Editing Funj Sultanate (section)

===Origins===
[[Nubia#Christian Nubia|Christian Nubia]], represented by the two [[Middle Ages|medieval]] kingdoms of [[Makuria]] and [[Alodia]], began to decline from the 12th century.{{sfn|Grajetzki|2009|p=117}} By 1365 Makuria had virtually collapsed and was reduced to a [[rump state]] restricted to [[Lower Nubia]], until finally disappearing {{circa}} 150 years later.{{sfn|Werner|2013|pp=143–146}} The fate of Alodia is less clear.{{sfn|Grajetzki|2009|p=117}} It has been suggested that it had collapsed as early as the 12th century or shortly after, as archaeology suggests that in this period, [[Soba (city)|Soba]] ceased to be used as its capital.{{sfn|Grajetzki|2009|p=123}} By the 13th century central Sudan seemed to have disintegrated into various petty states.{{sfn|O'Fahey|Spaulding|1974|p=19}} Between the 14th and 15th centuries Sudan was overrun by [[Bedouin]] tribes.{{sfn|Hasan|1967|p=176}} In the 15th century one of these Bedouins, whom [[Sudan]]ese traditions refer to as [[Abdallabi tribe|Abdallah Jammah]], is recorded to have created a tribal federation and to have subsequently destroyed what was left of Alodia. In the early 16th century Abdallah's federation came under attack from an invader to the south, the [[Funj people|Funj]].{{sfn|Loimeier|2013|pp=140–141}}

The ethnic affiliation of the Funj is still disputed. The first and second of the three most prominent theories suggest that they were either Nubians or Shilluk, while, according to the third theory, the Funj were not an ethnic group, but a social class.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

In the 14th century a Muslim Funj trader named al-Hajj Faraj al-Funi was involved in the [[Red Sea]] trade.{{sfn|O'Fahey|Spaulding|1974|p=22}} According to oral traditions the [[Dinka people|Dinka]], who migrated upstream the White and Blue Nile since the 13th-century disintegration of Alodia, came in conflict with the Funj, who the Dinka defeated.{{sfn|Beswick|2004|pp=32–33}} In the late 15th/early 16th century the [[Shilluk people|Shilluk]] arrived at the junction of the [[Sobat River|Sobat]] and the White Nile, where they encountered a sedentary people Shilluk traditions refer to as ''Apfuny'', ''Obwongo'' and/or ''Dongo'', a people now equated with the Funj. Said to be more sophisticated than the Shilluk, they were defeated in a series of brutal wars{{sfn|Beswick|2014|pp=108–110}} and either assimilated or pushed north.{{sfn|Beswick|2004|p=33}} Anti-Funj propaganda from the later period of the kingdom referred to the Funj as "pagans from the White Nile" and "barbarians" who had originated from the "primitive southern swamps".{{sfn|Spaulding|1985|p=210}}

In 1504 the Funj defeated Abdallah Jammah and founded the Funj Sultanate.{{sfn|O'Fahey|Spaulding|1974|pp=25–26}}