2015

DN-El-2013-027-1

Ghofran Alnabilsy

[SUDAN NOW AND BEFORE]

Research Entitled By :

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Done By:

Ghofran Mohammad Alnabilsy

Index No. :

Dn-El-2013-027-1

Electronic Engineering

Control Department

Batch (7)

Sudanese Studies

Dr. Zienab Alzuber

University of Medical Science and Technology

Khartoum, Sudan

2014-2015

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Sudan

Facts & Figures

National name: Jamhuryat as-Sudan

President: Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir (1989)

Current government officials

Total area: 1,156,673 sq mi (1,861,484 sq km)

Population (2014 est.): 35,482,233 (growth rate: 1.78%); birth rate:

30.01/1000; infant mortality rate: 52.86/1000; life expectancy: 63.32; density

per sq mi: 42.4

Capital (2011 est.): Khartoum, 4.632 million

Largest cities: Omdurman, 2,395,159; Port Sudan, 489,275

Monetary unit: Dinar

Geography

Sudan, in northeast Africa, measures

about one-fourth the size of the United

States. Its neighbors are Chad and the

Central African Republic on the west,

Egypt and Libya on the north, Ethiopia

and Eritrea on the east, and South Sudan,

Kenya, Uganda, and Democratic Republic

of the Congo on the south. The Red Sea

washes about 500 mi of the eastern

coast. It is traversed from north to

south by the Nile, all of whose great

tributaries are partly or entirely within

its borders.

History

What is now northern Sudan was in ancient times the kingdom of Nubia, which

came under Egyptian rule after 2600 B.C. An Egyptian and Nubian civilization

called Kush flourished until A.D. 350. Missionaries converted the region to

Christianity in the 6th century, but an influx of Muslim Arabs, who had already

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conquered Egypt, eventually controlled the area and replaced Christianity with

Islam. During the 1500s a people called the Funj conquered much of Sudan, and

several other black African groups settled in the south, including the Dinka,

Shilluk, Nuer, and Azande. Egyptians again conquered Sudan in 1874, and after

Britain occupied Egypt in 1882, it took over Sudan in 1898, ruling the country in

conjunction with Egypt. It was known as the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan between 1898

and 1955.

Nubia

Nubia is a region along the Nile river, which is

located in northern Sudan and southern Egypt.

There were a number of large Nubian

kingdoms throughout the Postclassical Era, the

last of which collapsed in 1504, when Nubia

became divided between Egypt and the Sennar

sultanate resulting in the Arabization of much

of the Nubian population. Nubia was again

united within Ottoman Egypt in the 19th

century, and within Anglo-Egyptian Sudan from

1899 to 1956.

The name Nubia is derived from that of the

Noba people, nomads who settled the area in

the 4th century, with the collapse of the

kingdom of Meroë. The Noba spoke a Nilo-

Saharan language, ancestral to Old Nubian. Old

Nubian was mostly used in religious texts

dating from the 8th and 15th centuries AD.

Before the 4th century, and throughout

classical antiquity, Nubia was known as Kush,

or, in Classical Greek usage, included under the

name Ethiopia (Aithiopia).

Historically, the people of Nubia spoke at least two varieties of the Nubian

language group, a subfamily which includes Nobiin (the descendant of Old

Nubian), Kenuzi-Dongola, Midob and several related varieties in the northern

part of the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan. Until at least 1970, the Birgid

language was spoken north of Nyala in Darfur but is now extinct.

Nubia was divided into two major regions: Upper and Lower Nubia, so called

because of their location in the Nile river valley, the 'lower' being further

downstream than the 'upper'. Lower Nubia lay between the First and Second

Cataracts of the Nile river, spreading in modern southern Egypt and northern

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Sudan, while Upper Nubia extended between the Second and Sixth Cataracts, in

modern central Sudan.

Kingdoms of Nubia:

1- Kingdom of Kerma

From the pre-Kerma culture, the first kingdom

to unify much of the region arose. The Kingdom

of Kerma, named for its presumed capital at

Kerma, was one of the earliest urban centers in

the Nile region. By 1750 BC, the kings of Kerma

were powerful enough to organize the labor for

monumental walls and structures of mud brick.

They also had rich tombs with possessions for

the afterlife and large human sacrifices.

George Reisner excavated sites at Kerma and

found large tombs and a palace-like structures.

The structures, named (Deffufa), alluded to

the early stability in the region. At one point,

Kerma came very close to conquering Egypt.

Egypt suffered a serious defeat at the hands

of the Kushites.

According to Davies, head of the joint British Museum and Egyptian

archaeological team, the attack was so devastating that if the Kerma forces

chose to stay and occupy Egypt, they might have eliminated it for good and

brought the nation to extinction. When Egyptian power revived under the

New Kingdom (c. 1532–1070 BC) they began to expand further southwards.

The Egyptians destroyed Kerma's kingdom and capitol and expanded the

Egyptian empire to the Fourth Cataract.

