Mahdist War

1956

• Sudan wins independence from Britain

2003

• Conflict in Darfur begins

Generalizations, Predictions, and Conclusion

General Gordon and the Siege of Khartoum

The Mahdist state

• Britain controls more of Egypt
• Concentrates armies in Sudan
• Egyptian army dissembled, Mahdi trained soldiers
• They decide to evacuate all troops
• General Gordon sent back in to Sudan
• Defends the city of Khartoum
• Relief force comes too late

• Caused by: colonization, religion, imperialism
• When a country is colonized by a stronger country, people unite together and oppose
• Example: World War II when Japan occupied southeast Asia and they revolted
• Current: Israelis taken charge over the Palestinians and put them in West Bank
• Predict a unsuccessful revolt
• Age of Conflict
• Causes of genocide

• Muhammad Ahmad declares himself the Mahdi
• Goal is to cleanse society of corruption
• Declares jihad against egyptian government
• Mahdi and followers work their way up the Nile
• Conflicts with British/Egyptian military on the way
• Captures major cities like El-Obeid

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:General_Gordon%27s_Last_Stand.jpg 3/26/13

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Muhammad_Ahmad 3/26/13

International needs/wants

• Egypt: lower their national dept
• British: Suez Canal, land, no slave trade
• Mahdist State: united Islamic state, slave trade
• French: Suez Canal

'Egypt suffers from the dishonesty, ignorance, waste and extravagance of the East, such as have brought her suzerain to the brink of ruin, and at the same time from the vast expense caused by hasty and inconsiderate endeavors to adopt the civilization of the West.'

-Stephen Cave, MP, 1876

http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/map/egypt_map.htm 3/30/13

Khalifa's rule and alliances

• Khalifa takes over rule and is brutal
• Britain helps build up Egypt
• Continued Mahdi's jihad against Egypt, European allies of Egypt, and Ethiopia.
• Believed jihad would create loyalty (Nationalism)
• War vs. Ethiopia (Italian's move in, then into Mahdist 1894)
• Invade Egypt (1889)
• Underestimated Egypt forces + Drought/Famine = Badly Defeated
• Brings focus back to the state

Mahdist War

Group H: Abby Purvis, Logan Dziuk, Isaac Lau, Tim Kralj

Background

• Egypt with Ottomans in Sudan
• Sudanese were highly taxed
• Turks enslaved men and strictly controlled trade
• Bashi Bazooks
• British step in to ensure parts of Suez canal
• General Gordon as Governor
• Social unrest

The Mahdist War was caused by nationalism, imperialism, but most prominently religion.

The Mahdi people wanted to be a united

Islamic nation. However they faced the

reality that their region was divided and many European powers stood in their way.

"Abdallahi ibn Muhammad." World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 7 Mar. 2013. Web. 7 Mar. 2013. <http://worldhistory.abc-clio.com/search/Display/316713?terms=mahdist>. This source was a perfect fit my key word "Khalifa." Its information is confirmed in other sources and the publisher specializes in History, Government and Geography. However some skepticism must be exercised because there is no know author and the date last revised is updated daily.

Ayers, Roger. "Fuzzy Wuzzy." The New Readers Guide to the Works of Rudyard Kipling. N.p., 18 May 2006. Web. 17 Mar. 2013. <http://www.kipling.org.uk/rg_fuzzywuzzy1.htm>. Web Wizard included.

"Battle of Omdurman." World History: The Modern Era. ABC Clio, 2013. Web. 8 Mar. 2013. <http://worldhistory.abc-clio.com>. This source is an original article by the people of the World History database. It is a report on the Battle of Omdurman, being a report it does not present an argument so much as a factual recount of the battle. The facts within are verified with other sources on the battle of Omdurman such as the casualty statistics and location.

"Darfur." World Conflicts Today. History Study Center, n.d. Web. 8 Mar. 2013. <http://www.historystudycenter.com/search/displayReferenceItemById.do?fromPage=toc&QueryName=reference&ItemID=wct00005>. I chose this source to give me an idea of how the Mahdist war affected the genocide in Darfur and what Sudan is like today. It turned out that not only did it have copious amounts of information on Darfur, but also some good info on why the Ottomans and the British were in Africa in the first place.

"A Distasteful Legacy: British Colonialism and the Sudanese Crises." History's Shadow. Wordpress, 19 Dec. 2012. Web. 1 Mar. 2013. <http://historysshadow.wordpress.com/tag/mahdist-war/>. This article speaks to the British involvement in the Mahdist war and how their actions affect modern Sudan, for example, the current crisis between North and South Sudan. The article is not biased but does encourage debate among readers and as such has an element of ambiguity and space for interpretation. This is not to say that the article leans a particular direction because the article does a good job of building a strong argument and steering clear of extreme language and emotion.

Esposito, John L. "Mahdiyah." The Islamic World: Past and Present 1 Dec. 2004: n. pag. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 28 Feb. 2013. <http://sks.sirs.com>. This article is about the Mahdi movement in the Sudan during the late 1800s. The article is an excerpt form a book by John L. Esposito,the article itself is mostly free of bias although the overall tone seems to support the Mahdi movement. The book's purpose is to "foster understanding and answer questions" about Islam.

Hurst, Ryan. "Mahdist Revolution." Black Past. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2013. <http://www.blackpast.org/?q=gah/mahdist-revolution-1881-1898>. Web Wizard included.

Jeppie, Shamil. "Mahdist State, Mahdiyya." Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World. Ed. Richard C. Martin. Vol. 2. New York: Gale, n.d. 422-24. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 28 Feb. 2013. <http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.kcls.org/>. This source was my overview of the Mahdist war. Honestly, I took these notes after I took notes on some more narrower topics, so this was helpful in filling in the holes. It also helped me answer the essential question of what the self interests of the Mahdi's were and what prevented them from getting those.

