Funj Sultanate

Funj Sultanate السلطنة الزرقاء (Arabic) As-Saltana az-Zarqa
1504–1821
Funj branding mark (al-wasm)
The Funj Sultanate at its peak in around 1700
Capital	Sennar
Common languages	Arabic (official language, lingua franca and language of Islam, increasingly spoken language) Nubian languages (native tongue, increasingly replaced by Arabic)
Religion	Sunni Islam, Coptic Christianity
Government	Monarchy
Sultan
• 1504–1533/4	Amara Dunqas (first)
• 1805–1821	Badi VII (last)
Legislature	Great Council Shura
History
• Established	1504
• Conquered by Egypt	14 June 1821
• Annexed to Egypt Province, Ottoman Empire[a]	13 February 1841
Currency	Barter[b] After 1700: Spanish Reals Ottoman Para and Akçe
Preceded by Succeeded by Alodia Ottoman Egypt Ras al-Fil Benishangul-Gumuz Sheikhdoms
Today part of	Sudan Eritrea Ethiopia
^a. Muhammad Ali of Egypt was granted the non-hereditary governorship of Sudan by an 1841 Ottoman firman. ^b. The Funj mostly did not mint coins and the markets rarely used coinage as a form of exchange. Coinage didn't become widespread in cities until the 18th century. French surgeon J. C. Poncet, who visited Sennar in 1699, mentions the use of foreign coins such as Spanish reals.

The Funj Sultanate, also known as Funjistan, Sultanate of Sennar or Blue Sultanate was an Islamic kingdom in what is now Sudan, northwestern Eritrea and western Ethiopia. Succeeding the medieval Nubian kingdoms of Makuria and Alodia, it was established in 1504 by Sultan Amara Dunqas, a convert to Islam who founded its capital Sennar on the Blue Nile. It was dominated by the Funj people, an arabized people of unclear ethnic origin who ruled over an ethnically diverse population including Nubians, Beja, Bedouin and Hamaj. It reached its peak in the late 17th century, when it extended from the Third Cataract southwards to the western fringes of the Ethiopian Highlands and the Sobat River, east to the Red Sea, and west to Kordofan and the Nuba Mountains. It encouraged the spread of Islam by inviting Sufi holymen, which in turn also accelerated Arabization and the formation of the modern Sudanese Arab tribes. In the 18th century the power of the Funj declined, especially after the Hamaj seized power in a coup in 1762. From the late 18th century the Sultanate disintegrated and was torn apart by civil wars. In 1821 the last sultan, greatly reduced in power, was forced to surrender to the Turco-Egyptian conquest.