Islam in Sudan: Difference between revisions
Reference to photo story about Sudanese sufi rituals included |
LucasBrown (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
||
(37 intermediate revisions by 28 users not shown) | |||
Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{Short description|none}} <!-- "none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]] --> |
|||
{{ |
{{update|inaccurate=yes|reason=The July 2011 [[partition of Sudan]]|date=February 2014}} |
||
{{Islam by country}} |
{{Islam by country}} |
||
{{Culture of Sudan}} |
|||
⚫ | |||
[[File:The Sufis in omdurman.jpg|thumb|Sufi ritual in [[Omdurman]] by [[Ola Alsheikh]]]] |
|||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | |||
|url=http://www.sd.undp.org/sudan%20overview.htm |
|url=http://www.sd.undp.org/sudan%20overview.htm |
||
|title=Sudan Overview |
|title=Sudan Overview |
||
| |
|website=www.sd.undp.org |
||
| |
|access-date=2013-04-03 |
||
|url-status=dead |
|url-status=dead |
||
| |
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120605132439/http://www.sd.undp.org/sudan%20overview.htm |
||
| |
|archive-date=2012-06-05 |
||
}}</ref> including numerous [[Arab]] and non-Arab groups. The remaining 3% ascribe to either [[Christianity]] or traditional [[animism|animist]] religions. Muslims predominate in all but [[Nuba Mountains]] region. The vast majority of Muslims in Sudan adhere to [[Sunni Islam]] of [[Maliki]] school of [[jurisprudence]], deeply influenced with [[Sufism]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2016/feb/05/the-psychedelic-world-of-sudans-sufis-in-pictures|title=The psychedelic world of Sudan's Sufis – in pictures| |
}}</ref> including numerous [[Arab]] and non-Arab groups. The remaining 3% ascribe to either [[Christianity]] or traditional [[animism|animist]] religions. Muslims predominate in all but [[Nuba Mountains]] region. The vast majority of Muslims in Sudan adhere to [[Sunni Islam]] of [[Maliki]] school of [[jurisprudence]], deeply influenced with [[Sufism]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2016/feb/05/the-psychedelic-world-of-sudans-sufis-in-pictures|title=The psychedelic world of Sudan's Sufis – in pictures|last1=Kheir|first1=Ala|date=2016-02-05|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-11-10|last2=Burns|first2=John|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077|last3=Algrefwi|first3=Ibrahim|archive-date=2019-11-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191110151150/https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2016/feb/05/the-psychedelic-world-of-sudans-sufis-in-pictures|url-status=live}}</ref> There are also some [[Shia]] communities in Khartoum, the capital.<ref name="books.google.co.uk">{{Cite book|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=TktxvDN2QX4C&q=shia+sudan&pg=PA28|title = A Necessary Engagement: Reinventing America's Relations with the Muslim World|isbn = 978-1400829989|last1 = Nakhleh|first1 = Emile|date = 29 December 2008| publisher=Princeton University Press |access-date = 28 August 2021|archive-date = 7 March 2022|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220307030440/https://books.google.com/books?id=TktxvDN2QX4C&q=shia+sudan&pg=PA28|url-status = live}}</ref> The most significant divisions occur along the lines of the [[Sufi]] brotherhoods. Two popular brotherhoods, the [[Ansar (Sudan)|Ansar]] and the [[Khatmia]], are associated with the opposition [[National Umma Party Sudan|Umma]] and [[Democratic Unionist Party (Sudan)|Democratic Unionist]] Parties respectively. Only the [[Darfur]] region is traditionally lacking the presence of Sufi brotherhoods found in the rest of the country.<ref>Hamid Eltgani Ali, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4BNUBAAAQBAJ&q=warsh&pg=PA9 Darfur's Political Economy: A Quest for Development] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200818180131/https://books.google.com/books?id=4BNUBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA9&dq=warsh+quran&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=warsh&f=false |date=2020-08-18 }}, pg. 9. [[Abingdon-on-Thames]]: [[Routledge]], 2014. {{ISBN|9781317964643}}</ref> |
||
[[Shari'a]] law has been installed by various military regimes, and its application to non-Muslims in the capital was a contentious issue during the negotiations, but it and the other major issues underlying the |
