A.D. 1227.Fifty years afterwards the Nubians were again defeated and gave up to Egypt the Northern part of their Kingdom.
A.D. 1271.In A.D. 1271 King David of Nubia attacked Aswan, but was repulsed by the Khalif Bibars. The Mohammedans overran Nubia as far as Dongola, seized the northern province and imposed onerous conditions, one of which was the revival of the slave tribute.
A.D. 1287.Sixteen years later the Khalif Kalaun sent another expedition to Dongola, beat King Shemamun, left a garrison and retired. The Nubians promptly expelled the garrison, and the expedition was repeated, only to end in the same result. Thenceforward Shemamun was left in peace.
From this time onwards the Sudan apparently became the hunting ground of rival Arab slave-dealing tribes. The Christian kingdoms at last took to fighting among themselves, and their downfall became a mere question of time.
A.D. 1317.Thirty years later the great mosque was built at (old) Dongola, and kept up by the Christian inhabitants.
A.D. 1325.In A.D. 1325 the Moslems persecuted the Christians in Egypt to such an extent that the King of Abyssinia threatened to divert the Blue Nile unless they ceased.
A.D. 1375.Fifty years later we find civil wars and slave trade rife in the Sudan, whilst in the region of Aswan the Kenz, royal descendants of Ethiopia, pursued the trade of brigands, much to the detriment of all communications.
A.D. 1493.The rise of the kingdom of Sennar now commenced. By degrees the distinction between Arab and negro on the Blue Nile had diminished, whilst in 1493 the name of Beni Ommia is no longer heard of, and the old tribal names of Fung, Hameg, and others reappear.
In that year Amara Dunkas, the Sheikh of a sub-section of the Fung, either through the fortune of war or his superior capacity, succeeded in getting himself declared king of all the Fung tribes. He then allied himself with Abdulla Gemda el Kerinani, the powerful chief of the Keri district (east of the Blue Nile), and conquered all the country on both sides of the river between Fazogli and Khartoum.
These districts were inhabited by negroes belonging to the Nuba tribes, some of whom after the conquest remained in the country, while others emigrated into the mountains of Fazogli and Kordofan. Those who remained embraced Islamism, intermarried with their conquerors, and, losing their language and nationality, were soon lost in the tribes known collectively under the name of Fung.