Kurdufan

Kordofan (also Kordofan ) is a former Sudanese province, 1994 in the three states Schamal Kordofan ( Nordkordofan ), Gharb Kordofan ( Westkordofan ) and Dschanub Kordofan ( South Kordofan ) was divided. In the wake of the peace treaty between the then Sudanese central government and the South Sudanese rebel SPLM, the state of Gharb Kordofan was disbanded in 2005 and divided between the two remaining kordofanischen states. In South Kordofan are the controversial between the South Sudan and ( northern) Sudan regions of Abyei and the Nuba Mountains.

Capital of the region is al - Ubayyid (also called El Obeid ), the region is 380,225 km ² and in 1983 was populated by about 3 million people.

The territory of Kordofan was already in the Iron Age settlement area of apparently largely independent from the Nile urban culture, especially in the area of the upper reaches of the Wadi el- Melek. The local ruined cities and Abu Sufyan were Zankor AD since at least the 1st century. to probably settled in the 13th century.

From the early 16th century, the territory of Kordofan between the Sultanates of Funj and Darfur was controversial.

From 1821 Kordofan by Muhammad Ali Pasha, the Ottoman Sultan formally the below viceroy of Egypt, conquered.

1837 - 1839 Kordofan has been thoroughly investigated by the Austrian explorer Ignaz Pallme.

During the Mahdi uprising Muhammad Ahmad Kordofan was again the theater of war. The armed forces of the Mahdi was the provincial capital of El Obeid Kurdufans after four -month siege on January 19, 1883 are taking. Muhammad Ahmad built in El Obeid his headquarters. After taking El Obeids the government of the viceroy of Egypt recognized the danger of the Mahdi uprising. In the spring of 1883 all available Egyptian troops were sent to recapture El Obeid. This army, under the British Hicks Pasha, was extinguished on November 5 at the Battle of El Obeid and the Mahdi conquered the whole of Sudan. In November 1899, the successor of the Mahdi Abdallahi ibn Muhammad was here, decisively defeated and destroyed at the Battle of Umm Diwaykarat.