in sources that were recorded in writing, and by other means that he did not name.

The writer pointed out that his study, as he said, is not based on a hypothesis that it seeks to prove, or aims to criticize a prevailing hypothesis, but rather it seeks to lead the reader to the data contained in the sources to the logical conclusion to follow. The author adds that his study does not seek to answer the questions definitively, but rather seeks to raise questions and pose them for consideration and contemplation.

Concerning the place of Al-Anj as a human and political entity, the author suggests it based on his reading of a text reported by the historian Ibn Abd al-Zahir about an incident that occurred in the year 1286 AD, related to a Mamluk expedition sent to track down King “Ani,” one of the kings of Makuria, who was mentioned to have fled south of Dongola and fled to the direction of “Al-Anj,” an area described in the aforementioned text as having many trees, elephants, monkeys, monkeys, and a monster called the Marafib (which is a Javanese word). It means hyena. It is likely that the location of Al-Anj is the Gash River delta area. He also inferred from his reading of a text reported by “Al-Nuwayri”, relating to another Mamluk expedition to the same region, in which the name of the country “Hallenization” was mentioned. He concluded the possibility of a relationship between “Al-Anj” and “Hellenization” or what they have come to know until now as “Halenqa”. In this context, the author mentioned that the “whip” is called “Alanga” in the Amharic language, and linked this word to the famous “Anja whip” as one of the most prominent manifestations of material culture that the Sudanese still attribute to the “Anja.”

The author suggested, through his extrapolation of what was reported about the Angs in the brief overview provided by some Arab historians about them, as we mentioned above, that this region (the land of the Angs or the Anj) is the region of the Gash Delta and its neighboring country of southern Beja. Indeed, his intuition went to consider that the “al-Halnaqa” may be the “ang” themselves, based on the linguistic context and verbal similarity, and then due to the ritual status of the “whip.” At both.

However, the author mentions Abu al-Qasim bin Hawqal (d. 956 AD) elsewhere, as the first to point out the establishment of a specific political entity in that region, which bin Hawqal refers to as the Kingdom of “Teflin.” Which he says about it and its people: “They have a Muslim king who speaks Arabic from a high-ranking man. And the people of Tefillin include many Muslims who are not related to their religion. They trade and travel to Mecca and elsewhere.” Page 56 of the book.

I said: This text from Ibn Hawqal, which the author confirmed, but he did not consider it closely and questioningly, is very important in my estimation. It is worthy of whoever ponders it carefully, to help him try to ascertain some of the basic features of the ethnic and religious identity of the Anj, reading it with what has been preserved in the popular memory inherited between successive generations of Sudanese since the establishment of the Blue Sultanate until now from those people, in addition, of course, to the oral narration of the Anj themselves about their origin to which they belong, so that we do not lose sight of the author’s hypothesis.

Let us begin with what the long-standing collective memory of the people of Sudan has preserved about the physical features and characteristics of the Anj. In this regard, we say: The oral narratives circulating about the Anj in various parts of Sudan are almost unanimous in saying that the Anj were people of “yellow colours, their necks were long, and their hair was also long.” (See the article Anj in the book Dictionary of Colloquial Dialect in Sudan by Aoun Al-Sharif).

As for describing the necks of the anj as long, it may have also benefited us in deducing this same word “anj.” This is because this article “anj” indicates in the classical Arabic language, and its books and dictionaries also provide us with the meaning of “the exact length of necks.” This includes the words of the pre-Islamic poet “Amer Al-Khusfi Al-Muharbi” in a poem of his published in “Al-Mufadiyatiyat”, in one of whose verses he describes horses with long necks:

On the day of Rajej, the Tayy family became “Anajeej” carrying the straightened certificate

The commentators interpreted the word “anajij” here to mean horses with long necks.

