 | This section is largely based on an article in the out-of-copyright Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, which was produced in 1911. (June 2016) |
Abu Hamad
أبو حمد | |
|---|---|
  Abu Hamad Location in Sudan | |
| Coordinates: 19°32′36″N 33°20′16″E / 19.54333°N 33.33778°E | |
| Country |  Sudan |
| State | River Nile |
| Population (2022) | |
| • Total | 69 059 |
| • Density | 8,888/sq mi (23,019/km2) |
Abu Hamad (Arabic: أبو حمد, Sudanese Arabic [abuˈħamad]), also spelt 'Abu Hamed', is a town of Sudan on the right bank of the Nile, 345 miles by rail north of Khartoum. It stands at the centre of the great S-shaped bend of the Nile, and from it the railway to Wadi Halfa strikes straight across the Nubian Desert, a little west of the old caravan route to Korosko. The population of Abu Hamad is 69,056.[when?]A branch railway, 138 mi long, from Abu Hamad goes down the right bank of the Nile to Karima in the Dongola mudiria.[1]
A 19th-century traveler described the town:[2]
Abou-Hammed is a miserable village, inhabited by a few hundred Ababdehs and Bishàrees; the desert here extended to the water's edge, while the opposite banks were as green as emerald. There was a large mud fortress, with round bastions at the corners, to the west of the village. It formerly belonged to an Ababdeh shekh [sic] but was then deserted.
The town is named after a celebrated sheikh buried here, by whose tomb travellers crossing the desert used formerly to deposit all superfluous goods, the sanctity of the saint's tomb ensuring their safety.[1]
The Battle of Abu Hamed, a part of the Anglo-Egyptian reconquest of the Sudan, took place near the town on 7 August 1897.[3]
- ^ a b One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Abu Hamed". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 78.
- ^ Bayard Taylor (1854), A Journey to Central Africa; or, Life and Landscapes from Egypt to the Negro Kingdoms..., chap. XV
- ^ Winston Churchill (1899). The River War Volume 1. Longmans. p. 294.
