Sudan (Arab name given to the vast)

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

the Arab name given to the vast extent of country in Central Africa which lies between the Sahara on the N., Abyssinia and the Red Sea on the E., the countries draining to the Kongo basin on the S., and Senegambia on the W. Its area is estimated at 2,000,000 square miles. 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 S. as Kordofan and Senaar. An Egyptian expedition under Sir Samuel Baker in 1870 led to the conquest of the equatorial regions on the Nile farther S. than the Sudan proper, of which General Gordon was appointed Governor-General in 1874. On the fall of Ismail Pasha of Egypt, Gordon was recalled, and hordes of Turks, Circassians, and Bashi-Bazouks were let loose to plunder the Sudanese. Egyptian misrule then became intolerable, and in this Dongola, who gave himself out to be the Mahdi, the long-expected redeemer of Islam. The revolt of the Mahdi broke up the Egyptian Sudan into various districts. After the Mahdi's death the insurrection was continued by one of his lieutenants called the Kalifa. In 1897 the Anglo-Egyptian army commenced operations for the recovery of the lost provinces. In 1898 the territory was practically regained, and the last resistance disappeared when the Kalifa was slain, and his followers made prisoners in 1899. In 1898, there were strained relations between the Egyptian and the French governments, owing to the presence in the Egyptian Sudan of a French force under Major Marchand. The difficulty was settled by Marchand's evacuation of Fashoda, and by the delimitation of the respective "spheres of influence" of the two g governments, with a mutual agreement not to acquire territory or political influence beyond the designated boundary. See SUDAN, ANGLO-EGYPTIAN.