Religion in the Sudan
1. The Official Religious Institutions.—These are repre-
sented by the courts administering the religious law and
by the public mosques and their staff. The organization
of these institutions is not indigenous to the country, but
was introduced by the old Egyptian Government and,
after being in abeyance during the rule of the Mahdi and
the Khalifa, was re-established by the present adminis-
tration. Religious courts (mahkama shar'ia) which exist
in province and district headquarters administer the
Mohammedan law on such matters as inheritance, gifts,
charitable endowments, marriage and divorce, and their
judgments are executed by the administrative authorities.
The code administered is that of Abu Hanifa, which is
that officially established in Turkey and its dependencies,
but the vast majority of natives of the Sudan adhere to
the Maliki rite. The judges (kadis) of the courts are
officials of the Legal Department, the highest functionaries
being the Grand Kadi and the Mufti. Attached to the
Gordon College, Khartoum, there is a section in which
young natives of the Sudan are trained for the profession
of Kadi, the chief subjects of instruction being Arabic
language and literature, the Koran and its interpretation,
and Mohammedan law. The kadis in addition to their
judicial functions are responsible for the administration
of the mosques which are maintained by public funds.
The minor staff of these mosques (preachers and mu'addins)
are to a great extent recruited from an institution for the
study of Moslem learning (el ma'had el 'ilmi) at Omdurman,
which is administered by the Board of Ulama, a body
acting under the authority of the Legal Department.
The influence and importance of the official institutions
are considerably greater in the towns, and among the
section of the population which has been affected by
education of a modern type, than it is amongst the rural
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