[[Shari'a]] law has been installed by various military regimes, and its application to non-Muslims in the capital was a contentious issue during the negotiations, but it and the other major issues underlying the north–south conflict have been largely resolved in the agreements.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}} Shari'a is to continue to be the basis of the national legal system as it applies in the north; national legislation applicable to the south is to be based on "popular consensus, the values, and the customs of the people." In states or regions where a majority hold different religious or customary beliefs than those on which the legal system is based, the national laws may be amended to accord better with such beliefs. Throughout the country, the application of Shari'a to non-Muslims is to be limited, and courts may not exercise their discretion to impose the harsher physical forms of Shari'a penalties on non-Muslims. [[Sudan]] has had three democratic governments since 1956, all of which abolished [[Shari'a]] law. |
||
In September 2020, Sudan constitutionally became a [[Secularity|secular]] state after Sudan's transitional government agreed to separate religion from the state, ending 30 years of Islamic rule and Islam as the official state religion in the North African nation.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://gulfnews.com/world/africa/sudan-ends-30-years-of-islamic-law-by-separating-religion-state-1.1599359147751|title=Sudan ends 30 years of Islamic law by separating religion, state|date=6 September 2020 |access-date=2020-09-09|archive-date=2020-09-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200906183606/https://gulfnews.com/world/africa/sudan-ends-30-years-of-islamic-law-by-separating-religion-state-1.1599359147751|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200907-sudan-separates-religion-from-state-ending-30-years-of-islamic-rule/|title=Sudan separates religion from state ending 30 years of Islamic rule|access-date=2020-09-09|archive-date=2020-09-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200907153349/https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200907-sudan-separates-religion-from-state-ending-30-years-of-islamic-rule/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.firstpost.com/world/islamic-world-at-decisive-point-in-history-will-it-take-the-path-of-emirates-or-turkey-8789981.html|title=Islamic world at decisive point in history: Will it take the path of Emirates or Turkey?|date=6 September 2020 |access-date=2020-09-09|archive-date=2020-09-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200906201907/https://www.firstpost.com/world/islamic-world-at-decisive-point-in-history-will-it-take-the-path-of-emirates-or-turkey-8789981.html|url-status=live}}</ref> This new legislation also ended the former apostasy law and public flogging.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-53379733|title=Sudan scraps apostasy law and alcohol ban for non-Muslims|date=12 July 2020 |access-date=2020-09-09|archive-date=2021-05-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507010830/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-53379733|url-status=live}}</ref> |
|||
==History== |
==History== |
||
{{main|Islamization of Sudan}} |
{{main|Islamization of Sudan}} |
||
{{further|History of Sudan}} |
{{further|History of Sudan|Islamism in Sudan}} |
||
There had been cultural contact between Nubians and Arabs long before the rise of Islam. |
|||
Islam spread to Sudan from the north, after the [[Islamic conquest of Egypt]]. |
|||
Nubia had already been [[Christianized]], also from Egypt, hence the old Nubian church followed [[Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria|Coptic Christianity]]. |
|||
The Nubian Christian kingdoms of [[Nobatia]], [[Makuria]] and [[Alodia]] fell to the Islamic invasions in 650, 1312 and 1504, respectively. From 1504, northern Sudan was ruled by the Muslim [[Sennar (sultanate)|Funj Sultanate]]. |
|||
Southern Sudan, i.e. [[South Kordofan]] and what is now [[South Sudan]] was neither Christianized nor Islamized until the 19th century. |
|||
This region fell under Islamic rule [[Egypt under Muhammad Ali|under Muhammad Ali]], and there has been religious and ethnic conflict ever since; the [[Mahdist War|Mahdiyah uprisings]] (1881-1899) can even be seen as the origin of political [[Islamism]] and resulted in [[Anglo-Egyptian Sudan|British control]] during 1899-1955. |
|||
