Obeid

Obeid, EL, capital of Kordofan, in the eastern Soudan, 220 miles SW. of Khartoum, consists of a number of villages, originally separate and inhabited by distinct races, but now joined together into one town. Gum-arabic, ivory, gold, and ostrich-feathers are the chief articles of trade. Pop. estimated at 35,000. Near this place, in 1883, a force of Egyptians under Hicks Pasha, with an English staff, was exterminated by a large army of the Mahdi.