The Battle of Omdurman was fought during the Anglo-Egyptian conquest of Sudan between a British–Egyptian expeditionary force commanded by British Commander-in-Chief (sirdar) major general Horatio Herbert Kitchener and a Sudanese army of the Mahdist Islamic State, led by Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, the successor to the self-proclaimed Mahdi, Muhammad Ahmad. The battle took place on 2 September 1898, at Kerreri, 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) north of Omdurman in Sudan.
Muhammad Ahmad was a Nubian Sufi religious leader of the Samaniyya order in Sudan who, as a youth, studied Sunni Islam. In 1881, he claimed to be the Mahdi, and led a successful war against Ottoman-Egyptian military rule in Sudan and achieved a remarkable victory over the British, in the siege of Khartoum. He created a vast Islamic state extending from the Red Sea to Central Africa, and founded a movement that remained influential in Sudan a century later.
The Atbarah River, also referred to as the Red Nile and / or Black Nile, is a river in northeast Africa. It rises in northwest Ethiopia, approximately 50 km north of Lake Tana and 30 km west of Gondar. It then flows about 805 km (500 mi) to the Nile in north-central Sudan, joining it at the city of Atbarah. The river's tributary, the Tekezé (Setit) River, is perhaps the true upper course of the Atbarah, as the Tekezé follows the longer course prior to the confluence of the two rivers in northeastern Sudan. The Atbarah is the last tributary of the Nile before it reaches the Mediterranean.
The Battle of Umm Diwaykarat on 25 November 1899 marked the final defeat of the Mahdist State in Sudan, when Anglo-Egyptian forces under the command of Lord Kitchener defeated what was left of the Mahdist armies under the command of the Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, known as the Khalifa, after the equally disastrous Battle of Omdurman a year earlier.
The Battle of Shaykan was fought between Anglo-Egyptian forces under the command of Hicks Pasha and forces of Muhammad Ahmad, the self-proclaimed Mahdi, in the woods of Shaykan near Kashgil near the town of El-Obeid on 3–5 November 1883.
The Mahdist State, also known as Mahdist Sudan or the Sudanese Mahdiyya, was a state based on a religious and political movement launched in 1881 by Muhammad Ahmad bin Abdullah against the Khedivate of Egypt, which had ruled the Sudan since 1821. After four years of struggle, the Mahdist rebels overthrew the Ottoman-Egyptian administration and established their own "Islamic and national" government with its capital in Omdurman. Thus, from 1885 the Mahdist government maintained sovereignty and control over the Sudanese territories until its existence was terminated by the Anglo-Egyptian forces in 1898.
The siege of Khartoum occurred from 13 March 1884 to 26 January 1885. Sudanese Mahdist forces captured the city of Khartoum from its Egyptian garrison, thereby gaining control over the whole of Sudan.
The Ja'alin, Ja'aliya, Ja'aliyin or Ja'al are a tribal confederation and an Arab or Arabised Nubian tribe in Sudan. The Ja'alin constitute a large portion of the Sudanese Arabs and are one of the three prominent Sudanese Arab tribes in northern Sudan - the others being the Shaigiya and Danagla. They trace their origin to Ibrahim Ja'al, an Abbasid noble, whose clan originally hailed from the Hejaz in the Arabian Peninsula and married into the local Nubian population. Ja'al was a descendant of al-Abbas, an uncle of Muhammad. The Ja'alin formerly occupied the country on both banks of the Nile from Khartoum to Abu Hamad. According to a source, the tribe allegedly once spoke a now extinct dialect of Nubian as late as the nineteenth century. Many Sudanese politicians have come from the Ja'alin tribal coalition.
The River War: An Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Soudan (1899), by Winston Churchill, is a history of the conquest of the Sudan between 1896 and 1899 by Anglo-Egyptian forces led by Lord Kitchener. He defeated the Sudanese Dervish forces, led by Khalifa Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, heir to the self-proclaimed Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad who had vowed to conquer Egypt and drive out the Ottomans. The first, two volume, edition includes accounts of Churchill's own experiences as a British Army officer during the war, and his views on its conduct.
Osman Digna was a follower of Muhammad Ahmad, the self-proclaimed Mahdi, in Sudan, who became his best known military commander during the Mahdist War. He was claimed to be a descendant from the Abbasid family. As the Mahdi's ablest general, he played an important role in the fate of General Charles George Gordon and the loss of the Sudan to Turkish-Egyptian rule.
The First and Second Battles of El Teb took place during the British Sudan Campaign where a force of Sudanese under Osman Digna won a victory over a 3,500 strong Egyptian force under the command of General Valentine Baker which was marching to relieve Tokar on the 4th. A second British force under Sir Gerald Graham arrived on the 29th, engaging and defeating Osman Digna with few casualties.
The Mahdist War was a war between the Mahdist Sudanese of the religious leader Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah, who had proclaimed himself the "Mahdi" of Islam, and the forces of the Khedivate of Egypt, initially, and later the forces of Britain. Eighteen years of war resulted in the nominally joint-rule state of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (1899–1956), a de jure condominium of the British Empire and the Kingdom of Egypt in which Britain had de facto control over the Sudan. The Sudanese launched several unsuccessful invasions of their neighbours, expanding the scale of the conflict to include not only Britain and Egypt but also the Italian Empire, the Congo Free State and the Ethiopian Empire.
The Battle of Toski (Tushkah) was part of the Mahdist War. It took place on August 3, 1889 in southern Egypt between the Anglo-Egyptian forces and the Mahdist forces of the Sudan.
The Battle of Gallabat was an armed conflict fought on 9–10 March 1889 between the Mahdist Sudanese and Ethiopian forces. It is a critical event in Ethiopian history because Nəgusä Nägäst Yohannes IV was killed in this battle, and because it was the last major battle on the Ethiopian front of the Mahdist War. The fighting occurred at the site of the twin settlements of Gallabat and Metemma, so both names are commonly used and either can be argued to be correct.
The Battle of Tamai took place on 13 March 1884 between a British force under Sir Gerald Graham and a Mahdist Sudanese army led by Osman Digna.
The Battle of Ferkeh occurred during the Mahdist War in which an army of the Mahdist Sudanese was surprised and routed by Egyptian forces, led by Sir Herbert Kitchener, on 7 June 1896. It was the first significant action of the reconquest of Sudan, which culminated in the September 1898 Battle of Omdurman.
The Battle of Ginnis was a minor battle of the Mahdist War that was fought on December 30, 1885, between soldiers of the Anglo-Egyptian Army and Mahdist Sudanese warriors of the Dervish State. The battle was caused by the Mahdist blockade of the Ginnis-Kosha Fort, which British commanders hoped to relieve.
The Battle of Suakin, part of the Mahdist War, occurred on 20 December 1888 when General Francis Grenfell defeated a Mahdist, or Dervish, force near Suakin, a chief port of Sudan.
The Anglo-Egyptian conquest of Sudan in 1896–1899 was a reconquest of territory lost by the Khedives of Egypt in 1884 and 1885 during the Mahdist War. The British had failed to organise an orderly withdrawal of Egyptian forces from Sudan, and the defeat at Khartoum left only Suakin and Equatoria under Egyptian control after 1885. The conquest of 1896–99 defeated and destroyed the Mahdist state and re-established Anglo-Egyptian rule, which remained until Sudan became independent in 1956.
The Mahdi's tomb or qubba is located in Omdurman, Sudan. It was the burial place of Muhammad Ahmad, the leader of an Islamic revolt against the Ottoman-Egyptian occupation of Sudan in the late 19th century.
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