Racial and religious conflicts between the Arab Muslim north and the Black African Christian South re-erupted in the [[First Sudanese Civil War]] (1955-1972), the [[Second Sudanese Civil War]] (1983-2005), the [[War in Darfur]] (2003-2010) and the [[Sudan internal conflict (2011–present)|ongoing conflict]] (since 2011). |
|||
==Ethnicity of the Muslim population in Sudan== |
|||
===Arabs=== |
|||
In the early 1990s, the largest single category among the Muslim peoples of [[Sudan]] consisted of those speaking some form of [[Arabic language|Arabic]]. Excluded were a small number of Arabic speakers originating in [[Egypt]] and professing [[Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria|Coptic Christianity]]. In 1983 the people identified as Arabs constituted nearly 70% of the total [[Sudan]]ese [[population]] and nearly 30% of the population of the northern provinces. In some of these provinces ([[Khartoum]], [[Ash Shamali]], [[Al Awsat]]), they were overwhelmingly dominant. In others ([[Kurdufan]], [[Darfur]]), they were less so but made up a majority. By 1990 Ash Sharqi State was probably largely Arab. It should be emphasized, however, that the acquisition of Arabic as a second language did not necessarily lead to the assumption of Arab identity. |
|||
Despite common language, religion, and self-identification, Arabs did not constitute a cohesive group. They were highly differentiated in their modes of livelihood and ways of life. Besides the major distinction dividing Arabs into sedentary and nomadic, there was an old tradition that assigned them to tribes, each said to have a common ancestor. |
|||
The two largest of the supratribal categories in the early 1990s were the [[Juhayna]] and the [[Jaali]] (or Jaalayin). The Juhayna category consisted of tribes considered [[nomads|nomadic]], although many had become fully settled. The Jaali encompassed the riverine, sedentary peoples from [[Dunqulah]] to just north of [[Khartoum]] and members of this group who had moved elsewhere. Some of its groups had become sedentary only in the twentieth century. Sudanese saw the Jaali as primarily indigenous peoples who were gradually arabized. Sudanese thought the Juhayna were less mixed, although some Juhayna groups had become more diverse by absorbing indigenous peoples. The Baqqara, for example, who moved south and west and encountered the Negroid peoples of those areas were scarcely to be distinguished from them. |
|||
A third supratribal division of some importance was the Kawahla, consisting of thirteen tribes of varying size. Of these, eight tribes and segments of the other five were found north and west of [[Khartoum]]. There people were more heavily dependent on pastoralism than were the segments of the other five tribes, who lived on either side of the White Nile from south of [[Khartoum]] to north of Kosti. This cluster of five groups (for practical purposes independent tribes) exhibited a considerable degree of self-awareness and cohesion in some circumstances, although that had not precluded intertribal competition for local power and status. |
|||
[[File:Mahdi Grave in Omdurman.jpg|thumb|left|Tomb of al-Mahdi in Omdurman, Sudan]] |
|||
The ashraf, who claim descent from [[Muhammad]], were found in small groups (lineages) scattered among other Arabs. Most of these lineages had been founded by religious teachers or their descendants. A very small group of descendants of the Funj Dynasty also claimed descent from the [[Umayyad]]s, an early dynasty of caliphs based in present-day Syria. That claim had little foundation, but it served to separate from other Arabs a small group living on or between the White Nile and the Blue Nile. The term ashraf was also applied in Sudan to the family of Muhammad Ahmad ibn as Sayyid Abd Allah, known as the Mahdi (1848–85). |
|||
The division into Jaali and Juhayna did not appear to have significant effect on the ways in which individuals and groups regarded each other. Conflicts between tribes generally arose from competition for good grazing land, or from the competing demands of nomadic and sedentary tribes on the environment. Among nomadic and recently sedentary Arabs, tribes and subtribes competed for local power. |
|||
Membership in tribal and subtribal units is generally by birth, but individuals and groups may also join these units by adoption, clientship, or a decision to live and behave in a certain way. For example, when a sedentary Fur becomes a cattle nomad, he is perceived as a Baqqara. Eventually the descendants of such newcomers are regarded as belonging to the group by birth. |
|||
