The World Turned Upside Down by George Kearton

Author:George Kearton
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: RO:SF
Publisher: Sea Lion Press
Published: 2018-05-20T22:00:00+00:00

Ten months after the defeat at Beni Suef, Muhammad Ahmad died, probably of typhus. He was buried in Omdurman, near to Khartoum. The Mahdi had long planned for this inevitability and chose three deputies to replace him, in imitation of the Prophet Muhammad. This led to a long period of disarray due to rivalry among the three, each of whom was supported by people of his native region. This continued until 1890, when Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, with the help primarily of the Baqqara Arabs, emerged as unchallenged leader. Abdallahi, referred to as the Khalifa, purged the Sudan of members of the Mahdi's family and many of his early religious disciples.

The Khalifa was committed to the Mahdi's vision of extending Mahdist rule through Jihad, which led to strained relations with practically every neighbouring nation in Africa. For example, he rejected the offer of an alliance against the Europeans made by Ethiopia's Emperor, Yohannes IV, because the majority of the Ethiopians were not Muslim – which made them unbelievers in the eyes of the Khalifa. Instead, in 1892, a 60,000-man Ansar army invaded Ethiopia, penetrated as far as Gondar, and captured prisoners and booty. The Khalifa continued to refuse to conclude hostilities or negotiate peace with Ethiopia unless every Ethiopian converted to Islam.

The strife which occurred between Ethiopia and the Sudan left neither able to withstand European pressure from the south as the newly-formed colony of British East Africa continued its relentless advance beyond the Horn of Africa.

The Mahdist attack on Suez was the only serious military attempt to disrupt the building of either canal; with much of the construction work complete by 1885 in both Egypt and Panama, only two tasks remained. The first was to be the official opening of each canal and the second, of much greater importance to the Directors of the INC, was to turn the Grand Project into grand profits.

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