#mahdists

[omniatlas]

NEW MAP: Sub-Saharan Africa 1898: Battle of Atbara (8 April 1898) https://buff.ly/2NKDoCM In late 1897 the Anglo-Egyptian army under Herbert Kitchener began preparing for a final push south to recapture Khartoum and destroy Mahdist power in the Sudan. As he gathered his forces, the Mahdists attempted to oppose him, but were completely routed in the 45-minute Battle of Atbara in April 1898. Defeated, the Mahdists withdrew to Omdurman. #1890s #1898 #19thcentury #africa #africanhistory #cartographic #cartography #egypt #eritrea #geopolitics #historian #historyfacts #historygram #historylovers #kitchener #mahdists #mapmaking #maps #militaryhistory #natal #oldmaps #southafrica #subsaharanafrica #sudan #britishempire #victorian #victorianera #colonialism #worldhistory #newmap (at Atbara) https://www.instagram.com/p/CCDh6xaA6DY/?igshid=jwlv6s0qd981

[georgy-konstantinovich-zhukov]

The dead at Umm Diwaykarat on November 25th, 1899, including the body of Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, the Mahidi's successor known as the Khalifa. Having retreated from Omdurman, the Khalifa and his 10,000 remaining followers chose to make a stand against the pursuing detachment of 8,000 mostly Sudanese and Egyptians under the command of General Wingate. Armed with a machine gun, the withering fire brutally cut down the Mahdists, and by the end of the fight, over 1,000 lay dead, with the Anglo-Egyptian Army losing only 3. Most of the senior leadership was killed, and only Osman Digna of the Hadendowah managed to escape capture.

The Mahdist uprising was essentially ended, although Digna and his small number of followers wouldn't be captured for another year, and small pockets of the southern Sudan remained outside Egyptian control until as late as the 1910s.

[georgy-konstantinovich-zhukov]

Dervish Warriors of the Mahdist War

Mounted Taaishi warrior of the Baggara tribe

He wears the jibbah with patches and carries a sharp double-edged sword in a leaf-shaped scabbard, also spears. E. N. Bennet, the war correspondent of the Westminster Gazette, noted that 'The cross handled Dervish sword is terribly heavy and the long straight blades ... freshly ground ... The large Dervish spear, too, when properly handled, is a most formidable weapon, and if a thrust is driven well home into the body, the wound from the broad iron head is so wide and deep that a man has little chance of recovery.'

Hadendowah warrior

One of the fiercest tribes in Africa according to some, whose hair spawned the name of 'fuzzy wuzzy'. They wore cotton trousers patched like the jibbah and carried the sharp double-bladed sword and hide shield. One of their habits was to attack the enemy's hands first, hacking them off. In battle they would also lie still, feigning dead, and then hamstring horses or hack at the hands of British or Egyptian troops.

(Michael Roffe)

[georgy-konstantinovich-zhukov]

The Mahdist dead at Omdurman, painted by HC Seppings Wright

Although Omdurman, Sept. 2nd 1898, was only the penultimate battle of the Mahdist War, it was the most important victory of the reconquest of the Sudan. The Anglo-Egyptian column met a force of nearly 60,000 dervishes, and inflicted nearly 50 percent casualties. The Khalifa managed to escape the battlefield, only to be killed the next year at Umm Diwaykarat, but his second in command, Yakub, died in the slaughter, and is pictured here grasping the black flag of the Mahdists.

(National Army Museum)

[georgy-konstantinovich-zhukov]

Two dervish warriors mounted on camels.

(Navy and Army Illustrated)

[georgy-konstantinovich-zhukov]

A locally raised battalion of Sudanese, serving in the Anglo-Egyptian Army during the 1890s campaign, cluster around 'Mohamed', a captured Mahdist.

[georgy-konstantinovich-zhukov]

The British repel the Mahdists who briefly penetrated the square at Abu Klea.

(National Army Museum)

[georgy-konstantinovich-zhukov]

Mahdist Forces

Hadendowah Warrior

The Hadendowah were best known for their hairstyles, giving them the nickname "Fuzzy Wuzzy", and their desecration of the dead following battles. Exceptionally fierce warriors, they made up much of the core force in the Mahdist armies.

Jaida Warrior

Black Jiadia rifleman armed with a Remington captured from the massacred Hicks column. The Dervishes understood little about rifles, and according to E. N. Bennet knocked the sights off and cut down the barrels to suit themselves, with dire consequences to accuracy. The opening volley at Omdurman was recorded by many war correspondents as being a simple waste of am- munition on the part of the enemy.

Dervish Infantry

The dress of the Dervishes varied according to the tribe and the area from which they came, but all wore the basic jibbah, a loose short blouse in white cotton (some with blue stripes) patched with squares of black, red, blue and yellow cloth in imitation of the Mahdi, who wore this garb to emphasize poverty. The word 'Dervish', from the Persian 'darvesh', was an all-embracing word meaning poor. The original jibbahs were white,  with the colored cloth patches applied to mend wear and tear, but later these patches were used as symbolic badges of the Ansars (helpers) of the Mahdi.

(Michael Roffe)