SUDAN, or SOUDAN, is the Arab name given to the vast extent of country in central Africa which lies between the Sahara on the north, Abyssinia and the Red Sea on the east, the countries draining the Kongo Basin on the south and Senegambia on the west. Its area is estimated at 2,000,000 square miles, and its population at from 10,000,000 to 20,000,000. The inhabitants comprise numerous nations of different races, chiefly the negro, together with Arab colonists and traders. The western and central Sudan are divided into a number of states which until recently maintained their semi-independence. It is now virtually all con trolled by England and France. Bambarra, Gando, Sokoto, Adamawa, Bornu, Baghirmi, Wadai and others. The eastern Sudan includes Darfur, Kordofan, Senaar, etc. Egyptian rule was first extended to the eastern Sudan in the early part of the 19th century by Mohammed Ali, under whom Ibrahim Pasha carried it as far south as Kordofan and Senaar. An tian expedition under Sir Samuel Baker IWO led to the conquest of the equatorial regions on the Nile farther south than the Sudan proper, of whicfi General Gordon was appointed in 1874. On the fall of Ismail asha of Egypt, Gordon was recalled and hordes of Turks, Circassians and Bashi-Ba zouks were let loose to plunder the Sudanese. Egyptian misrule then became intolerable, and in this crisis appeared Mohammed Ahmed of Dongola, who gave himself out to be the Mandi, the long-expected redeemer of Islam. (See EGYPT ) , Emin Pasha (Eduard Schnitzer) was appointed governor of the equatorial province on the Upper Nile, north of the Albert Nyanza, by Gordon in 1878.
During 1::1-82 the Mandi destroyed nearly every Egyptian force sent against him, but in the spring of 1883 elaborate preparations were made to suppress the rebellion. A well equipped army, organized and commanded by Colonel Hicks, an old Anglo-Indian officer who had entered the Egyptian service, began its march up the Nile in September with the inten tion of striking at once at El Obeid, the head quarters of the Mandi. But, after enduring many hardships, Hicks' army was led by a treacherous guide into an ambuscade and anni hilated. Colonel Coetlogon, the British officer at Khartum, at once adopted defensive meas ures, and called in as far as possible the outly ing garrisons. After some further reverses the British government advised the khedive to relinquish the country south of Wady Halfa or the second Nile cataract. English troops were sent, out to relieve the garrisons of East ern Sudan, and General Gordon undertook to effect the withdrawal of the garrisons of Khar tum and other places, unaccompanied by Eng lish troops. In a short time he was shut up in Khartum, and in the autumn of 1884 a Bntish force under Lord Wolseley was sent up the Nile to effect his relief. This expedition was too late to accomplish its object. Khartum was stormed by the Mandists in January 1885, and Gordon was butchered.
After the successful revolt of the Mandi the Red Sea and Somali possessions of Egypt were occupied by Italy and Britain, respectively, and Darfur threw off the Egyptian yoke, but the equatorial province was held by Emin Pasha till he was relieved by Stanley. In 1896 an Egyp tian force under the sirdar, Sir Herbert Kitch ener, proceeded up the Nile, occupying Dongola on 23 September of that year, and taking pos session of Abu Hamed and Berber during 1897. Early in September 1898 the Mandist forces, under the command of the Mandi's •uc cessor, the Khalifa, were completely defeated at the battle of Omdurman and Khartum was reoccupied by the Egyptian forces. About the same time the question of the southern limit of the Egyptian_Sudan was raised by the occu pation of Fashoda, a little north of the Sobat River, by a French force under Major Mar chand. By an Anglo-French agreement in 1899 the western boundary was drawn so as to leave Wadai to France and Darfur and the Bahr-el Ghazal to the Egyptian Sudan. In the same year the 22d parallel of latitude was declared to be the northern boundary of the Egyptian Sudan, which is now under the government of Britain.
Bibliography.— Alford, H. S. L., 'The Eng lish Soudan: Its Loss and its Recovery' (Lon don 1898) ; Arminjon, Pierre, 'La situation economique et financiere de l'Egypte, le Soudan Egyptien' (Paris 1911) ; Barth, Heinrich, 'Travels and Discoveries in North and Cen tral Africa, 1849-55' (English trans., 2d ed., 5 vols., New York Budge, E. T., Wallis (editor), 'Cooks' Handbook for Egypt and the Egyptian Sudan' (3d ed., New York 1911) •, Churchill, W. L. S., 'River War: An Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Soudan' (2 vols., New York 1902); Crossland, Cyril, 'Desert and Water Gardens of the Red Sea' (ib. 1913) ; Gaffarel, Paul, 'Le Senegal et le Soudan Francais' (Paris 1890) ; Gessi, Romolo, 'Seven Years in the Soudan' (English trans., London 1892) ; Junker, Wilhelm, 'Travels in Africa' (English trans., London 1892) ; Kumm, H. K. W., 'The Sudan: A Short Compendium of Pacts and Figures' (2d ed., ib. 1909) • id., 'From Hausaland to Egypt' (ib. 1911); Low, (Sir) S., 'Egypt in Transition' (London 1913) ; McMichael, H. A., 'Tribes of Northern and Central Kardofan> (New York 1913) Mardon, H. W., 'Geography of Egypt and the Anglo Emtian Sudan' (London 1902) ; Parke, T., 'My Personal Experiences in Equatorial ,(New York 1891); Robinsou, C. H., 'Hausaland, or Fifteen Hundred Miles Through the Central (London 1897) ; Schweinfurth, Georg, 'Heart of Africa' (Eng lish trans., by E. E. Frewer, 2 vols., New York 1874) ; Stanley. H. M., 'In Darkest Africa' (new ed., ib. 1913) ; Steevens, G. W., 'With Kitchener to Khartum' (new ed., ib. 1914); Stevens, E. S., 'My Sudan Year' (ib. 1913); Wingate, F. R., and the Sudan, 1:::1-90) (London 1891).