It facilitated its teachings, rather it preferred it over jurisprudential natures. In the history of the Islamic cultural movement in Sudan, we find that a large number of jurists combined the knowledge of the exoteric and esoteric, and became supporters of the Sufi orders. With this fusion between the jurisprudential and Sufi methodologies, the first nucleus of the distinctive characteristics of religious culture in Sudan was laid. The spread of Islam in Sudan was completely subject to the prevailing Sufi atmosphere in the Islamic world, after it achieved victory in its long journey with the People of the Sunnah in the eighth Hijri century, the twelfth AD. This was after the Sufis realized that religion had become, in the view of the jurists, a set of rituals and customs devoid of life and spirituality. While these rituals satisfied the exoteric aspect of Sharia and appeased the minds of the legal scholars fascinated by the doctrine of rules and the generalization of laws, they did not satisfy the esoteric aspect of Sharia nor the religious emotion of the Sufis. The difference between the two parties was evident in terms of religion, legal rulings, and methods of derivation. This difference was resolved by Imam Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali (who died in 1111 AD) after a pioneering intellectual and spiritual experience in reconciling Sharia and Truth, or explaining Sufism and the teachings of religion, making the latter its foundation. This reconciliation was accepted by the majority of Sufis, and many of the People of the Sunnah also approved of it. The Sufi movement thus occupied its rightful place within Islamic creed. After Sufism was the destination of the elite Muslims, it became the destination for all. Sufi orders spread until they encompassed all parts of the Islamic world, and their authority over the elite and the masses grew. They even became a great force in spreading the teachings of Islam in large parts of Asia and Africa, and their spiritual prestige increased over the fighting armies to the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire. When the Sufi orders were transferred to the Funj Kingdom, they found fertile ground and a suitable atmosphere, and thus achieved great success. Alongside Islamic studies and the spread of Sufi orders, the movement of Western studies also became active in the wake of the religious movement, as they both proceeded.