Islamization of the Sudan region

The Islamization of the Sudan region (Sahel) encompasses a prolonged period of religious conversion, through military conquest and trade relations, spanning the eighth to sixteenth centuries.

Following the seventh century Muslim conquest of Egypt and the eighth-century Muslim conquest of North Africa, Arab Muslims begin leading expeditions into Sub-Saharan Africa, first along the Nile Valley towards Nubia, and later across the Sahara into West Africa.

Much of this contact is motivated by interest in trans-Saharan trade, particularly the slave trade.

The proliferation of Islamic influence is largely a gradual process.

The Christian kingdoms of Nubia are the first to experience Arab incursion starting in the seventh century.

They hold out through the Middle Ages until the Kingdom of Makuria and Old Dongola both collapse in the early fourteenth century.

Sufi orders play a significant role in the spread of Islam from the ninth to fourteenth centuries, and they proselytize across trade routes between North Africa and the sub-Saharan kingdoms of Ghana and Mali.

They are also responsible for setting up zawiyas on the shores of the River Niger.

The Sanusi order is highly involved in missionary work during the nineteenth century, with their missions focused on the spread of both Islam and textual literacy as far south as Lake Chad.

The Mali Empire undergoes period of internally motivated conversion following the 1324 pilgrimage of Musa I of Mali.

Timbuktu subsequently becomes one of the most important Islamic cultural centers south of the Sahara.

Alodia, the last holdout of Christian Nubia, is destroyed by the Funj in 1504.

Consequently, much of contemporary Sudan is Muslim.

This includes the Republic of Sudan (after the secession of Christian South Sudan), the northern parts of Chad and Niger, most of Mali, Mauritania and Senegal.

The problem of slavery in contemporary Africa remains especially pronounced in these countries, with severe divides between the Arabized Berbers in the north and dark-skinned Africans in the south motivating much of the conflict.

This primarily encompasses the Sahel states of Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, and Sudan, as these nations sustain the centuries-old pattern of hereditary servitude that arose following early Muslim conquests.

Ethnic strife between Arabized and non-Arab black populations has led to various internal conflicts in Sudan, most notably the War in Darfur, the Northern Mali conflict, and the Islamist insurgency in Northern Nigeria.

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