The annexation of the Sudan (1820–1822)

05The annexation of the Sudan (1820–1822)

Muhammad Ali's aims

• Pursuing the Mamluks who fled the Citadel Massacre to Dongola.
• Discovering the gold and diamond mines, gold being a standard of goods and exchange.
• Developing trade and recruiting Sudanese soldiers.
• Realising the idea of Egypt's vital space and its natural expansion to the south.

His measures in the Sudan

• Unifying the parts of the Sudan for the first time under the name "the Sudan".
• Appointing a governor-general with the rank of command-in-chief (hukhmdar) combining military and civil authority, coordinating with the Diwan of the Interior in Egypt.
• Dividing the Sudan into mdiriyahs and sections on the model of Egypt's administrative division.
• Building new towns such as Khartoum, which became the capital of the Sudan in 1830, and Kassala on the Blue Nile.
• Muhammad Ali visited the Sudan in 1838 and gave educational grants to six Sudanese to study agricultural science in Egypt.
• He brought the sons of Sudanese leaders to study in Egypt, and Sudanese took part with Egyptians in the missions to Europe.
• He introduced Egyptian crops into the Sudan — wheat, vegetables and fruit trees.
• These efforts helped the discovery of the sources of the Nile and of central Africa through the expansions of Isma'il's reign.