Hamdan abu Anja

Hamdan abu Anja also Hamdān abū Anja (born around 1835; died in January 1889 in Gallabat ) was a Mahdist general in the rank of chief emir ( Amīr al-Umarā ).

Life

Abū Anja belonged to the Baggara tribe of the Ta'isha and was part of a community of escaped serfs ( mandala ). He was initially in the service of Rabih az-Zubayr , where he gained experience in warfare with modern firearms . He was an early follower of Muhammad Ahmad in the Mahdi uprising . In 1883 he was appointed commander of the riflemen ( jihadiyya ). In the battle of Sheican he wore down the Egyptian expeditionary force before it was destroyed on November 5th. In the course of the siege of Khartoum he captured the fort of Omdurman . Then he suppressed the resistance in the Nuba Mountains . In the succession struggles after the death of Muhammad Ahmad, he sided with Abdallahi ibn Muhammad and defeated the army of Muhammad al-Sharīf near Bara (in the north of Kordofans ) . In 1887 Abū Anja was posted to the border region to the Abyssinian Empire . In January 1888 he captured Gallabat and sacked Gonder . An expedition to the Balesa region (east of Lake Tana ) in June 1888 was unsuccessful. Abū Anja fell ill and died in January 1889.

literature

• Richard Hill : Hamdān abū Anja . In: A Biographical Dictionary of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1951, pp. 147-148.