In the two hundred and fifty years proceeding Mohammed Ali Pasha's conquest of the Fung sultanate, a large part of what is today the northern (Ash Shamdhyah) and eastern (Ash Sharqujah) states of the Republic of the Sudan, were integral parts of the Ottoman - Turkish Empire and under direct Ottoman rule. In that period the Empire was powerful and sophisticated its sultans being 'Khalifas of the Dar al Islam and 'Guardians of the Holy Places'. Its influence in the Middle Nile Valley during such a long period deserves to be studied in more detail than has so far taken place and to be considered as the first of three 'Turkiyyas', the other two being the Turko-Egyptian (1823-1886) and the Egypto-British (1898-1916).

In the Nile Valley, in the 1550s the Ottoman frontier was advanced from Aswan to the 2nd Cataract and in 1583 to 3rd Cataract, 600 kms from Khartoum (Holt 1967, Menage 1998). This was the Sanjak (sub-province) of Ibrim in the Eyelat (province) of Misr. On the Red Sea coast the Ottomans had held Suakin since 1524 and before the 1550s had extended their control southwards into present-day Eritrea; this was the Sanjak of Habesh. Beyond the southern frontier was the land-locked Fung and Tajur sultanates, the most easterly of a chain of Islamic states which stretched westwards to the Atlantic through the sahel and savannahs, on the frontier of the Dar el Islam and the Dar el Harb. These including the Fung, were very different in their organisation and wealth from the Ottoman Empire through which, as their main trading partner, most luxuries and innovations reached them before the 19th century.

In the last twenty years, as Intesar Saghouran el Zein (2000) has demonstrated, archaeological research in the Sudan has contributed much to the study of this period. Archival research in Cairo and Istanbul has contributed less but the excavations at Qasr Ibrim have uncovered a large number of dated manuscripts in Arabic and Turkish and their translation and publication (Hinds and Sakkout 1986, Hinds and Ménage 1992) has provided much evidence of life in the Sanjak of Ibrim and this has been supplemented by survey and excavation at Kulubnarti (Adams 1994:, Adams and Adams 1996) and Say (Alexander 1997).

The full Ottoman administrative system in force elsewhere in the Empire was promulgated in Egypt (Ahmed 1978). The documents from Qasr Ibrim show that it was in place in the Sanjak by 1600AD and probable from its conquest in the 1550s. The new sanjak had taken its name from the ancient fortress of Qasr Ibrim which lay within it and which, with smaller forts at Gebel Adda and Faras near Wada Halfa, defended the southern frontier of Egypt. The headquarters of the Sanjak was at Al Dirr and Al Diwan some 20kms north of Qasr Ibrim. From here a succession of Sanjak Beys, appointed every few years from Cairo, controlled civilian officials (Kachiefs) who collected the heavy taxes from its districts (Kaza). Its Shari'a lawcourt would have had Qadis who, like the Imans of the main mosques, were trained in Egypt and held Sunni convictions. It is unfortunate that El Dirr and El Diwan were submerged by Lake Nasser without archaeological investigation taking place, but Qasr Ibrim, on its 70m high cliff beside the Nile had been under excavation since 1964 an 90% of its Ottoman levels have been examined and are in process of publication, Alexander (1988 and 1995). It had been abandoned in 1812 and since the preservation of organic remains is exceptional an included much paper, wood, leather, textile, plant and animal remains as well as many stone buildings, it has allowed a detailed study of the Ottoman garrison and its equipment.

In the first phase of occupation (c.1550 - 1583) it was the major fortress of the frontier. Its ramparts were repaired, its bastions armed with cannon and a new and skilfully designed main gate and defended water point added. Described in the 19th century as ' a sort of ruined Ehrenbreitstien' (Edwards. 1882) it would have been impregnable to any enemy without a siege train. Within the walls were stone buildings which included barracks and store rooms, but few dwellings. No details of its garrison in this phase have been published from the Cairo archives, but a contemporary report that the sanjak's military establishment cost more than its revenues.

A new phase of frontier policy began in the 1580's. In an attempt to conquer both the Christian Empire of Abyssinia and the Fung Sultanate attacks were launched from the Red Sea Coast and the Nile Valley. In the Nile Valley it was preceded in 1583, by the creation of new province, the Eyelat of Ibrim, a decision which must have been taken by the Imperial Diwan in Istanbul. Stretching over 90,00Okml it comprised the Sanjaks of AI Sa'id and Ibrim from Egypt and, when conquered, a Sanjak of Mahas south of the 2d Cataract in the Sudan. (Fig. ). It was the base from which the conquest of the Fung sultanate was to take place, but the attack failed and within the year the Eyelat was abolished and a frontier with the Fung established at 3d Cataract where it remained until 1823. The Sanjaks of El Sa'id and an enlarged Ibrim stretching from the 1" to the 3rd Cataract were returned to Egypt. The new frontier needed a new fortress to defend it, Qasr Ibrim now being 150kms further north, and an existing one on Gezira Say was selected and refurbished. It has recently been surveyed and test-excavated (Alexander 1997). Its mudbrick ramparts were rebuilt, cannon, which survived into the 19'h century were mounted, and a new main gate embodying the principles used at Qasr Ibrim added. Four-fifths of the Ottoman levels in its interior had been destroyed without record, but there is evidence of many buildings (Vercouter 1958). The Cairo Archives show that through the 17th and 18'h centuries its garrison was approximately twice that of Qasr Ibrim (Shaw 1962 and 1968) which became a second line of defence (Fig.)

