ABSTRACT
T883. A rebellion led by the Mahdi breaks out in the Stldan. The Mahdi was one Mul)ammad Abmad, a carpenter, who was born between 1840 and 1850 j his native village was situated near the Island of Argo, in the province of Don~ola, and though poor, his parents declared that they belonged to the Ashraf, or "nobility," and claimed to be descendants of Mubammad the Prophet. His father was a religious teacher, and had taught him to read and write. He studied at Berber under Mubammad al·Khen, and later at Khartum under the famous Shekh Mul)ammad Sherif, and when he became a man he led a life of great asceticism on the Island of Abba in the White Nile. His piety and learning secured for him a great reputation in the Sftdan, and the greater number of the inhabitants sided with him in a serious quarrel which he had with Mubammad Sherif. He wandered about preaching against the Christians, and he declared that the decay in the Mubammadan religion was due to the contact of Arabs
1883. with Christians, that true faith was dead, and that he was deputed by God to restore it. He then attached a number of important people to himself, and having retired to Abba Island, he declared himself to be the ., Mahdi," or the being whose advent had been foretold by Mul;1ammadan writers, who would restore the religion of the Arabs to its former purity. In July, 1881, Rauf Pasha, the Governor-General of the Slldan, sent for him to come to Khartllm, but the Mahdi refused, and six weeks later he and his followers defeated the Government troops which had been sent to bring him, and slew half of them. In December he defeated Rashid Bey, the Governor of Fashoda, and slew nearly all the 400 soldiers which he had with him at Geddin. In April, 1882, Giegler Pasha, the temporary Governor-General, next attacked the Mahdi, and under his able generalship considerable loss was inflicted on the rebels; but on June 7 the Mahdi and his Dervishes massacred the combined forces of 'Abd-Allah and Yussuf Pasha, and in September he besieged EI·Obed, which capitulated on January 17, 1883. In the same month Colonel W. Hicks, a retired Indian officer, was appointed head of the Army in the Sudan, and on February 7 he left Cairo for Khartum via Berber, which he reached on March 1 ; in April he set out against the Dervishes, and on the last day of the month he defeated about 4,000 of them and killed about 500. On September 9 he set out with reinforcements for Duem, intending to recapture EI-Obed, but early in November the Mahdi attacked his force of about 10,000 men with some thousands of soldiers from the old Egyptian Army, near Lake Rahad, it is sa.id, and
the gallant Englishman and his officers and men, who were suffering greatly from want of water, having been led into an ambush, were cut to pieces.
