Although the Democratic Republic of Sudan has been an official member of the League of Arab States virtually since independence, the country has been frequently bypassed in studies of the Arab World—and for that matter, of Subsaharan Africa as well. And while successive Sudanese regimes have spoken of their country as a “bridge” between the Muslim Arab world and non-Muslim Black Africa, the foreign scholarly community has ironically treated this geographically largest country in Africa and the Middle East only in the most marginal terms.