Al Ubayyiḑ

Al Ubayyiḑ, also El Obeid, city, central Sudan, on the semiarid Kordofan Plateau. It is a market center, connected by railroad to Khartoum and Port Sudan. The city has a trade in gum arabic, oilseed, livestock, and other goods produced in the surrounding region. Al Ubayyiḑ was founded by Egyptians in 1821. In 1883 an army of the Mahdi, the Muslim leader Muhammad Ahmad, defeated an Egyptian force here. The city was reached by railroad in 1912. Population 228,096 (1993).