H. A. MacMichael (1882–1969) was a member of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan government between 1905 and 1933 and was the deputy Inspector of Kordofan province in Sudan between 1906 and 1912. After combining his administrative duties with ethnographic research, he published this volume as part of the Cambridge Archaeological and Ethnographic Series in 1912: it was the first major ethnographic work on the Sudan. The book combines the history of the province with genealogical information based on interviews MacMichael conducted with local people during his long tenure in Kordofan. The ethnography's focus on local history and the history of different ethnic groups in Kordofan remains the primary source for the local history of the province and the genealogies of the indigenous population. This volume contains opinions on ethnicity which were acceptable at the time it was first published.