Tribal and subtribal units divide the Arab ethnic category vertically, but other distinctions cut across Arab society and its tribal and subtribal components horizontally by differences of social status and power. Still another division is that of religious associations. |
|||
===Nubians=== |
|||
In the early 1990s, the [[Nubians]] were the second most significant Muslim group in Sudan, their homeland being the [[Nile]] River valley in far northern Sudan and southern [[Egypt]]. Other, much smaller groups speaking a related language and claiming a link with the Nile Nubians have been given local names, such as the [[Birqid]] and the [[Meidab]] in [[Darfur]] State. Almost all Nile Nubians speak Arabic as a second language; some near Dunqulah have been largely arabized and are referred to as [[Danaqla]]. |
|||
In the mid-1960s, in anticipation of the flooding of their lands after the construction of the Aswan High Dam, 35,000 to 50,000 Nile Nubians resettled at Khashm al Qirbah on the Atbarah River in what was then Kassala Province. It is not clear how many Nubians remained in the Nile Valley. Even before the resettlement, many had left the valley for varying lengths of time to work in the towns, although most sought to maintain a link with their traditional homeland. In the 1955-56 census, more Nile Nubians were counted in [[Khartoum]] Province than in the Nubian country to the north. A similar pattern of work in the towns was apparently followed by those resettled at Khashm al Qirbah. Many Nubians there retained their tenancies, having kin oversee the land and hiring non-Nubians to work it. The Nubians, often with their families, worked in [[Khartoum]], the town of Kassala, and Port Sudan. Renowned for their prestigious history and their unique and ancient culture, Nubians have the highest degree of literacy and assumed control of vital governmental offices throughout the history of the Sudan. Despite their knowledge of Arabic and their devotion to Islam, Nubians retained a considerable self-consciousness and tended to maintain tightly knit communities of their own in the towns. |
|||
===Beja=== |
|||
[[File:A mosque near a rest stop between Khartoum and Karima.jpg|thumb|A mosque near a rest stop between Khartoum and Karima.]] |
|||
The [[beja people|Beja]] have lived in the [[Red Sea Hills]] since ancient times. Arab influence was not significant until a millennium or so ago, but it has since led the Beja to adopt Islam and genealogies that link them to Arab ancestors, to arabize their names, and to include many Arabic terms in their language. Although some Arabs figure in the ancestry of the Beja, the group is mostly descended from an indigenous population, and they have not become generally arabized. Their language (Bedawiye) links them to Cushitic-speaking peoples farther south. |
|||
In the 1990s, most Beja belonged to one of four groups — the Bisharin, the Amarar, the Hadendowa, and the Bani Amir. The largest group was the Hadendowa, but the Bisharin had the most territory, with settled tribes living on the Atbarah River in the far south of the Beja range and nomads living in the north. A good number of the Hadendowa were also settled and engaged in agriculture, particularly in the coastal region near Tawkar, but many remained nomads. The Amarar, living in the central part of the Beja range, seemed to be largely nomads, as were the second largest group, the Bani Amir, who lived along the border with northern Ethiopia. The precise proportion of nomads in the Beja population in the early 1990s was not known, but it was far greater relatively than the nomadic component of the Arab population. The Beja were characterized as conservative, proud, and aloof even toward other Beja and very reticent in relations with strangers. They were long reluctant to accept the authority of central governments. |
|||
===Fur=== |
|||
The [[Fur people|Fur]], ruled until 1916 by an independent [[sultanate]] (Darfur) and oriented politically and culturally to peoples in Chad, were a sedentary, cultivating group long settled on and around the [[Jabal Marrah]]. Although the ruling dynasty and the peoples of the area had long been Muslims, they have not been arabized. Livestock has played a small part in the subsistence of most Fur. Those who acquired a substantial herd of cattle could maintain it only by living like the neighboring Baqqara Arabs, and those who persisted in this pattern eventually came to be thought of as Baqqara. |
|||
===Zaghawa=== |
|||
