The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan

When Gordon left the Sudan he was succeeded at Khartoum by Raouf Pasha, under whom the old abuses of the Egyptian administration were revived. At this time the high European officials in the Sudan, besides Gessi, included Emin Pasha (q.v.), governor of the Equatorial Province since 1878, and Slatin Pasha (q.v.), governor of Darfur. Gessi found his position under Raouf intolerable, resigned his post in Sept. 188o and was succeeded by Frank Lupton, an Englishman and formerly captain of a Red sea merchant steamer. At this period (188o-82) schemes for the reorganization and better administration of the Sudan were elab orated on paper, but the revolt in Egypt under Arabi (see EGYPT : History) and the appearance of a Mandi intervened.

The Rise and Power of Mandism.

Venality and the extor tion of the tax-gatherer flourished anew after the departure of Gordon, while the feebleness of his successors inspired in the Baggara a contempt for the authority which prohibited them pursuing their most lucrative traffic. When Mohammed Ahmed (q.v.), a Dongolese, proclaimed himself the long-looked-for Mandi (guide) of Islam, he found most of his original followers among the grossly superstitious villagers of Kordofan, to whom he preached universal equality and a community of goods, while denouncing the "Turks"—at that time the Sudanese called all foreigners Turks—as unworthy Muslims on whom God would execute judgment. The Baggara perceived in this Mandi one who could be used to shake off Egyptian rule. The new Mandi married the daughters of their sheikhs and found in Abdullah, a member of the Taaisha section of the tribe, whom he appointed Khalifa (lieutenant), his chief supporter.

The Mandi's capture of El Obeid on Jan. 17, 1883, and the annihilation in the November following of an army of over io,000 men commanded by Hicks Pasha (Col. William Hicks [q.v.] formerly of the Bombay army) made the Mandi undisputed mas ter of Kordofan and Sennar. The next month, Dec. 1883, saw the surrender of Slatin in Darfur, whilst in Feb. 1884 Osman Digna, his amir in the Red sea regions, inflicted a crushing defeat on some 4,000 Egyptians at El Teb near Suakin. In April following Lupton Bey, governor of Bahr-el-Ghazal, was sent captive to Omdurman, where he died on May 8, 1888.

Gordon at Khartoum.

On learning of the disaster to Hicks Pasha's army, the British Government (Great Britain having been since 1882 in military occupation of Egypt) insisted that the Egyp tian Government should evacuate such parts of the Sudan as they still held, and Gen. Gordon was despatched, with Lt.-col. Donald

H. Stewart, to Khartoum to arrange the withdrawal of the Egyp tian civil and military population. Gordon's instructions, based largely on his own suggestions, were not wholly consistent ; they contemplated vaguely the establishment of some form of stable government on the surrender of Egyptian authority, and among the documents with which he was furnished was a firman creating him governor-general of the Sudan. Gordon reached Khartoum on Feb. 18, 1884, and at first his mission, which had aroused great enthusiasm in England, promised success. To smooth the way for the retreat of the Egyptian garrisons and civilians he issued proclamations announcing that the suppression of the slave trade was abandoned, that the Mandi was sultan of Kordofan, and that the Sudan was independent of Egypt. He enabled some thousands of refugees to make their escape to Aswan and collected at Khartoum troops from some of the out lying stations. By this time the situation had altered for the worse and Mandism was gaining strength among tribes in the Nile valley at first hostile to its propaganda. Gordon telegraphed to Cairo asking that Zobeir Pasha might be sent to him, his inten tion being to hand to Zobeir the government. Zobeir (q.v.), a Sudanese Arab, was probably the one man who could have with stood successfully the Mandi. Owing to Zobeir's notoriety as a slave-raider Gordon's request was refused. All hope of a peaceful retreat of the Egyptians was thus rendered impossible.

The Mandist movement now swept northward and on May 20, Berber was captured by the dervishes and Khartoum isolated. From this time the energies of Gordon were devoted to the de fence of that town. After delay, an expedition was sent up the Nile under the command of Lord Wolseley. It started too late to achieve its object, and on Jan. 25, 1885, Khartoum was captured by the Mandi and Gordon killed. Col. Stewart, Frank Power (British consul at Khartoum) and M. Herbin (French consul), who (accompanied by 19 Greeks) had been sent down the Nile by Gordon in the previous September to give news to the relief force, had been decoyed ashore and murdered (Sept. 18, 1884). The fall of Khartoum was followed by the withdrawal of the Brit ish expedition, Dongola being evacuated in June 1885. In the same month Kassala capitulated, but just as the Mandi had prac tically completed the destruction of the Egyptian power he died.