ABSTRACT
Muhammad 'Ali's primary motive in undertaking the invasion of the Sudan was probably political. In the early days of his rule over Egypt, his most dangerous opponents had been the Mamluks, the survivors of the military and governing elite whose chiefs had been, in the previous century, the real masters of Egypt. In the Gezira the resistance was headed by those two survivors of the Funj-Hamaj regime, Hasan wad Rajab and the Arbab Dafa'allah. The military strength of the Turco-Egyptian regime was mainly derived from two sources, the regular Jihadiyya, of slave origin, originating from what would be called southern Sudan; and the Shayqiyya irregulars, serving mainly as cavalrymen under their own chiefs. The Shayqiyya remained loyal to their new masters, and their irregulars served in the operations against the rebels. Even within the area of the revolt, the garrison of Khartoum was assisted by the people of the nearby village of al-Jirayf, whose chief guided troops to Wad Medani.
