Chapter 01 · c. 2500 BCE – c. 350 CE
Nubia, Kerma and the Kingdom of Kush
Along the Nile south of Egypt rose Kerma and the Kingdom of Kush, whose rulers conquered Egypt itself and later built the pyramids of Meroe.
The middle Nile, the land the ancients called Nubia and Kush, was home to one of Africa's earliest urban civilisations. The Kerma culture, centred on the city of Kerma below the Nile's cataracts, flourished from roughly 2500 to 1500 BCE, trading with and at times rivalling pharaonic Egypt before Egypt's New Kingdom rulers brought Nubia under their control. As Egypt's New Kingdom disintegrated around 1070 BCE, Kush re-emerged as an independent kingdom centred on Napata, near the sacred mountain of Gebel Barkal.
In the eighth century BCE the Kushite kings turned the tables on Egypt. Piye (Piankhi) swept north and brought Lower Egypt under his rule around 727 BCE, founding the 25th Dynasty — the Nubian or "Black Pharaohs" who ruled a combined Egypt and Kush. Taharqa, the dynasty's most celebrated king, presided over its height before Assyrian invasions under Esarhaddon (from 671 BCE) and Ashurbanipal drove the Kushites back south by the 660s BCE.
After the Egyptian pharaoh Psamtik II sacked Napata around 593 BCE, the kingdom's centre shifted south to Meroe, between the Nile and the Atbara. Meroitic Kush developed its own alphabetic script, a major iron-working industry and a distinctive royal tradition in which powerful queens, the kandakes, sometimes ruled. The Meroites built scores of steep, narrow pyramids as royal tombs — today a UNESCO World Heritage site. The kingdom declined over the following centuries and Meroe was sacked by the rising Kingdom of Aksum, traditionally around 350 CE.
“Meroe was the heartland of the Kingdom of Kush, a major power from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD.”
— UNESCO, on the Archaeological Sites of the Island of Meroe
Turning points
- c. 2500–1500 BCEFormation
- c. 1070 BCEFormation
- c. 727 BCEWar & Rupture
Piye conquers Egypt — the 25th Dynasty
The Kushite king Piye (Piankhi) brings Egypt under Nubian rule, founding the 25th Dynasty of "Black Pharaohs"; Taharqa later reigns at its height.
See the data - 671 BCEWar & Rupture
Assyrians expel the Kushites from Egypt
Esarhaddon and then Ashurbanipal invade Egypt, driving the Kushite pharaohs back to Nubia by the 660s BCE.
See the data - c. 593–590 BCEPolitics & Power
Figures of the era
Piye (Piankhi)reigned c. 747–714 BCE
King of Kush, founder of the 25th Dynasty
Kushite king who conquered Egypt around 727 BCE, uniting Kush and Egypt under Nubian rule and inaugurating the dynasty of "Black Pharaohs".
Taharqareigned c. 690–664 BCE
Pharaoh of the 25th Dynasty
The most renowned Kushite pharaoh, who ruled over both Egypt and Kush at the dynasty's height before Assyrian invasions forced the Kushites south.
Chapter sources: Kingdom of Kush, The Kingdom of Kush, Sudan — The kingdom of Kush, Archaeological Sites of the Island of Meroe
Chapter 02 · c. 350 – c. 1500 CE
The Christian Kingdoms of Nubia
After Kush, three Christian kingdoms held the Nubian Nile for nearly a millennium, shielded from Muslim Egypt by a unique treaty of coexistence.
Into the vacuum left by Meroe's fall arose three Nubian kingdoms: Nobatia (Nobadia) in the north, Makuria in the centre with its capital at Old Dongola, and Alodia (Alwa) to the south near modern Khartoum. During the sixth century CE all three adopted Christianity, partly through missions associated with the Byzantine court, and the Nubian Nile became a Christian world of cathedrals, monasteries and a literate church culture.
