The Land and its history :
"Blad as sudan" (the Land of the blacks) or officially the Republic of the Sudan   is a country located in eastern North Africa  sometimes also considered to be part of the Middle East. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, and Libya to the northwest. The population of Sudan is a combination of indigenous inhabitants of Nile Valley, and descendants of migrants from the Arabian Peninsula. Due to the process of Arabisation common throughout the rest of the Arab World, today Arab culture predominates in Sudan. The majority of the population of Sudan adheres to Islam. The Nile divides the country between east and west sides.
A member of the United Nations, Sudan also maintains membership with the African Union, the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the Non-Aligned Movement, as well as serving as an observer in the World Trade Organization. Its capital is Khartoum, which serves as the political, cultural and commercial centre of the nation.

Sudan is located between latitude 8.45 degrees and 23.8 degrees north and longitude 21.49 degrees to 38.24 degrees east longitude, geopolitically  important among several strategic areas, it is a gate or a crossroads and a bridge between Africa - especially the Horn of Africa east and the coast west to basin of Senegal, and Africa north of the Sahara and the Great Lakes region in the center - and between them and the Arab Muslim world and the Middle East, and so is a crossing interactions and migrations and the effects the Arab-Islamic south of tropical forests in Africa, as it remained until the middle of the last century, the main passage for the convoys of pilgrims and trade from West Africa to the Holy Ground and East Africa. 

Sudan suffered since the Declaration of Independence in 1956 until 2005 except for periods of peace intermittent as a result of conflicts deep between the central government in northern Sudan (the predominantly Muslim) and the rebel movements in the south (which is dominated by Christianity and indigenous beliefs) and ended the civil war to sign Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the civil war between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Sudan, and became the province of South Sudan autonomous followed by a referendum in 2011 on to remain  united with Sudan or secede. The result of the referendum for the latter option, South Sudan seceded on 9 July 2011.

EARLY HISTORY:

 Archaeological excavation of sites on the Nile above Aswan has confirmed human habitation in the river valley during the Paleolithic period that spanned more than 60,000 years of Sudanese history. By the eighth millennium B.C., people of a Neolithic culture had settled into a sedentary way of life there in fortified mud-brick villages, where they supplemented hunting and fishing on the Nile with grain gathering and cattle herding. Contact with Egypt probably occurred at a formative stage in the culture's development because of the steady movement of population along the Nile River. Skeletal remains suggest a blending of negroid and Mediterranean populations during the Neolithic period (eighth to third millenia B.C.) that has remained relatively stable until the present, despite gradual infiltration by other elements.

 The Kingdom of Kush was an ancient Nubian state centered on the confluences of the Blue Nile, White Nile and River Atbara. It was established after the Bronze Age collapse and the disintegration of the New Kingdom of Egypt, centered at Napata in its early phase. After King Kashta ("the Kushite") invaded Egypt in the 8th century BC, the Kushite kings ruled as Pharaohs of the Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt for a century before being defeated and driven out by the Assyrians.

 Kerma (2500- 1520 v.chr.) :

Northern Sudan's earliest historical record comes from Egyptian sources, which described the land upstream from the First Cataract, called Kush, as "wretched." For more than two thousand years after the Old Kingdom (c.2700-2180 BC), Over the centuries, trade developed. Egyptian caravans carried grain to Kush and returned to Aswan with ivory, incense, hides, and carnelian (a stone prized both as jewelry and for arrowheads) for shipment downriver.

Kingdom of Napata :

By the eleventh century BC, the authority of the New Kingdom dynasties had diminished, allowing divided rule in Egypt, and ending Egyptian control of Kush. There is no information about the region's activities over the next three hundred years.

Kingdom of Meroe :
Egypt's succeeding dynasty failed to reassert control over Kush. Around 590 BC, however, an Egyptian army sacked Napata, compelling the Kushite court to move to a more secure location at Meroe near the Sixth Cataract. For several centuries thereafter, the Meroitic kingdom developed independently of Egypt, which passed successively under Persian, Greek, and, finally, Roman domination.

Christianity :

 By the 6th century,3 states had emerged as the political and cultural heirs of the Meroitic Kingdom. Nobatia in the north, also known as Ballanah, had its capital at Faras, in what is now Egypt; the central kingdom, Muqurra (Makuria), was centered at Dunqulah, about 13 kilometers (10 miles) south of modern Donqula; and Alawa (Alodia), in the heartland of old Meroe, which had its capital at Sawba (now a suburb of modern-day Khartoum). In all three kingdoms, warrior aristocracies ruled Meroitic populations from royal courts where functionaries bore Greek titles in emulation of the Byzantine court. A missionary sent by Byzantine empress Theodora arrived in Nobatia and started preaching Christianity about 540 AD. The Nubian kings became Monophysite Christians. However, Makuria was of the Melkite Christian faith, unlike Nobatia and Alodia.

