Funj Sultanate
The Funj Sultanate, also known as Funjistan, Sultanate of Sennar (after its capital Sennar) or Blue Sultanate (due to the traditional Sudanese convention of referring to black people as blue) (Arabic: السلطنة الزرقاء, romanized: al-Sulṭanah al-Zarqāʼ), was a monarchy in what is now Sudan, northwestern Eritrea and western Ethiopia. Founded in 1504 by the Funj people, it quickly converted to Islam, although this conversion was only nominal. Until a more orthodox form of Islam took hold in the 18th century, the state remained an "African empire with a Muslim façade". It reached its peak in the late 17th century, but declined and eventually fell apart in the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1821, the last sultan, greatly reduced in power, surrendered to the Ottoman Egyptian invasion without a fight.
Funj Sultanate السلطنة الزرقاء (in Arabic) As-Saltana az-Zarqa | |||||||||
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| 1504–1821 | |||||||||
Funj branding mark (al-wasm)
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The Funj Sultanate at its peak in around 1700 | |||||||||
| Status | Confederation of sultanates and dependent tribal emirates under Sennar's suzerainty | ||||||||
| Capital | Sennar | ||||||||
| Common languages | Arabic (official language, lingua franca and language of Islam, increasingly spoken language) Nubian languages (native tongue, increasingly replaced by Arabic) | ||||||||
| Religion | Sunni Islam, Coptic Christianity | ||||||||
| Government | Islamic Monarchy | ||||||||
| Sultan | |||||||||
• 1504–1533/4 | Amara Dunqas (first) | ||||||||
• 1805–1821 | Badi VII (last) | ||||||||
| Legislature | Great Council Shura | ||||||||
| Historical era | Early modern period | ||||||||
• Established | 1504 | ||||||||
| 14 June 1821 | |||||||||
| 13 February 1841 | |||||||||
| Currency | barter[c] | ||||||||
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| Today part of | Sudan Eritrea Ethiopia | ||||||||
^ a. Muhammad Ali of Egypt was granted the non-hereditary governorship of Sudan by an 1841 Ottoman firman.
^ b. Estimate for entire area covered by modern Sudan. ^ c. The Funj mostly did not mint coins and the markets rarely used coinage as a form of exchange. Coinage didn't become widespread in cities until the 18th century. French surgeon J. C. Poncet, who visited Sennar in 1699, mentions the use of foreign coins such as Spanish reals. | |||||||||