Translator's Note
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Notes Translator’s Note 1. The battle was between Mahmoud wad Ahmed, a Mahdiyya Amir, and the Ja`aliyyn, who were and still are the inhabitants of Matamma, in July 1987. The Mahdist Amir wanted the inhabitants to vacate the town for his troops, which they refused. They ended up murdered and enslaved by the Mahdists. See Mohammed Said Al-Gaddal, Tarikh al-Sudan al-Hadith 1820–19555 (Cairo: al-Amal for printing and Publishing. 1992), 208. 2. See chapter 5 in this book. 3. See the Encyclopedia Brittanica Online, http:// www.britannica.com /EBchecked/topic/25025/Anglo-Egyptian-Condominium, where it is stated that “the governors and inspectors were customarily British offi- cers, though technically serving in the Egyptian Army, and key figures in the government and civil service always remained graduates of British universities and military schools.” However, de jure (legally), the Sudan was never a British colony. 4. Robert S. Kramer in Junius P. Rodriguez, The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery, vol. 1 (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1997), 381. 5. Ibid. 6. E. A. Wallis Budge, The Egyptian Sudan, Its History and Monuments, 2 vols. (New York: AMS Press, 1976), 225. 7. See Mohammed Said Al-Gaddal, Tarikh al-Sudan al-Hadith 1820–1955 (Cairo: al-Amal for printing and Publishing, 2002), 209. 8. Flora Shaw; Khalifa ‘Abbas al-’Ubayyid, trans., al-Zubayr Pashaa (Cairo: Sudanese Studies Center, 1995). A translation of Flora Shaw’s inter- views with al-Zubayr Pasha in Gibraltar published originally in “The Contemporary Review.” 9. Izzeldin Ismail, Al-Zubair Pasha Wa Dawrihi Fi Al-Sudan Fi Asr Al-Hukm Al-Misri, Tarikh Al-Misriyyin, edited by Mahmoud al-Gazzar (Cairo: al-Hay’aa al-Misriyya al-Amma Lilkitab, 1998), 310–312. 10. Eve Troutt Powell, Tell This in My Memory: Stories of Enslavement from Egypt, Sudan, and the Ottoman Empiree (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2012), 31–32. 152 Notes 11. Sir James Robertson, The Status of Slavery in Islamic Law- Draft. DMH Evans Papers. SAD/ 710/11/23–5. 12. Yoshiko Korita; Magdi An-`aim, trans., ‘A li Abdullatif and t he Revolution of 1924: A Study into the Origin of the Sudanese Revolutionn (Cairo: The Sudanese Studies Centre, 1997), 29. 13. Ibid. 14. The majority of cases that involved slavery relations were land ownership cases. Slaves who stayed with masters were given land and/or houses that continued to be occupied by their descendants, who sought to register the property in their names. A person may acquire land by prescription if he or she has public, peaceful, and uninterrupted possession for ten years. See Saeed Mohamed Ahmed al-Mahdi, “Concept of Ownership of Land in the Sudan,” The Sudanese Judgements and Precedents Electronic Encyclopedia, 1971. http://sjsudan.org/index.php?lang=en 15. Names of the parties in Personal Status cases in Shari`aa courts are withheld and do not appear when the cases are reported in the official “Sudan Law Journal and Reports.” 16. See Jok Madut Jok, War and Slavery in Sudan: Ethnography of Political Violencee (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001), 20–40. 17. See Douglas H. Johnson, The Root Causes of Sudan’s Civil Wars, African Issues (Bloomington; Kampala: Indiana University Press; Fountain Publishers, 2003), 158. 18. Karl Vick, “Ripping Off Slave ‘Redeemers’ Rebels Exploit Westerners’ Efforts to Buy Emancipation for Sudanese,” Washington Postt, February 26, 2002. A01. 19. “al-Bashir promises to take back Hijlij and ‘discipline’ South Sudan Government,” ASharq al-Awsatt, April 20, 2012. Introduction 1. Turuqq is the plural of the Arabic word tariqaa which means path. There were, and still are, many Sufi sects that follow certain Sufi leaders in a specific tariqa. 2. The author was in hiding for 14 years during the military government in the Sudan that lasted from 1969 to 1985. And again during the current military government he was in hiding from 1992 to 2005. 3. Albuq’aa or buqa`att Almahdi is modern day Omdurman; it was the capi- tal of the Mahdist state. Buq`aa is a place or space. 4. Ibd`a Journal, December 12, 1992. Cairo. s.n. 5. See Hassan Ahmed Ibrahim, “The Strategy, Responses and Legacy of the First Imperialist Era in the Sudan 1820–1885,” The Muslim World 91, no. 1–2 (2007): 209–228. 6. Lidwien Kapteijns, Mahdist Faith and Sudanic Tradition: The History of the Masalit Sultanate, 1870–1930, Monographs from the African Studies Center Leiden (London; Boston: KPI, 1985), 4–6. Notes 153 7. I bid., 4. 8. Ibid., 4. 