Part One The Passages of Islam to Sudan The Arabian Peninsula has always been a human repository and a source of immense human waves in successive currents throughout the ages. Arab migrations flowed towards neighboring countries until these countries were populated by a dwindling humanity. The continent of Africa has been one of the places to which Arab migrations have come and settled since the earliest historical times, and indeed these migrations date back to prehistoric times, as some Arab migrations reached the region of East Africa, the Nile Valley, and North Africa. Then these migrations reached the center of the continent, where these tribes settled after merging with the inhabitants of that region or extending their influence over it. Moreover, since ancient times, Arabs have had connections with the Nile Valley. Arabs established trading posts there, and some of them settled and intermarried with the local inhabitants. Hence, Arab-African relations are ancient and deeply rooted. Arab migrations reached their peak during the era of the kingdoms of Ma'in and Saba', seven centuries before Christ. Trade between Arabs and Africa also flourished during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, and their migrations towards Africa continued, especially from the southeast of the peninsula, particularly the Banu Himyar, in the two centuries preceding Christ. The kingdoms of Abyssinia and Axum were established as a result of these migrations and these examples. The migrating Arabs continued to head towards the heart of the continent, and some followed the Atbara River, one of the tributaries of the Nile, to the land of Al-Baha.

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