By the end of the reign of Thutmose I (1520 BC), all of northern Nubia had

been annexed. The Egyptians built a new administrative center at Napata,

and used the area to produce gold. The Nubian gold production made Egypt a

prime source of the precious metal in the Middle East. The primitive working

conditions for the slaves are recorded by Diodorus Siculus who saw some of

the mines at a later time. One of the oldest maps known is of a gold mine in

Nubia, the Turin Papyrus Map dating to about 1160 BC.

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2- Kingdom of Kush

When the Egyptians pulled out of the Napata region, they left a lasting

legacy that was merged with indigenous customs, forming the kingdom of

Kush. Archaeologists have found several burials in the area which seem to

belong to local leaders. The Kushites were buried there soon after the

Egyptians decolonized the Nubian frontier. Kush adopted many Egyptian

practices, such as their religion. The Kingdom of Kush survived longer than

that of Egypt, invaded Egypt (under the leadership of king Piye), and

controlled Egypt during the 8th century as the twenty-fifth dynasty of

Egypt.The Kushites held sway over their northern neighbors for nearly 100

years, until they were eventually repelled by the invading Assyrians. The

Assyrians forced them to move farther south, where they eventually

established their capital at Meroë. Of the Nubian kings of this era, Taharqa

is perhaps the best known. A son and the third successor of King Piye, he was

crowned king in Memphis c.  690. Taharqa ruled over both Nubia and Egypt,

restored Egyptian temples at Karnak, and built new temples and pyramids in

Nubia before being driven from Egypt by the Assyrians.

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3-Kingdom of Meroë:

Aerial view at Nubian pyramids, Meroe.

Meroë (800 BC – c.  AD 350) in

southern Nubia lay on the east bank

of the Nile about 6 km north-east of

the Kabushiya station near Shendi,

Sudan, ca. 200 km north-east of

Khartoum. The people there

preserved many ancient Egyptian

customs but were unique in many

respects. They developed their own

form of writing, first utilizing Egyptian hieroglyphs, and later using an alphabetic

script with 23 signs. Many pyramids were built in Meroë during this period and

the kingdom consisted of an impressive standing military force. Strabo also

describes a clash with the Romans in which the Romans defeated Nubians.

According to Strabo, following the Kushite advance, Petronius (a Prefect of

Egypt at the time) prepared a large army and marched south. The Roman forces

clashed with the Kushite armies near Thebes and forced them to retreat to

Pselchis (Maharraqa) in Kushite lands. Petronius, then, sent deputies to the

Kushites in an attempt to reach a peace agreement and make certain demands.

Quoting Strabo, the Kushites "desired three days for consideration" in order to

make a final decision. However, after the three days, Kush did not respond and

Petronius advanced with his armies and took the Kushite city of Premnis (modern

Karanog) south of Maharraqa. From there, he advanced all the way south to

Napata, the second Capital in Kush after Meroe. Petronius attacked and sacked

Napata, causing the son of the Kushite Queen to flee. Strabo describes the

defeat of the Kushites at Napata, stating that "He (Petronius) made prisoners

of the inhabitants"."

During this time, the different parts of the region divided into smaller groups

with individual leaders, or generals, each commanding small armies of

mercenaries. They fought for control of what is now Nubia and its surrounding

territories, leaving the entire region weak and vulnerable to attack. Meroë would

eventually meet defeat by a new rising kingdom to their south, Aksum, under

King Ezana.

The classification of the Meroitic language is uncertain; it was long assumed to

have been of the Afro-Asiatic group, but is now considered to have likely been

an Eastern Sudanic language.

At some point during the 4th century, the region was conquered by the Noba

people, from which the name Nubia may derive (another possibility is that it

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comes from Nub, the Egyptian word for gold). From then on, the Romans

referred to the area as the Nobatae.

Christian Nubia

Around AD 350, the area was invaded by

the Kingdom of Aksum and the kingdom

collapsed. Eventually, three smaller

kingdoms replaced it: northernmost was

Nobatia between the first and second

cataract of the Nile River, with its capital

at Pachoras (modern-day Faras); in the

middle was Makuria, with its capital at Old

Dongola; and southernmost was Alodia,

with its capital at Soba (near Khartoum).

King Silky of Nobatia crushed the

Blemmyes, and recorded his victory in a

Greek inscription carved in the wall of the

temple of Talmis (modern Kalabsha)

around AD 500.

While bishop Athanasius of Alexandria consecrated one Marcus as bishop of

Philae before his death in 373, showing that Christianity had penetrated the

region by the 4th century, John of Ephesus records that a Monophysite priest

named Julian converted the king and his nobles of Nobatia around 545. John of

Ephesus also writes that the kingdom of Alodia was converted around 569.

However, John of Biclarum records that the kingdom of Makuria was converted

to Catholicism the same year, suggesting that John of Ephesus might be

mistaken. Further doubt is cast on John's testimony by an entry in the chronicle

of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria Eutychius, which states that in

719 the church of Nubia transferred its allegiance from the Greek to the Coptic

Orthodox Church.

