Nubia bordering westward upon the kingdome last described, and stretching from thence unto Nilus, is enclosed on the southside with the desert...The principall towne of this kingdome calld Dangala is exxceeding populous...The townesmen are exceeding rich and civill people, and have great traffike with the merchants of Cairo & Egypt:
-Description of Africa, Book VII, Leo Africanus
I always liked Dongola, which the drovers called Al-Urdi, meaning military camp, because of the Ottoman army post there in the days of Muhammad Ali, the first Egyptian Khedive and last Turkish Wali, and because it is more than halfway to Egypt, its merchants trading as much with Aswan as with Omdurman, and it is near where KhairAllah now lives.