Prof. Dr. Faid Mohammed Said
Series: Islamic Kingdoms in Africa: Humanity, Knowledge, and Forgotten History
Introduction
Eastern Sudan and the western coast of the Red Sea constitute one of the most significant cultural corridors in African and Islamic history. From the age of the Pharaohs, through the Nubian kingdoms, and into the advent of Islam, this region functioned as a crossroads of commerce, religious propagation, and the movement of pilgrims traveling from Africa to the Arabian Peninsula.
At the heart of this region lived the Beja people, an ancient nation whose presence extended from Aswan in the north to Massawa and Asmara in the south. They held sway over plains, mountains, and maritime ports.
Medieval Arabic and Islamic sources record the existence of five principal Beja kingdoms, known collectively as the Five Beja Kingdoms. Although each kingdom retained its political independence, they were bound together by shared ethnic and cultural ties. Al-Masʿūdī described them in his Meadows of Gold:
“The Beja are many nations with numerous kings; their conditions vary, and their dwellings are along the coasts of the sea and its deserts. They possess mines of gold and emerald.”
(al-Masʿūdī, Murūj al-Dhahab, vol. 2, p. 21).
Ibn Sulaym al-Aswānī also provided a detailed account of their authority over mines and trade:
“As for the mines of gold and emerald, they are in the land of the Beja. They own and dominate them, and no one enters without their permission. The caravans of Nubia and Egypt passed through their land and were not allowed except by paying a tenth of what they carried.”
(Ibn Sulaym al-Aswānī, Akhbār al-Nūba wa-al-Muqurra wa-al-Buja wa-al-Nīl, p. 45).
The Beja in History and Literature
The Beja were far from obscure in the Arabic and Islamic imagination. They appeared in travelogues and poetry alike. Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, passing through their lands on his way from ʿAydhāb to Jeddah, wrote:
“They are a people of the Sudan, rough and nomadic. Most of them are on the Christian faith. They have many camels. They do not farm nor keep livestock; their livelihood is from camel’s milk and meat.”
(Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, Tuḥfat al-Nuẓẓār, 1:119).
The poet al-Mutanabbī also alluded to them in his panegyrics of Kāfūr al-Ikhshīdī:
“Abū al-Misk, does your sword have today an effect
from the Beja, or from the swords of India?”
(Dīwān al-Mutanabbī, 2:345).
Elsewhere he likened their fierce assaults to the hand of a skilled musician:
“The Beja warriors shake the ranks as violently
as the pick shakes the melodious lute.”
(Dīwān al-Mutanabbī, 3:77).
Historians of the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods also noted them. Al-Maqrīzī described them as “nomads raiding the edges of Upper Egypt” (al-Khiṭaṭ, 2:312), while Ibn Khaldūn listed them among the “nations of the Sudan between Upper Egypt and Abyssinia” (al-ʿIbar, 6:125). Even Mamluk poetry glorified victories over them.
Such literary and historical presence demonstrates that the Beja were not a marginal group, but a regional power that influenced commerce, warfare, and culture, well known to Arabs and Muslims.
I. The Five Kingdoms: Locations and Achievements
1. The Kingdom of Baqlīn
• Location: Northeastern Sudan near Aswan.
• Achievements:
• Controlled trade routes between Egypt and Nubia.
• Exported gold and emeralds to Islamic Egypt.
• Acted as a geographical and political buffer between the Nile Valley and Beja lands.
• Leaders: King ʿAlī Bābā, who controlled trade routes and mines, and maintained direct ties with the Fatimids. Ibn Ḥawqal wrote:
“They are fierce in battle and cut the roads except for those who make peace with them.”
(Ṣūrat al-Arḍ, p. 118).
2. The Kingdom of Bazīn
• Location: South of Baqlīn, bordering Christian Nubia.
• Achievements:
• Prosperity in trade and agriculture.
• Exposure to Nubian Christianity prior to Islamic expansion.
• Protected caravans passing from the Nile Valley to the Red Sea.
• Leaders: King Kanūn, who allied with Nubia to safeguard his kingdom against Egyptian influence.
3. The Kingdom of Jārīn
• Location: South of Bazīn, in pastoral desert regions.
• Achievements:
• Maintained a strong military force of camel riders and cavalry.
• Oversaw caravan routes from inner Africa to the Red Sea.
• Linked pastoral tribes with agrarian states.
• Leaders: King Balī, renowned for his bravery and raids on Nubia and caravans.
4. The Kingdom of Qaṭʿa
• Location: Near Suakin and modern Port Sudan.
• Achievements:
• Supervised maritime ports.
• Established commercial links with Yemen, the Ḥijāz, and India.
• Facilitated the introduction of Arabic and Islam to eastern Sudan through trade.
• Leaders: King Tarwīn, remembered for his wisdom and close ties with Arab merchants, paving the way for Islam’s spread.
5. The Kingdom of Hadāriba
• Location: From Suakin to the historic port of ʿAydhāb.
• Achievements:
• The largest and most influential of the five kingdoms.
• Controlled the African pilgrimage route via ʿAydhāb.
• Levied duties on trade between Africa and Arabia.
• Played a direct role in spreading Islam through contact with the Ḥijāz.
