Butana

The Butana (Arabic: البطانة, Buṭāna), historically called the Island of Meroë, is the region between the Atbara and the Nile in the Sudan.

Two vegetation zones feature a semi-desert Acacia shrub, short grasslands, and a low woodland savannah.

The city of Meroë was about halfway between Atbarah and Khartoum, on the east side of the Nile river.

Today it is mainly inhabited by the Sudanese Arabs of Sudan, such as the Shukria clan, the Batahin, the Lahawiin, the Rufaa people, Rashaida, the Ansar, the Awazim, and other Arabian tribes.

In local poetry, the Butana is numerously referred to as "the Butana of Abusin" in reference to the Shukria tribal chief Ahmad Bey ibn 'Awad el Kerim of whom Sir Samuel Baker has left so vivid a portrait.