Barakat is a town in Al Jazirah state,

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 on the west shore 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 ...

to the south of

Wad Madani Wad Madani (; also spelled Wad Medani and known simply as Madani) is a city in eastern Sudan and the capital of the Al Jazirah (state), Al Jazirah state. "Wad Madani" (population), Microsoft Encarta, Online Encyclopedia 2001. Wad Madani lies on th ...

. 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 A feddan () is a unit of area used in Egypt, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and Oman. In Classical Arabic, the word means 'a yoke of oxen', implying the area of ground that could be tilled by oxen in a certain time. In Egypt, the feddan is the only n ...

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 Taiba (foaled April 13, 2019) is a retired American Thoroughbred racehorse who has won multiple Grade I events as a three-year-old in 2022 including the Santa Anita Derby and Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita Park and Pennsylvania Derby at Parx Raci ...

(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 Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener (; 24 June 1850 – 5 June 1916) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator. Kitchener came to prominence for his imperial campaigns, his involvement in the Second Boer War, a ...

, 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 Mian Muhammad Sharif (Punjabi language, Punjabi, , 18 November 1919 – 19 October 2004) was a Pakistani businessman who is known as the co-founder of Ittefaq Group and founder of Sharif Group. from one of the biggest political parties of the ...

and two of the Mahdi's sons, al-Fadil and al-Bushra. A third son,

Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi Sir Sayyid Abdul Rahman al-Mahdi, Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, KBE (; June 1885 – 24 March 1959) was a Sudanese politician and prominent religious leader. He was one of the leading religious and political figures duri ...

, was badly wounded.

References

{{reflist Gezira State