{{See also|Zaghawa people|l1=Zaghawa}} |
|||
Living on the plateau north of the Fur were the seminomadic people calling themselves Beri and known to the Arabs as [[Zaghawa people|Zaghawa]]. Large numbers of the group lived in [[Chad]]. Herders of cattle, camels, sheep, and goats, the Zaghawa also gained a substantial part of their livelihood by gathering wild grains and other products. Cultivation had become increasingly important but remained risky, and the people reverted to gathering in times of drought. Converted to [[Islam]], the [[Zaghawa people|Zaghawa]] nevertheless retain much of their traditional religious orientation. |
|||
===Masalit, Daju and Berti=== |
|||
{{see also|Masalit people|Daju people}} |
|||
[[File:Darfur report - Page 3 Image 1.jpg|thumb|200px|Darfur Muslims meet]] |
|||
Of other peoples living in Darfur who spoke [[Nilo-Saharan languages]] and are Muslim, the most important were the Masalit, Daju, and Berti. All were primarily cultivators living in permanent villages, but they practiced animal husbandry in varying degrees. The Masalit, living on the Sudan-Chad border, were the largest group. Historically under a minor [[sultanate]], they were positioned between the two dominant sultanates of the area, [[Darfur]] and [[Ouaddai Kingdom|Wadai]] (in Chad). A part of the territory they occupied had been formerly controlled by the [[Fur people|Fur]], but the Masalit gradually encroached on it in the first half of the twentieth century in a series of local skirmishes carried out by villages on both sides, rather than the sultanates. In 1990-91 much of Darfur was in a state of anarchy, with many villages being attacked. There were many instances in which Masalit militias attacked Fur and other villages. |
|||
The Berti consisted of two groups. One lived northeast of [[Al Fashir]]; the other had migrated to [[East Darfur]] and [[West Kurdufan]] provinces in the nineteenth century. The two Berti groups did not seem to share a sense of common identity and interest. Members of the western group, in addition to cultivating subsistence crops and practicing animal husbandry, gathered [[gum arabic]] for sale in local markets. The [[Berti language]] had largely given way to Arabic as a home language. |
|||
The term Daju was a linguistic designation that was applied to a number of groups scattered from western Kurdufan and southwestern Darfur states to eastern Chad. These groups called themselves by different names and exhibited no sense of common identity. |
|||
[[File:Sudanese mosque, mid-19th century.jpg|thumb|Simple village mosque in Upper Nubia, mid-19th century]] |
|||
===West Africans=== |
|||
{{Refimprove|date=June 2012}} |
|||
Living in [[Sudan]] in 1990 were nearly a million people of West African origin. Together, West Africans who have become Sudanese nationals and resident nonnationals from West Africa made up 6.5% {{Citation needed|date=June 2012}}of the Sudanese population. In the mid-1970s, West Africans had been estimated at more than 10% of the population{{Citation needed|date=June 2012}} of the northern provinces. Some were descendants of persons who had arrived five generations or more earlier; others were recent immigrants. Some had come in self-imposed exile, unable to accommodate to the colonial power in their homeland. Others had been pilgrims to Mecca, settling either en route or on their return. Many came over decades in the course of the great dispersion of the [[nomads|nomadic]] [[Fulani]]; others arrived, particularly after World War II, as rural and urban laborers or to take up land as peasant cultivators. |
|||
There had been cultural contact between Nubians and Arabs long before the rise of Islam. Islam spread to Sudan from the north, after the [[Islamic conquest of Egypt]] under the government of Amr ibn al-Aas . Nubia had already been [[Christianized]], also from Egypt, hence the old Nubian church followed [[Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria|Coptic Christianity]]. The Nubian Christian kingdoms of [[Nobatia]], [[Makuria]] and [[Alodia]] fell to the Islamic invasions in 650, 1312 and 1504, respectively. From 1504, northern Sudan was ruled by the Muslim [[Sennar (sultanate)|Funj Sultanate]]. |
|||
