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Mahdist War: A Visual History

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Visual history of a war

A Sudanese holy man declared himself the Mahdi, destroyed an Egyptian army, killed General Gordon at Khartoum, and ruled Sudan until Kitchener's machine guns at Omdurman.

Fought
1881 to 1899
Duration
18 years
Dates
1881 to 1899
Deaths
Perhaps 5 million in war and famine, over half the population (contested)
Mahdists
The Mahdi, then Khalifa Abdallahi; the Ansar
Opponents
Egypt; Britain (Gordon relief expedition, Kitchener's reconquest); Ethiopia; Italy
Result
Anglo-Egyptian conquest of the Sudan

The Mahdist War (1881-1899) began when Muhammad Ahmad, a Sufi from Dongola, proclaimed himself the Mahdi and rose against Egyptian rule of the Sudan. His Ansar destroyed the Hicks expedition at Shaykan in 1883, besieged Khartoum for ten months and stormed it on 26 January 1885, killing Charles Gordon two days before a British relief force arrived. The Mahdi died months later; his Khalifa Abdallahi ruled a Sudanese state from Omdurman, fought Ethiopia and Egypt and survived famine. Britain reconquered the Sudan with Kitchener's Anglo-Egyptian army and river gunboats, annihilating the Ansar at Omdurman on 2 September 1898, and set up the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium.

When it was fought: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Mahdist War. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

1200130014001500160017001800190020002100Mahdist War (1881 to 1899)Open: Ottoman EmpireOttoman Empire (1299 to 1922)Open: Spanish EmpireSpanish Empire (1492 to 1976)Open: British EmpireBritish Empire (1583 to 1997)Open: Second French colonial empireSecond French colonial empire (1830 to 1980)Open: French conquest of AlgeriaFrench conquest of Algeria (1830 to 1903)Open: Conquests of Menelik IIConquests of Menelik II (1878 to 1904)Open: Italian EmpireItalian Empire (1882 to 1947)Open: German colonial empireGerman colonial empire (1884 to 1919)Open: Italo-Senussi warsItalo-Senussi wars (1911 to 1932)Open: First Sudanese Civil WarFirst Sudanese Civil War (1955 to 1972)Open: Second Sudanese Civil WarSecond Sudanese Civil War (1983 to 2005)Open: War in DarfurWar in Darfur (2003 to present)

Casualties at Omdurman, 1898

0375075001125015000Mahdists killed: 1000010000Mahdists killedMahdists wounded: 1300013000Mahdists woundedMahdists captured: 50005000Mahdists capturedAnglo-Egyptians killed: 4848Anglo-Egyptians killedAnglo-Egyptians wounded: 382382Anglo-Egyptians woundedmen (approximate)

Timeline of the Mahdist War

  1. 1881
    Muhammad Ahmad proclaims himself Mahdi
  2. 1883
    El Obeid falls; Hicks destroyed at Shaykan
  3. 1884
    Gordon arrives; siege of Khartoum begins
  4. 1885
    Khartoum falls; Gordon killed; Mahdi dies
  5. 1889
    Gallabat and Toski; famine
  6. 1896
    Reconquest begins
  7. 1898
    Atbara; Omdurman; Fashoda
  8. 1899
    Khalifa killed

The Mahdi

Muhammad Ahmad announced in 1881 that he was the Mahdi, the expected one, sent to purify Islam and free the Sudan from the corrupt 'Turks' of Egypt. Egyptian columns sent to arrest him were massacred; El Obeid fell in 1883 and Hicks Pasha's 10,000 Egyptians were annihilated at Shaykan in November. Britain, occupying Egypt since 1882, ordered evacuation of the Sudan and sent Gordon, its former governor, to organise it.

Khartoum

Gordon reached Khartoum in February 1884, decided to hold it, and was besieged from March. Gladstone delayed a relief expedition until August; Wolseley's Nile column fought at Abu Klea in January 1885, but the Mahdists stormed the starving city on 26 January and killed Gordon on the palace steps. The steamers arrived on the 28th. The Mahdi died of typhus in June; the Khalifa built a theocratic state, fought a bloody war with Ethiopia (Gallabat, 1889) and invaded Egypt (Toski, 1889), while famine in 1889-1890 killed hundreds of thousands.

Omdurman

In 1896 Britain, alarmed by French and Italian moves, ordered Kitchener's Egyptian army up the Nile behind a railway across the desert. He took Dongola, won at Atbara in April 1898, and at Omdurman on 2 September faced 50,000 Ansar with 26,000 men, Maxim guns, artillery and gunboats: about 10,000 Mahdists died and 48 British and Egyptians. Kitchener destroyed the Mahdi's tomb, faced down Marchand's French at Fashoda, and hunted the Khalifa, who was killed at Umm Diwaykarat in November 1899. Sudan was ruled jointly by Britain and Egypt until 1956.

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8 surprising things about the Mahdist War

  1. Winston Churchill charged with the 21st Lancers at Omdurman and wrote The River War about the campaign.
  2. Gordon's death made him a Victorian martyr; Gladstone, blamed for delay, saw the acronym GOM (Grand Old Man) reversed to MOG, Murderer of Gordon.
  3. The Mahdi's tomb was blown up and his bones thrown in the Nile; Kitchener reportedly wanted the skull as an inkstand until Queen Victoria objected.
  4. The Fashoda incident of 1898 nearly caused an Anglo-French war and ended France's dream of a trans-African empire.
  5. The Mahdist state minted its own coins and ran on the Mahdi's proclamations rather than the schools of Islamic law.
  6. The Ansar's patched jibba, symbolising poverty, was worn by all their soldiers.
  7. Sudan's Umma Party and the Mahdi's family (the al-Mahdis) remain in national politics; Sadiq al-Mahdi was twice prime minister.
  8. Kitchener's desert railway across the Nubian Desert was built at over a mile a day and was called the key to the Sudan.

Sources

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