Egyptian rulers exiled rivals to the Sudan from Muhammad Ali onward

Evidence

At times, the Sudan stood for exile, the terrible place to which one could be forcibly removed from life in Egypt, as al- Tahtawï so vividly recounted. Egyptian rulers, beginning with Muhammad `Alï, had a long tradition of exiling rivals and enemies to the region of Tokar or the penal camp in Fazughlï. In the nineteenth century, it took a very long time to travel to the Sudan: twenty-seven days to go from Aswan in Upper Egypt to Khartoum in the north of the Sudan. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 343

Categorization

• XREF: The exile-to-distant-province pattern echoes how other empires used remote territories for penal removal; parallels British Australia or French Guiana.
• QUESTION: Was Sudan’s role as penal colony a distinctly Egyptian colonial tool, or a borrowing of Ottoman practice?