When Arab armies conquered Egypt in the 640s, they pressed south but could not subdue Nubia. After fighting around Dongola, Makuria and the Muslims agreed in about 652 CE to the Baqt, a treaty of mutual non-aggression and regulated exchange that endured, with interruptions, for centuries — one of the longest-lived diplomatic arrangements in history. Nobatia was absorbed into Makuria, and Christian Nubia entered a long and relatively stable golden age.
From the later medieval period the balance shifted. Mamluk pressure, internal strife and the steady migration and settlement of Arab groups eroded Makuria, which had broken down by the fourteenth century; the southern kingdom of Alodia collapsed around 1500, its remnants overwhelmed as new Muslim powers rose on the Nile. Christianity faded and Islam and Arabic spread across the riverine north.
“The Baqt regulated relations between Christian Nubia and Muslim Egypt for centuries — among the most enduring treaties in recorded history.”
— On the Baqt of c. 652 CE
Turning points
- 6th century CEReligion
- c. 652 CEPolitics & Power
- 14th centuryPolitics & Power
Decline of Makuria
Under Mamluk pressure and Arab settlement, the Christian kingdom of Makuria fragments and its capital at Dongola is lost.
- c. 1500–1504Religion
Chapter sources: Nubia (Christian kingdoms: Nobatia, Makuria, Alodia), Baqt, Christian Nubia and Muslim Egypt Sign Treaty, Funj Sultanate
Chapter 03 · 1504 – 1820
Islam, Sennar and Darfur
Two Muslim sultanates — the Funj of Sennar and the Keira of Darfur — dominated the lands between the Nile and the deserts as Islam took root.
As Christian Nubia waned, the Funj Sultanate arose in 1504 under Amara Dunqas, with its capital at Sennar on the Blue Nile. The Funj presided over a confederation of riverine states across central Sudan and embraced Islam; itinerant holy men and Sufi orders spread the faith and Arabic learning. At its late-seventeenth-century height Sennar was among the great trading cities of the African interior, exchanging gold, ivory and enslaved people across the Sahara and the Red Sea.
To the west, the Keira dynasty built the Sultanate of Darfur from the mid-seventeenth century. Under rulers such as Ahmad Bukr, Islam became the state religion, and a new capital was eventually fixed at al-Fashir in 1792. At its peak Darfur was a substantial state controlling caravan routes north across the desert, with an economy likewise bound up in the trans-Saharan slave trade.
By the early nineteenth century both sultanates were weakening. The Funj realm fractured into civil war and had largely disintegrated, leaving the Nile Valley exposed. Into this fragmented landscape came an invasion from the north that would impose, for the first time, a single foreign administration over much of what is now Sudan.
Turning points
- 1504Formation
- mid-17th centuryFormation
Sultanate of Darfur founded
Sulayman Solong founds the Keira dynasty in the west; under Ahmad Bukr Islam becomes the state religion.
- late 17th centuryEconomy & Trade
Sennar at its height
The Funj capital flourishes as one of the major trading cities of the African interior, dealing in gold, ivory and enslaved people.
See the data - 1792Politics & Power
Darfur's capital fixed at al-Fashir
The Keira sultans establish al-Fashir as their capital; Darfur controls caravan routes across the Sahara.
Figures of the era
Amara Dunqasreigned c. 1504 – c. 1533/4
Founder of the Funj Sultanate
First ruler of the Funj Sultanate of Sennar, under whom the dynasty established itself on the Blue Nile and adopted Islam.
Chapter sources: Funj Sultanate, Sultanate of Darfur, Sudan — The Funj
Chapter 04 · 1820 – 1899
Turco-Egyptian Rule and the Mahdist Revolt
An Egyptian conquest founded Khartoum and bound the Sudan to Cairo — until a messianic revolt destroyed it, only to be crushed in turn at Omdurman.
