Sudan

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Sudan

A republic in eastern Africa, south of EGYPT and west of ETHIOPIA. Its capital is Khartoum. It was under Egypt 1820-82, then jointly administered by Egypt and Great Britain after 1899 as the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. It gained independence in 1956. The name is of Arabic origin, balad as-sudan: bal (land) + al (as) (the) + sudan (black), the land of the blacks, the name given originally by Arabian travelers. (From Webster's New Geographical Dictionary, 1988, p1161 & Room, Brewer's Dictionary of Names, 1992, p524)