Omdurman

City in Khartoum State, Sudan, on the west bank of the White Nile, now considered a major suburb of Khartoum; population (1995 est) 719,000. It trades in hides, textiles, livestock, and handicrafts. It is connected to Khartoum by a bridge over the White Nile. Omdurman was built as a new city to be the residence of the Sudanese ruler known as the Mahdi, and his successor Khalifa Abdullah el Taaisha. The city is a religious and cultural centre for the majority Muslim population of the Sudan, and at the city centre is the tomb of the Mahdi (Muhammad Ahmed).

On 2 September 1898 British forces under Lord Kitchener, advancing up the Nile after the victory of Atbara, defeated the forces of the Khalifa Abdullah el Taashi in the Battle of Omdurman. During the battle the 21st Lancers delivered the last full-scale cavalry charge of modern warfare. The young Winston Churchill took part in the cavalry charge, and describes the operations in his book The River War. The university at Omdurman was founded in 1961.