Nearly 60% {{Citation needed|date=June 2012}} of people included in the West African category were said to be of Nigerian origin (locally called Borno after the Nigerian emirate that was their homeland). Given Hausa dominance in northern Nigeria and the widespread use of their language there and elsewhere, some non-Hausa might also be called Hausa and describe themselves as such. But the Hausa themselves, particularly those long in Sudan, preferred to be called Takari. The Fulani, even more widely dispersed throughout West Africa, may have originated in states other than Nigeria. Typically, the term applied to the Fulani in Sudan was Fallata, but Sudanese also used that term for other West Africans. |
|||
Southern Sudan, i.e. [[South Kordofan]] and what is now [[South Sudan]] was neither Christianized nor Islamized until the 19th century. This region fell under Islamic rule [[Egypt under Muhammad Ali|under Muhammad Ali]], and there has been religious and ethnic conflict ever since; the [[Mahdist War|Mahdiyah uprisings]] (1881–1899) can even be seen as the origin of political [[Islamism]] and resulted in [[Anglo-Egyptian Sudan|British control]] during 1899–1955. Racial and religious conflicts between the Arab Muslim north and the Black African Christian South re-erupted in the [[First Sudanese Civil War]] (1955–1972), the [[Second Sudanese Civil War]] (1983–2005), the [[War in Darfur]] (2003–2010) and the [[Sudan internal conflict (2011–present)|ongoing conflict]] since 2011. |
|||
Fulani nomads were found in many parts of central Sudan from Darfur to the Blue Nile, and they occasionally competed with indigenous populations for pasturage. In Darfur groups of Fulani origin adapted in various ways to the presence of the Baqqara tribes. Some retained all aspects of their culture and language. A few had become much like Baqqara in language and in other respects, although they tended to retain their own breeds of cattle and ways of handling them. Some of the Fulani groups in the eastern states were sedentary, descendants of sedentary Fulani of the ruling group in northern Nigeria. |
|||
==See also== |
==See also== |
||
Line 87: | Line 36: | ||
==References== |
==References== |
||
{{Reflist}} |
{{Reflist}} |
||
* {{ |
* {{Country study}} |
||
{{commons category}} |
|||
{{Sudan topics}} |
{{Sudan topics}} |
||
{{Demographics of Sudan}} |
{{Demographics of Sudan}} |
||
{{Africa topic|Islam in}} |
{{Africa topic|Islam in}} |
||
[[Category:Islam by country|Sudan]] |
|||
[[Category:Islam in Sudan| ]] |
[[Category:Islam in Sudan| ]] |
Latest revision as of 04:53, 30 June 2024
This article's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. The reason given is: The July 2011 partition of Sudan. (February 2014) |
Islam by country |
---|
Islam portal |
Part of a series on the |
Culture of Sudan |
---|
Languages |
Cuisine |
Sport |
Islam is the most common religion in Sudan and Muslims have dominated national government institutions since independence in 1956. According to UNDP Sudan, the Muslim population is 97%,[1] including numerous Arab and non-Arab groups. The remaining 3% ascribe to either Christianity or traditional animist religions. Muslims predominate in all but Nuba Mountains region. The vast majority of Muslims in Sudan adhere to Sunni Islam of Maliki school of jurisprudence, deeply influenced with Sufism.[2] There are also some Shia communities in Khartoum, the capital.[3] The most significant divisions occur along the lines of the Sufi brotherhoods. Two popular brotherhoods, the Ansar and the Khatmia, are associated with the opposition Umma and Democratic Unionist Parties respectively. Only the Darfur region is traditionally lacking the presence of Sufi brotherhoods found in the rest of the country.[4]
Shari'a law has been installed by various military regimes, and its application to non-Muslims in the capital was a contentious issue during the negotiations, but it and the other major issues underlying the north–south conflict have been largely resolved in the agreements.[citation needed] Shari'a is to continue to be the basis of the national legal system as it applies in the north; national legislation applicable to the south is to be based on "popular consensus, the values, and the customs of the people." In states or regions where a majority hold different religious or customary beliefs than those on which the legal system is based, the national laws may be amended to accord better with such beliefs. Throughout the country, the application of Shari'a to non-Muslims is to be limited, and courts may not exercise their discretion to impose the harsher physical forms of Shari'a penalties on non-Muslims. Sudan has had three democratic governments since 1956, all of which abolished Shari'a law.
