The history of Sudan refers to the territory that today makes up Republic of the Sudan and the state of South Sudan, which became independent in 2011. The territory of Sudan is geographically part of a larger African region, also known as "Sudan". The term is derived from bilād as-sūdān, or "land of the black people",Encyclopædia Britannica. "Sudan" .Department of Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. Trade and the Spread of Islam in Africa . In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000 – (October 2001). and has sometimes been used more widely referring to the Sahel belt of West and Central Africa.
The modern Republic of the Sudan was formed in early 1956 and inherited its boundaries from Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, established in 1899. For times predating 1899, usage of the term "Sudan" mainly applied to the Turkish Sudan and the Mahdist State, and a wider and changing territory between Egypt in the North and regions in the South adjacent to modern Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia.
The early history of the Kingdom of Kush, located along the Nile region in northern Sudan, is intertwined with the history of ancient Egypt, with which it was politically allied over several regnal eras. By virtue of its proximity to Egypt, Sudan participated in the wider history of the Near East, with the important 25th dynasty of Egypt and the Christianization of the three Nubian kingdoms Nobatia, Makuria, and Alodia in the sixth century. As a result of Christianization, the Old Nubian language stands as the oldest recorded Nilo-Saharan language (earliest records dating to the eighth century in an adaptation of the Coptic alphabet).
While Islam was already present on the Sudanese Red Sea coast and the adjacent territories since the 7th century, the Nile Valley did not undergo Islamization until the 14th-15th century, following the decline of the Christian kingdoms. These kingdoms were succeeded by the Sultanate of Sennar in the early 16th century, which controlled large parts of the Nile Valley and the Eastern Desert, while the kingdoms of Darfur controlled the western part of Sudan. Two small kingdoms arose in the southern regions, the Shilluk Kingdom of 1490, and Taqali of 1750, near modern-day South Sudan, but both northern and southern regions were seized by Muhammad Ali of Egypt during the 1820s. The oppressive rule of Muhammad Ali and his immediate successors is credited for stirring up resentment against the Turco-Egyptian and British rulers and led to the establishment of the Mahdist State, founded by Muhammad Ahmad in 1881.
Since independence in 1956, the history of Sudan has been tarnished by internal conflict, including the First Sudanese Civil War (1955–1972), the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983–2005) –culminating in the secession of South Sudan on 9 July 2011– the War in Darfur (2003–2020) and the current Sudanese civil war (2023–present).
Prehistory
Nile Valley
Affad 23 is an archaeological site located in the Affad region of southern Dongola Reach in northern Sudan, which hosts "the well-preserved remains of prehistoric camps (relics of the oldest open-air hut in the world) and diverse hunting and gathering loci some 50,000 years old".
Evidence from cattle bones found at Letti Desert 2 in Sudan suggests that cattle may have been domesticated independently in Africa at the same time as in the Middle East – around 10,000 years ago. By the eighth millennium BC, people of a Neolithic culture had settled into a sedentary way of life there in fortified mud-brick villages, where they supplemented hunting and fishing on the Nile with grain gathering and cattle herding."Early History", Helen Chapin Metz, ed. Sudan A Country Study . Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1991. Genetic data suggests the Kordofan melon is the closest relative to the modern watermelon which may indicate it was first domesticated in Sudan. During the fifth millennium BC, migrations from the drying Sahara brought neolithic people into the Nile Valley along with agriculture. The population that resulted from this cultural and genetic mixing developed a social hierarchy over the next centuries and became the Kingdom of Kush (with the capital at Kerma) around 1070 BC. Anthropological and archaeological research indicates that during the pre-dynastic period Lower Nubia and Magadan Upper Egypt were ethnically, and culturally nearly identical, and thus, simultaneously evolved systems of Pharaonic kingship by 3300 BC. Together with other countries on Red Sea, Sudan is considered the most likely location of the land known to the ancient Egyptians as Punt (or "Ta Netjeru", meaning "God's Plan"), whose first mention dates to the 10th century BC.Simson Najovits, Egypt, the trunk of the tree, Volume 2, (Algora Publishing: 2004), p.258.
Eastern Sudan In eastern Sudan, the Butana Group appears around 4000 BC. These people produced simple decorated pottery, lived in round huts and were most likely herdsmen, hunters, but also consumed land snails and there is evidence for some agriculture.Andrea Manzo (2017): Eastern Sudan in its Setting, The archaeology of a region far from the Nile Valley, Archaeopress, , 22-27 online The earliest archaeological evidence for the origins of domesticated sorghum come from the Butana Group in the 4th millennium BC. The Gash Group started around 3000 BC and is another prehistory culture known from several places. These people produced decorated pottery and lived from farming and cattle breeding. Mahal Teglinos was an important place about 10 hectare large. In the center were excavated mud brick built houses. Seals and seal impressions attest a higher level of administration. Burials in an elite cemetery were marked with rough tomb stones.Manzo (2017): Eastern Sudan in its Setting, The archaeology of a region far from the Nile Valley, 33-42 online In the second millennium followed the Jebel Mokram Group. They produced pottery with simple incised decoration and lived in simple round huts. Cattle breeding was most likely the economical base.Manzo (2017): Eastern Sudan in its Setting, The archaeology of a region far from the Nile Valley, 43-48 online
Kerma culture
Kerma was a Bronze Age culture (c. 2500–1500 bce) located in what is today Sudan and southern Egypt. It is one of the earliest complex societies in Africa and the earliest in Sub saharan Africa and, at its height, rivaled Ancient Egypt. The ancient Kerma culture spans the Pre-Kerma, examining the settlements and cemeteries of this ancient culture during the Pre-Kerma (3500–2500 bce, included here as a precursor to the Kerma civilization), Early Kerma, Middle Kerma, Classic Kerma, and Recent Kerma periods. Much of what is known comes from the capital city and type site, Kerma.
