EL MAHDIS RISE AND PROGRESS

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1972, 26 February 1885, Page 4

EL MAHDIS RISE AND PROGRESS

The destruction of tlio army of Hicks Pa .hi ni'iii Olmmil i(\onicd the fonnid alile nature of the i elisions revolt which li.iilh.ci) tlc\ eloping force in the Soudan dunni,' the last four y.-ais under the self styled M.ihdi. Befoie the mutiny of the c >lonels nt (Juro in the summer of ISSI, there had (icinarks The Times), been symptoms of a coming rising on the part ot th* slaveholders of the Provinces of Kordof.m and Dxtfur. Befoie. Aiabi had given the fust sii.'ii of lnsiibordin.ition. the Dongolawi, Mahomed Ahmed, had bugun Ins caieer as a Mussulman en tlnwast, aiul liad anoi»atid to himself this title of Mahdi, or the long-expected Redeemer of Islam. He was thought by tlic Egyptian oih'cials to bu onl> a " madman," but bis recent success shows that it was unwise to tic.it him and his plans with the contempt and indiilereuca which wcic meted out to them in t ho yeais KSSO and 1831. It is probable that, however distnibed tiio Mahomedan woild may have been at that time, and as Aialn's nmiriection showed it to be, Mahomed Ahmed would not ha\ c succeeded in rallying such large forces as he did to Ins side but for the pccnliur condition of things in the Soudan, where the slave-holuing interest was supreme, and where the approach of the year 1880 'A as regarded with apprehension as the date fixed for the emancipation of the slaves. The rising of the Mahdi, while not to be lightly tieated as an ebullition of religious fervour, derived its chief importance from the fact that it was supported by the sheikhs and chiefs who had flourished under Sebeha, ami w horn all the efforts of Sir Samuel Baiker and General Gordon had not put dow n. In the summer of 1881 the movements and proclamations of this nidi\iduils attracted the attention of Reouf Pashi, then Governor of the Soudan, and an official was sent to make enquhies as to what were his plans and intentions. At that time he resided in a small island on the White Nile, and he had already attached to Ins person n guaid of chosen followers who stood before him with drawn swoids. Ho lefused, not unnaturally, the demand of the Egyptian official to accompany him to Khartoum ; and when a small foice was sent by water to effect his captuie it was ignominiously repulsed, and compelled to return empty-handed to Reouf Pasha. Mahomed Ahmed then lift his island home for a place of greater safety, and settled down at Gebel Gedir, where he was left during several months, not merely undisturbed, but at liberty to increase his influence among the neighbom ing tribes, and, perhaps, to form a joint plan of action with the dealers in slaves. His fame was further enhanced by the defeat, in December, 1881, of a foice, under Rashid B. i y, Governor of Farhoda, who attempted to expel him from Gebel Gedir. In the early months of 188'J another and stronger expedition was fitted out by the new GovernorGeneral of the Soudan, Abd-el-Kader Pasha, and the command was intrusted to Yussuf Pasha, who had had nominal command of the expedition against Sebehr, in which the Italian Gessi had so much distinguished himself. The situation was fuither complicated at this moment by tlieoutbieak of what was at first a distinct rebellion m the Piovince of Seunaar, on the Blue Nile ; but the leader of this rising, hoping, no doubt, to attiact men to his cause, gave out that he was the Mahdi's lieutenant, and assumed the title of his Vizier. Giegier P.nha, as Austrain officer, succeeded in inflicting a defeat upon this popular leader, v. hi'-h had, at least, the effect of preventing the insiu rcction on the Blue Nile spiuudiug as far as it seemed likely to do. This success wa->, however, trifling when eoirpircd with the Mahdi s gieat \ ictory in June of the same year over the main Kg) ptian foico undei Yussuf Pasha. He surpristd and attacked that official at Gelxd Geon, and victory had declared itself decisively in Ins favour. Very few of the Egyptian soldiers escaped, while all their commanders were slain. The Mahdi then armed some of his troops with the weapons captnied on the field : but the mass of \u% followers still pos Resvd only swords and spears. The defeat of \ us«uf was shown to be due to his own carelessness, but none the less it reflected credit on the military capacity of the Mahdi. At this point, attei a course of unchecked success, the Mahdi met with his first reverse. He then attacked El Obeid, and was repulsed with the loss of o'OOO of his warriors in one nsfault alone. Elsewhere the rebels albo f,nled to capture the towns wheic the le.ist fortifications had been erected ; and it seemed as if the fanaticism of the Mahdi's followers would be able to effect veiy little against stone walls or earthworks. During the mouths that witnessed the campaign of Tel el-Kcbir and the occupation of Cairo, there wete turnout*, on the one hand, of the dispersion of the Mahdi's bands, and, on the other, of their threatening Khartoum and the towns on the White Nile with attack. Seveial times little shoitofa panic prevailed, in Khattomn itself, notwithstanding that the. insuigenls had always shown a wholesome fear and respect of the river gunboats. The true state of the case was revealed when the information came that the Mahdi was aqam laying seige to El Obeid, and that the ganison had been reduced to desperate straits. Last winter witnessed the capture of this town, and the larger part of the ganison , with the commandant, Iskander Bey, at their head, went over to, and took service under the Mahdi, Iskander was made use of by his conqueror for the purpose of enticing other Egyptian officials over to In 3 side as the reformer of Islam ; and a cm ions letter written by him to this effect was p iblislied in the Times. Dining the spring of 18S3 strenuous tnilitaiy preparations were made for the effectual suppression of the rebellion, and considerable bodies of troops were sent from Lower Egypt to Khartoum for the purpose of the proposed expedition. No movement could be attempted until after the close of the wet season in September ; and with a view of testing the quality and temper of the new force, many of whom had been At abi's soldiers, a camp wad formed at Urn- Durman, a place on the west side of the Nile, opposite Khartoum. Here, by the end of August, Hicks Pasha had collected an army of 7000 infantry, l'2O cuirassieis, ".300 i{asbi-Bi/ouk cavalry, and about SO guns, lockets, and howitzirs of all sizes. At Dueni he was to have been joined by, at least, another 1000 men, and it is pmbahle that several detached bodies of troops swelled the number of his force to more than 10,000 men. The collection of the necessity num I.1 '. rof camels presented one of the chief difficulties; but this was successfully ovcicome through the personal oxutions of Alia ed Deen, the GovernoiGeneial of the Soudan. A fuithei cause of delay was. the wish to piocnre the co opeiation of Adam the so-called King of Takale, a dutiet south-east of°El Obeid ; but. although his langmge w is (Ktee iinglv coidial, King Adam i<a\e. so fai as we know, no dnect assistance to the expeditini. An Egyptian official tending in lim principal town pent, how tver, vary prudent warning to his superiors to be aware how they proceeded ,'igamet the M.ihdi, .is "ho is veiy cunning. He sleeps during the days, maichui at night and attacks at dawn. Be cautious and beware of surprise." The Obeid disaster invests this excellent advice with a melancholy significance. On Sjpt. 9 evetything was leady for a start, and the camp at Urn Durman wns broken up. On that day Hicks Pu^ha began his match up the Nile, following a loute as near to the western side of the White bianch of that liver as the inundations would allow. The spirits of the men were pronounced excellent, and their ofh'ceis expressed themselves highly satisfied with their morale. No one doubted the result of the expedition,

