That society was shaped, perhaps by the flow of a significant political or social movement, and those effects were reflected in Sudanese society.

Arab groups generally flowed into Sudan, and particularly into its nomadic environments, through various routes and multiple entrances. Arab groups arrived from the Middle Eastern eastern gate, directly across the Red Sea from the Arabian Peninsula to the Arabian coasts (in the opinion of the Sudanese people). The connection between Sudan and the Arabian Peninsula through this passage had been facilitated since ancient times, and after the Islamic conquests. Among these were the migration of large groups of Banu Kahil (Al-Kawahla), who entered Sudan via this route, beginning their lives by occupying the coastal region or a large part of it, from Suakin to Ghaydub, where they mixed with the Beja and intermarried with them. This gate continued to be an important channel for the flow of Arab groups directly from the Arabian Peninsula to Sudan until modern times.

References speak of a recent Arab migration of the Rashaida tribe via the Red Sea to the land of the Beja. These Rashaida (whom we will refer to in Chapter Six when discussing Arab tribes in Sudan) represent one of the Arab migrations from the eastern coast of the Red Sea (the Arabian Peninsula) to the western coast (Sudan). References indicate that their extensive migration to Sudan dates back further than the nineteenth century AD. They descended from the Tokar region to the Eritrean border, and then some of them moved westward to the Atbara region.