To Lieutenant and the amendments in some of them, my share of this endeavor was to be... my rank and titles and decorations that I earned through hardship, troubles, and facing dangers in the conquests of the Equatorial region. And God's hand is in everything, and to Him is the return of everything, and there is no power but with God.

The History of Old Sudan In this chapter, I will present a portion of the history of old Sudan, taken from sources that are difficult to include in a book like this, as there was no history for these lands due to their nomadic nature. Their ancient inhabitants were Negroes, called the (Nubians). Then Arabs entered from Upper Egypt and their women mixed with the Nubians, and from them arose an Arab state that subjected all of Sudan to its rule, including Sennar and Darfur. This state was called the (Funj) state, named after its founder. Its capital was the city of Sinnar, which is ten miles from Khartoum on the Blue Nile.

And a shaykh from Sudan told us that the Arabs who settled in Sudan, ignorance spread among them after the extinction of their first generation, and they became ignorant of Islam except for the two testimonies. So, if a woman was divorced in the morning, she would remarry before the evening. He also told us that a poet who composed poetry in the Arabic language entered upon one of the Funj kings and recited a poem praising him. At the end of it, he said: "O Taha, may God bless him and grant him peace." The king was surprised by this name and asked him, "Is he from the Companions?" The poet remained silent. The king repeated the question, saying, "How do you not know Taha?" He replied, "I think he is from the lesser Companions, because I know the greatest of them, Abu Bakr and Umar." And there were many examples of such ignorance.