Siege of Khartoum
Khartoum around 1880
| date | March 12, 1884 to January 26, 1885 |
|---|---|
| place | Khartoum in Sudan |
| output | Victory of the Mahdists |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 7,000 Egyptians | 50,000 mahdists |
| losses | |
|
the entire garrison |
|
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Aba - Jebel Gedir I - Sennar I - Jebel Gedir II - al-Ubayyid I - al-Ubayyid II - Sennar II - Sinkat - Sheikan - First Battle of El Teb - Second Battle of El Teb - Tamanieh - Khartoum - Abu Klea - Gallabat - Toski - Firket - Atbara - Omdurman - Umm Diwaykarat
The siege of Khartoum took place during the Mahdi uprising in Sudan . It lasted from March 12, 1884 to January 26, 1885 and ended with the storming of Khartoum by the Mahdists. They then ruled most of what is now Sudan for almost 15 years.
prehistory
In Sudan, which came under the rule of the Ottoman viceroys ( Khedives ) of Egypt from 1821 ( Turkish-Egyptian Sudan ), the Mahdi uprising began in 1881 . Muhammad Ahmad declared himself a Mahdi and in November 1883 defeated the Egyptian army at the Battle of Sheikan . The colonial forces of Great Britain , which occupied Egypt in 1882, were at that time mainly focused on the conflict with Russia ( Great Game ). Due to the desperate situation of the Egyptian troops in Sudan, the British government under Gladstone ordered Egypt in December 1883 to give up the Sudan provinces. To do this, however, thousands of Egyptian soldiers, civilian employees and their relatives had to be evacuated from Sudan. The British government therefore commissioned Charles George Gordon , who had already been Governor General of the Sudan from 1877 to 1880, to go to Khartoum to organize the evacuation from there.
The siege
Gordon set out for Cairo on January 18, 1884, where he arrived eight days later. There he received further instructions from the Consul General of Egypt, Evelyn Baring , and was appointed Governor General with executive powers. On January 28, Gordon set out for Khartoum, which he reached on February 18, 1884. Before the Mahdists surrounded the city on March 12th and began to besiege it, he was able to evacuate around 2500 women, children, the sick and wounded to Egypt. The military leader of the besiegers was the later successor of Mahdi Abdallahi ibn Muhammad .
Gordon tried by negotiation to save Khartoum from being captured. He allegedly made an offer to Muhammad Ahmad to make him Sultan of Kordofan . But this could not be fobbed off with a title that would have given him power over an area that he already controlled. Gordon made a number of attempts to raise defenders' morale. He issued banknotes with his name on it, announced victory reports on approaching British troops, and rented houses to accommodate them.
The British government did not send relief troops because they wanted to give up the Sudan provinces anyway. On the other hand, she could not sacrifice Gordon, who was celebrated as a national hero at home, and asked him to save himself. Gordon replied, “ I am in honor bound to the people ”. In the summer of 1884 the discussion about the rescue of Gordons expanded to a motion for a vote of no confidence in the government. Gladstone finally gave in and sent an army under Garnet Joseph Wolseley , called the Gordon Relief Expedition . However, this was not ready to march until November 1884. In December the troops reached Korti . The main force ( River Column ), under Major General William Earle, advanced from here by steamers and boats on the Nile . At the same time, the so-called Camel Corps under Sir Herbert Stewart marched straight through the desert.
Several thousand men were then withdrawn from the siege army of Khartoum and united with members of the Jaalin tribe at Metemmeh. This army met the Camel Corps on January 17, 1885 at the Battle of Abu Klea . Stewart was able to beat the numerically far superior 10,000 Mahdists with 1,500 men. Muhammad Ahmad, who in the meantime led the siege of Khartoum himself, decided to break it off, but his generals changed his mind.
In Khartoum the supplies were meanwhile exhausted and the defenders exhausted. Against the background of the threatened relief of the city by British troops, the attack was scheduled for January 26, 1885. On the morning of January 26, 50,000 Mahdists took to the attack. The Ansari had waited for the spring floods of the Nile to recede and then attacked the poorly defended river side of Khartoum in boats. At around 3 a.m. they stormed into town and killed Gordon, presumably in the governor's palace. The Mahdists displayed Gordon's head as a trophy in their camp. On January 27, two steamers belonging to the Gordon Relief Expedition came under gunfire. During a stopover, they learned that Khartoum should have fallen. A day later, on January 28th, the steamers arrived in Khartoum. Under heavy artillery and rifle fire, they came within sight of the governor's palace and found that any help came too late.
In vain, in vain they tried.
His life was England's glory,
his death was England's pride.
The UK public and government mourned their dead folk hero. Memorial masses were held at St Paul's Cathedral and other churches.
The Omdurman Caliphate
The Mahdists soon conquered Kassala and Sannar . In the fall of 1885, one of their armies under Muhammad el-Kheir reached the Egyptian border. On December 30, 1885 there was a battle with Egyptian troops under Sir Frederick Stephenson. The Egyptian army won its first victory without the support of British troops and stopped the advance of the Mahdists. The Mahdiya then began to expand south.
During the siege of Khartoum, the Mahdists had established their headquarters in Omdurman , across from Khartoum on the western bank of the Nile. After the siege was over, they made Omdurman the new capital of Sudan. Muhammad Ahmad died here on June 22, 1885 suddenly and under unknown circumstances. His successor Abdallahi ibn Muhammad succeeded in subjugating the entire area between the provinces of Darfur in the west, Sawakin in the east (excluding the town of Sawakin itself, which was held by a British garrison), Dungula in the north and Bahr al-Ghazal in the south. The Mahdi uprising is considered to be the first successful uprising by an African population group against colonialism . The Omdurman Caliphate existed for 15 years and was destroyed by an Anglo-Egyptian force in 1898.
The siege of Khartoum in the film
- In the film Khartoum (German alternative title: Khartoum - The Uprising on the Nile ), with Charlton Heston as Gordon and Laurence Olivier as Muhammad Ahmad, the events surrounding Gordon Pascha and the fall of Khartoum are described above all. The film was directed by Basil Dearden and Eliot Elisofon in 1966 and was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the 1967 Academy Awards.
literature
- John Marlowe: Mission to Khartoum. The Apotheosis of General Gordon . Victor Gollancz Ltd., London 1969.
- Fergus Nicoll: The Mahdi of Sudan and the Death of General Gordon . The History Press Ltd., ISBN 978-0-7509-3298-1 (2004), ISBN 978-0-7509-3299-8 (2005).
- Michael Asher : Khartoum: The Ultimate Imperial Adventure . Penguin, London 2006, ISBN 978-0-7509-3299-8 .
- Donald Featherstone: Khartoum, 1885: General Gordon's Last Stand (Campaign, vol. 23). Osprey Publishing, 1993, ISBN 978-1-85532-301-8 .
- Daniel Allen Butler: First Jihad: Khartoum, and the Dawn of Militant Islam . Casemate, 2007, ISBN 978-1-932033-54-0 .
- Piers Compton: Last Days of General Gordon . Robert Hale, 1974, ISBN 978-0-7091-4581-3 .