Gezira (), also spelt Al Jazirah, is one of the 18 states of Sudan. The state lies between 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 tributaries of the Nile and supplies about 85.6% of the water ...

and the

White Nile The White Nile ( ar, النيل الأبيض ') is a river in Africa, one of the two main tributaries of the Nile, the other being the Blue Nile. The name comes from the clay sediment carried in the water that changes the water to a pale colo ...

in the east-central region of the country. It has an area of 27,549 km². The name comes from the

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

word for island.

Wad Madani Wad Madani ( ar, ود مدني, Wad Madanī) or Madani is the capital of the Al Jazirah state in east-central Sudan. "Wad Madani" (population), Microsoft Encarta, Online Encyclopedia 2001. Wad Madani lies on the west bank of the Blue Nile, ...

is the capital of the state. Gezira is known as an irrigated cotton-producing state as it is a well-populated area that is suitable for agriculture.

History

The area was at the southern end of

Nubia Nubia () (Nobiin language, Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the Cataracts of the Nile, first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue Nile, Blue ...

and little is known about its ancient history and only limited archaeological work has been conducted in this area. It was part of the kingdom of

Alodia Alodia, also known as Alwa ( grc-gre, Aρουα, ''Aroua''; ar, علوة, ''ʿAlwa''), was a medieval kingdom in what is now central and southern Sudan. Its capital was the city of Soba, located near modern-day Khartoum at the confluence of ...

for several centuries and with that state's collapse in the early sixteenth century, it became the centre of the

Funj Sultanate The Funj Sultanate, also known as Funjistan, Sultanate of Sennar (after its capital Sennar) or Blue Sultanate due to the traditional Sudanese convention of referring to black people as blue () was a monarchy in what is now Sudan, northwestern ...

. Katfia in Gezira was the place where the Wad Habuba Revolt took place in April 1908. The

Gezira Scheme The Gezira Scheme ( ar, مشروع الجزيرة) is one of the largest irrigation projects in the world. It is centered on the Sudanese state of Al Jazirah, just southeast of the confluence of the Blue and White Nile rivers at the city of Kha ...

was a program launched in 1925 to foster

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor p ...

farming. At that time the

Sennar Dam The Sennar Dam is an irrigation dam on the Blue Nile near the town of Sennar in the Al Jazirah region of Sudan. The dam is long and has a maximum height of . It was designed by the Scottish engineer Sir Murdoch MacDonald, begun in 1914 and ...

and numerous

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been dev ...

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface fl ...

s were built. Al Jazirah became the Sudan's major agricultural region with more than under cultivation. The administrative state of Gezira was established on 1 July 1943, after the

state was divided into three. The initial development project was semi-private, but the government nationalised it in 1950. Cotton production increased in the 1970s but by the 1990s increased wheat production has supplanted a third of the land formerly seeded with cotton.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Al Jazirah (State) States of Sudan