Khartoum in the 1880's: the Revolt of Muhammad Ahmad and the murder of General Charles Gordon

by Michael Streich

In the early 1880s, a Muslim uprising began in the Sudan, threatening Egypt and British colonial interests. The leader of the revolt was Muhammad Ahmad who called himself the “Mahdi” or expected one. His object was to restore Muslim practices and eradicate foreign influences. Through awe and fear, the Mahdi managed to gather thousands of loyal followers. Ultimately, Great Britain was obliged to address the situation, and did so by sending a national hero to Khartoum, General Charles Gordon, known as “Chinese” Gordon for his leadership in suppressing the Taiping Uprising in China some years earlier.

 

Early Attempts to Restore Peace

 

The liberal government of Prime Minister William Gladstone was discussing down-sizing imperial military commitments and rejected any initial appeals to significantly take on the Sudanese uprising. Sudan was a province of Egypt, which was, ostensibly, part of the Ottoman Empire but “advised” by the British through their proconsul, Lord Cromer.

 

The Egyptian khedive hired a British colonel and tasked him with leading an army into the Sudan to destroy the Mahdi. Given the rank of general in the Egyptian army, William Hicks led a force of 10,000 men (some estimates are lower) into the one million square miles of desert. Ambushed, Hicks and his entire command were annihilated virtually to the last man. Although subsequent forays led by Valentine Baker and Lt. General Gerald Graham were slightly more successful, public outcry in Britain forced the government to react.

 

Chinese Gordon is sent to Evacuate Khartoum

 

Charles Gordon was seen as a “Christian soldier,” who, as previous Governor General of Equatoria and then the full Sudan, ended slavery. He knew the Bible well and had even managed to locate the site of the Genesis “Garden of Eden.” As a soldier, Gordon was a sapper – a military engineer. This would serve him well when forced to fortify Khartoum.

 

Yet Gordon was also fiercely independent and whose personal view of justice conflicted with political prerogatives. Stubborn, insubordinate, and frequently arrogant, he traveled up the Nile River to evacuate the Europeans and Egyptians despite having publicly criticized this policy in the British press only weeks before the assignment was given. Gordon had his own agenda. He would defend Khartoum against the Mahdi.

 

The Relief of Gordon

 

By 1884 it became apparent that Gordon was not leaving Khartoum. The prospect of his death and the loss of the Sudan prompted national outcry in Britain, including Queen Victoria who pressured Prime Minister Gladstone into sending a relief force. On March 25^th, the Queen wrote the Secretary of War, Lord Hartington (a hawk in the Cabinet), “Gordon is in danger: you are bound to try to save him.”

 

Gordon was a living symbol of all that Britons saw of their empire and their values. In death, he became, according to Karl Meyer, “a devout martyr who died bravely while on an impossible mission for an ingrate government.” In Parliament, Gladstone’s government narrowly averted a vote of censure.

 

Ultimately, General, Sir Garnet Wolseley was sent to Cairo to command a relief force of 10,000 British soldiers. Wolseley was a friend of Charles Gordon and a bitter critic of Gladstone, whom he blamed for Gordon’s death. Through brilliantly improvised tactics, including the construction of hundreds of specially designed boats that could navigate the Nile cataracts, the relief expedition moved up the Nile.

 

“Too Late”

 

The forces of the Mahdi breached Khartoum’s defenses in January 1885, slaughtering the inhabitants and murdering Governor-General Charles Gordon. His severed head was paraded before the Mahdi on a pike. Referring to Prime Minister Gladstone, General Wolseley wrote in his journal, “He is responsible for Gordon’s death and all the bloodshed and horrors attendant upon the fall of Khartoum.” (Tuesday, 17^th February, 1885)

 

Sources:

 

Byron Farwell, Queen Victoria’s Little Wars (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1972)

Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac, Kingmakers: The Invention of the Modern Middle East (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2008)

Lytton Strachey, Eminent Victorians New York: Harvest Books/Harcourt Brace & Company, 1969)

Lord Garnet Wolseley, In Relief of Gordon: Lord Wolseley’s Campaign Journal of the Khartoum Relief Expedition 1884-1885, edited by Adrian Preston (London: Hutchinson Press, 1967)