• Leaders: King ʿAlī ibn Dāwūd al-Hadāribī, who controlled ʿAydhāb and alternated between conflict and reconciliation with the Fatimids. Al-Maqrīzī noted:
“On the road from ʿAydhāb to the Ḥijāz dwell a people of the Beja called the Hadārib. They block the road and levy tolls on all who pass.”
(al-Mawāʿiẓ wa-al-Iʿtibār, vol. 4, p. 311).
II. Nature of Relations among the Kingdoms
• These kingdoms coexisted simultaneously (4th–6th/10th–12th centuries).
• Each maintained sovereignty but shared Beja culture, language, and customs.
• Alliances and rivalries were constant, often revolving around control of trade routes or resistance to external powers.
III. The Geographic Extent of Beja Influence
• From Aswan in the north to Massawa and Asmara in the south.
• Controlled ports including ʿAydhāb, Suakin, and Massawa, serving as bridges between Africa and Arabia.
• Their influence reached Tigray in Ethiopia, highlighting the Sudanese–Eritrean–Ethiopian nexus.
IV. Religion and Culture
• Initially practiced local nomadic beliefs, later influenced by Nubian Christianity.
• By the 4th/10th century, Islam spread among them through merchants and preachers.
• Maritime trade made Arabic the lingua franca, embedding it as the vessel of faith and culture.
V. Economy and Trade
• Pastoralism: Camels and livestock.
• Mining: Gold and emeralds.
• Commerce: Gum arabic, hides, ivory, slaves.
• Pilgrimage: Controlled the African route through ʿAydhāb. Ibn Sulaym al-Aswānī remarked:
“None may enter their lands or trade within them except by paying a fee.”
(Akhbār al-Nūba wa-al-Muqurra wa-al-Buja wa-al-Nīl, p. 46).
VI. Perspectives of Historians and Orientalists
• Muslim historians: Described them as numerous nations, formidable, and in control of routes and mines.
• European Orientalists: Viewed the kingdoms as “tribal city-states” based on transit trade.
• African historians: Such as Yūsuf Fāḍil Ḥasan, emphasized their role in introducing Islam and Arabic to eastern Sudan.
• Modern research centers: The Institute of African and Asian Studies (University of Khartoum) examined Beja history as key to Sudanese and Eritrean identity.
VII. Lessons for Today’s Beja
• Unity is strength: Fragmentation weakened the kingdoms; cooperation is essential for Beja communities in Sudan and Eritrea today.
• Geography as an asset: Their strategic position enables them to serve as an economic bridge between Africa and the Arab world.
• Cultural preservation: The Beja language and heritage are treasures that must be safeguarded.
• Civilizational integration: As they once facilitated trade and pilgrimage, they can now foster development and cooperation.
Conclusion
The Five Beja Kingdoms represent a unique model in African Islamic history, blending tribal structures with global commerce. Although later absorbed into the Sultanate of Sennar, their legacy endures in the memory of the Beja people straddling Sudan and Eritrea.
Studying their history not only illuminates the past but also provides contemporary Beja communities with lessons in unity, development, cultural pride, and openness to the wider world.
References (Chicago Style)
• Ibn Baṭṭūṭa. Tuḥfat al-Nuẓẓār fī Gharāʾib al-Amṣār wa-ʿAjāʾib al-Asfār. Edited by Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Munʿim al-ʿAryān. Cairo: Dār al-Fikr, 1992.
• Ibn Ḥawqal. Ṣūrat al-Arḍ. Beirut: Dār Ṣādir, 1967.
• Ibn Khaldūn, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. Kitāb al-ʿIbar wa-Dīwān al-Mubtadaʾ wa-al-Khabar. Edited by Khalīl Shihāda. Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 2000.
• Ibn Sulaym al-Aswānī. Akhbār al-Nūba wa-al-Muqurra wa-al-Buja wa-al-Nīl. Edited by Yūsuf Fāḍil Ḥasan. Khartoum: University of Khartoum, 1974.
• Al-Mutanabbī. Dīwān al-Mutanabbī. Edited by ʿAbd al-Wāḥid Wāfī. Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1980.
• Al-Masʿūdī, ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn. Murūj al-Dhahab wa-Maʿādin al-Jawhar. Beirut: Dār al-Andalus, 1965.
• Al-Maqrīzī, Taqī al-Dīn. al-Mawāʿiẓ wa-al-Iʿtibār bi-Dhikr al-Khiṭaṭ wa-al-Āthār. Cairo: Egyptian General Book Organization, 1998.
• Al-Nuwayrī, Shihāb al-Dīn. Nihāyat al-Arab fī Funūn al-Adab. Cairo: Egyptian General Book Organization, 2004.
• Ḥasan, Yūsuf Fāḍil. Tārīkh al-Sūdān fī al-ʿUṣūr al-Wusṭā. Beirut: Dār al-Nahḍa al-ʿArabiyya, 1973.
• Lobban, Richard. Historical Dictionary of Sudan. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2002.
• Spaulding, Jay. The Heroic Age in Sinnar. East Lansing: African Studies Center, Michigan State University, 1985.
• Institute of African and Asian Studies. Dirāsāt fī Tārīkh al-Buja. Khartoum: University of Khartoum, 1999.
Skip to content