The history of the Sudan from the coming of Islam to the present day

by P.M. Holt

Here is a new edition of well-known introductory history of the Sudan, which takes events of this troubled region up to 1998. This extended coverage considers the last years of Jaafar Nimeiri's government to his fall from power in 1985; the subsequent transitional military regime; the return to parliamentary rule, and the current attempts to establish an Islamic state under a renewed military regime. More than a political narrative, this book shows how the modern Sudan has been shaped by three key elements in its the influence of the Ottoman Empire; the impact of British domination; and, above all else, the enduring indigenous tradition of the region, produced by the intermingling of its African and Arab Muslim inheritance.

Genres: History, Africa, Sudan, Nonfiction

250 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Peter Malcolm Holt (1918–2006), a Fellow of the British Academy, was an historian of the Sudan, of the Middle East more widely, and of the development of Arabic studies in early modern England. Born at Leigh in Lancashire, he went to Lord Williams's Grammar School at nearby Thame, and then read History at University College, Oxford from 1937 to 1940. Having obtained a Diploma of Education (1941), he joined the Education Department of the Government of the Sudan, where he worked as a secondary school teacher and inspector. In the year before the Sudan became independent in 1956, Holt was appointed as a Lecturer in the History Department of the School of Oriental and African Studies. Articles investigating aspects of the earlier period of Sudanese history represent part of his scholarly output during the 1960s. While the main body of Holt's academic research occupied three, approximately successive, phases (the Sudan, Egypt under Ottoman rule, and the early Mamluk sultanate in Egypt and Syria), the development of Arabic studies in seventeenth-century England remained an abiding interest.

Reviews

[Megan Mcswain · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best concise history of Sudan. Clearly getting dated. Still, indispensable for understanding.

[Dennis Fischman · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I was growing up in the 1970’s, we hardly learned anything about Africa in school. I have been trying to patch that hole in my education through reading on my own. Sudan should be in the news much more than it is: it’s the scene of war, famine, and disease, at least as bad as what’s going on in Gaza and worse than Ukraine. I am determined to pay it attention as it deserves.

There is not much available in English on the history of Sudan before the Darfur famine. This book is scholarly in an old-fashioned way: it focuses much more on competition between political factions and their leaders, and less on everyday people and their lives, than I like. Still, I now have a basic sense of the geography, tribal divisions, and timeline of rulers. I can build on that.

[Binston Birchill · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a serviceable history of the Sudan for the period it covers but at times it suffers from being too concise, painting a picture with insufficient strokes. We never got to know the different regions and peoples of Sudan, not much was presented other than the framework of the ever-shifting overlordship, even that only at a high level view.

My copy is the third edition and was written in 1979 and largely stops around 1970, so a newer publication will obviously be of use to those interested in the last 50 years.