A Short History of the Sudan

by Mandour el Mahdi

154 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1965

Reviews

[Samani]

كتاب جيد .و اظنه اول كتاب مدرسى سوداني عن تاريخ السودان . حيث حكى لي شخص درس في حنتوب ,في الخمسينات ,ان كاتبه جاء الى المدرسة ليشرح لهم الكتاب خصوص الجزء الاول المتعلق بالفترة النوبية .

[Jesper]

Before reading this book I knew almost completely nothing about Sudan. Now I know at least some of the basic facts of its history. Will read more, but thanks for the foundation, Mandour el Mahdi!

[Susanna]

I bought this poorly printed paperback on the streets of Khartoum in 2013. Nearly a decade later, I finally read it and learned so much about Sudanese history. The book is well organized, divided into chapters and short sections with titles that make sense.

Unfortunately, I lost my copy after getting 2/3 of the way through.

My copy had printing mistakes such as page 51/52 being stuck between page 28 and 31. Then page 29/30 would be found after page 50. The pictures are so indecipherable, they remind me of the first daguerreotype.

[Luke]

I enjoyed but I felt like the book is far too brief at times to really learn much of anything. It is very readable but at the expense of content. It seems like we go from 700-1700 in about 20 pages. I assume because sources are sparse but that is not discussed.

I’m also left to wonder what parts of the book are out of date or have had breakthroughs or new discovered or was of thinking applied to it, as it was published in 1965, obviously anything after that is not included.
Only the last few chapters seemed to be particularly in depth.

At some point there is a Jesus ii king of Ethiopia mentioned who doesn’t seem to exist, idk if it’s a mistranslation or a typo or what but he’s not mentioned in the index either.

Some better maps would also be appreciated.