Barakat, Sudan
Encyclopedia
Barakat is a community in Al Jazirah
state, Sudan
. It lies on the west shore of the Blue Nile
to the south of Wad Madani
.
The extra long staple cotton named Sudan Barakat is planted in the irrigated fields of this region.
Sudan Barakat, which is entirely handpicked, is considered to be one of the world's highest quality cottons.
A 6,000 feddan
pump irrigation scheme was started at Barakat in 1914.
The plan was launched by a group of English weaving companies called the Sudan Plantation Syndicate, which had already started a successful pump scheme at Taiba (Ţayyibat Ḩamad an Nīl) in 1910.
The town is home to the headquarters of the Sudan Gezira Board, which runs the Gezira-Managil Irrigation System.
A light railway runs through Barakat, used for carrying the cotton harvest.
The village of Shakaba
is nearby. After the Battle of Karari (2 September 1898), in which the Mahdist forces of the Khalifa were defeated by an Anglo-Egyptian army under General Herbert Kitchener, the Mahdi's family was sent to Shakaba under government escort.
After hearing a rumor that the group was conducting Mahdist propaganda, a force of government troops fired on the group at random, killing Khalifa Muhammad Sharif
and two of the Mahdi's sons, al-Fadil and al-Bushra.
A third son, Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi
, was badly wounded.
Al Jazirah (state)
Al Jazirah , also spelled Gezira, is one of the 15 states of Sudan. The state lies between the Blue Nile and the White Nile in the east-central region of the country. It has an area of 27,549 km². The name comes from the Arabic word for peninsula. Wad Madani is the capital of the state.It is...
state, Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
. It lies on the west shore of the Blue Nile
Blue Nile
The Blue Nile is a river originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. With the White Nile, the river is one of the two major tributaries of the Nile...
to the south of Wad Madani
Wad Madani
Wad Madani is the capital of the Al Jazirah state in east-central Sudan.Wad Madani lies on the west bank of the Blue Nile, nearly 85 miles southeast of Khartoum....
.
The extra long staple cotton named Sudan Barakat is planted in the irrigated fields of this region.
Sudan Barakat, which is entirely handpicked, is considered to be one of the world's highest quality cottons.
A 6,000 feddan
Feddan
A feddan is a unit of area. It is used in Egypt, Sudan, and Syria. The feddan is not an SI unit and in Arabic, the word means 'a yoke of oxen': implying the area of ground that could be tilled by them in a certain time. In Egypt the feddan is the only non-metric unit which remained in use...
pump irrigation scheme was started at Barakat in 1914.
The plan was launched by a group of English weaving companies called the Sudan Plantation Syndicate, which had already started a successful pump scheme at Taiba (Ţayyibat Ḩamad an Nīl) in 1910.
The town is home to the headquarters of the Sudan Gezira Board, which runs the Gezira-Managil Irrigation System.
A light railway runs through Barakat, used for carrying the cotton harvest.
The village of Shakaba
Shakaba
al-Shakaba is a community in Al Jazirah state, Sudan. It lies on the west shore of the Blue Nile near Barakat, to the south of Wad Madani.The village is within the Gezira scheme, which provides irrigation water for cotton cultivation....
is nearby. After the Battle of Karari (2 September 1898), in which the Mahdist forces of the Khalifa were defeated by an Anglo-Egyptian army under General Herbert Kitchener, the Mahdi's family was sent to Shakaba under government escort.
After hearing a rumor that the group was conducting Mahdist propaganda, a force of government troops fired on the group at random, killing Khalifa Muhammad Sharif
Muhammad Sharif, Kalifa
Sayyid Muhammad Sharif was one of the three Kalifas or lieutenants of Muhammad Ahmad , who styled himself the Mahdi, the others being Ali wad Hilu and Abdallahi ibn Muhammad....
and two of the Mahdi's sons, al-Fadil and al-Bushra.
A third son, Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi
Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi
Sayyid Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi was one of the leading religious and political figures during the colonial era in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan , and continued to exert great authority as leader of the Neo-Mahdists after Sudan became independent...
, was badly wounded.