schools and educational institutes became places to which students flocked from all regions. They also worked on building mosques to, in turn, enrich cultural life. (Wad Dayfallah) mentioned in his "Tabaqat" many sheikhs who went to Egypt and acquired knowledge from the sheikhs of Al-Azhar. It is clear that this migration was not limited to the Funj era but has continued to this day, with an increase in those who studied in Egypt and then returned to their countries. Although the conditions of this migration to Egypt were subject to the prevailing political conditions in both countries, which governed this migration, we also see that the migration of students to Egypt weakened in the late era of the Funj Sultanate due to disasters, famines, and the period of decline that afflicted Sudanese society. Added to this was the state of isolation imposed by the late Funj rulers on the country, thus cutting off their connection with the outside world. The second manifestation of the Egyptian role in enriching the Islamic and Arab cultural movement in Sudan was that a group of Egyptian scholars and knowledgeable religious men migrated to Sudan. Among the pioneers of Islamic scholarly migration to Sudan during the era of the Funj Sultanate was Sheikh Muhammad Al-Qanawi, a Maliki sheikh who had studied and received his education at the hands of the esteemed scholars Sheikh Salem Al-Sunhouri and Sheikh Yusuf Al-Zarqani, who were among the greatest scholars of the kingdom in Egypt. Sheikh Al-Qanawi traveled in Sudan from the region between Sennar and Arbaji, where he first settled in Birir, a central location between the lands of the Shayqiyya, the sons of Jabir, and Sennar Island, where Sheikh Mahmoud Al-Marki was. His arrival was in the second half of the tenth Hijri century, during the time of Sheikh Ajib Al-Manjalk. He entered Birir and built a mosque there for teaching the Risala, creeds, Nahar, and all other sciences. He directly assumed the position of judge with chastity and integrity, and thus the science of jurisprudence spread throughout the island. • 272