Chapter Two Arab Migrations to Sudan Many regions in the Horn of Africa, the Nile Valley, and North Africa were semi-Arab before the advent of Islam. Indeed, these regions had gone through significant stages in their Arabization over thousands of years, and they had become Arabized in language and race. However, the decisive factor in the Arabization of these regions was the appearance of the light of Islam and its spread throughout the Arabian Peninsula. This is because the advent of Islam had great effects and brilliant results in the history of Arabs and Muslims. The divine Islamic message provided the Arab nation with a religious and intellectual framework that helped them create a unity that expressed itself by establishing a great caliphate. Indeed, under the banner of Islam and the flag of the Quran, Arab groups moved towards places that earlier Arab migrations had not reached, migrations that had been racing across borders from time to time. Consequently, successive waves of Muslim Arabs emerged from the Arabian Peninsula, calling to the new religion. It was natural for these waves to direct themselves towards spreading the new religion among their cousins and brethren who had previously migrated to the Western African regions, such as the Nile Valley, over the years. In other words, it was natural for these waves to follow the same routes that earlier Arab migrations had taken before Islam, and even to head in the same direction that Arab groups had previously taken.

While a characteristic of a migrant seeking a comfortable life is to settle for the conditions they may find in their new homeland, the successive waves that emerged from the Arabian Peninsula after the advent of Islam were armed with faith.