oi that the da) a of the Malxli's power were alicidy niimhcied. On Sept '20 the force leached Dun in, 110 milt s south of Kliaitoum, mul situatid on tht> \\<s v ba-ik of the Nile. The march hwl been hiudcied hy the flooded state of tin* conntiy, but the men had done then 10 miles a day under an unusually fierce tiopanl sun. Xl Obuxl is distant troin Dncin l>y the dneet way lei-s than l") 0 miles, but consideintions ol water led to tlv* selection of the southern route u Inch mciiiisid the distance to fully 240 miles, mvohing at the same late of pi"giej>sa march ot moie than three \\(e!%i On Sept. '2i an advance party left Duem to occupy the villas at ](i miles on the loid, and the main body um>. to li,n e followed as .soon as n steamer bunging up tlii- last of the storts had at iiv td It U piobnble that thf» ai my had teached tlie nnghboni hood of 1 Obcid before the end of October ; and had even indicted a de feat on a poition of the MahdiV foiees, when it was drawn into a piepaied ambuscade by a tteacherous guide. The Kcyptun soldiers seem to have fotifiht with the most dogged determination, and not the least suspicion is expressed as to cither then fidelity or their valour. During three days they resisted the onsets of the fanatical warriors of the Mahdi, who are to a large extent composed of those armed slaves v horn the Lite General Gordon dcs enbed as lollows* :— " Smart, dapperlooking fellows, like antelopes. fieic\ unsparing, the tetror of Central Africa, having a prestige far be) ond that of the Government." Numlxis, however, pre vailed, and although the Mahdi suffered an immense loss, so signal a success was cheaply put chased, for whatever may have been the number of slain Gha/.is, their places wei-e piomptly filled on the morrow of so decisive a tiiumph. The consequences of so great a disaster were not exhausted i»y even the annihilation of an auny of n oie than 10,000 men. The subsequent hist< ry of the Mahdi will be fie&li in the minds of our iea<'eis.