Arbagi, (or Arbaji), formerly Hellet Amara, is a town in
Al Jazirah State in
Sudan
Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...
. It lies opposite Rufaa on the left bank of the
Blue Nile
The Blue Nile is a river originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. It travels for approximately through Ethiopia and Sudan. Along with the White Nile, it is one of the two major Tributary, tributaries of the Nile and supplies about 85.6% of the wa ...
, 84.5 miles by road and 95 miles by river from Khartoum. There are several villages in the angle of the river which, however, are so close to one another that they may be considered as one. The town of Arbagi includes the site of the ancient city of Arbagi which is one of the oldest sites in the Sudan, and is mentioned by the learned Ludolphus in his history of
Abyssinia
Abyssinia (; also known as Abyssinie, Abissinia, Habessinien, or Al-Habash) was an ancient region in the Horn of Africa situated in the northern highlands of modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea.Sven Rubenson, The survival of Ethiopian independence, ...
. It was destroyed by the Shukria early in the 19th or at the end of 18th century.
The population of Arbagi is chiefly sawarda Mahasis/
Ja'alin
The Ja'alin, Ja'aliya, Ja'aliyin or Ja'al () are an Arabs, Arab or Arabised Nubians, Nubian tribe in Sudan. They claim Arab descent. The Ja'alin formerly occupied the country on both banks of the Nile from Khartoum to Abu Hamad; Citation: ''The A ...
, Danagla and Batahin. At the turn of the twentieth century, Arbagi was under the Omda El Sheikh Ali Taha, who was succeeded by his son Omda Mohammed Ali Taha and finally Omda Abdel Majeed Ali Taha.
During the British colonial era, Arbagi was the headquarters of the Mesellemia District of Jazirah (Gezira) Province and residence of a British inspector, Mamur, police officer.
[The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan : a compendium prepared by Officers of the Sudan Government,
by Gleichen, Edward, Lord, 1863-1937, 1905, Volume I.https://archive.org/download/angloegyptiansud01gleiuoft/angloegyptiansud01gleiuoft.pdf
]
References
Gezira State
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