Dongola

a historical region between the third and fourth cataracts of the Nile in the Northern Province of the Sudan. Until the middle of the fourth century A.D. Dongola was part of the country of Cush (Nubia). By the sixth century the state of Mugurra (with its capital at Old Dongola) existed in the region, the population of which by this time was Christianized. The increased migrations of Arabs between the tenth and 13th centuries (begun in the seventh-ninth centuries) and the repeated raids of the Mamelukes beginning in the 13th century contributed to the spread of Islam in the region. Dongola flourished in the 12th century primarily as a result of the transit trade in slaves as well as in iron and ivory. In the 16th century Dongola was incorporated into the Muslim state of Sennar, which led to the decline of Christianity in Dongola. In 1820, Dongola was conquered by the forces of the Egyptian pasha Mehemet Ali, and in 1821 it was annexed to Egypt. In 1899 it was included in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. With the creation of an independent Sudan in 1956, Dongola was incorporated into the Northern Province.