Before the Book
My inclination to study the Khatmiyya order, their history, and a critique and analysis of their doctrines and positions was the result of a subtle hint and a fortunate suggestion from Dr. Hassan Makki Muhammad Ahmad, who later supervised the study and nurtured it after it was merely an idea.
In reality, the honest researcher fears to delve into the history of the Khatmiyya and only embarks on it after much hesitation and numerous reviews. This apprehension stems from the fact that the history of this order is intertwined with politics, linked to rule and its intermediaries, and power and its tools. Therefore, the researcher often struggles in such a study to obtain information free from fabrication, i.e., additions or distortions. Opinions dominated by personal inclination and partisan or sectarian bias, from both opponents and supporters alike, become abundant, making the selection of pure truth difficult in such a turbulent atmosphere with crashing waves.
This does not mean that scholarly studies have failed to encompass the history of the Khatmiyya; quite the contrary. A number of historians have undertaken the task of writing about the Khatmiyya. Among the most prominent of these is John Voll, who titled his university thesis "The History of the Khatmiyya Tariqa in Sudan." The researcher Ali Saleh Karrar obtained his doctorate for his distinguished study, "Sufi Orders in Sudan until 1900, with a focus on the Shayqiyya region." There are also the valuable research works conducted by the great scholar Abu Salim in verifying the heritage of the Khatmiyya. In addition to this, there are the valuable efforts made to introduce the school of Ahmad ibn Idris and his teachings. Among the clearest individuals who undertook these efforts are Dr. Hassan Makki, a specialist in Horn of Africa affairs, Dr. Yahya Muhammad Ibrahim, and also Dr. Ali Saleh Karrar, who wrote about the Idrisiyya order in Sudan.
The Khatmiyya have a vast literary and intellectual legacy. The Khatmiyya and the Samaniyya, and no others, possess the largest number of Sufi works and writings, indicating the abundance of scholarly material available to the shaykhs of these two orders.
As for the history of the Khatmiyya from the mouths of its followers, the clearest work that appears in this field is the book "Al-Ibana Al-Nuriyya fi Sha'n Sahib Al-Tariqa Al-Khatmiyya" by its author, Khalifa Al-Khulafa' Ahmad ibn Muhammad Al-Nasih, known as Ibn Idris Al-Riyyati. This book has been published in two editions. The first edition was by the Khatmiyya themselves, who relied on a copy that was in the library of Sayyid Ali Al-Mirghani in Alexandria. It is in the author's own handwriting, and the verification was carried out by Dr. Abu Salim. The book contains clear indications of the beginnings of the Khatmiyya in Sudan and Eritrea, and how its followers flourished and grew under the hands of its founders.