Prayer Times
Prayer Times in Sudan — All Cities
Sudanese prayer times on this site are computed with the convention of the Egyptian General Authority of Survey, which reckons Fajr at 19.5 degrees of solar depression and Isha at 17.5. Sudan keeps one clock at UTC+2 with no seasonal change, and the six cities listed range from the Red Sea coast to Darfur.
Where the two Niles meet
Khartoum and Omdurman face one another across the point at which the Blue Nile, arriving from the Ethiopian highlands, joins the White Nile. The two cities lie about eighteen kilometres apart, Omdurman a little to the north and west, and that is close enough that their calculated prayer times are effectively the same. Across all five prayers the difference stays under a minute at every point in the year.
We publish them as separate pages regardless, because people look for one or the other by name and expect to find it. Within the capital region, though, there is no practical need to choose carefully between the two. Wad Madani, roughly a hundred and sixty kilometres up the Blue Nile to the south east, is the next nearest of our listings, and it does begin to differ, although only by a handful of minutes.
Maliki practice and the Sudanese Sufi orders
Sudan is predominantly Maliki. On the start of Asr the Maliki position is the one shared with the Shafi'i and Hanbali schools: an upright object must cast a shadow equal to its own length, over and above the shadow already present at solar noon. That is what the Asr figure on these pages represents. The later Hanafi measure, which waits for the shadow to double, is not the general practice in Sudan.
Alongside the schools of law, Sufi orders have a long and visible place in Sudanese religious life. The Khatmiyya order is centred in the east, around Kassala at the foot of the Taka hills. The Ansar tradition is associated with Omdurman, which was the capital of the Mahdist state in the late nineteenth century and holds the tomb of the Mahdi. Friday afternoon gatherings for dhikr in Omdurman are long established and are held in the interval between Asr and Maghrib, which is one reason an accurate Asr matters there in practice and not only in principle.
From the Red Sea coast to Darfur
Port Sudan sits at roughly 37.2 degrees east on the Red Sea. Nyala sits at roughly 24.9 degrees east in Darfur. That is more than twelve degrees of longitude and something close to sixteen hundred kilometres, one of the widest spreads of any country on this site. The sun reaches Port Sudan first and Nyala last on every day of the year, without exception.
The size of the gap changes even though its direction never does. Port Sudan also lies about seven and a half degrees further north, which lengthens its summer day and shortens its winter one. Near midsummer that works against the longitude, and Maghrib in Port Sudan falls around half an hour before Maghrib in Nyala. Near midwinter the two effects pull together and the gap grows to something over an hour. No single national timetable can absorb a difference of that size.
A steep sunset and a short twilight
Sudan lies further south than any other country using the Egyptian convention on this site. Khartoum is near 15.5 degrees north and Nyala near 12 degrees. At those latitudes the sun approaches the horizon at a steep angle rather than sliding down it obliquely, and so it crosses the twilight band quickly.
The effect on the timetable is that the interval between Maghrib and the 17.5 degree Isha is shorter in Sudan than it is in Cairo or Alexandria under the identical convention, and that it varies far less across the year. The same holds at the other end of the night, in the gap between Fajr and sunrise. If you are accustomed to Egyptian or Levantine timings, evenings in Sudan feel compressed: darkness follows sunset quickly and Isha arrives sooner than you would expect it to.
One clock, and where noon actually falls
Sudan observes UTC+2 and does not use daylight saving, having moved to that offset from UTC+3 in 2017. Nothing in the timetable jumps by a seasonal hour. The choice of offset does have a visible consequence, though, because UTC+2 is centred on the thirtieth meridian and Sudan straddles it rather than sitting to one side.
Port Sudan lies more than seven degrees east of that meridian, so solar noon there arrives nearly half an hour before midday by the clock and Dhuhr begins before midday accordingly. Nyala lies about five degrees west of it, so solar noon arrives roughly twenty minutes after midday instead. Khartoum, Omdurman and Wad Madani sit near the meridian and are close to aligned with it, while Kassala, well to the east, behaves much like Port Sudan. One country and one clock, with Dhuhr landing on opposite sides of midday depending on where you are standing.
The six places listed, and how to read them
Our Sudanese coverage is Khartoum, Omdurman, Port Sudan, Kassala, Nyala and Wad Madani, each computed from its own stored coordinates. We do not generate times for locations whose coordinates we do not hold. Given how far apart the extremes are, choose by longitude before anything else: Kassala is a reasonable stand-in for the east, Wad Madani for the central Nile region, and Nyala for the west.
Sudan is in a severe humanitarian emergency, and electricity, network access and mosque broadcasts are not dependably available everywhere. A calculated timetable needs nothing beyond a date and a set of coordinates, which is precisely where its value lies in such conditions. Each city page shows the five prayers for today with sunrise and a full month ahead, so a month can be read or copied down while a connection exists and then used without one.
Frequently asked questions
Which calculation method is used for Sudan?
The convention of the Egyptian General Authority of Survey, which sets Fajr at 19.5 degrees of solar depression and Isha at 17.5 degrees. Both are twilight angles rather than fixed intervals. Asr is taken on the reckoning shared by the Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali schools, where an upright object casts a shadow equal to its own length in addition to its noon shadow, which matches the predominantly Maliki practice of the country. The method is named beneath the table on every city page.
Do Khartoum and Omdurman have different prayer times?
Not in any way that matters. The two cities sit about eighteen kilometres apart across the confluence of the Blue and White Niles, and their calculated times differ by less than a minute across all five prayers at any point in the year. We publish both pages because people search for each by name, but within the capital region either one will serve. Wad Madani, further up the Blue Nile, is the nearest listing that genuinely differs.
How much do prayer times differ between Port Sudan and Nyala?
Substantially, and the amount depends on the season. The two are more than twelve degrees of longitude apart, roughly sixteen hundred kilometres, so Port Sudan always reaches sunset first. Near midsummer the gap is around half an hour, because Port Sudan lies further north and has the longer day, which works against the longitude. Near midwinter both effects pull the same way and the gap grows to something over an hour. The order never reverses.
What clock does Sudan keep, and does it change in summer?
Sudan observes UTC+2 all year and does not use daylight saving, having moved to that offset from UTC+3 in 2017. Nothing in the timetable shifts by a seasonal hour. Because UTC+2 is centred on the thirtieth meridian and Sudan straddles it, Dhuhr falls before midday by the clock in Port Sudan and Kassala in the east, and after midday in Nyala in the west, with Khartoum roughly aligned.
Why is Isha sooner after Maghrib here than in Egypt, if the method is the same?
Because of latitude rather than method. Khartoum is near 15.5 degrees north and Nyala near 12 degrees, well south of the Egyptian Delta. Nearer the tropics the sun drops towards the horizon at a steeper angle, so it passes through the twilight band faster and reaches the 17.5 degree Isha depression sooner after sunset. The same convention therefore produces a shorter and much more stable Maghrib to Isha interval in Sudan than in Cairo.