In the Middle Ages, large parts of central and southern Sudan, including the region of Fazughli on the border with Ethiopia, were controlled by the Christian Nubian kingdom of Alodia.
Since the 12th century Alodia had been in decline, a decline which would have been well advanced by c. 1300.
In the 14th and 15th century Arab bedouin tribes overran most of Sudan, pushing as far south as Aba Island.
By the second half of the 15th century virtually the whole of Alodia had been settled by Arabs except of the area around Soba, the capital of Alodia at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile.
Soba was eventually conquered by the Arabs or the African Funj, with Sudanese sources dating that event to the 9th century after the Hijra (c. 1396–1494), the late 15th century, 1504 and 1509.
The Funj then established a sultanate with Sennar as its capital, which would extend as far north as the third Nile cataract.

Historian Jay Spaulding suggests that Alodia outlived the fall of Soba.
He believes that the "kingdom of Soba" mentioned by the Jewish traveller David Reubeni in 1523 is a reference to Alodia and believes it to be located somewhere on the east bank of the Blue Nile.
This "kingdom of Soba" had a territory at a distance of ten days' journey and encompassed the "kingdom of Al Ga'l", which was described as subordinate to Amara Dunqas, sultan of Sennar. "
Al Ga'l" is probably a reference to the Arab Jaalin tribe.
Using oral traditions, Spaulding continues to argue that the Alodians eventually abandoned the territory they still held in the lower Blue Nile valley and retreated to the mountainous region of Fazughli in the south, where they reestablished their kingdom.
One tradition collected in the 19th century, for example, recalls that: 
the kings of Fazughli, whose dominion extended over a large part of the peninsula of Sennar (the Gezira), and one of whose capitals had been the ancient Soba, had been forced to give way before the new arrivals... the Funj ... and to retire to their mountains... There... they maintained themselves... [Thus] the empire of Fazughli emerged from the debris of the kingdom of Soba.

 Local traditions also remember Alodian migrations towards Fazughli.
Fazughli as a place of Nubian exile is also mentioned in the Funj Chronicle, compiled around 1870.
An archaeological culture named the "Jebel Mahadid tradition", centered around Mahadid in Qwara, western Ethiopia, with monumental architecture and pottery similar to that found in Soba, has very recently been attributed to these Alodian refugees.
Considering the archaeological evidence it has been suggested that they had already started arriving in the Ethiopian-Sudanese borderlands by the 14th century.
Thus they would have arrived when Alodia was still existing, but was already in severe decline.
In the Middle Ages, large parts of central and southern Sudan, including the region of Fazughli on the border with Ethiopia, were controlled by the Christian Nubian kingdom of Alodia. Since the 12th century Alodia had been in decline, a decline which would have been well advanced by c. 1300. In the 14th and 15th century Arab bedouin tribes overran most of Sudan, pushing as far south as Aba Island. By the second half of the 15th century virtually the whole of Alodia had been settled by Arabs except of the area around Soba, the capital of Alodia at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile. Soba was eventually conquered by the Arabs or the African Funj, with Sudanese sources dating that event to the 9th century after the Hijra (c. 1396–1494), the late 15th century, 1504 and 1509. The Funj then established a sultanate with Sennar as its capital, which would extend as far north as the third Nile cataract.
Historian Jay Spaulding suggests that Alodia outlived the fall of Soba. He believes that the "kingdom of Soba" mentioned by the Jewish traveller David Reubeni in 1523 is a reference to Alodia and believes it to be located somewhere on the east bank of the Blue Nile. This "kingdom of Soba" had a territory at a distance of ten days' journey and encompassed the "kingdom of Al Ga'l", which was described as subordinate to Amara Dunqas, sultan of Sennar. "Al Ga'l" is probably a reference to the Arab Jaalin tribe. Using oral traditions, Spaulding continues to argue that the Alodians eventually abandoned the territory they still held in the lower Blue Nile valley and retreated to the mountainous region of Fazughli in the south, where they reestablished their kingdom. One tradition collected in the 19th century, for example, recalls that: 
the kings of Fazughli, whose dominion extended over a large part of the peninsula of Sennar (the Gezira), and one of whose capitals had been the ancient Soba, had been forced to give way before the new arrivals... the Funj ... and to retire to their mountains... There... they maintained themselves... [Thus] the empire of Fazughli emerged from the debris of the kingdom of Soba.
 Local traditions also remember Alodian migrations towards Fazughli. Fazughli as a place of Nubian exile is also mentioned in the Funj Chronicle, compiled around 1870. An archaeological culture named the "Jebel Mahadid tradition", centered around Mahadid in Qwara, western Ethiopia, with monumental architecture and pottery similar to that found in Soba, has very recently been attributed to these Alodian refugees. Considering the archaeological evidence it has been suggested that they had already started arriving in the Ethiopian-Sudanese borderlands by the 14th century. Thus they would have arrived when Alodia was still existing, but was already in severe decline.
Kingdom of Fazughli