In Sudanese colloquial language, the word “ang/naaj” is related to necks and their length. Among these is the words of Wad Al-Makkawi (praising Sheikh Al-Tayeb), in his famous poem “O Laila, your night has gone crazy”:

His necks sagged and he bent down

In Kordofan, they call that long-necked water bird, which in other areas of Sudan is known as “the rahu,” and it is the same as the sacred ibis bird of the ancient Egyptians. They call it “the naija.” By the way, it is not the graceful white bird that is called in Kordofan “Ab Rhiu,” and people in the Nile regions call it “cow bird.”

Ahmed Al-Mu'tasim's brief reference to the Arab kingdom of "Teflin", which Ibn Hawqal had previously referred to in his book "The Picture of the Earth", and whose existence was proven in the Gash River Basin region since at least the tenth century AD, and the author's implicit assumption that the human element that was inhabiting that kingdom was related to the "Anj" element, which strengthens the intuition of the writer of these lines that these "Anj" may have actually been among the extinct Arabs of Sudan, or that they were, At the very least, it is a Muslim Bejawi element - albeit nominally - with a high degree of Arabization.

The presence of population groups of Arab origins in those areas (south of Diyar al-Beja), dating back to the first centuries of the Hijra, is an archaeologically established fact. Traces of human habitation and tombstones of Arabs, dating back to the third and fourth centuries AH, were found in the vicinity of Khor Nabat, located in the Wadi Baraka basin area. This information is confirmed in an article published in one of the issues of Sudan Notes & Records magazine, the name of its author and the date of its publication are now available. Indeed, the names of some deceased persons found engraved on the tombstones strongly indicate that they belong to Umayyad Arabs specifically, such as: “This is the grave of Al-Walid bin Muhammad bin Al-Walid bin Aban.” This is because “Al-Walid” and “Aban” were common names among the Umayyads.

There is also some other evidence that leads to the belief that the “Anj” may have actually been an Arab or Arabized element, and perhaps Muslim as well, but “lightly.” In addition to what we mentioned about their physical characteristics that were stored about them in popular collective memory, the same memory says about them that they spoke Arabic.

As for their religion, I also intuit, without absolute certainty, that they may have been Muslims whose rule was prolonged and whose preachers and teachers were cut off from them, before waves of migratory Bedouin tribes came to them, whose members did not have much knowledge of religion. Therefore, they remained in a state of nominal Islam, as we think.

Perhaps the tolerance of the “Anj” towards a group of “poor people” and Muslim preachers who began their educational and advocacy careers during their rule strengthens the intuition that these “Anj” themselves have some affiliation to the Islamic religion. There are some references in the oral tradition, as well as in national manuscripts such as Kitab al-Tabaqat by Lud Dhifallah and others, to a group of Sufis and teachers of the Qur’an who appeared during the rule of “Al-Anj.” Such as: Ghulam Allah bin Ayed and his grandchildren, Sharif Hamad Abu Dananah, Sheikh Al-Bandari, Sheikh Hamad Wad Zarrouk and others.

What strengthens the belief in the “Arabization” of the Anj and their “Islamization” is what the popular memory, as well as the national manuscripts, contain of the names of their women, such as: the famous “Ajouba,” which was said to have destroyed “Soba,” and the names of their men, of which the author mentioned in his book, quoting from some national manuscripts, the name: “Hassab Allah Al-Anjawi,” who was described as being “the great of the Anj.” Likewise, national manuscripts, wherever the name of this type of people is mentioned, often refer to them as: “Arabs of the Anj.”

However, if the hypothesis that the Anj is related to the “halanga” is correct, which is the opinion to which the author seems to be inclined, then we should address this hypothesis in light of the historical, archaeological and ethnological data available to us for the region in question as well. All of these data combine to confirm that this region, “the country of southern Beja,” has been influenced by a strong Arab and Islamic human presence since the first centuries of migration. Perhaps what is good to mention in the same context is that the “Halanga” themselves trace their origins back to the Arab “Hawazin” tribe, and thus the problem is resolved.

The author mentions in another place in his research that the name “Al-Anj” disappears from the heritage of the people of “Al-Butana” and the East of the Blue Nile, and is replaced by the name “Al-Ballu” with the same connotation. Here we say that the name “Al-Ballu” mentioned may be a distortion of the name of the Arab “Bali” tribe, which was one of the first Arab tribes to migrate from the Arabian Peninsula to Sudan, perhaps before the emergence of Islam, and which appears to have been one of the first Arab tribes that the Beja came into contact with. This is indicated by the fact that the Beja call the Arabic language in their language until now: “Beloit.”

