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The sons of Jbir and their kin: a clan of Sudanese religious notables

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Extract

Awld Jbir, the sons of Jbir, were eminent religious teachers in the Nilotic Sudan during the later part of the sixteenth century. Apart from their own importance, they and their kinsmen by blood and marriage formed a complex group of religious families. Information concerning numerous members of this clan is provided by the collection of biographies of Sudanese holy men known as the Ṭabaqtof Wad Ḍayfallh, which is the main source used in the present article. Two uncritical editions were published in Cairo in 1930.1

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright School of Oriental and African Studies 1967

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References

1 (a) Ed. Ibrhm Ṣuddayq Ṣadq, Hillelson, Kitb al-ṭabaqt f khuṣṣ al-awliy' wa 'l-ṣaliḥn wa 'l-ulam wa 'l-shuard fi 'l-Sdn; (b) ed. Sulaymn D'd Mandl, Kitb ṭabaqt Wad Ḍayfallh f awliy' wa-ṣliḥn wa-ulam wa-shuar al-Sdn. The former version has been used for the present study; page-references to it are prefixed with T.

2 T, 1089.

3 T, 10910.

4 The Funj Chronicle: (a) ed. Mekki Shibeika Makk Shibayka, Ta'rikh mulk al-Sdn, Khartoum, 1947, text, 19; (b) ed. Galil, Chater Bosayley A. al-Shṭir Buṣayl 'Abd al-Jall, Makhṭṭat ktib al-shna f ta'rkh al-salṭana al-sinnriyya wa'l-idra al-miṣriyya, n.p., n.d. Cairo, 1961, 678.Google Scholar

5 T, 78.

6 I have recently learned that manuscripts are being sought and photographed by the officials of the Central Records Office in Khartoum.

7 MacMichael, H. A., A history of the Arabs in the Sudan, Cambridge, 1922, II 217323. This work will be referred to subsequently as MacMichael, Arabs.Google Scholar

8 Hillelson, S., Sudan Arabic texts, Cambridge, 1935, 172203.Google Scholar

9 Hillelson, S., Tabaqt Wad Ḍayf Allah, studies in the lives of the scholars and saints, Sudan Notes and Records VI, 2, 1923, 191230.Google Scholar

10 T, 714.

11 T, 3942.

12 T, 334.

13 T, 546.

14 T, 4753.

15 T, 7483.

16 T, 90.

17 T, 18.

18 T, 120.

19 School of Oriental Studies, University of Durham: Sudan Archive, Provisional hand-list of Arabic manuscripts and lithographs: Africa, Arabia, second draft, 1961, No. 256 (19), ? al-ṭhir b. 'Abd Allh, Kitb ma'rif fur' al-Ạrab wa'l-ḥasab wa 'l-nasab: 97/5/11.

20 MacMichael, , Arabs, II, 1659.Google Scholar

21 Fur (Durham MS), f. 5a; cf. MacMichael, , Arabs, II, 35 (CCVIII), which seems to have been translated from a defective text.Google Scholar

22 Fur, f. 5a. This passage does not appear in MacMichael's translation.

23 T, p. 6, n. 2..

24 T, 91.

25 Hoskins, G. A., Travels in Ethiopia, London, 1835, 8990; cf. 59.Google Scholar

26 T, 91.

27 In Sudanese colloquial usage, the plural form, kan'is, signifies ruins cf. Hillelson, S., Sudan Arabic: English-Arabic vocabulary, London, 1925, 245.Google Scholar

28 MacMichael, , Arabs, II, 304, suggests that Qindlab'Awn may be identical with Qindl al-Ṣrid, referred to in another notice (T, 137). This would establish a link with the Ṣawrda, who appear in the anecdote of Rubṭ's marriage.Google Scholar

29 MacMichael, , Arabs, II, 220; II, 3367.Google Scholar

30 cf. Gleichen, Count, The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, London, 1905, I, 38.Google Scholar

31 By this time Old Dongola itself had long been islamized. An inscription indicates that the church was converted into a mosque in 717/1317; cf. Crawford, O.G.S., The Fung kingdom of Sennar, Gloucester, 1951, 35.Google Scholar

32 cf. Trimingham, J. S., Islam in the Sudan, London, 1949, 167.Google Scholar

33 T, 6.

34 His notice is at T, 6. It is not found in MacMichael's summary-translation, which was made from a defective manuscript.

35 Sayed Mohammed Omer Beshir of the University of Khartoum informs me, from his personal knowledge of the locality, that Turunj is on the right bank of the Nile, near to Karma and opposite Nn. There are numerous fertile islands in the vicinity.

36 cf. al-Ghazz, Najm al-Dn, al-Kawkib al-sira bi-a'yn al-mi'a al-'shira, III HarissaBeirut, 1958, 82.Google Scholar

37 T, 5.

38 Bodleian Library, Oxford: MS Bruce 18 (2), f. 55b.

39 T, 11112; MacMichael, , Arabs, II, 224 (17).Google Scholar

40 T, 67. Not found in MacMichael's summary-translation.

41 T, 7. Not found in MacMichael's summary-translation.

42 cf. Crawford, , Fung kingdom of Sennar, 478.Google Scholar

43 T, 96; MacMichael, , Arabs, II, 266 (233).Google Scholar

44 T, 1013; MacMichael, , Arabs, II, 26870 (241),Google Scholar

45 The sd al-qm (sayyid al-qawm) was a high officer of royal blood at the Funj court.

46 MS Bruce 18 (2), f. 55b.

47 T, 1820; MacMichael, , Arabs, II, 272 (258).Google Scholar

48 That Dr Ṣulayḥ or Waddy was a watershed between the eastern Bild al-Sdn, which was culturally dependent on Egypt and the east, and the western Bild al-Sdn, which was similarly dependent on the Maghrib, is confirmed by Burckhardt, who observed in 181314 that the Fakys, as well as Saley as of the countries to the east of it, all write the eastern Arabic Nuskhy characters though very much corrupted; while those to the west and north have uniformly adopted the Moggrebyn character' (Burckhardt, J. L., Travels in Nubia, London, 1819, 481).Google Scholar

48 T, 1701; MacMichael, , Arabs, II 260 (204).Google Scholar

50 T, 43; MacMichael, , Arabs, II, 236 (79).Google Scholar

51 T, 132; MaeMichael, , Arabs, II, 224 (16).Google Scholar

52 T, 20: MacMichael, , Arabs, II, 246 (139).Google Scholar

53 Nasr Island is in the main Nile, up-stream of Shand.

54 T, 21; MaeMichael, , Arabs, II, 228 (47).Google Scholar

55 T, 1734; MacMichael, , Arabs, II, 253 (161). This notice covers both Madan al-ḥajar and Muḥammad ibn al-Rayda.Google Scholar

56 T, 174; MacMichael, , Arabs, II, 260 (202).Google Scholar

57 T, 174; MacMichael, , Arabs, II, 253 (160).Google Scholar

58 T, 72; MacMichael, , Arabs, II, 244 (130).Google Scholar

59 T, 1745; MacMichael, , Arabs, II, 259 (196).Google Scholar

60 T, 100; MacMichael, , Arabs, II, 267 (239).Google Scholar

61 T, 11719; MacMichael, , Arabs, II, 263 (219).Google Scholar

62 Burckhardt, , Travels in Nubia, 267.Google Scholar

63 Funj Chronicle: ed. Shibeika, text, 20; ed. Bosayley, 734.