By the 7th century, Makuria expanded becoming the dominant power in the

region. It was strong enough to halt the southern expansion of Islam after the

Arabs had taken Egypt. After several failed invasions the new rulers agreed to a

treaty with Dongola allowing for peaceful coexistence and trade. This treaty

held for six hundred years. Over time the influx of Arab traders introduced

Islam to Nubia and it gradually supplanted Christianity. While there are records

of a bishop at Qasr Ibrim in 1372, his see had come to include that located at

Faras. It is also clear that the cathedral of Dongola had been converted to a

mosque in 1317.

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The influx of Arabs and Nubians to Egypt and Sudan had contributed to the

suppression of the Nubian identity following the collapse of the last Nubian

kingdom around 1504. A major part of the modern Nubian population became

totally Arabized and some claimed to be Arabs (Jaa'leen – the majority of

Northern Sudanese – and some Donglawes in Sudan). A vast majority of the

Nubian population is currently Muslim, and the Arabic language is their main

medium of communication in addition to their indigenous old Nubian language.

The unique characteristic of Nubian is shown in their culture (dress, dances,

traditions, and music).

Islamic Nubia

In the 14th century, the Dongolan government collapsed and the region became

divided and dominated by Arabs. The next centuries would see several Arab

invasions of the region, as well as the establishment of a number of smaller

kingdoms. Northern Nubia was brought under Egyptian control while the south

came under the control of the Kingdom of Sennar in the 16th century. The

entire region would come under Egyptian control during the rule of Muhammad

Ali in the early 19th century, and later became a joint Anglo-Egyptian

condominium.

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The New Sudan

Below is a list of the 18 states of Sudan, organized by their original provinces

during the period of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Arabic language versions are, as

appropriate, in parentheses. States that were not provinces before 1994 are

marked with (*). Transliterations from Arabic to English may vary; in particular,

the article "al" is sometimes transliterated as "el". Numbers correspond to

those of the map at right. Prior to 9 July 2011, the Republic of Sudan was

composed of 25 states. The ten southern states now form part of the

independent country of South Sudan. Two additional states were created in

2012 within the Darfur region, and one in 2013 in Kurdufan, bringing the total to

18.

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States of the Republic of Sudan

The following 18 states form the territory of the Republic of Sudan:

Blue Nile

Al Jazirah 9

Blue Nile (An Nil al Azraq) 5

Sennar 14

White Nile (An Nil al Abyad) 10

Darfur

Central Darfur (Zalingei) 16

East Darfur (Sharq Darfur) 17

North Darfur (Shamal Darfur) 6

South Darfur (Janub Darfur) 7

West Darfur (Gharb Darfur) 15

Kassala

Kassala (Ash Sharqiyah) 4

Al Qadarif 13

Red Sea (Al Bahr al Ahmar) 12

Khartoum

Khartoum (Al Khartum)

1

Kurdufan

North Kurdufan (Shamal Kurdufan) 2

South Kurdufan (Janub Kurdufan) 8

West Kurdufan 18

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Northern

Northern (Ash Shamaliyah) 3

River Nile (Nahr an Nil) 11

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World > Countries > Sudan

Adam, William Y. (1977): Nubia: Corridor to Africa, London.

"Black Pharaohs", National Geographic, Feb 2008

Bulliet et al. (2001): Nubia, The Earth and Its Peoples, pp. 70–71,

Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston.

Emberling, Geoff (2011): Nubia: Ancient Kingdoms of Africa. New

York: Institute for the Study of the Ancient World.

Fisher, Marjorie, et al. (2012): Ancient Nubia: African Kingdoms on

the Nile. The American University in Cairo Press.

Hassan, Yusuf Fadl (1973): The Arabs and the Sudan, Khartoum.

Jennings, Anne (1995) The Nubians of West Aswan: Village

Women in the Midst of Change, Lynne Reinner Publishers.

Thelwall, Robin (1978): "Lexicostatistical relations between

Nubian, Daju and Dinka", Études nubiennes: colloque de

Chantilly, 2–6 juillet 1975, 265–286.

Thelwall, Robin (1982) 'Linguistic Aspects of Greater Nubian

History', in Ehret, C. & Posnansky, M. (eds.) The Archeological

and Linguistic Reconstruction of African History.Berkeley/Los

Angeles, 39–56.

Török, László (1997): The Kingdom of Kush: Handbook of the

Napatan-Meroitic Civilization. Brill Academic Publishers.

Valbelle, Dominique, and Bonnet, Charles (2006): The Nubian

Pharaohs. New York: The American University in Cairo Press.

Western Kordofan State

Sudan shuffles governors of Kordofan states including ICC

suspect

http://allafrica.com/stories/201201110764.html

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Title Page No. Sudan

(Introduction)

2

Nubia 3

Kingdom of Kerma 4

Kingdom of Kush 5

Kingdom of Meroe 6

Christian Nubia 7

Islamic Nubia 8

The New Sudan 9

States of The

Republic of Sudan

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References 12