In 1820 Muhammad Ali, the Ottoman viceroy of Egypt, sent armies under his sons to conquer the Sudan in search of gold, slaves and recruits. The campaign founded Khartoum around 1821 at the strategic confluence of the Blue and White Niles, and the town became the seat of a Turco-Egyptian administration that extended Egyptian rule, taxation and the slave trade deep into the Sudanese interior over the following decades.
Resentment at heavy taxation, misrule and the suppression of slaving fuelled revolt. In 1881 a Dongola-born religious teacher, Muhammad Ahmad, proclaimed himself the Mahdi, the divinely guided redeemer, and launched a holy war against the regime. His followers, the Ansar, swept across the country. After a long siege, Khartoum fell on 26 January 1885 and its defender, the British general Charles Gordon, was killed — a shock that reverberated through Britain. The Mahdi died of disease months later, on 22 June 1885, and his successor, the Khalifa Abdallahi, ruled the independent Mahdist state from Omdurman.
More than a decade later, anxious over French ambitions on the Nile, Britain backed a reconquest. An Anglo-Egyptian army under General Sir Herbert Kitchener advanced up the river and, on 2 September 1898, annihilated the Khalifa's army at the Battle of Omdurman, where modern artillery and machine guns inflicted catastrophic losses for minimal British cost. The young Winston Churchill rode in the cavalry charge. The Mahdist state was destroyed, and in 1899 Sudan was placed under a joint Anglo-Egyptian Condominium.
“By midday the Battle of Omdurman was over; the Mahdists were decisively defeated with heavy losses, and the Khalifa fled.”
— Encyclopædia Britannica, "Battle of Omdurman"
Turning points
- 1820–1821Colonisation
Turco-Egyptian conquest; Khartoum founded
Muhammad Ali's armies conquer the Sudan; Khartoum is founded c. 1821 at the junction of the Blue and White Niles as the seat of Egyptian rule.
See the data - 1881Religion
- 26 January 1885War & Rupture
Fall of Khartoum; death of Gordon
Mahdist forces storm Khartoum after a long siege and kill General Charles Gordon; the Mahdi dies months later.
See the data - 2 September 1898War & Rupture
Battle of Omdurman
Kitchener's Anglo-Egyptian army destroys the Khalifa's forces with overwhelming firepower, ending the Mahdist state.
See the data - 1899Colonisation
Anglo-Egyptian Condominium established
Sudan is placed under joint British and Egyptian rule by the Condominium agreements of January and July 1899.
See the data
Figures of the era
Muhammad Ahmad (the Mahdi)1844–1885
Religious leader, founder of the Mahdist state
Sufi teacher who in 1881 declared himself the Mahdi and led the revolt that overthrew Turco-Egyptian rule and captured Khartoum in 1885.
Charles George Gordon1833–1885
British general, governor-general of the Sudan
Sent to evacuate Khartoum, he was besieged and killed when the city fell to the Mahdists on 26 January 1885.
Chapter sources: History of Sudan — Egyptian-Ottoman rule over the Sudan, Khartoum, Sudan (1821– ), Mahdist State, Siege of Khartoum, Battle of Omdurman, Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan
Chapter 05 · 1899 – 2005
Independence and the Long Civil Wars
Independence in 1956 inaugurated a state at war with itself, as two generation-long conflicts between north and south consumed millions of lives.
Under the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium (1899–1955), Britain developed the riverine north — building railways and the vast Gezira cotton irrigation scheme around the Sennar dam — while administering the African south largely separately. As Sudanese nationalism grew, the country moved to self-government and then, by unanimous vote of its parliament, to independence on 1 January 1956. Yet rebellion in the south had already begun in 1955, opening the First Sudanese Civil War. It ended with the Addis Ababa Agreement of 27 February 1972, which granted the south regional autonomy.
