Mahdi backgrounder

I won't indulge in the the obvious parallels to present day history in the making (but it sure is tempting). The Mahdists were led by Muhammad Ahmed, a Sudanese Muslim religious leader. He believed he was the "Mahdi", or leader. More specifically a redeermer of sorts charged with leading his followers in establishing a supreme Islamic state. Anyway, he was some cheesed at the colonization going on in North Africa and raised an army of equally pissed followers and started to make things very uncomfortable for the interlopers. A Jihad was declared and little by little, the Turks, French and finally the British felt the sting of fighting in a foreign land far from familiar surroundings.

In fact, he was victorious at the seige of Khartoum, where the British, led by General Charles Gordon, was left to perish by an apparent indifferent British government. The Mahdis held sway for a number of years in the Sudan after this embarassing loss and when Muhammad Ahmed died, his succesor, the Kalifha took over. The British were not going to sit around and have their arses kicked and their noses rubbed in it again.

This time the differences in modern and ancient warfare became obvious. Cannon and rifles easily ripped through the Mahdist ranks. On the British side there were about 10,000, with a further 17,000 or so regular Sudanese and Egyptian soldiers. The Mahdis numbered over 50,000. Shortly before 8am on September, 1898, the battle started.