90 the sudan handbookthe region under a new dynasty, known as the Funj, based at Sennar on
the Blue Nile. The Funj kingdom inherited not only political, but ritual
and ceremonial practices which had much in common with those of
the older Nubian kingdoms and also of the Nilotic Sudan, as we know
from modern studies of the Shilluk kingdom, a polity that emerged later
further up the Nile.
The new rulers at Sennar were soon to adopt Muslim ways, though
in Jay Spaulding’s phrase, Islam remained an ‘exotic royal cult’ for some
time. By the seventeenth century, there was an increase in the number of
Muslim missionaries visiting Sennar, including men of Sudanese origin
(initially trained abroad), who helped win acceptance for the Maliki
school of Islamic law; and the first mosque in the Funj kingdom was
built, providing orthodox education and literacy in Arabic. The Sufi
school of Islam, which sought mystical union with the higher powers
through asceticism and spiritual exercises, also became established.
Sufism brought to the Sudan the tariqa or religious brotherhood, a new
form of social organization – still important today – in which authority
was vested in a leader recognized as having special spiritual power or
baraka. This was passed on from a teacher or spiritual master to his
followers, often to his own son. The Sufi communities, mainly locally-
based, though affiliated to the Qadiriya order, flourished both in urban
areas and in rural areas where syncretism with pre-Islamic beliefs was
relatively unproblematic.
The characteristic Sufi mode of worship has long been the dhikr or zikr,
in which the names of God are chanted, often in conjunction with music,
songs and circular dancing, occasionally producing trance. As trade and
towns developed through the eighteenth century, these communities were
often granted land and a tax-free status. Sufi centres proved an attraction
for many of the poorer urban migrants, including debtors and asylum
seekers in search of a new life; the leaders of these communities thus
became spokesmen for the masses, some remembered as folk-heroes,
their baraka transmitted onward and their tombs revered as shrines.
Meanwhile, the new bourgeoisie in the towns of the Sudanese heart-The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors land^ began^ to^ proclaim^ themselves^ Arabs,^ constructing^ putative^ family^
(www.riftvalley.net).