Shame

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شندي
Shame
Schandi (Sudan)
Red pog.svg
Coordinates 16 ° 41 ′  N , 33 ° 25 ′  E Coordinates: 16 ° 41 ′  N , 33 ° 25 ′  E
Basic data
Country Sudan

State

Nahr an-Nil
Residents 64,083 (2009)

Shandi ( Arabic شندي, DMG Šandī , also Shendi , Shandi , Shandy or Shendy ) is a city on the Nile in Sudan , halfway between Khartoum and Atbara in the Sudanese state of Nahr an-Nil .

population

For Shendi 64,083 inhabitants are given (calculation 2009). The Nubian ethnic group of the Ja'aliyin lives around Shendi .

Population development:

year Residents
1973 (census) 24,161
1983 (census) 34,505
2009 (calculation) 64,083

history

In 1772 James Bruce stayed in the city for some time on his return journey from Ethiopia and praised the range of goods in the market. Shendi was a flourishing market town until the beginning of the 19th century, surrounded by irrigated fields on the banks of the Nile. In contrast to ad-Damir , the economic focus was on the handling of goods from merchant caravans. The weekly market was the largest in Nubia as it was at the crossroads of two trade routes. Herds of cattle, horses, hides and gum arabic arrived from western Sudan via Darfur , while ivory, slaves and coffee, tobacco and honey from the south from the western lowlands of Ethiopia and the region southwest of Darfur were obtained via Sennar . Sugar, white cotton, sheepskin, copper and brass goods came from Egypt via Berbers . Every year around 5000 slaves were brought in by black African shilluk traders in the 19th century and bought by Arab traders on the market or from private homes.

From Shendi the goods (including the slaves) were no longer transported along the Nile as before, but directly north through the desert to Egypt. (The railway line Wadi Halfa - Abu Hamad was built along this route in 1897. ) The other route led east up the Atbara to Quz Rajab (Goz Regeb) and further directly or via Kassala to the port of Suakin on the Red Sea , from where the goods were shipped to Arab countries and as far as India. Spices from India and luxury items (glassware) from Europe were imported via Suakin.

In the market of Shendi and the other markets of the Funj Sultanate , in whose territory the place was until this time, the imported goods were paid for with Spanish silver dollars or exchanged for locally produced durra or raw cotton and cotton fabric (dammur) . The Orient traveler Jean Louis Burckhardt (1784-1817) came through Shendi in 1814 and described the economic and social conditions in detail. For the onward journey via Kassala to Suakin, he joined a caravan that consisted of over 200 cargo camels , 150 traders, 300 slaves and 30 horses destined for Yemen . The slaves were shipped to Arabia or Egypt.

In Burckhardt's time, the local and relatively autonomous ruler (Mek) Mohammed Nair el Nimr (1785–1846) from the Sa'dabi dynasty ruled in Shendi under the suzerainty of the Funj . In 1821, the Ottoman governor of Egypt, Muhammad Ali Pasha , began conquering Sudan. Shendi surrendered in 1822 to Ismail Pasha's troops advancing along the Nile . He acted insultingly towards the Mek of Shendi and raised excessive demands for tribute. 1000 slaves should be handed over immediately. In November 1822, Nimr took revenge for the atrocities of the Egyptian occupation on Ismail Pasha and his entourage, whom he invited to a feast and, when the guests slept, had the whole building set on fire. The Egyptians were slaughtered while trying to escape. The Egyptian reaction followed in 1823, devastating the city and killing most of its residents. Ishmael's brother-in-law, Muhammad Bey , had come from Kordofan to seek revenge. There were also further repression measures in other places along the Nile that year. Shendi remained an insignificant village for the rest of the 19th century, the market moved to the newly founded Khartoum. The fact that Shendi and the region during the entire period of the Turkish-Egyptian rule ( Turkiyya, 1821-1885) no longer achieved their economic importance was due to the taxes to be paid with cash, whereby the production of cash crops was forced and that before practiced subsistence farming was no longer sufficient for the nutrition of the rural population. The traders contributed to the introduction of the cash economy and to the impoverishment of the farmers.

In 1853, Alfred Brehm described the larger town of Metemmeh (Metemma) opposite Shendi on the left bank of the Nile in his travel sketches from Northeast Africa because of its gold, silver and leather processing.

The climax of the Mahdi rule (1881–1899) in Sudan was the conquest of Khartoum in 1884. An expedition was sent to free the trapped British Governor General Gordon , from which a detachment headed by Herbert Stewart von Kurti marched on the lower bend of the Nile on the old caravan route through the desert eastwards to Metemmeh. The decisive battle of this Camel Corps against the army of the Mahdiya took place in January 1885 near Abu Klea a few kilometers north of Shendi.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Shendi is known as a city and medium-sized industrial center. There was cotton and leather processing, dyeing and ironworking. Shendi had a cavalry headquarters and railway repair shops.

Cityscape and economy

The bus station is outside the center on the east side of the railway line

The city is again significantly larger than Metemmeh. Irrigated fields lie in a wide belt along the Nile. Shendi is known for its cotton processing into traditional garments ( Galabija for men, Tob: nine meter long cloak for women) and as a grain market.

Shendi is four kilometers northwest of the main road from Khartoum to Atbara, about 150 kilometers in both directions. The railway line runs through the town east of the market center. Shendi is in the middle of tourist destinations: 45 kilometers to the northeast are the pyramids of Meroe , and to the southeast are Naqa and Musawwarat . However, Shendi does not have suitable hotel accommodations.

There is a garrison , a hospital and a small university and, since 2009, a road bridge over the Nile.

sons and daughters of the town

literature

  • Bernhard Streck: Sudan. Stone graves and living cultures on the Nile. DuMont, Cologne 1982, ISBN 3-7701-1232-6 , p. 20 f.
  • Anders Bjørkelo: Prelude to the Mahdiyya. Peasants and Traders in the Shendi Region, 1821-1885 (= African Studies. Vol. 62). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2003, ISBN 0-521-53444-5 .

Web links

Commons : Shendi  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Page no longer available , search in web archives:@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / bevoelkerungsstatistik.de
  2. Anders Bjørkelo: Prelude to the Mahdiyya. Peasants and Traders in the Shendi Region, 1821-1885 (= African Studies. Vol. 62). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1989, ISBN 0-521-35336-X , p. 25.
  3. Peter M. Holt, Martin W. Daly: A History of the Sudan. From the Coming of Islam to the Present Day. 5th edition. Longman, an imprint of Pearson Education, Harlow et al. 2000, ISBN 0-582-36886-3 , pp. 8-10.
  4. ^ John Lewis Burckhardt : Travels in Nubia. Murray, London 1819, digitized .
  5. ^ Karl Baedeker : Egypt and the Sûdân. Handbook for Travelers. 7th, remodeled edition. Baedeker et al., Leipzig et al. 1914, p. 422, online .
  6. ^ University of Shendi homepage