In September 2020, Sudan constitutionally became a secular state after Sudan's transitional government agreed to separate religion from the state, ending 30 years of Islamic rule and Islam as the official state religion in the North African nation.[5][6][7] This new legislation also ended the former apostasy law and public flogging.[8]
History
[edit]There had been cultural contact between Nubians and Arabs long before the rise of Islam. Islam spread to Sudan from the north, after the Islamic conquest of Egypt under the government of Amr ibn al-Aas . Nubia had already been Christianized, also from Egypt, hence the old Nubian church followed Coptic Christianity. The Nubian Christian kingdoms of Nobatia, Makuria and Alodia fell to the Islamic invasions in 650, 1312 and 1504, respectively. From 1504, northern Sudan was ruled by the Muslim Funj Sultanate.
Southern Sudan, i.e. South Kordofan and what is now South Sudan was neither Christianized nor Islamized until the 19th century. This region fell under Islamic rule under Muhammad Ali, and there has been religious and ethnic conflict ever since; the Mahdiyah uprisings (1881–1899) can even be seen as the origin of political Islamism and resulted in British control during 1899–1955. Racial and religious conflicts between the Arab Muslim north and the Black African Christian South re-erupted in the First Sudanese Civil War (1955–1972), the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983–2005), the War in Darfur (2003–2010) and the ongoing conflict since 2011.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Sudan Overview". www.sd.undp.org. Archived from the original on 2012-06-05. Retrieved 2013-04-03.
- ^ Kheir, Ala; Burns, John; Algrefwi, Ibrahim (2016-02-05). "The psychedelic world of Sudan's Sufis – in pictures". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 2019-11-10. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
- ^ Nakhleh, Emile (29 December 2008). A Necessary Engagement: Reinventing America's Relations with the Muslim World. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1400829989. Archived from the original on 7 March 2022. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
- ^ Hamid Eltgani Ali, Darfur's Political Economy: A Quest for Development Archived 2020-08-18 at the Wayback Machine, pg. 9. Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge, 2014. ISBN 9781317964643
- ^ "Sudan ends 30 years of Islamic law by separating religion, state". 6 September 2020. Archived from the original on 2020-09-06. Retrieved 2020-09-09.
- ^ "Sudan separates religion from state ending 30 years of Islamic rule". Archived from the original on 2020-09-07. Retrieved 2020-09-09.
- ^ "Islamic world at decisive point in history: Will it take the path of Emirates or Turkey?". 6 September 2020. Archived from the original on 2020-09-06. Retrieved 2020-09-09.
- ^ "Sudan scraps apostasy law and alcohol ban for non-Muslims". 12 July 2020. Archived from the original on 2021-05-07. Retrieved 2020-09-09.
- This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Country Studies. Federal Research Division.