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SUAKIN, or SAWAKIN

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 1060 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SUAKIN, or SAWAKIN , a seaport of the Anglo-See also:Egyptian See also:Sudan on the See also:west See also:side of the Red See also:Sea in 19° 7' N., 370 20' E. Pop. (1905), 10,500. Suakin stands on a coralline islet connected with the suburb of El-See also:Kef on the mainland by a See also:causeway and a viaduct. See also:Access is gained to the See also:harbour through a winding and dangerous passage over 2 M. See also:long, terminating in a' deep See also:oval-shaped See also:basin several acres in extent, and completely shelteredfrom all winds. For centuries the See also:chief See also:port of the eastern Sudan, Suakin has been since 1906 to some extent superseded by Port Sudan (q.v.), a harbour 36 m. to the See also:north. The See also:custom-See also:house and See also:government offices See also:present an imposing frontage to the sea, and the See also:principal houses are of See also:white See also:coral See also:stone three storeys high. The mosques are not remarkable. The mainland See also:part of the See also:town is surrounded by a high coral See also:wall, built in 1884 to resist See also:dervish attacks. About a mile beyond is a See also:line of See also:outer forts. The See also:climate is very hot, See also:damp and unhealthy, and in the summer months the government headquarters are removed to Erkowit 35 M. west of Suakin, on a See also:plateau 3000 ft. above the sea. Suakin is less conveniently situated than some neighbouring points (e.g.

Port Sudan) for the See also:

trade with the See also:Nile Valley. The See also:island is without See also:water and the harbour indifferent; yet the See also:settlement is See also:ancient. Here, as at See also:Massawa, traders were presumably attracted by the advantages of an island site which protected them from the raids of the See also:nomad See also:Arabs of the mainland. The See also:country inland belonged in the See also:middle ages to the See also:Beja (q.v.), but the trading places seem to have been always in the hands of foreigners since Ptolemais Theron was established by See also:Ptolemy Philadelphus for intercourse with the See also:elephant hunters. After the rise of Mahommedanism many Arabs settled on the See also:coast and mixed with the See also:heathen Beja, whose See also:rule of kinship and See also:succession in the See also:female line helped to give the See also:children of mixed marriages a leading position (Makrizi; Khitat, i. 194 seq., translated in See also:Burckhardt's Travels in See also:Nubia, app. iii.). Thus in 1330 See also:Ibn Batuta found a son of the See also:amir of See also:Mecca reigning in Suakin over the Beja, who were his See also:mother's See also:kin. Makrizi says that the chief inhabitants were nominal Moslems and were called Hadarib. The amir of the Hadarib was still See also:sovereign of the mainland at the See also:time of J. L. Burckhardt's visit (1814), though the island had an See also:aga appointed by the See also:Turkish See also:pasha of See also:Jidda. The See also:place was seized in 1517 by the See also:Turks under See also:Selim the See also:Great, but Turkish See also:control did not extend inland.

Mehemet See also:

Ali after the See also:conquest of the Sudan leased Suakin from See also:Turkey. This See also:lease lapsed with the pasha's See also:death, but in x865 See also:Ismail Pasha reacquired the port for See also:Egypt. Till the suppression of the slave trade Suakin was an important slave port and it has always been the place of embarcation for Sudan pilgrims to Mecca. Legitimate See also:commerce, rapidly growing before the revolt of the See also:mandi (1881),was greatly crippled during the continuance of the dervish See also:power, though the town itself never See also:fell into their hands. After the fall of the See also:khalifa trade revived, the imports in 1899 being valued at £18o,000, as against £r70,000 in 1880. In r906 the figures were: imports, £324,000; exports, £113,000. See also:Pearl fishing is an important See also:industry and See also:cotton is cultivated in the neighbourhood. Suakin was the headquarters of the Egyptian and See also:British troops operating in the eastern Sudan against the dervishes under See also:Osman Digna (see EGYPT, Military Operations, 1884, seq.). When these operations were begun a project for linking Suakin to See also:Berber by railway, first proposed during Ismail's viceroyalty, was revived and a few See also:miles of rails were laid in 1884. Then the Sudan was abandoned and the railway remained in See also:abeyance until 1905-1906, when the line was at length built. The railway has a See also:terminus at Suakin, but Port Sudan was chosen as the principal See also:entrepot of the commerce carried by the railway. Not-withstanding the rivalry of its newly created See also:neighbour, the trade of Suakin continued to develop.

The port is connected by submarine cables with See also:

Suez and See also:Aden and with Jidda, which lies 200 M. north-See also:east on the opposite coast of the Red Sea (see SUDAN, § Anglo-Egyptian).

End of Article: SUAKIN, or SAWAKIN

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