Funj Chronicle
The Funj Chronicle is an Arabic history of the Funj Sultanate and the early years of Ottoman rule in the Sudan based on oral tradition. It originally covered the period from 1504 to 1838, but continuations bring it up to 1871. It has been translated into English.
Manuscripts and editions
The Chronicle exists in several recensions. The original was written by Shaykh Aḥmad, called Kātib al-Shūna, and covered Funj history from 1504 to 1838. He began his work before the Turco-Egyptian [conquest of Sudan |Ottoman conquest of the Funj] in 1820. There were two versions of the original in circulation, an early draft and a polished version with some fifteen passages removed. The first continuator was Shaykh Aḥmad al-Ḥājj Muḥammad Janqāl. Besides continuing the chronicle, he interpolated a couple of passages of his own into the original. The polished original recension is known from two manuscripts. Two further fragmentary manuscripts, in part, preserve the earlier draft and the first continuation.A second continuation of the Chronicle was made by al-Zubayr wad Ḍawwah, who extended it up to 1863, while also adding to the beginning material on medieval Nubia drawn from Ibn [Sulaym al-Aswānī] via al-Maqrīzī. The final recension was made by Ibrāhīm ʿAbd al-Dāfiʿ. He cut much of al-Zubayr's additions to the beginning and added some material on al-Zubayr's father as well as a final notice from al-Amīn Muḥammad al-Ḍarīr that extends the Chronicle up to 1871. There is one manuscript of al-Zubayr's version. The final recension is known from many manuscripts.
Both the original and final recensions have been published, the former under the title Taʾrīkh mulūk al-Sūdān by Makkī Shubayka at Khartoum in 1947 and the latter as Makhṭūṭat Kātib al-Shūna at Cairo in 1963. Harold MacMichael produced a summary translation of the final recension in 1922. Peter Holt made a complete translation.
Works cited
Category:History [books about Sudan]Category:Sudanese books
Category:Arabic non-fiction books