Sudan and Islam Till the Rise of Modern Sudan::

Islam was introduced in Sudan in the 7th century A.D. during the reign of Caliph Osman ibn Affan when Muslim armies, led by companion Aqaba ibn Nafie Al Fahri, then advanced to Sudan and fought the Nubians, followed by Abdullah ibn Abi Al SSSarh who succeeded in concluding an agreement with the Nubians known as the Baqt Agreement (651 AD. –31 Hijiri). Nubia then became a land of chd (agreement)-which ensured a new kind with relations of the Muslim state whereas the dominant relations were either peace 0r war relations. The agreement organized the relations between the Muslim state and Nubia with major gains including:

Allowing Muslim commercial and cultural interaction with native Nubians.
Setting up a mosque.

This agreement marked peaceful of Islam by the Sudanese people. A number of Muslim communities then developed in Old Dongola, Suakin and Izab then Muslim Kingdom of Dongola. That was followed by an Arab influx into the country and their interaction with the natives leading to the rise ofSinnar Muslim state in which the natives allied with the Arab settlers making a state that opened its doors for scholars. Sudan thus became an integral part of the Arab-Muslim entity within an African framework. Due to the spread of religious schools and Sufi brotherhoods besides social interaction, Sudanese people easily absorbed Islam.

The Funj state(Sinnar) was brought to a close by the arrival of the Egyptianized Turkish invader Mohammed Ali Pasha’s forces in Sudan in 1821. The Turc-Egyptian reign lasted till 1885 when victorious Muslim jihad movement led by Imam Mohammed Ahmed Al Mahdi put an end to the Egyptian rule and killed its last Governor, Gen. Charles Gordon. The Mahdist movement succeeded in overthrowing the Egyptianized Tukish administration for the following reasons:

Turkish allowing of Christian movements led by the Catholics.
Appointing Christian and Jewish governors to Sudan such as Gordon, Jessy, Slatin and Emin Pasha.
Spread of injustice, probation of slave trade and imposition of high taxes.
The government’s drifting from Islam and Sudanese morals.

The Mahdist reign lasted for almost 14 years. This may be briefed in the following reasons:
Early death of Imam Al Mahdi, only six months after capturing Khartoum.
Conflicts between ashraaf and their foes during Caliph Abdullahi’s rule besides tribal conflicts with the Caliph’s authority.
Mahdist wars with Ethiopia.
Crusaders’ cordoning of the Mahdist state: Britain in the north, France in the west, Belgium in the south and Italy in the east.

Since the defeat of the Mahdist armies by the crusaders in Karari, a new system of government was imposed on Sudan known as the condominium Rule. Though it was supposed that the Egyptians shared the rule of Sudan, the English, however, were the actual rulers of the country. They introduced railways, river transport, posts and telegraph services, set up the Gezira agricultural scheme and the Gordon Memorial College. They sought to set up a secular state in the north and a Christian state let in the south.

The Sudanese did not surrender to the Condominium Rule:
In 1924 the Al Liwaa Al Abiad revolution, led by Hero Ali Abdul Lateef, erupted against colonizers.
In 1938, the Graduate Conference was formed.
By 1956, the Sudanese struggle culminated in independence and a national government was formed.
In 1969, Ga’afar Mohammed Numeiri made another military coup and continued in power till the April 1985 popular uprising (followed by a one-year transitional government headed by Marshall Abdul Rahman Siwar-ed-Dahab).
Free elections were held and a government headed by Sadiq Al Mahdi was formed in 1986 and continued until the rise of the National Salvation Revolution in June 1989.
In 1996 free election were held in which President Omer Hassan Ahmed Al-Beshir was elected President of the Republic. The First vice-president was then the late Lieutnant-General Al Zubeir Mohamed Saleh, who achieved martyrdom in Southern Sudan in a military plane crash on 2,1998 in Mr. Ali Osman Mohamed Taha was appointed Vice-President. The second Vice-President is Major-General George Kongor Arob.