Muhammad Ahmed ibn as Sayyid Abd Allah In 1820, the Egyptian ruler Muhammad Ali Pasha invaded and conquered northern Sudan. Though technically the Wali of Egypt under the Ottoman Sultan, Mohammad Ali styled himself as Khedive of a virtually independent Egypt. Seeking to add Sudan to his domain, he sent his son Ibrahim Pasha to conquer the country, and susequently incorporate it into Egypt. This policy was expanded and intensified by Ibrahim's son, Ismail I, under whose reign most of the remainder of modern day Sudanwas conquered. The Egyptian authorities madesignificant improvements to the Sudanese infrastructure (mainly in the north) specially with regard to irrigation and cottoc production.
In 1879, the great powers forced the removal of Ismail and established his son Tewfik I in his place.Tewfik's corruption and mismanagements resulted in the Orabi Revol
t, which threatened the Khedives survival.Tewfik appealed for help to the British , who subsequently occupied Egypt in1882. Sudan was left in the hands of Khedival Government , and the mismanagement and corruption was serious.During the 1870s, European initiatives against the slave trade caused an economic crisis in northern Sudan, precipitating the rise of Mahdist forces.Eventually a revolt broke out in Sudan, led by Muhammad Ahmed ibn Abd Allah , the self proclaimed Mahdi who soght to end foreign presenence in Sudan. His revolt culminated in the fall of Khartoum and the death of the British governor General Gordon (Gordon of Khartoum) in 1885. The Egyptian and British subsequently withdrew forcesfrom Sudan leaving the Mahdi to form a short lived theocracy.
Suud or Swamp also called the Barh el Jebel, in southern Sudan, is a vast swamp formed by the White Nile. The area covered thereby is one of the world's largest wetlands and the largest freshwater wetland in the Nile basin. The word Suud"is derived from the Arabic word "sadd" meaning block. This term is now being usedwidely for large floatng vegetation islands and mats.
It is a thirty thousand sq.kms patch of swampand floodplain in south Sudan.