The author identifies the region that witnessed the control of the Anjawi, and was consequently influenced by the Anjawi heritage and prevailed in it, in the region from the Fourth Cataract to the Sixth Cataract of the Nile, and north of the Blue Nile and some of the land of the Gezira and the White Nile, and to the east by the Butana and to the west by the Kababish region.

The writer says about these areas affected by the Anjawi heritage that they are characterized by “a phenomenon that caught the attention of many, which is the spread of the syllable “ab” in the names of population groups.... It is a syllable that prevails in the Beja region and has been termed as a Bejawi syllable” A.H., p. 74 of the book.

The reality is that it is not true that the syllable “Ab” does not exist outside the area of the Anjawi heritage as defined by the author. This passage is found among the Bisharis and Ababda in the far north-east of Sudan. It is also found among the Arabs of the far south of Egypt, such as the Ababda and Al-Jaafra, and perhaps among other tribes such as the Qaraish, Al-Alaikat, and others. It is also not uncommon for the syllable “ab” to be found among the tribes living on the island and on the banks of the White and Blue Nile, to the south of the area specified by the author.

The proven existence of the syllable “Ab” in the names of some tribes and ethnic groups outside the scope of the “Anjawi heritage,” according to the author, but rather outside Sudan, as we have seen: “Upper Upper Egypt,” which raises doubt about the validity of restricting the attribution of this syllable to the Beja language alone. In addition to this also, we say that the word “Arbab” meaning “the ruler of the small tribal entity” or meaning one of the notables and notables in the terminology of the Funj period, as the author mentions, linking it to the aforementioned syllable “Ab,” is not limited to the Sudanese colloquial language alone. In contemporary Iraqi dialect, the honorable, honorable, and virtuous man, Al-Ghatrif, is described as a “man of lords.”

It has almost settled in the minds of researchers in the fields of history, anthropology, and linguistics in Sudan, that the suffixes “ab” and “yab,” which are used in many words in the colloquial Arabic of the people of Sudan, such as their saying: “qarbab,” “waikab,” “jqalib,” and “saklib,” are from the words of the Beja. I said: This may be so, but these passages seem to be not from the words of the Beja alone, but rather are something in common with what Dr. Jaafar Marghani calls the languages ​​of the Red Sea Basin, including the ancient Meroe language and the Arabic language.

Take, for example, the word “anqarib,” the wooden bed known in Sudan. You find Professor Aoun Al-Sharif said in his translation in his book: “Dictionary of Colloquial Dialect in Sudan,” that it is “Bejawi” in origin. This interpretation became widespread and widespread among other linguists and folklorists. But I heard Professor Abdullah Al-Tayeb, may God have mercy on him, saying, quoting his British colleague Professor Sargent, professor of Arabic at the University of Cambridge, that the people of the island of “Socotra” located in the Arabian Sea, south of Yemen, who speak one of the group of Shehri-Dhofari dialects closely related to the ancient Himyarite language, call the stars of the polar bear “the spider.” It is the same name that the Sudanese call it. So contemplate!

Likewise, the Angawi heritage in Kordofan - according to my knowledge - is not limited to the Kababish and the inhabitants of the Sea Mountains region alone, as stated in this study. Sir Harold McMichael mentioned in his book: “The Tribes of North and Central Kordofan,” quoting some national genealogists, that some tribes attributed to some of the tribes residing in Central and West Kordofan are of “Anj” origin.

In the final chapter of this study, which was entitled: “The End of the Time of the Anj,” the author addresses the scientific controversy that took place among historians, and still exists, regarding the history of the establishment of the Sinari alliance (between the Abdallab and the Funj), which is attributed to the overthrow of “Soba,” and then the establishment of the Funj state. He pointed out the criticism directed at this hypothesis, and the belief of some that the matter was accomplished first by the Abdlab eliminating the Anj on their own, and then the Abdlab was defeated at the hands of the Funj in the year 1504 AD.