The peace did not hold. In 1983 President Jaafar Nimeiri abrogated southern autonomy and imposed Islamic sharia law nationwide, reigniting conflict as the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) under John Garang took up arms. The Second Sudanese Civil War would last more than two decades and, with its attendant famine and displacement, is estimated to have caused on the order of two million deaths. In 1989 Brigadier Omar al-Bashir seized power in an Islamist-backed coup, ruling Sudan for three decades.
After years of negotiation the war finally ended with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, signed in Kenya in January 2005. It granted the south autonomy and the promise of a referendum on independence within six years, and brought the SPLM into a power-sharing government. Garang, who became national vice-president, died in a helicopter crash months later, but the path to a separate southern state had been set.
“On 1 January 1956 Sudan was declared an independent republic with an elected representative parliament.”
— On Sudanese independence
Turning points
- 1955–1972War & Rupture
First civil war
Rebellion in the south, begun in 1955, grows into a 17-year war ended by the Addis Ababa Agreement of 27 February 1972, which grants southern autonomy.
See the data - 1 January 1956Independence
Independence of the Sudan
Sudan becomes a sovereign republic, ending Anglo-Egyptian rule; its parliament chooses independence over union with Egypt.
See the data - 1983–2005War & Rupture
Second civil war begins
Nimeiri scraps southern autonomy and imposes sharia; the SPLM/A under John Garang launches a war that kills an estimated two million people.
See the data - 1989Politics & Power
Bashir seizes power
Omar al-Bashir takes power in an Islamist-backed military coup, beginning a three-decade rule.
- 2005Politics & Power
Figures of the era
Chapter sources: Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Sudan, First Sudanese Civil War, Addis Ababa Agreement (1972), Sudanese Civil Wars
Chapter 06 · 2003 – present
Darfur, Secession and the War of the Generals
The Darfur catastrophe, the loss of the south and a popular revolution gave way to a ruinous war between the army and a former militia.
In February 2003 rebels in the western region of Darfur took up arms against the central government, citing decades of marginalisation. The government's response — backing Arab militias known as the Janjaweed — produced one of the era's gravest humanitarian catastrophes; United Nations estimates put the death toll at around 300,000 and the displaced at some three million. The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for President Omar al-Bashir in 2009 and 2010 on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide — the first ICC warrants ever issued for a sitting head of state.
The 2005 peace deal led to a referendum in which southerners voted overwhelmingly to separate, and on 9 July 2011 South Sudan became an independent country — taking with it most of the former Sudan's oil. Economic crisis and Bashir's long autocracy fed mounting discontent. In December 2018 protests over bread prices grew into a nationwide uprising, and on 11 April 2019 the military removed Bashir from power after thirty years, ushering in a fraught civilian-military transition.
That transition collapsed into catastrophe. On 15 April 2023 fighting erupted in Khartoum between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) under General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — a paramilitary force descended from the Janjaweed — led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, "Hemedti". The war spread across the country, killing tens of thousands, displacing millions and triggering famine, with renewed atrocities reported in Darfur. It remains, as of 2026, among the world's largest humanitarian crises.
“Al-Bashir became the first sitting head of state to be the subject of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court.”
— On the ICC warrants of 2009–2010
Turning points
- February 2003War & Rupture
War in Darfur begins
Rebel attacks meet a government-backed Janjaweed campaign; UN estimates put the toll at about 300,000 dead and some three million displaced.
See the data - 2009–2010Politics & Power
- 9 July 2011Independence
South Sudan secedes
After a referendum, South Sudan becomes independent, taking most of the former Sudan's oil with it.
See the data - 11 April 2019Politics & Power
- 15 April 2023War & Rupture
War between SAF and RSF
Fighting erupts between the army under al-Burhan and the RSF under "Hemedti", spreading nationwide and causing mass death, displacement and famine.
See the data
Figures of the era
Chapter sources: War in Darfur, Al Bashir Case, ICC Issues Arrest Warrant for Sudanese President Bashir, Sudan, Independence of South Sudan, 2019 Sudanese coup d'état, Sudan: With al-Bashir Ouster, End Authoritarianism