Islam:

After many attempts at military conquest failed, the Arab commander in Egypt concluded the first in a series of regularly renewed treaties known as Albaqut al-sharim (pactum) with the Nubians that governed relations between the two peoples for more than 678 years. Islam progressed in the area over a long period of time through intermarriage and contacts with Arab merchants and settlers, particularly the Sufi nobles of Arabia. Additionally, exemption from taxation in regions under Muslim rule were also a powerful incentive for conversion. In 1093, a Muslim prince of Nubian royal blood ascended the throne of Donqula as king. The two most important Arab tribes to emerge in Nubia were the Jaali and the Juhayna. Today's northern Sudanese culture combines Nubian and Arabic elements.
During the 16th century, a people called the Funj, under a leader named Amara Dunqus, appeared in southern Nubia and supplanted the remnants of the old Christian kingdom of Alwa, establishing As-Saltana az-Zarqa (the Blue Sultanate), also called the Sultanate of Sennar. The Blue Sultanate eventually became the keystone of the Funj Empire. By the mid-16th century, Sennar controlled Al Jazirah and commanded the allegiance of vassal states and tribal districts north to the Third Cataract and south to the rainforests. The government was substantially weakened by a series of succession arguments and coups within the royal family. In 1820, Muhammad Ali of Egypt sent 4,000 troops to invade Sudan. His forces accepted Sennar's surrender from the last Fonj sultan.

Economy :
Sudan is a country of vast and rich natural resources represented in the fertile agricultural land, livestock and mineral, forestry, fisheries and water abundant. And Sudan  mainly depends on agriculture .In addition to the industry, especially industries that rely on farmers.

Agriculture :
Agriculture is the main sector of the economy of Sudan and was named the country (the world's food basket) and most of Sudan's exports consist of agricultural products such as cotton, gum Arabic, oilseeds and meat. In addition to vegetables and fruits that are exported to African and Arab countries. There are in Sudan, about 84 million hectares has been exploited 18 million hectares of which are characterized by low fertility and natural obstacles, and the abundance of irrigation water from rivers and valleys and rain as well as climate and a diverse workforce. Agriculture contributes about 34% of GDP.

Livestock :
The livestock sector occupies second place in the Sudanese economy in terms of importance, as Sudan has more than 130 million head of cattle and Khartoum alone has more than a million head of them  . In addition to the wealth of fish in fresh water and the Red Sea.

Exports :
The Sudanese exports are heavily dependent on oil production, which reached to 500 thousand barrels per day before declining by up to 75% after the secession of the south, Sudan is seeking to compensate for this source of inspiration for the state treasury to intensify oil exploration in areas, particularly in the center and the south-east and increasing drilling gold and the development of agricultural and livestock sector through the introduction of new technologies to raise productivity and improve quality.

Cotton has received special attention because of growing demand in world markets, as well as the case of gum Arabic is Sudan, where the first country of production in the world, and is exported to European countries and the United States of America.

Demographics :
Population
Sudanese are groups of tribes consist of Arab, African, Nubian and Beja with the existence of minorities like
Turkish, Egyptian, Libyan, gypsy (Aleppo) Ethiopian, Indian and Eritrean.

Population after separation:

Population: 33,419,625 people
Population compared to the countries of the world: 35 global ranking 0.3 Arabic 0.9 Africa.
Increase in population between census years (1993 -2008 m): 52%.

Geographical location :

Geographically Sudan is located in East Africa and occupies an area of ​​1,882,000 square kilometers, which is the second largest country in Africa after Algeria, and the third in the Arab world after Algeria, Saudi Arabia, and the sixteenth worldwide (it was the largest space in the Arab world and Africa before the separation of South in 2011, the tenth world, with an area of 2 million square kilometers, almost).

Climate :

Sudan is located in the tropical regions and varies the climate as follows:

     The hot desert climate in the north of Sudan.
     Mediterranean climate on the coast of the Red Sea and the Jebel Marra area of Darfur,
     Semi-desert climate in the north central Sudan.
     Poor savannah climate in the south central and western Sudan.
     Rich savannah climate in the southern borders of Sudan.  

The climate is tropical high temperature in most of the year, especially in the summer, ranging from the climate too dry in the far north, to the hot rainy summers and mild winters in the savannah in the center and semi-humid in the far South Kordofan and Southern Blue Nile, and hot dry summers, rainy cold winter on the coast of the Red Sea and the Jebel Marra area.

The annual average rainfall ranging from nearly zero in the far north, where rain in those areas once every five or six years, to 500 mm to 1000 mm in the center and south-west.

Vegetation :

This includes forests, pastures and a total area of forests and rangelands in Sudan about 121.8 million hectares, of which about 71 million hectares of forest, equivalent to 28% of the total area of ​​the Sudan .

 Languages :

The most used languages and dialects are:

• Arabic in all Sudan, along with the tribal languages:
• Najdi and Hejazi Arabic, (mainly in mid-north and mid-east regions).
• Chadic Arabic in western region, (mainly spoken by Baggara and various Arabicized African tribes).
• Nubian language in far north, (mainly spoken by Nubians of Mahas, Dongola and Halfa).
• Beja language knows as Bedawit in far east alongside Red sea, (mainly spoken by Beja of Hadandawa, Ababda and Bisharin).
• Fur language in far west, (mainly spoken By Fur people).
• Kordofanian languages consist of numerous languages like kadu, Katla, Mandi

Before 2005, only Arabic was the official language. In the 2005 constitution, Sudan's official languages became Arabic and English.