'Ali Abd Allah al-Maqri, a scholar from Medina, and Sheikh Ammar bin Shafi'i, who studied Arabic language sciences in Mecca. Linguistic and literary studies were closely related to Islamic studies and the sciences of the Islamic religion, which helped create a suitable environment for the spread of Islamic culture in its various branches and sciences. Therefore, we find that the study of literature, language, and history originated in Sudan, as it did in other Islamic countries, primarily at the hands of religious scholars, through whom these sciences spread. What we have discussed previously about the spread of Arab-Islamic cultural aspects in Sudan does not refer only to northern Sudan, with its wide Islamic and Arab presence, but rather to all of Sudan, from north to south. This is because, without a doubt, the tropical forest environment in southern Sudan knew Arabs and Arab-Islamic sciences from a long time ago through their continuous social connections with northern Sudan. Social interaction and peaceful infiltration were considered effective means of spreading culture among these peoples at that time. Thus, we can say that the Arab race knew the Negro populations around the lakes and the upper Congo a long time ago, and they spread their Arab civilization and culture and founded their cities around southern Sudan. From the early tenth Hijri century, the sixteenth CE, during the Funj era, references confirm that the Shilluk, one of the major Nilotic tribes, had direct contact with Arab elements in Sennar, which was then considered one of the largest Islamic centers in Sudan. Some researchers have even gone so far as to say that the Shilluk founded the Sennar Sultanate. Regardless of the validity of this claim, it gives us a general idea of the extent of the Shilluk's integration and their influence by Arab-Islamic culture around Sennar. They also had contact with the Nuer and Dinka, in addition to this connection. 397