Abdallahi ibn Muhammad

Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, 1846-1899

Depiction of the caliph during the attack on Kassala from Rudolf Slatin's Fire and Sword in the Sudan

Abdallahi's empire in 1891 within its current borders

The body of Abdallahi ibn Muhammad at Umm Diwaykarat

Caliph Abdallahi ibn Sayyid Muhammad ( Arabic عبدالله بن سيد محمد خليفة ʿAbdullāhi bin Sayyid Muhammad Chalīfa , DMG ʿAbdullāhi b. Sayyid Muḥammad Ḫalīfa ; * 1846 in Darfur ; † November 24, 1899 at Umm Diwaykarat) led the Omdurman caliphate from 1885 to 1899and was the successor of Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad in Sudan .

Life

Spread of Mahdism

Abdullahi ibn Sayyid Muhammad was the son of a fortune teller from a tribe of cattle-raising Arabs , the Taascha-Baggara , from Darfur. In eastern Sudan, which came under the rule of the Ottoman viceroys ( Khedives ) of Egypt from 1821 , the Mahdi uprising broke out in the 1880s . Abdallahi joined the movement as early as 1880 and became Muhammad Ahmad's closest confidante in 1881 . Muhammad Ahmad, who had been preaching as a sheikh until then , was inspired by Abdallahi to declare himself the expected Mahdi . In 1883, Abdallahi defeated the Egyptian army under William Hicks at the Battle of Sheican . Abdallahi commanded the Mahdi's army during the siege of Khartoum .

Caliphate of Omdurman

After the Mahdi's death in 1885, a phase followed in which the three successors he had appointed (Chulafā or caliphs ) fought for power:

• Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, as the Mahdi's closest confidante, relied on his tribe, the Taascha-Baggara.
• Mohammed al-Sharif, the Mahdi's son-in-law, supported the Aschraf , the Mahdi's relatives.
• Ali Wad Helu was a representative of the pious followers of the Mahdi who had joined his movement for the sake of his teaching. He did not have his own armed forces.

The Aschraf won Mohammed Khalid, the governor in Darfur, for themselves. This moved with his army against Omdurman. Abdallahi sent his own force against him and was able to take Mohammed Khalid prisoner. Abdallahi gave up Khartoum, where the Ashraf had their stronghold, and installed followers as governors of the provinces. In 1889 the Aschraf uprising almost broke out . But this could be prevented through the mediation of Ali Wad Helus, who had always sought a balance between the caliphs. The phase of power struggles ended in March 1892 when Abdallahi ibn Muhammad had Mohammed al-Sharif arrested and seized power as the sole caliph.

He succeeded in subjugating the entire area between the provinces of Darfur in the west, Sawakin in the east (excluding the city of Sawakin itself), Dunqula in the north and Bahr al-Ghazal in the south. The Kalíf mercilessly eliminated potential rivals for power and exterminated entire tribes. The former home Abdallahis from 1887 adjacent to the tomb of the Mahdi in Omdurman . It was set up as a museum and is now one of the few attractions in the city.

After the capture of Mohammed Khalid, his ally Fur-Sultan Yusuf Ibrahim sought independence. Abdullahi sent Osman Adam, the governor of Kordofan, and he defeated the insurgents in two battles. Yusuf Ibrahim withdrew to the Marra Mountains and was killed there. His brother Abu Kairat then called himself Sultan of Darfur. Ahmed Abu Jummaisa , who had declared himself the new Mahdi in the fight against the progressive "secularization" of the Mahdists, allied himself with this . Abdullahi again sent an army under Osman Adam. On February 22nd, 1889 there was a battle near El Fascher . Ahmed Abu Jummaisa, who was dying with smallpox , could no longer inspire his followers. The uprising was put down.

The caliph kept a river flotilla of steamboats , a factory system for weapons production, and a telegraph system in Sudan . The economic decline as a result of the Mahdi uprising could not be stopped.

Until his escape in 1895, the former governor of the Darfur province, the Austrian adventurer Slatin-Pascha, lived as a slave at his court. During this time, the German researcher Emin Pascha asserted himself as governor of the southernmost province of Sudan's Equatoria . Several spectacular expeditions (among others by Henry Morton Stanley ) were started to rescue Emin Pasha .

Abdullahi rejected the offer of an alliance made by the Ethiopian Emperor Yohannes IV against the Europeans and in 1887 even sent an army of 60,000 men to Ethiopia. In return, the Ethiopians attacked Sudan in 1889. In the battle of Metemma on March 9, 1889, in which the Ethiopian emperor fell, they were defeated. Nevertheless, the British feared a coalition between France , Ethiopia and the Mahdists. This was ultimately one of the reasons for the British breaking up the Mahdi Empire.

Defeat and death

In 1896 a British-Egyptian expeditionary force under Horatio Herbert Kitchener was set on the march to retake Sudan. In early December 1897, the Caliph decided to attack Kitchener's advancing army. Disputes over the occupation of the supreme command meant that not all Mahdist forces were deployed as planned, but only Mahmoud Ahmad's increased contingent. On April 8th, the battle of Atbara broke out between the two armies . Mahmoud Ahmad was beaten in battle and taken prisoner.

On September 2, 1898, the decisive battle of Omdurman took place. In this Abdallahi ibn Muhammad was defeated. After the battle, he fled south. There he controlled the area from Darfur to the border with Ethiopia until 1899. In October 1899, Kitchener dispatched 8,000 soldiers under Francis Reginald Wingate to finally destroy Abdallahi ibn Muhammad. He was killed in the battle of Umm Diwaykarat in Kurdufan Province .

literature

• AB Theobald: The Khalifa 'Abdallahi . In: Sudan Notes and Records, Vol. 31, No. 2 (DECEMBER 1950), pp. 254-273, JSTOR 41716628 .
• JA Reid: Some Notes on The Khalifa Abdullahi from contemporary Sudanese Sources . In: Sudan Notes and Records, Vol. 21, No. 1 (1938), pp. 207-211, JSTOR 41716288
• Deutscher Hausschatz, 26th year 1899/1900, No. 12, p. 223 (short message with portrait as wood engraving)
• Arthur Hodges: Kitchener . Vanguard, Berlin 1937
• Donald Feathertone: Omdurman 1898. Kitchener's victory in the Sudan . Osprey, London 1993, ISBN 1-85532-368-0
• David Levering Lewis: Khalifa, Khedive, and Kitchener in The Race for Fashoda . Weidenfield and Nicholson, New York 1987
• Slatin Pasha : Fire and Sword in Sudan , 9th edition 1899
• Jamal Mahjoub: The Hour of Signs . Frankfurt 2008, ISBN 978-3-7632-5965-6 (title of the English original: In the Hour of Signs )
• Heinrich Pleticha : The Mahdi uprising in eyewitness reports . Düsseldorf 1981

predecessor	Office	successor
Muhammad Ahmad	Caliph of Omdurman 1885–1898	-