The Ottomans & Islam

From the 16th century AD onwards, Turkish influence grew stronger under the Ottomans, and Islam gained a firm hold as the most popular religion.

At about the same time, a black Muslim people known as the Fung or Funj (sources vary) established themselves as a sultanate with Sannar as its capital.

Sannar became one of the great cultural centres of Islam at this period, but by the beginning of the 19th century, the power of the Funj was weakening. Internal disputes among its leaders made the sultanate ripe for invasion from Egypt, by this time itself a province of the Ottoman Empire. In 1822, Egypt won a great victory and Nubia once again became an Egyptian province, known as Egyptian Sudan.