Ja'alin tribe

The Ja'alin, Ja'aliya, Ja'aliyin or Ja'al (Arabic: جعليون) are an Arab or Arabised Nubian tribe in Sudan. They claim Arab descent. The Ja'alin heartland stretches from Atbara in the north to the sixth Nile cataract in the south. They constitute a large portion of the Sudanese Arabs and are one of the three prominent Sudanese Arab tribes in northern Sudan. Many Sudanese politicians have come from the Ja'alin tribal coalition.

The Ja'alin describe themselves as being of Arab origin and trace their origins to Ibrahim Ja'al, an Abbasid noble, whose clan originally hailed from the Hejaz in the Arabian Peninsula and married into the local Nubian population. Ja'al was a descendant of al-Abbas, an uncle of Muhammad. According to Charles William Wilson in 1888, the name Ja'alin does not seem to be derived from any founder of a tribe, but rather from the root Ja'al, an Arabic word meaning "to put" or "to stay", and in this sense it is those who settle. Various researchers have suggested that the Ja'alin are Arabized Nubians. A few 19th-century travellers claimed that Nubian was still spoken among them, although most agreed that they spoke Arabic only.

Ja'ali traditions claim that they emigrated to Sudan in the 12th century or in 1260, shortly after the Mongol conquest in 1258. Scottish traveller James Bruce, who visited the Funj Sultanate in 1772 and who was the first to compile traditions concerning its foundation, was told by local informants that the Ja'alin and other Arab tribes had entered Nubia during the reign of Caliph Umar (634–644). Some traditions note that the Ja'alin initially had their base in Kordofan west of the Nile. From there they conquered parts of the Nuba Mountains and encroached on the White Nile and the Nubian kingdom of Alodia, eventually sacking its capital Soba in 1476. Afterwards, but still before the foundation of the Funj Sultanate and its capital Sennar in 1504, the Ja'alin went on to conquer much of Nubia.

In written sources the Ja'alin were possibly already mentioned in 1523, when Jewish traveller David Reubeni visited the Funj Sultanate and mentioned a "kingdom of Al Ga'l". In Funj documents they appear as early 1724/1725, in a land charter issued under Sultan Badi IV. The ruler of the Ja'alin bore the title arbab or amir and had to answer to the Abdallab, who ruled northern Sudan on behalf of the Funj from their capital Qarri near the sixth Nile cataract. The territory of the Ja'ali arbab extended from the Nile-Atbarah confluence in the north to Hajar al-Asal just north of the sixth Nile cataract. In the late 18th century the Ja'alin became practically independent and their ruler adopted the title makk ("king"). Soon after dynastic conflicts errupted and two rival groups emerged: the Nimrab of Shendi on the east bank and the Sa'dab of El Matamah on the west bank. In addition to that Ad-Damir in the north had become independent and several sub-branches of the Ja'alin became loose tributaries, like the Masallamab. In this period many Ja'alin, Danagla and Shaigiya became jallaba, wandering merchants who established themselves in Egypt, the Red Sea coast, Kordofan and Darfur.

In 1820 the Turco-Egyptian ruler Muhammad Ali Pasha invaded Sudan with barely any resistance. In March 1821 the Turkish army, led by Muhammad Ali's son Isma'il Pasha, received the submission of makk Nimr of Shendi, which the army entered in May. Makk Nimr of Shendi and makk Musa'd of El Matamah were taken as hostages after four soliders and several Ja'ali villagers were killed in a violent clash, but were soon allowed to return home. The Turks began to extort high taxes, often with brutal means. A meeting in November 1822 discussing taxes between Ibrahim Pasha, Nimr and Musa'd escalated when Ibrahim Pasha hit Nimr with a pipe. Ibrahim Pasha and his soldiers were burnt to death and much of central Sudan errupted in revolt. The revolt was crushed, Shendi and El Matamah pillaged and its population killed, while much of the countryside was depopulated. Captured Ja'alin risked to be mutilated and enslaved. Musa'd was killed while Nimr was defeated in battle in 1823 and fled to the Ethiopian borderlands, where his followers remained until the 1860s.

Under the Turkish regime Dar Ja'alin became part of a larger province centered around Berber, stretching from about the fourth cataract to the Nile confluence (until 1825) / the sixth cataract (after 1825). This province was in turn divided into several sub-districts, one of them based in El Matamah. All governors and district governors were Turks. The precolonial Ja'ali elite lost all its relevance and Ja'alin were only allowed to low-level positions, where they faced competition from Shaigi settlers. One exception of a Ja'ali acquiring some influence was Bashir Ahmad 'Aqid, a Musallamabi sheikh who betrayed makk Nimr during the revolt. The Turks rewarded him with the title "Sheikh of Sheikhs" (the nominal figurehead of the Ja'alin) and in the 1820s and 1830s he grew to become a rich landlord based in Shendi.

Many Ja'ali migrants and jallaba went south and settled in various towns like Khartoum, Karkoj or Gallabat. Ja'ali merchants competed against the Danagla, whom they eventually surpassed by about 1860. One prominent example was Zubayr Pasha, who started his career as a merchant in Bahr al-Ghazal, but eventually raised a slave army and conquered Darfur in 1874. Cracking down on slavery, Gordon Pasha abolished Zubayr's army and dispossed the jallaba, of which the Ja'alin were possibly the principal sufferers.

In 1881 Dongolawi cleric Muhammad Ahmad announced that he was the Mahdi. From his base in Kordofan he recruited various anti-government forces, among them Ja'alin. Dar Ja'alin remained neutral until 1884, when its people revolted against the government and welcomed Mahdist forces. A year later the Mahdists conquered Khartoum, the capital of Turkish Sudan.