Wad al-Najumi

Abd al-Rahmān wad al-Najūmī (died on August 3, 1889 at Tuschki (near Abu Simbel )) was a Mahdist general in the rank of chief emir ( Amīr al-Umarā ). He belonged to the Awlād al-balad faction and led a Red Flag army .

Life

Wad al-Najūmī belonged to the Ja'ali tribe . He was one of the first followers of Muhammad Ahmad , who declared himself Mahdi in 1881 and called for an uprising against Egyptian rule ( Mahdi uprising ). Wad al-Najūmī distinguished himself as a military leader: He took part in the conquest of Kordofans in 1882 and on November 5, 1883, at the Battle of Sheican, destroyed the Egyptian expeditionary force led by William Hicks . During the siege of Khartoum he took part as the commander of a section of the siege ring and led the attack on the Masallamiya Gate during the storming on January 26, 1885.

Internal power struggles erupted after the death of Muhammad Ahmad. Wad al-Najūmī belonged to the faction of the Awlād al-balad (see Ansar (Mahdi uprising) #Factions ) and was therefore distrusted and monitored by the successor Abdallahi ibn Muhammad . However, he did not take an active part in the power struggles. Wad al-Najūmī was commissioned by Abdallahi ibn Muhammad to prepare an expeditionary force in Berber for the invasion of Egypt. In October / November 1886, Wad al-Najūmī's expeditionary force was relocated to Dongola , where, with the exception of minor border skirmishes, they remained inactive for a few years and had to fight supply problems and desertions. Despite the poor condition, Abdallahi finally ordered the invasion of Egypt. Wad al-Najumi left Dongola with his expeditionary force for the north in May 1889. In order to avoid the enemy gunboats on the Nile and in the hope of being able to supply himself in the villages, Wad al-Najumi moved through the desert. This decision turned out to be fatal. Many Ansar died on the march or deserted. Wad al-Najumi turned down a surrender from Francis Grenfell and continued the invasion. In the Battle of Toski on August 3, 1889, the expeditionary force was destroyed and Wad al-Najūmī was killed.

literature

• Richard Hill : Abd al-Rahmān wad al-Najūmī . In: A Biographical Dictionary of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1951, p. 17.
• PM Holt: The Mahdist State in the Sudan 1881-1898: A study of its origins, development and overthrow . Oxford University Press, 1958.