Funj

Language family: Arabic today; a distinct pre-Arabic Funj language is only thinly attested

The Funj founded one of Sudan's most significant precolonial states: in 1504 the leader Amara Dunqas established the Sultanate of Sennar — also called the Funj Sultanate or Blue Sultanate — after defeating the Abdallab in the north. The sultanate ruled most of present-day Sudan until the Ottoman-Egyptian conquest of 1821. The Funj's own origins are debated among historians, with theories linking them to Nubian remnants of the Christian kingdom of Alodia, to the Shilluk further south, or to Arab lineages claimed for political legitimacy. The Funj name survives today among related groups in the Blue Nile region.