Battle of Toski
Contemporary depiction of the Battle of Toski from the British magazine The Graphic
| date | August 3, 1889 |
|---|---|
| place | Toski in Egypt |
| output | British-Egyptian victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 8,000 warriors and retinues | |
| losses | |
|
25 dead and 140 wounded |
5,000 women and children captured, worst casualties among warriors (no figures available) |
.svg){kind=small}
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 Battle of Toski took place on August 3, 1889 between an Anglo-Egyptian army and supporters of Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad , as part of the Mahdi uprising in Sudan , in Egypt .
prehistory
In Sudan, which had come under the rule of the Ottoman viceroys of Egypt from 1821, the Mahdi uprising broke out in 1881. The British had taken control of Egypt since 1882 and were thereby drawn into the Mahdi uprising. The Egyptian army had been crushed during the occupation of Egypt . Since Muhammad Ahmad planned to carry his rebellion to Egypt as well, the Egyptian armed forces were reorganized by the British. General Evelyn Wood , after him Francis Grenfell , was appointed Sirdar (Commander in Chief) and British officers trained the newly formed units. The successor of the Mahdi Caliph Abdallahi ibn Muhammad had not given up his plan to march into Egypt, even after his death.
course
In 1889 Abdallahi ibn Muhammad sent the upper emir ( Amīr al-Umarā ) Wad al-Najumi with an army of 6,000 men from Dongola across the border into Egypt to achieve this goal. The Mahdists marched with 15,000 warriors, women and children over Seres and bypassed Wadi Halfa , where most of the Anglo-Egyptian army was stationed. Near the village of Argin they were attacked and defeated by opposing units under Colonel Josceline Wodehouse Pascha. The Mahdists lost about 900 men and another 500 through captivity, including several emirs. The Anglo-Egyptian army had only 11 dead and 59 injured.
Wad al-Najumi marched on, although his fighters suffered from lack of food and deserted. General Grenfell asked him to give up, which Wad al-Najumi refused.
Grenfell pitched camp south of Korosko near Toski (20 kilometers north of Abu Simbel ) on the Nile , about 76 kilometers beyond the Egyptian border. Wad al-Najumi was marching northwest, seeming to want to avoid a fight. His goal was the place Bimban , whose inhabitants wanted to side with the Mahdists. Grenfell decided to force a fight and had Wodehouse put the artillery and infantry in march. Colonel Kitchener , who later conquered the Mahdists, was to sit down in front of Wad al-Najumi and cut him off. When Wad al-Najumi found that the path was blocked, he ordered his warriors to hide in a nearby rock formation. The fight was short-lived. Grenfell flanked Wad al-Najumi's position, forcing them to retreat onto a second rock formation, causing him to lose many men. By noon, when Grenfell gave the order to launch the major attack, the Mahdists were already on the run. Wad al-Najumi's camp behind the ridge was captured, and 5,000 women and children, including Negumi's young son, were taken prisoner. Grenfell's troops suffered 25 dead and 140 wounded. The Mahdist forces had ceased to exist, and Wad al-Najumi and all his emirs had been killed.
consequences
The Battle of Toski ended the Mahdist threat to Egypt. The morale of the Egyptian troops was strengthened. Toski was the first victory of the newly formed Egyptian army, because in contrast to the battles of the Gordon Relief Expedition , Toski only used one squadron of the 20th Hussars in addition to the officers, among British forces . The fighting strength of the Mahdists had fallen short of expectations.
The Mahdist empire lasted until 1899. Then Sudan was retaken from the British with Kitchener's campaign.
literature
- Sir George Arthur: Life of Lord Kitchener. Volume 1. Macmillan, London 1920.
- Heinrich Pleticha (ed.): The Mahdi uprising in eyewitness reports . Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1981, ISBN 3-423-02710-X , ( dtv - dtv-Augenzeugenberichte 2710).
Web links
- The British in the Sudan (english)