Abdullah Ibn-Mohammed or
Abdullah al-Taaisha, also known as "The Khalifa" was a Sudanese
AnsarAnṣâr refer to a class of warriors who are renowned for their arsenal of weapons and for their speed and mobility on the battlefield. The quality of the Arabian horses quickly led to these soldiers dominating the battlefield, making ample use of their array of weaponry, which consisted of...
General and ruler.
Abdullah was born into the Ta'aisha Baqqara tribe in
DarfurDarfur is a region in Sudan. An independent sultanate for several hundred years, it was incorporated into Sudan by Anglo-Egyptian forces. The region is divided into three federal states: West Darfur, South Darfur, and North Darfur which are coordinated by a Transitional Darfur Regional Authority...
in 1846 and was trained and educated as a preacher and holy man. He became a follower of Mohammed Ahmed "the
MahdiAccording to the Shia and Sunni versions of the Islamic eschatology the Mahdi is the prophesied redeemer of Islam who will stay on earth seven, nine, or nineteen years before the coming of the day, Yawm al-Qiyamah...
" in 1880 and named Khalifa by the mahdi in 1881 and became one of his chief lieutenants.
Abdullah Ibn-Mohammed or
Abdullah al-Taaisha, also known as "The Khalifa" was a Sudanese
AnsarAnṣâr refer to a class of warriors who are renowned for their arsenal of weapons and for their speed and mobility on the battlefield. The quality of the Arabian horses quickly led to these soldiers dominating the battlefield, making ample use of their array of weaponry, which consisted of...
General and ruler.
Abdullah was born into the Ta'aisha Baqqara tribe in
DarfurDarfur is a region in Sudan. An independent sultanate for several hundred years, it was incorporated into Sudan by Anglo-Egyptian forces. The region is divided into three federal states: West Darfur, South Darfur, and North Darfur which are coordinated by a Transitional Darfur Regional Authority...
in 1846 and was trained and educated as a preacher and holy man. He became a follower of Mohammed Ahmed "the
MahdiAccording to the Shia and Sunni versions of the Islamic eschatology the Mahdi is the prophesied redeemer of Islam who will stay on earth seven, nine, or nineteen years before the coming of the day, Yawm al-Qiyamah...
" in 1880 and named Khalifa by the mahdi in 1881 and became one of his chief lieutenants. He first fought at the Battle of El Obeid, where
William HicksColonel William Hicks , British soldier, entered the Bombay army in 1849, and served through the Indian mutiny, being mentioned in despatches for good conduct at the action of Sitka Ghaut in 1859....
's Anglo-Egyptian army was destroyed (November 5, 1883), and was the principal commander at the
siege of KhartoumThe Battle of Khartoum or Siege of Khartoum lasted from March 13, 1884 to January 26, 1885. It was fought in and around Khartoum between Egyptian forces led by British General Charles George Gordon and a Mahdist Sudanese army led by the Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad. Khartoum was besieged by the Mahdists...
, (February 1884 - January 26, 1885).
He succeeded as leader of the Mahdists on the death of the Mahdi, after suppressing several revolts (1885-1886, 1888-1889, 1891). He invaded
EthiopiaEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
and sacked
GondarGondar or Gonder is a city in Ethiopia, which was once the old imperial capital and capital of the historic Begemder province. As a result, the old province of Begemder is sometimes referred to as Gondar...
in 1887, then successfully repulsed the Ethiopians at the Battle of Metemma on March 9, 1889, where the Ethiopian emperor
Yohannes IVEmperor Yohannes IV , was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1872 until his death....
was killed. He created a river flotilla, an arsenal, and a local telegraph system. Following the loss of
DongolaDongola is the capital of the state of Northern in Sudan, on the banks of the Nile...
in 1896, then
BerberBerbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are discontinuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke various Berber languages, which together form a branch of the...
and Abu Hamed to
KitchenerField Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener,
KG,
KP,
GCB,
OM,
GCSI,
GCMG,
GCIE,
ADC,
PC was a British Field Marshal, a diplomat, and a statesman.-...
's Anglo-Egyptian army in 1897, he sent an army that was defeated at the
battle of AtbaraThe Battle of Atbara took place during the Second Sudan War. Anglo-Egyptian forces defeated 15,000 Sudanese rebels, called Mahdists or Dervishes. The battle proved to be the turning point in the conquest of Sudan by a British and Egyptian coalition....
River (April 8, 1898), afterwards falling back on
OmdurmanOmdurman is the largest city in Sudan and Khartoum State, lying on the western banks of the river Nile, opposite the capital, Khartoum. Omdurman has a population of 2,395,159 and is the national center of commerce...
, where his army was
destroyedAt the Battle of Omdurman , an army commanded by the British General Sir Herbert Kitchener defeated the army of Abdullah al-Taashi, the successor to the self-proclaimed Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad...
on September 2. He then fled with a few followers but was finally caught and killed by Sir Reginald Wingate's Egyptian column at
Umm DiwaikaratThe Battle of Umm Diwaykarat on November 24, 1899 marked the final obliteration of Muhammad Ahmad's short-lived Sudanese empire, when Anglo-Egyptian forces under the command of Lord Kitchener wiped out what was left of the Mahdist armies under the command of the Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, known as the...
in Kordofan on November 24, 1899.
Devout, intelligent, and an able general and administrator, the Khalifa was unable to overcome tribal dissension to unify
SudanSudan is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest country in Africa and in the Arab World, and tenth largest in the world by area...
, and was forced to employ Egyptians to provide the trained administrators and technicians he needed to maintain his military dictatorship.
Literature
- Dr. Mohamed H. Fadlalla, Short History of Sudan, iUniverse, New York, 2004. ISBN 978-0-595-31425-6
- Dr. Mohamed Hassan Fadlalla, The Problem of Dar Fur, iUniverse, July 21, 2005. ISBN 978-0595365029
- Dr. Mohamed Hassan Fadlalla, UN Intervention in Dar Fur, iUniverse, February 9, 2007. ISBN 0595429793
External links