Sudan (region)

Sudan
بِلَادُ السُّوْدَان
Sudan; بِلَادُ السُّوْدَان
	An open hay landscape in the northern Gambia
	West Sudanian savanna
Ecology
Borders	Sahara
Geography
Rivers	Chari, Niger, and the White Nile

Sudan is the geographical region to the south of the Sahara, stretching from Western Africa to Central and Eastern Africa. The name derives from the Arabic bilād as-sūdān (بلاد السودان‎) and arḍ as-sūdān (أَرْض السودان‎), both meaning "the lands of the Black [Africans]", referring to West Africa and northern Central Africa.^[1]

^ International Association for the History of Religions (1959), Numen, Leiden: EJ Brill, p. 131, West Africa may be taken as the country stretching from Senegal in the west, to the Cameroons in the east; sometimes it has been called the central and western Sudan, the Bilad as-Sūdan, 'Land of the Blacks', of the Arabs.

[1] International Association for the History of Religions (1959), Numen, Leiden: EJ Brill, p. 131, West Africa may be taken as the country stretching from Senegal in the west, to the Cameroons in the east; sometimes it has been called the central and western Sudan, the Bilad as-Sūdan, 'Land of the Blacks', of the Arabs.

[1]