KORDOFAN', or the White Land, a province of the Egyptian territories in the Sudan, is bounded on the e. by the White Nile, which separates it from Sennaar, and is sepa rated on the w. from Darfur by a strip of desert. It extends in lat. from 10° to 15°20' n., and the area of its more or less cultivated portion has been estimated at 12,000 sq.m., and its population at 400,000. The province is traversed by no rivers; wells, ! abound, water being found almost everywhere at a comparatively small depth. In the s. the surface is undulating, and the soil argillaceous and productive; and here donna and maize are grown. In the n. and w. the surface is an elevated plateau, and the soil sandy, but peculiarly fitted for the cultivation of millet, which is the staple article of food. The employments of the people are chiefly agricultural. In the s. horned cattle and horses are extensively reared, but in the n. and w. the nomad inhabitants depend for support entirely upon their large her& of camels, which tire hired out for-the trans. port of produce and merchandise. . The chief trees are acacias, yielding gum-arabic.
Iron ore is obtained and wrought in the country. Slavery, which had formerly been general, and had formed an important branch of trade iu Kordofan, was abolished in 1857 by Said pasha, the Egyptian viceroy. The people are Mohammedans.
The inhabitants are partly Arabs, partly a mixed Arab and negro race. The capital is Lobeid or II-Obeid (q.v.). In 1770 Adlan, king of Sennaar, made conquest of Kor dofan, and about six years after, the sultan of Darfur overran the province and annexed it to his territories. tinder the sultan, the inhabitants were but lightly taxed; trade was opened up with the Sudan and Arabia; and the markets of Il-Obeid and Tiara, the chief towns, were stored with the produce of Arabia, India, and Abyssinia. This period of prosperity, however, was brought to a close by the invasion of Kordofan, in 1821, by- an Egyptian army. Since then Kordofan has remained a province of the Turkish empire, under the viceroy of Egypt.