Barah

Barah lies in the sandy country of northern Kordofan, northwest of the town of Bara. Beneath the qoz sands, shallow groundwater collects in the Bara basin, fed by rain and seasonal streams. Farther south, Bara grew into a trading centre linking the produce of Kordofan to routes across Sudan and towards Egypt. Kordofan passed under Darfur's rule in the late eighteenth century. In 1821, Muhammad Ali's forces advanced into the province and defeated the Darfurian governor Musallim at Bara. His death ended Darfur's control of Kordofan, and the victors continued towards al-Ubayyid.