SENNAR, a country of north-east Africa, part of the Anglo Egyptian Sudan. Its boundaries have varied considerably, but Sennar proper is the triangular-shaped territory between the White and Blue Niles north of 0° N. This region is called by the Arabs "The Island of Sennar" and by the negro inhabitants "Hui." The northern part, where the two Niles approach nearer one another, is also known as El Gezira, i.e., "the Island." South-east Sennar stretches to the Abyssinian hills. By the Sudan adminis tration this region has been divided into mudirias (provinces), one, including the central portion, retaining the name of Sennar. The present article deals with the country as a whole.
In general Sennar is a vast plain, lying for the most part much higher than the river-levels and about 2,000 ft. above the sea, its western part, towards the White Nile, being largely wilderness. From the plain rise isolated granitic hills, attaining heights of 1,000 to 2,000 ft. above the general level. Jebel Segadi is red granite of the finest quality.
Sennar lies in the region of light rain, increasing in the south east districts to as much as 20 in. in the year. The rainy season is from July to September. The climate is generally unhealthy during that period and the months following. The temperature, which rises at times to over 120° Fahr., is also very changeable, of ten sinking from 100° during the day to under 6o° at night.
The soil, mainly alluvial, is naturally very fertile, and wherever cultivated yields abundant crops, durra being the principal grain grown. Many kinds of vegetables, and cotton, wheat and barley are also grown. The forest vegetation includes the Adansonia (baobab) which in the Fazogli district attains gigantic propor tions, the tamarind, of which bread is made, the deleb palm, several valuable gum trees (whence the term Sennarl often applied in Egypt to gum-arabic), some dyewoods, ebony, ironwood and many varieties of acacia. In these forests are found the two horned rhinoceros, the elephant, lion, panther, numerous apes and antelopes, while the crocodile and hippopotamus frequent the rivers. The chief domestic animals are the camel, horse, ass, ox,
buffalo (used both as a beast of burden and for riding), sheep with a short silky fleece, the goat and the pig, which last here reaches its southernmost limit.
The country is occupied by a partly settled, partly nomad popu lation of an extremely mixed negroid character. The great plain of Sennar is mainly occupied by Hassania Arabs in the north, by Abu-Rof (Rufaya) Hamites of Beja stock in the east as far as Fazogli, and elsewhere by the negroid Funj and the group of tribes collectively known as Shangalla. The chief towns are on the banks of the Blue Nile. They are: Wad Medani 148 m. above Khartum, one of the most thriving towns in the eastern Sudan; Sennar, 241 m. above Khartum, the capital of the Funj empire and chief town of the mudiria of Sennar—of the ancient city little remains except a mosque with a high minaret ; and Roseires, 426 m. from Khartum and the limit of navigation up stream from that city. Near the Abyssinian frontier are Fazogli (left bank) and Famaka (right bank) on a navigable stretch of the Blue Nile above the rapids at Roseires and close to the Tumat confluence and the gold district of Beni Shangul. On the river Dinder is the town of Singa. A railway, built in 1909-1910, con nects Khartum, Wad Medani and Sennar with Kordofan, the White Nile being bridged near Goz Abu Guma.
lying between Nubia and Abyssinia, was in ancient times under Egyptian or Ethiopian influence and its in habitants appear to have embraced Christianity at an early period. In the 7th or 8th centuries A.D. there was a considerable emigration of Arabs into the country. Christianity very gradually died out. The Funj who had meantime settled in Sennar became the domi nant race by the I5th century. They adopted the Mohammedan religion and founded an empire which in the 17th and 18th cen turies ruled over a large part of the eastern Sudan. This empire was finally overthrown by the Egyptians in 1821.