A change in Ottoman army regulations at this time greatly changed the nature of the garrisons. Soldiers were allowed to marry and their sons, if of Turkish or Arab mothers, allowed to enlist. The effect of this was shown in the Qasr Ibrim excavations and documents. The garrison was composed of detachments (bulluks) from the janissary units stationed in lower Egypt and soldiers were allowed to build, and their descendants inherit, dwellings inside the fortress, in some cases over or incorporating earlier buildings. These continued to be lived in and modified through the 17th and 18th centuries. From the documents found, up to five generations of garrison families could be reconstructed and recruitment from resident families replaced replacements from Egypt. Excavation found no evidence of a market, artisan shops, except what was probably a garrison, shoemaker, and no caravanserai or baths, confirming Evliya Celebi's account of his stay in the fortress in 1673 (Prokosch 1994.180). The Friday Mosque (the converted cathedral), the armoury/munitions store (a converted 5/6th century temple), and sixty-three of the seventy buildings he mentions were however located in the excavations. In the Cairo archives (Fig, ) the garrison strength decreased to 56 by the end of the period, the documents showing that the families became land lords and farmers, but the fortress never became a town or a village; what, in the 19th century was described as a town, lay as Qatta Ibrim 1.5 kms to the north.

Destruction has left much less evidence and no manuscripts of this period at Qala't (fortress) Say, but fifteen dwellings and part of the Friday Mosque have survived. garrison lived in the fortress, the dwellings showing some similarities with those as Suakin, and its history may have been more eventful than as Qasr Ibrim. Evliya Celebi reported Fung/1\4ahas aggression, which at one time reached Say Island, but the Cairo records show a garrison of 200 - 3 00 men paid through the 17th-18th centuries and it was still inhabited in the 19th century.

The only excavation of a civilian settlement in the Sanjak has been at Kulubnarti a poor and isolated island community at the southern end of the Butu el Hajar (Adams 1994, Adams and Adams 1996). Complete excavation showed it to have been continuously occupied from Christian times until today, but incorporation into the Ottoman Empire showed only by increased poverty and there was no changes in house plans, before the 18th century. The single 'Castle House', a very impressive building, was occupied by a Kachef (a Tax collecting official) in the 19th century and may well have housed one earlier. 4settlement cannot be considered typical of the Sanjak which, further north was prosperous in the 18th century.

The Sanjak of Habesh, after the failure of the attacks on the Abyssinian Empire, shrank to the environs of Suaken and a similar enclave at Massowa. Both were garrisoned and attached to the Eyelat of Jeddah of which they remained important parts until the 19thCentury (Forster,E; ed. 1992). No excavations have been carried out at Suakin, but much was recorded before falling into ruin (Greenlaw 1954, Hinkell 1994). Built of coral its buildings were in the 'Red Sea Style' and it controlled the caravan trade in gold slaves and ivory from the Fung Sultanate. Through it passed many of the Sufi holy men whose Khalwas and Rabats (centres of religious teaching and reform) so greatly influenced development in the Fung Sultanate and increased its difference from Egypt.

The third phase of the 'Ottoman Turkiyya' began in 1798 with the French conquest of Egypt as far south as Aswan (Deherain 1940). Payments to the garrisons in the Sanjak of Ibrim must have ceased and were never restarted, but the Sanjak remained loyal to the Ottoman Empire, the only part of the Eylat of Egypt which was not occupied, and from it a Jehad was mounted against the French until their withdrawal. Led by several Mamluk military households that had fled from Aswan, and aided by Ghazis from Arabia, it may well have involved members of the garrisons, but no details are known. Qasr Ibrim was abandoned in 1812 after having been seized by rebel Mamluks fighting Muhammed Ali Pasha's control of Egypt. Driven out by his army, the Mamluks fled south beyond the frontier, but the Qasr Ibrim fortress was not garrisoned again. Burckhardt (1818) who stayed a night in 1813 with garrison families in a riverside village recorded their traditions, several of which, include their claim to have been a Bosnian unit placed there by Selim I have been disproved. The Qala't Say garrison families do not appear to have been disturbed by either the Man-Auks as they fled south or by Mohammed Ali's army when it marched to the conquest of the Fung Sultanate in 1823, and local traditions recorded in 1997 insisted that the fortress was occupied until 1887; abandonment only took place as the Mahdyist army advanced northwards.

After the conquest of the Fung Sultanate, the administration of the whole region was reorganised, the Sanjak of Ibrim was abolished, its last Sanjak Bay becoming an Egyptian pensioner, while the garrison families must have lost any special status they may have retained with the abolition of the janissaries throughout the Empire in 1826. A new 'Turko-Egypt Turkiyya' had begun in which the Istanbul government played very little part, later in the century transferring control of the Suakin region to Egypt, and thus making the 'Hakimdar of the Sudan, the major component of the present day republic.

Conclusions:

The unification in the 19'h century of regions whose history and development in the previous two hundred and fifty years had been so different did not destroy those differences. The study of the development of the present Republic needs to include that period, which may be called 'The Ottoman Turkiyya', and will owe much to the evidence supplied by archaeology. In broader terms it can be seen as the first of three periods in which external and powerful Turkish, Egyptian and British influences were exercised in the Middle Nile Valley and adjacent regions and greatly influenced the present Republic of the Sudan.

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