Nubia
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Nubia. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
2026 Editor's Note: This page uses language about race that was commonplace when the book was published and is offensive by today's standards. The text has been left exactly as it was printed, rather than cut or softened, so that the historical record — including how ordinary such language once was — is preserved. (Ed: ET 2026-07-22) a large region of Africa, formerly a portion of Ethiopia, and extending on both sides of the Nile from Egypt to Abyssinia; touching the Red Sea on the E. and the desert on the W. Nubia proper, or Lower Nubia, extends from Assuan on the Egyptian frontier to Dongola; beyond that is Upper Nubia. But of late the name of Egyptian Sudan has come to be used for Nubia in its widest sense, together with the once Egyptian territory actually in the Sudan, and the equatorial provinces. Under the Pharaohs Nubia was called Cush, but under the 20th dynasty it was recovered by a series of native rulers, who adopted the civilization of the Egyptians, and at a later date were Christianized. At present the country is occupied by Arabs mixed with Nilotic and Negro blood, mainly in Upper Nubia; Ababdeh and Bisharin between the Nile and the Red Sea; and Nubas and Barabira in Lower Nubia. The Semitic Arabs are comparatively recent intruders to this region. They entered Nubia after occupying Egypt in the 7th century, but resisted by the Christian Dongowere lawi kings till the 14th century, when the Arabs, assisted by a large contingent of Bosnians, became masters of the land. The various tribes, most of them active and warlike, are Moslems by faith, and till 1820 were ruled by their own chiefs. In that year Ismail Pasha made Nubia an Egyptian territory; and till 1881 it shared the fate of Egypt. Both in its lower and upper sections Nubia is for the most part an expanse of steppes or rocky desert, with patches where grass sometimes grows. There are also L wells and small oases here and there, as on the chief caravan routes. The great "Nubian Desert" lies E. of the Nile, opposite the great. W. bend of the river. Below Khartum rain is almost unknown. The only exception to the general aridity is the narrow strip of country on both sides of the Nile.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a district of Africa extending along both sides of the Nile from Egypt to Abyssinia. It is a region rather than a country. It may be said to begin at the lower or first cataract of the Nile and to extend to the junction of the Blue and the White Nile. It is an indefinite part of that indefinite region called by the ancients Ethiopia. It contains a population of about 1,000,000 people, under the joint rule of Great Britain and Egypt. Nubia begins at the west at the confines of the Libyan Desert and extends eastward to the Red Sea. The Nubian Desert is between the Nile and the Red Sea. The Nile has but one tributary, Atbara, in Nubia. A vivid description of Nubia, taken in the narrow sense of the immediate valley of the Nile, is given by Conan Doyle: It is a singular country, this Nubia. Varying in breadth from a few miles to as many yards, it extends in a thin, green, palm-fringed strip upon either side of the broad, coffee-colored river. Beyond it there stretches on the Libyan bank a savage and illimitable desert, extending to the whole breadth of Africa. On the other side an equally desolate wilderness is bounded only by the distant Red Sea. Between these two huge and barren expanses Nubia writhes like a green sandworm along the course of the river. Here and there it disappears altogether, and the Nile runs between black and sun-cracked hills, with the orange drift-sand lying like glaciers in their valleys. Everywhere one sees traces of vanished races and submerged civilizations. Grotesque graves dot the hills or stand up against the skyline: pyramidal graves, tumulus graves, rock graves,-everywhere, graves. And, occasionally, as the boat rounds a rocky point, one sees a deserted city up above,-houses, walls, battlements, with the sun shining through the empty window squares.