The Abdallabi (or Abdallab) are people living in central Sudan who claim descent from Abdallah Jamma’a. They were an important political force between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. For a short time the Abdallabi succeeded in establishing an independent state, but they were defeated by the Funj Sultanate in 1504 and thereafter ruled over the Butana as vassals until the Egyptian conquest of 1820.[1] [2]
Abdallah Jamma’a, the eponymous ancestor of the Abdallabi tribe, was a Rufa'a Arab.[3] His nickname (“the gatherer”) referred to the hordes of tribesmen he was able to gather for his campaigns.[4] According to tradition, he settled in the Nile valley after coming from the east, consolidated his power and established his capital at Qarri, just north of the confluence of the two Niles, at the start of the route across the desert to Dongola.[5] In the late 15th century he led a rebellion against the Christian kingdom of Alodia by the Muslim Arab tribes no longer willing to accept its rule or taxation. Under Abdallah's leadership Alodia and its capital Soba were destroyed,[3] resulting in rich booty such as a "bejeweled crown" and a "famous necklace of pearls and rubies".[6] There is a variant tradition that ascribes the fall of Alodia to the Funj, a group from the south led by their king Amara Dunqas,[7] but most modern scholars agree that it fell to the Arabs.[8] [9]
The Sudanese chronicler Katib al-Shuna makes brief reference to Abdallah Jamma’a cooperating with Amara Dunqas to fight the indigenous people of Alodia, but apparently the Funj were able to defeat the Abdallabis decisively in a battle near Arbaji in 1504. Abdallah Jamma’a ‘thus became as it were their lieutenant’.[10]
Abdallah Jamma’a’s sons were the founders of the leading Abdallabi clans - Ajib al-Kafuta of the Ajibab clan, Muhammad Dayoum of the Dayoumab, Idris al Anker of the Ankeryab, Muhammad Badirkoga of the Badirkogab, and Saba of the Sabab.[11]
When Abdallah Jamma‘a died in the reign of the Funj sultan Amara ii Abu Sikaykin (1557–69), his son ‘Ajib al-Kafuta was appointed to succeed him. In 1576 ‘Ajib defeated an Ottoman invasion and penetrated Egypt as far as Aswan, pushing Ottoman rule back to the First Cataract.[12] In 1622 the northern Abdallabi frontier was finally settled at Hannik, just north of Dongola.
Early in the seventeenth century ‘Ajib revolted and drove out the Funj sultan ‘Abd al-Qadir II, who fled to Ethiopia. The Funj sultans were at least nominally Muslims by this time, but Abdallabi tradition describes the revolt of ‘Ajib al-Kafuta as a holy war, followed by the building of mosques up the Blue Nile and in the Ethiopian marches. ‘Ajib is also represented as making the Pilgrimage to Mecca.[10]
‘Abd al-Qadir‘s brother, ‘Adlan I, regained the throne, and in 1611-1612 defeated ‘Ajib at the battle of Karkoj, on the Blue Nile south of Sennar. ‘Ajib himself died in the battle, and his sons fled to Dongola. The mediation of a Muslim holy man, Shaykh Idris wad al-Arbab, obtained an amnesty for them. They returned to Qarri, where one of them, Muhammad al-Aqil, was appointed shaykh.[10] [13] [11]
Muhammad al-Aqil died after ruling for twenty-five years and defeating an Ethiopian invasion. He was succeeded by his son Abdallah Al-Brins who reigned peacefully for seventeen years.[11] After him ruled:
The Funj Sultanate was not a centralized state, and much power was held by vassals. The ‘Abdallabi shaykhs of Qarri, who bore the title manjil or manjilak, were viceroys of the north and the most important of these vassals.[10]
The power of the ‘Abdallabi depended on the ability of their mounted soldiers to raise taxes from settled farmers, and to exercise some control over the cattle nomads of the plains. An important source of revenue was customs dues; the destruction of Christian Alodia meant that new trade and pilgrimage routes crossing Sudan from east to west began to open up, connecting Mecca and Medina with the Lake Chad region.[14]
Neither the Funj nor their Abdallabi viceroys were able to prevent the Shaigiya tribe from throwing off Funj rule in the seventeenth century.[15] Some degree of Abdallabi authority over the Beja tribes of the northeast is perhaps suggested by the legend of a marriage between a woman of the Amerar Beja and either ‘Ajib al-Kafuta or his brother.[4]
In the middle of the 18th century, during the reign of Sheikh Abdallah III, the capital of the Abdallabi realm was moved south from Qarri to Halfayat al-Muluk, just north of modern Khartoum. This move appears to have been motivated by both political and commercial reasons. Qarri was a customs post on caravan routes but had little trade of its own, while the lands around it were not particularly productive. The Abdallabis kept their base at Halfayat al-Muluk until the Egyptian invasion, but by that time Qarri was in ruins.[2]
Sheikh Nasir ibn Sheikh al-Amin was near the end of his life when Egyptian armies under Ismail Kamil Pasha invaded Sudan in 1820. In 1821 Sheikh Nasir submitted to Egyptian rule without resistance, and sent his son his eldest son Al-Amin to accompany the invaders as they continued their campaign south towards Sennar, leaving a garrison behind in Halfaya. Soon after they left, Sheikh al-Amin died and Al-Amin was appointed to succeed him. However in 1822 the Ja'alin tribe rebelled in Shendi, killing Ismail, and the Abdallabis in Halfaya likewise rose up and killed the Egyptian garrison. Muhammad Khusraw, the Defterdar Bey, brought Egyptian forces back from Kordofan and Al-Amin fled to Gallabat.[11]
A decade later the Egyptian government pardoned Al-Amin’s cousin Miri and allowed him to return to Halfaya as Sheikh. He was succeeded briefly by Sheikh Muhammad Nasir, and then by Muhammad Nasir’s brother Idris Nasir, who was held in high regard by the government despite conspiring with the Egyptian viceroy to remove Sudan from Egyptian rule and pledge direct allegiance to the Ottoman Empire. He was succeeded by Sheikh Jamma’a Sheikh al-Amin, who was an army commander when the Mahdiyyah broke out in 1881 and died on campaign in Kordofan.[11]
His successor Nasir Jamma’a managed to retain his authority over the Abdallabis throughout the Mahdiyya and died resisting the Anglo-Egyptian conquest of Sudan. His successor Sheikh al-Amin Umar however made his peace with the Condominium government. Sheikh Muhammad al-Sheikh Jamma’a, his successor, was awarded a medal by King George V during a royal visit to Port Sudan in 1912.[11]