9. An Arab free man, Ali bin Mohamed, lead a slave revolution in 1871 in Southern Iraq to free the slaves and change their status according to the Qur’an. He succeeded in defeating the Abbasid armies and was said to have threatened the whole Abbasid Empire. However, he replicated enslavement of Abbasid women and men and treated them the same way the black slaves had been treated. For more on the Zanjj revolution see Ahmed Olabi, Thawrat Al-Zanj wa qa`idiha Ali bin Mohamed (The Negro Revolt and Its Leader Ali Bin Mohamed.) (Beirut: Dar al-Farabi, 2007). 10. For details of the Mamluk’s rise and demise, see A. A. Paton, A History of the Egyptian Revolution, from the Period of the Mamelukes to the Death of Mohammed Ali; from Arab and European Memoirs, Oral Tradition, and Local Research, 2nd ed. (London: Trubner & Co.), 1870. 11. Mohamed Abdelrahim, Arabism in the Sudan, lecture in Cairo, February 23, 1935. 12. For more on the 1924 Revolution, see Mohamed Omer Beshir, Revolution and Nationalism in the Sudann (London: Collings, 1974). 13. Actually slave men and women did not have names; they carried descrip- tions of their masters or their good deeds as names; they were human advertising banners for the masters. Sometimes they were given names to send a message to an enemy. For example, Dukhrey Azzaman, liter- ally meant “One who is saved for time.” It indicated that the master was someone to depend on during the hard times. Slave names such as al-hay yishouff meant “he who lives will see.” It has a meaning close to the English idiom “as I live and breathe.” That was a statement indicat- ing surprises in life. It was a message sent to someone whom the master or mistress did not like and their behavior was something to be noticed as bad or not impressive. 14. This is an old song usually performed to praise the groom on his wed- ding day. Part of his praise is mentioning his wealth. 15. Geziera is the fertile land that lies between the Blue and White Nile. 16. The secretary general of the Sudanese Communist Party, who was exe- cuted by the military junta in 1971. 17. The war in the southern part of the country (now a separate state known as South Sudan) between the rebels and government forces was often referred to as the “Southern Problem or Question.” 18. Al-Zubair Pasha was the most famous Sudanese slave buyer. See the translator’s note. 19. Abdelkhaliq Mahjoub, in the Round Table Conference on Southern Sudan, Khartoum, March 16–25, 1965. 20. In October 1964, the Sudanese civilians managed to overthrow the military government that had ruled from 1958 to 1964, through civil disobedience similar to what took place in North Africa in 2011. 154 Notes 1 Slavery in Ancient Kingdoms of Sudan 1. Also spelled Meroë and Meruwe. 2. P. L. Shinnie, Meroe; a Civilization of the Sudan, Ancient Peoples and Places, vol. 55 (New York: F. A. Praeger, 1967), 153. 3. Although the Meroetic alphabet was deciphered, the language is still not understood. See Muḥammad Jamal al-Din Mukhtar and UNESCO. International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a General History of Africa, Ancient Civilizations of Africa, General History of Africaa (London; Berkeley: Heinemann Educational Books; University of California Press, 1981), 37. 4. Kandakee or kandacee means “great woman” in the Meroetic language. For more information on the kandakes of Nubia, see Carolyn Fluehr- Lobban, “Nubian Queens in the Nile Valley and Afro-Asiatic Cultural History,” a paper presented at the Ninth International Conference for Nubian Studies, August 20–26, 1998, at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA. The paper may be accessed att http://africanhistory.yolasite.com /resources/Nubian%20Queens.pdf 5. Al-Shaṭir Buṣayli ʻAbd al-Jalil, Maʻlim tarikh Sūdan Wadi al-Niil: min al-qarn al-ʻashir ilá al-qarn al-tasiʻ ʻashar al-Miladi (Cairo: Maktabat al-Sharif al-Akadimiyah, 6th ed. 2009). 6. Ibid., 182–192. 7. Amr bin Al-`Aas lead the campaign to conquer Egypt in 639–642. 8. For more information about the Bakt Treaty, see P. L. Shinnie, “Christian Nubia,” The Cambridge History of Africa: Volume 2, c. 500 B.C.—A.D. 1050, edited by J. D. Fage (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978), 556–588; For a translation of the Bakt Treaty, see Stanley Lane- Poole, A History of Egypt in the Middle Agess (London: Methuen & co., 1901); also see, Jay Spaulding, “Medieval Christian Nubia and the Islamic World: A Reconsideration of the Baqt Treaty,” International Journal of African Historical Studiess 28, no. 3 (1995): 577–594. 9. See J. D. Fage and Roland Anthony Oliver, The Cambridge History of Africa, vol. 2 (Cambridge Histories Online: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 260. www.scribd.com/doc/63535157/19/THE-RISE- OF-AKSUM 10. Literally, rumat alhadagg means “those who aim and hit in the eye.” When the Arabs came to invade Nubia, they were kept away by the skill- ful Nubian soldiers, who were so skillful with their weapons that they could aim and hit an enemy in the eye.