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The Abdallabi (or Abdallab) are people living in central Sudan who claim descent from Abdallah Jamma’a, they are the native peoples of Khartoum state as well as the
Al Jazirah (state) with an important presence in North Kordofan and sennar, They were an important political force between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. For a short time the Abdallabi succeeded in establishing an independent state, but they were defeated by the Funj Sultanate in 1504 and thereafter ruled over the Butana as vassals until the Egyptian conquest of 1820., The Abdallab are the indigenous people of khartoum and Al Jazirah states as well as parts of the blue nile state and kordofan They are superficially seen as Part of a Jaalin Confederation though Not as Authentic Jaalin like those from Shendi and
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The Sudanese chronicler Katib al-Shuna makes brief reference to Abdallah Jamma’a cooperating with Amara Dunqas to fight the indigenous people of Alodia, but apparently the Funj were able to defeat the Abdallabis decisively in a battle near Arbaji in 1504. Abdallah Jamma’a ‘thus became as it were their lieutenant’.
Abdallah Jamma’a's sons were the founders of the leading Abdallabi clans - Ajib al-Kafuta of the Ajibab clan, Muhammad Dayoum of the Dayoumab, Idris al Anker of the Ankeryab, Muhammad Badirkoga of the Badirkogab, and Saba of the Sabab.
Early in the seventeenth century ‘Ajib revolted and drove out the Funj sultan ‘Abd al-Qadir II, who fled to Ethiopia. The Funj sultans were at least nominally Muslims by this time, but Abdallabi tradition describes the revolt of ‘Ajib al-Kafuta as a holy war, followed by the building of mosques up the Blue Nile and in the Ethiopian marches. ‘Ajib is also represented as making the Pilgrimage to Mecca.
‘Abd al-Qadir‘s brother, ‘Adlan I, regained the throne, and in 1611-1612 defeated ‘Ajib at the battle of Karkoj, on the Blue Nile south of Sennar. ‘Ajib himself died in the battle, and his sons fled to Dongola. The mediation of a Muslim holy man, Shaykh Idris wad al-Arbab, obtained an amnesty for them. They returned to Qarri, where one of them, Muhammad al-Aqil, was appointed shaykh.
The power of the ‘Abdallabi depended on the ability of their mounted soldiers to raise taxes from settled farmers, and to exercise some control over the cattle nomads of the plains. An important source of revenue was customs dues; the destruction of Christian Alodia meant that new trade and pilgrimage routes crossing Sudan from east to west began to open up, connecting Mecca and Medina with the Lake Chad region.
Neither the Funj nor their Abdallabi viceroys were able to prevent the Shaigiya tribe from throwing off Funj rule in the seventeenth century. Some degree of Abdallabi authority over the Beja people tribes of the northeast is perhaps suggested by the legend of a marriage between a woman of the Amerar Beja and either ‘Ajib al-Kafuta or his brother.
In the middle of the 18th century, during the reign of Sheikh Abdallah III, the capital of the Abdallabi realm was moved south from Qarri to Halfayat al-Muluk, just north of modern Khartoum. This move appears to have been motivated by both political and commercial reasons. Qarri was a customs post on caravan routes but had little trade of its own, while the lands around it were not particularly productive. The Abdallabis kept their base at Halfayat al-Muluk until the Egyptian invasion, but by that time Qarri was in ruins.
A decade later the Egyptian government pardoned Al-Amin's cousin Miri and allowed him to return to Halfaya as Sheikh. He was succeeded briefly by Sheikh Muhammad Nasir, and then by Muhammad Nasir's brother Idris Nasir, who was held in high regard by the government despite conspiring with the Egyptian viceroy to remove Sudan from Egyptian rule and pledge direct allegiance to the Ottoman Empire. He was succeeded by Sheikh Jamma’a Sheikh al-Amin, who was an army commander when the Mahdist State broke out in 1881 and died on campaign in Kordofan.
His successor Nasir Jamma’a managed to retain his authority over the Abdallabis throughout the Mahdiyya and died resisting the Anglo-Egyptian conquest of Sudan. His successor Sheikh al-Amin Umar however made his peace with the Condominium government. Sheikh Muhammad al-Sheikh Jamma’a, his successor, was awarded a medal by King George V during a royal visit to Port Sudan in 1912.
See also
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