Lesch, Ann M. "Mahdist State." Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa. Ed. Philip Mattar. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004. 1463-64. Print. This source is a well crafted and excellent place to find information on my topic. It is the perfect overview and provided me with many new key words to continue my research. The fact that it comes from an encyclopedia and is published by a well known publishing company makes it a very reliable source. The author studied international relations of the Middle East as well as the Politics of Arab States so she is also a very reliable.

Liscombe, Stephen. "Sudan." British Empire. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2013. <http://www.britishempire.co.uk/maproom/sudan.htm>.

Mahdia in Sudan. 2013. Photograph. Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection. Brown U Lib. This photograph depicts Mahdi soldiers in Sudan. It is housed in the Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection at Brown University. The Mahdis' poses in the photo don not communicate any sort of triumph or defeat for that matter.

"Mahdia in Sudan." World Histrory: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2013. Web. 28 Feb. 2013. <http://worldhistory.abc-clio.com/>. The purpose of this article was to inform about the causes of the Mahdist War and the effects of the war. It has information about the leaders and armies of the war. The author was well reaserched in the making of this article since it has solid information about he war. Other sites match the information that this site has. This gave me a good starting point to my reaserch and some in-depth on the armies. It changed my guiding questions towards the armies and battles of the war.

"Mahdist Wars (A.K.A. Sudan Campaign)." Heritage History. N.p., 2012. Web. 19 Mar. 2013. <http://www.heritage-history.com/www/heritage.php?Dir=wars&FileName=wars_soudan.php>.

Mirak-Weissbach, Muriel. "Why the British Hate Sudan: The Mahdia's War Against London." Executive Intelligence Review 9 June 1995: n. pag. The American Almanac. Web. 17 Mar. 2013. <http://american_almanac.tripod.com/mahdia.htm>. When I chose this article, I was looking for the British perspective of events and this account provides that. I can tell that some parts are a little biased to the British side, namely the title, but it gave me a idea of how the war affected the British even to this day. It also had a lot of detail on the British commanding officers and their invasions.

"Muhammad Ahmad al-Mahdi." ABC-CLIO Interactive. N.p.: n.p., 2001. N. pag. eLibrary. Web. 28 Mar. 2013. <http://www.elibrary.com/>. I found this source pretty late in the project, but I was glad I did because it filled in some gaps I had in my knowledge. At some point Irealized I didn't know that much at all about the Mahdi's followers and how he was able to lead a whole country in to rebellion by himself. I also didn't have much information on the period after the Siege of Khartoum and this source helped with that.

Proyect, Louis. "Background to the Mahdist Revolt." World-Systems Archives. N.p., 23 Oct. 2001. Web. 30 Mar. 2013. <http://wsarch.ucr.edu/wsnmail/2001/msg01608.html>.

"Sudan." Comptons by Britanica. SIRS Discoverer, 1 Aug. 2011. Web. 27 Mar. 2013. <http://discoverer.prod.sirs.com/discoweb/disco/do/article?urn=urn%3Asirs%3AUS%3BARTICLE%3BART%3B0000325454>. This article was basically about the climate and culture of Sudan today, but I chose it to take notes on because it helped me answer one of my guiding questions. I wanted to know what direct affect the Mahdist war had on the culture of Sudan today, not just the genocide in Darfur, and this article helped me with that.

"Sudan." Islamic World: Past and Present 1 Dec. 2004: n. pag. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 28 Feb. 2013. <http://sks.sirs.com/>. This article is about the Mahdist State and the time of the Ottoman control. The work is informative and tries to explain what the different governments did. The work seems well researched and detailed. There was no bias to be seen in the article. This changed my guiding questions because it let me start looking into other things besides just how the Mahdist state happened. It was a good source to learn about who controlled the area of Sudan before the Mahdi.

"Sudan (New South Wales Contingent) May-June 1885." Australian War Memorial. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2013. <http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/sudan.asp>.

Works Cited

1873

1884

1898

• British arrive in Ottoman occupied Egypt

• Mahdi conquers more land
• Battle of Khartoum

• Britain reasserts claim on the Sudan
• Battle of Omdurman
• Khalifa flees

http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/7-5-9/55061.html 3/28/13

http://www.thisisartlincs.org.uk/upload/public/docimages/Normal/h/j/o/BattleofOmdurman.jpg 3-26-13

1881

1899

• 1885

• Horatio Kitchner leads campaign south from Egypt.
• Reach Omdurman in late August of 1898
• Took place at Kerreri 11 Km north
• Had 25,000 men vs Mahdi 52,000
• Mahdi army consisted of "ansars" servants of Allah called dervishes by British
• Anglo-Egyptian are much better equipped
• Mahdist had 11,000 dead and 16,000 wounded vs British 48 dead and 382 wounded

• Muhammad Ahmad declares himself Mahdi
• Mahdi declares jihad against Egypt.

• Nov. 24 British kill Khalifa (Umma Diwaykarat)
• Britain sets up Anglo-Egyptian Administration

• Mahdi dies, Khalifa takes over
• British troops move out

• End of Mahdist war, Britian and Egypt in charge
• They divide up Sudan, North and South
• Conflict between religion and government position
• Ethnic and tribal differences
• South Sudan is Christian, North is Muslim
• Janjaweed burning villages
• 480,000 dead, 2.8 million displaced

Battle of Omdurman

Darfur

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fd/The_Mahdist_State,_1881-98,_modern_Sudan.png/250px-The_Mahdist_State,_1881-98,_modern_Sudan.png 3/22/13

1881

http://unimaps.com/africa1914/mainmap.gif 3/22/13

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/africa/africa_6_97.jpg 3/22/13

1914

1997