What particularly struck me in the context of this part of the study was a phrase mentioned by the author that calls into question the historicity of the existence of Sheikh Abdullah Jamma himself, just because the common name in the Abdallab heritage is “Wad Ajeeb.” The author says: “And Abdullah Jamaa himself does not find consensus on the existence of a character with this name, as the oral narrations of Al-Abdlab themselves do not agree on him, but rather some narrations point to the beginning of her matter from (Ajeeb).” From the book p. 93.

I said: This is truly “strange.” Is it enough that the name of a person, thing, or event is not mentioned in writing to prove its historical non-existence? This is Hubal, the greatest idol of the polytheists of Quraish. No one doubts his historical existence. However, his name is not mentioned in the Holy Qur’an. Rather, it mentions the names of other gods: Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, and Manat. How often are “written” references to “the phoenix” and “the dragon” mentioned in stories and poems, which are things that do not exist at all in reality.

The historicity of the existence of Abdullah Jamaa can be proven with only known historical evidence, through one of the chapters of sociolinguistics, which is the chapter on “Proper Names” or what is known in French as Onomastique. This is because the name “Abdullah” was repeated three other times in the series of Abdallab kings, which indicates that they were all named after a great ancestor of theirs called “Abdullah,” who is undoubtedly “Abdullah Jama’a.” (See the book of Muhammad Salih Muhyiddin on the Sheikhdom of Al-Abdlab).

The prevalence of the name “Ajeeb” and “Wad Ajeeb” in the Al-Abdullab heritage in general can be explained, in our estimation, by the high, almost legendary status enjoyed by Sheikh Ajeeb Al-Manglik, the son of Abdullah Jamaa Al-Madhkur, and his successor on the throne. This is because the wonder of Al-Manglik was, in the eyes of Al-Abdlab, and in the eyes of many others inside Sudan, the “Sultan of the Outward and the Inward.” According to them, he is a king and a good and honorable guardian. His mother is the daughter of the honorable Hamad Abu Danana, as it is said (and this is from oral tradition). He is a warrior knight, a great conqueror, and a pilgrim to the Sacred House of God. For all of this, his fame became widespread, his name became widespread, and the entire Abdalabi ruling family was branded with his badge. But this does not prevent the founder of the kingdom from being his father, Sheikh Abdullah Jamaa, by whom the tribe was later called “Al-Abdlab.” Otherwise, they should have been called “Al-Ajibab.”

To give an example of such an illusion that leads to such a mistake, we say: Let us imagine that a researcher came a thousand years from now, and found the wonderful and documented written heritage of Sheikh Abd al-Rahim al-Borai, “the man of the corral,” and proceeded to chronicle the aforementioned village of “the corral,” and claimed that its founder was “Sheikh al-Borai,” and not his father, “Sheikh Muhammad Wad Waqi Allah.” Only because Al-Borai is more famous than his father, and that he has a documented, written creative heritage.

Another example from the Sudanese reality is: The “Rikabiyya” tribe, for example, whose members are related to their closest ancestor, “Rikab,” and not to their great grandfather, “Ghulam Allah bin Ayed,” whose historical existence is not in doubt, at least from the point of view of national lineage and oral narratives. Indeed, the name of Ghulam Allah itself is not widespread, as far as I know, among the members of this tribe.

The succinct statement is that this book, “The Kingdom of the Christian Doors and the Time of Anguish,” is a new book, very new in its material, and very original in its chapter, as we mentioned above, and it is also a truly useful and interesting book. He deserves to bring about more sober and careful scientific reactions from scientists specialized in this field, more than I did through these thoughts, which may have been tinged with some impressionism and haste, and perhaps tainted by some shortcomings in the research tool, resulting from the lack of the necessary references in my possession at the present time.

Khaled Mohammed Farah

Diplomat and researcher

Head of the Studies and Research Department of the General Secretariat of the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CS), Tripoli - Libya