The Kerma culture was an early civilization that centered in kerma and later Dukki gel. The Kerma culture was centered in upper Nubia and prospered from between 2500 BCE and 1504 BCE. Kerma displayed a unique culture completely distinct from ancient Egypt (unlike the later kingdom of Kush and Meroe which were more Egyptianized as result of the Egyptian new kingdom). Kermans developed their own unique blue-glazed quartzitic faience and produced fine, thin-walled black-topped pottery adorned with distinct geometric patterns and had distinct religion based on animism. Kerma later extended its reach as far north as Egypt. The Kerma civilization was an ethnic melting pot, with origins tied to a complex web of cultures native to both the Sahara, and farther south parts of Central Africa. Kerman history is divided into 4 phases: a Pre-Kerma phase (c. 3500–2500 BC), Early Kerma (c. 2500–2050 BC), Middle Kerma or the Moyen period (c. 2050–1750 BC), and Classical Kerma (c. 1750–1500 BC).
pre-Kerma phase (c. 3500–2500 BC) and early Kerman phase (c. 2500–2050 BC) 25 May 2026}}The Kerma culture was rooted in the pre-Kerma culture, which flourished from around 3500 BC in Upper Nubia. Evidence suggests that the pre-Kerma culture bore statelets and small kingdoms, fewer in number than the A-Group culture in Lower Nubia, but likely larger polities. Upper Nubia had contact with the Egyptian Old Kingdom (c. 2700–2200 BC) during its control of Lower Nubia, as suggested by epigraphic evidence as well as evidence from Aniba, which also indicate the presence of early Nubian regional rulers.
Middle (Moyen) phase (2050–1750 BCE) and Classical Kerma phase (1750-1504 BCE)
During the Middle or Moyen phase the Kingdom of Kerma became a highly centralized power. While initially loyal to the kings of Egypt, they often challenged Egypt's border and even invaded Egypt. Forcing the Egyptian state to build a chain of fortresses to protect their southern border during the Middle KingdomP. DeMola (2013), Interrelations of Kerma and Pharaonic Egypt. worldhistory.org. The Middle (Moyen) Kerma phase aligns with the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and is defined by the rapid growth of the city of Kerma into a powerful, urbanized center with a highly stratified society. During the Classical Kerma phase, Kerma developed advanced fortresses in Doukki gel and the Kerma Kingdom came into conflict with Middle Kingdom Egypt around 1650 BC, Kerma expanded north of Egyptian fortresses in the 2nd cataract. Military support was sought by the hykosos in an attempt to fully conquer Egypt, the war was ended when the Egyptian New Kingdom arose and were able to defeat the hyksos and ultimately Kush (Kerma) and bring Kush under its control by about 1500 BC.
Around 1500 BC, it was absorbed into the New Kingdom of Egypt by Thutmose 1 and the more Egyptianized Kingdom of Kush gained independence from Egypt around 1070 BCE
Middle Kerma used tumuli to bury high ranking Nobles.
Kerman Spirituality and Religion The spiritual and religious traditions of the Kerma culture was markedly distinct from later Napatan and Meroitic traditions who were influenced by the Egyptian Amun cult. The Kerma culture displayed animistic elements such as possibly venerating the lion that become precursors of the later Apademak in the Napatan and meroitic periods jebel barkal was also an animistic site for the Kushites
Antiquity
Kingdom of Kush
Northern Sudan's earliest historical record comes from ancient Egyptian sources, which described the land upstream as Kush. For more than two thousand years after the Old Kingdom ( 2700–2180 BC), Egypt had a dominating and significant influence over its southern neighbor, and even afterward, the legacy of Egyptian cultural and religious introductions remained important.
Over the centuries, trade developed. Egyptian caravans carried grain to Kush and returned to Aswan with ivory, incense, hides, and carnelian (a stone prized both as jewelry and for arrowheads) for shipment downriver. Egyptian governors particularly valued gold in Nubia and soldiers in the pharaoh's army. Egyptian military expeditions penetrated Kush periodically during the Old Kingdom. Yet there was no attempt to establish a permanent presence in the area until the Middle Kingdom (c. 2100–1720 BC), when Egypt constructed a network of forts along the Nile as far south as Samnah in Lower Egypt to guard the flow of gold from mines in Wawat, the area between the First and Second Cataracts.