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Article: Roman Christianity in Sudan By: Benjamin Guil According to my father Geng Guil Explanation about Romans Christianity, during the 8th century BC, Nubian’s power in Sudan grew and revolted to free the land of Cush from Egyptian dominance. There were successions of rulers followed and many different independent kingdoms were established in Sudan. When the Romans under the ruler Gaius Petronius invaded Nubia province in Sudan during 23BC, the largest part of the country was annexed to forming of the Roman province which they called Dodecashoenus. At this time there was an invasion by Christian kingdom of Ethiopia in 350AD, which resulted in the conversion of the most of the population of Christianity and at the same time of 6th century AD there were three separate Christian kingdoms that were very well established in Sudan. Those Christian groups were: - Nobatia, Makurra, and Alwa. The Nobatia was located in the central Sudan where it enhanced its religion Christianity that was eliminated later at the 14th century by the Muslims who came from Egypt. Alwa/Alodia was located in the South Sudan where it accumulated the Greek and Turkish expansion in Sudan, but was later destroy by the new powerful religion (Islam) expansion in Sudan. Makurra was the most powerful of the three Christian kingdoms in Sudan. Mqurra at that moment had almost everything done to move on with their powers in which they first created their capital at the Dongola in north Sudan. This capital of Mqurra lasted when they were overthrown in a deadly bloodshed victory and had their kingdoms destroyed by the invasion of the Egyptian Mamelukes in the early 14th century AD. Mamelukes were the Arabs group who in the 640’s AD arrived in Sudan, with their Islamic faith with them and signed a treaty with the Christians to live happily in the land of Sudan with no further imagination of powers or attempt to neither overthrow the Sudan’s system nor cause destruction in the states of Sudan. As Arabs immigration was growing so fast with the practical of Islam and trade, Arabs quickly became the powerful group who believe in one religion and started preaching Islam and luckily gained power as Christianity died immediately as a result of wars of destructions from the Muslims people which will later be restored by the struggle cost of human lives (Southern Sudanese struggle of Anya-Nya one and SPLA wars). In 16th century AD, and onward, there was another group which was known as the Ottomans and the Islam; Turkish influence grew stronger and powerful under the Ottomans than Roman Christian. At that time Islamic gained a very firm hold as the most popular religion in the country Sudan. In the same place at the same time, there were blacks Muslim people who were known as the Funj established themselves as what they so call “Sultanate “ or “Black Sultanate” naming the place to be called with the present name Sannar as their capital. In that period of time Sannar became the central of the great culture call Islam. This power group of black Muslims was part of the group of southern Sudan tribe Shillluk, but migrated to north decades before Arabs came to Sudan and when Arabs had gained powers, Funjs were all forced to convert to Islam by Arabs and onward to the beginning of the 18th century, the power of Funj continued to be weakening which left them powerless to not fight back nor claim their rights from Arabs. The internal disputes among the Funj leaders made Sultanate ripe for invasion from the Egypt, and in fact by that time called them a province of the Ottoman Empire. When Egypt won the great victory in 1822, Nubia once again became an Egyptian province, and was given a name as Egyptian Sudan. Things at this time became unwilling for Sudanese (life became impossible), as well as they were worst for Romans Christian, which gave the Turkish Ottoman of Islam, Egypt’s power to rule over Sudan and held fast for more than a half century. The Egyptian control over Sudan made European interest to grow in regions of Sudan during the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, and this was particularly from the Britain and France people, they came as the decision makers for Egyptian. Canal project was proved very expensive in which Egypt found itself very heavily in debt with the foreign powers at that time. Foreign intervention was inevitable because of the internal unrest triggered of the slave trade, which was mounted steadily during that period of time. The slave trade became the most valuable business in Sudan during the1800’s. The domestic slavery increasingly became the only short way to get rich as Egyptians began taking Sudanese slaves to work as soldiers mostly southerners and few from Funj in the north but only those who refused to convert to Islam in nineteenth century’s. European and Arab traders, who came to south Sudan areas looking for ivory, gold etc, established a slave-trade market in the south exporting people to slavery camps in huge numbers as thousands and thousands. This form of slavery totally tore apart tribal and family structures and entirely eliminated several weaker tribes because the big tribes were able to change some of their people captured by capturing people from small tribe and takes them for exchanges. At that period of time the practicing governor in Sudan was the British general Charles George Gordon appointed as the governor of Egypt Sudan in 1873.There was one of the military local leaders known as Mohammed Ahmad who joined forces with the Akaleefa Abdullahi At-Taac Tmasihi in 1844-85 in order to overthrow the Christian system in Sudan. Mohammed Ahmad therefore, proclaimed himself as the Mahdi. (Mahdi is a Muslim traditional way figure chosen by their God or “Allah” in Arabic to lead the “Jihad” or holy war in the defense of Islam, and to rid the World of evil as they belief so). Mohammed Ahmad or the “Mahdi” took over the country power and get in fight with the Egyptian in the heavy battle of Shaykan 1883, two years later in 1885 the Mahdi troops defeated Egyptian in Sudan and shortly the leader Mahdi himself died in 1885 and succeeded by his joined Muslim friend Khalifa Abdullahi. Again the two joined forces of British and Egypt invaded Sudan in 1896 and defeated Khalifa’s forces in the heavy battle of Omdurman. This invasion lasted in 1956 after the three groups known as Egypt, Sudan, and British signed the independent agreement in 1953. The signed document of Sudan independent gave isolated south Sudanese nothing to share in the country, but gave Arabs the power to rule and assassinate the original Sudanese in the country, and for this very reason, “the first civil war begins”.