b) The Scholars:

The history books do not record for us the names of scholars, Quran memorizers, and Sufis who came to Sudan with the successive Arab migrations. All that has been recorded about religious figures in Sudan came later and relied on memory. Even when Wad Difa Allah wrote his Tabaqat (Generations) at that late stage of Islam in Sudan, the news of some of those close to its origin had been lost. He himself pointed to this loss and attributed it to the passage of time. As far as its author knew, the book of Tabaqat did not include the news of scholars, Sufis, and jurists who lived in areas far from him and outside the scope of his knowledge. (40)

Historians believe that the school of Ghulam Allah bin A'id in Dongola was the first scientific school in Sudan. Its existence was in the fourteenth century AD. Two centuries later, the school of Awlad Jabir emerged with Egyptian influences. Its headquarters was on Tereng Island, near Kassinga, in the land of the Sha'iqiyya. Then came the school of Nuri, founded by Abd al-Rahman wad Hamadti al-Khatib. This school branched off from the school of Awlad Jabir and remained for more than a century. Among the most prominent who studied there were Hamad al-Aqbash, Ibrahim bin Abudi al-Faradi, and [name missing] who founded two independent schools, and Hamad al-Majdhoub, founder of the Majdhoubiyya Sufi order.

Among those who received knowledge and acquired sciences in the school of Awlad Jabir were Abu Idris al-Arki and Ya'qub bin al-Niqa, and Sheikh Saghirun, founder of the al-Qouz school, who was the teacher of the Masters of Beliefs, and from whom a large number of scholars graduated, including Hamad Marboum, Khojali Abd al-Rahman, and Farah wad Taktouk. (5)

Sudan received a large number of visiting scholars who worked to spread Islam, strengthen its foundations, and entrench its values and ideas among the population. Among the most prominent of these who led the call to God were the visitors, Issa wad Kadhw al-Hadrami, to whom the introduction of the Warsh narration, read by the people of northern Dongola and Mahas, is attributed. Among them also were Sharif Hamad Abu Danana al-Hijazi, Sheikh al-Tilimsani al-Maghribi, and Sheikh Mustafa al-Hijazi, and others. (10)

The early scholars were keen on memorizing the Quran for the youth and teaching them the principles of jurisprudence and monotheism within the framework of the Imamate of [name missing].

2991 Muhammad Ibrahim Abu Salim (Ph.D.), Research in the History of Sudan, First Edition (Beirut: Dar al-Jil, 1991). (4) Muhammad Ibrahim Abu Salim, ibid., pp. 10-11. (10) Muhammad al-Tayyib al-Masid, First Edition (Khartoum: Khartoum University Press, 1991), pp. 87-88. (11) LA-