The original was written by Shaykh Aḥmad, called Kātib al-Shūna, and covered Funj history from 1504 to 1838 (AH 910–1254).
[5] A second continuation of the Chronicle was made by al-Zubayr wad Ḍawwah, who extended it up to 1863 (1280), while also adding to the beginning material on medieval Nubia drawn from Ibn Sulaym al-Aswānī via al-Maqrīzī.
[8] Both the original and final recensions have been published, the former under the title Taʾrīkh mulūk al-Sūdān by Makkī Shubayka at Khartoum in 1947 and the latter as Makhṭūṭat Kātib al-Shūna at Cairo in 1963.
He did make use of two written sources: a king-list distinct from that acquired by James Bruce in 1772 and the Ṭabaqāt of Wad Ḍayfallāh, a biographical dictionary of Sudanese religious men compiled between 1753 and 1805.
From 1788/1789 (AH 1203), the reign-based structure is dropped because "the power of the Funj ended, and no list of them was kept.
Their kingship became a customary institution, and the regnal dating passed in reality in the name of the Hamaj".
[12] The Chronicle has a narrow geographical scope, centred on the Blue Nile and the Funj capital, Sinnār.