First Jihad: Khartoum, and the Dawn of Militant Islam (40 page)

Of course, much of the historical obscurity suffered by the is a direct consequence of the hero-worship that overtook Gordon after the fall of Khartoum at the hands of the Victorian biographers.
Gordon’s death was quickly transformed into a sort of “martyrdom” and because he was the agent if not the instrument of the General’s demise, the Mahdi was instantly transformed into an incarnation of evil by those same biographers.
It little helped his cause that the Mahdi was dark-skinned, belonged to a people who were colonial subjects of the European powers, and practiced a religion that was distinctly non-Christian and even openly hostile to Christianity.

So when I decided that the time had come for a retelling of the story of the siege of Khartoum, I made a determined effort to present a fuller picture of the Mahdi, and to present his rebellion in the light by which he led it, rather than the one it which is was perceived in Europe.

In doing so I discovered that the Mahdi was an extremely interesting individual, quite understandable if not exactly admirable.
His ambitions and dreams were the products of his culture and his religion: he was in every way thoroughly Arab and thoroughly Moslem.
This latter fact often upsets many of Islam’s latter-day apologists, who prefer to gloss over their religion’s violent history and doctrines much the same way Christians prefer to gloss over the Crusades and the European religious wars of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.

In my research I discovered that the Mahdi has his own equivalent of Gordon’s hero-worshipping biographers: even the most “objective” lives of the Mahdi written by Arab scholars are more hagiography than responsible biography.
While records and documents from the
Mahdyyah
aren’t exactly scarce, they are at times sketchy, and not always reliable: there is always the suspicion that some of them may have been altered long ago to please Egyptian and British colonial officials—or more recently to make them acceptable to whichever ruling faction was currently in power in the Sudan.

Consequently, the information available was sometimes ambiguous and frequently contradictory: a considerable mass of information available, but as any good historian will tell you, there is a vast difference between “information” and “knowledge.” This made sorting the wheat from the chaff a sometimes formidable project, as the voices of racism and religious prejudice had to be filtered out of both British and Arab documents and sources.

It is with great pleasure then that I am able to acknowledge the assistance of His Excellency Khidir Haroun Ahmed, Ambassador of the Republic of Sudan to the United States, as well as his predecessor, His Excellency Mahdi Ibrahim Muhammed, who were gracious enough to initiate various contacts for me within the Sudan, particularly at the University of Khartoum and the International Islamic University in Khartoum, with which I conducted long and fruitful correspondences.
The former Information Attache to the Sudanese Embassy, Mr.
Elsadig Bakheit Elfaki Abdalla, was invaluable for his knowledge of just who knew what in his homeland, and who might have answers to specific questions about Sudanese history.

In the United States, Professors John Crossley and Megan Reid, both Assistant Professors of Religion at the University of Southern California, were invaluable for their insights into Islam, its ethics, and its morals, as was Dr.
Charles Orr of Westwood Presbyterian Church.
Professor Henry Vogt, retired from Hope College’s Department of Religion, also made significant contributions to my understanding of Islam, its origins and practices.
Dr.
Maynard Pittendreigh gave me the benefit of his decades of religious scholarship, not only in Christianity but in Islam as well, and often provided intriguing and thought-provoking “real-life” counterpoint to the sometimes over-idealized perspectives and conclusions of academic religious experts.

The staffs at Hope College’s Van Wylen Library, the Libraries of the University of Southern California, the Library of Congress, the Imperial War Museum, the British Museum, the British Public Records Office (PRO) and the Scottish National Records Office (SNO) were as always paragons of helpfulness.
Deserving particular mention is the staff of the Sudan Archives at the University of Durham, in Durham, England, which possesses one of the most complete collections of both British and Arab correspondence and documents from the period of the Mahdi ever to be brought together in one place; the knowledge of the staff there is as amazing as their collection.
All have my heartfelt gratitude for their efforts.

Mention should be made of the photographs and illustrations used in
The First Jihad
.
I’ve collected militaria, photos and military artwork for more than a quarter-century, and have accumulated an extraordinary variety of them over the years from other collectors, antique shops, estate sales, and such.
Quite a few were acquired while I was in the Army and haunting antique shops in Great Britain while on leave.
One packet of photos that apparently dated from the 1930s was simply labeled “Khartoum” and appeared to be somebody’s travel photos; others photos came from old regimental collections that were broken up and sold off.
Though I do what I can to save images in my possession, knowing how years of neglect take a toll on many of them I can only imagine what photographic treasures have been lost: thrown into a dustbin, faded to nothing, or allowed to rot and crumble away because no one knew what they were, or cared.

As can be expected, during the research and writing of this book, many of the usual suspects showed up, along with some new faces.
Scott Bragg has been, as always, a remarkably reliable resource for rooting out information and contacts through the Internet, as well as providing his own considerable knowledge of comparative religions.
Where Trish Eachus found the time to do another one of her excellent proofreadings I have no idea: certainly she had to take time out from her own writing career to do so.
She claims that proofreading is therapy for her in her ongoing battle with fibromyalgia, and if that is the case, I’m glad to have been of service—certainly she has done a great service for me!
Kitty Bartholomew is at once the most energetic and most level-headed person I know: she’s always a morale-booster without peer, and I value her for her common sense as well as her insight.
She’s never afraid to simply ask “Why?” over some point of discussion or conclusion, giving rise to much-needed reality checks as well as ensuring a sound basis for any arguments I may put forward.
And no small credit goes to my editor at Casemate, Steve Smith, as well as to my publisher, David Farnsworth, for believing in and supporting this book.

Finally, I have to express my deep appreciation to Eily Wojahn.
Her incisive thinking led to many a thought-provoking discussion, while her boundless cheerfulness was a source of constant encouragement to keep working on a sometimes difficult story.
Ultimately she gave me reason to finish it.

In closing, let me repeat my gratitude to all of the institutions and individuals I’ve mentioned.
In the case of specific persons, while my opinions did not always agree with theirs, not one of them ever made any qualification to their assistance as a consequence of our disagreements; this was true professionalism.
While nearly every author at some point will state that they are personally responsible for the ideas and opinions expressed in his or her work, in this case, because some readers may take exception with some of my comments, observations, and conclusions I will state even more emphatically than usual that while all of these institutions and individuals made some contribution to the material presented in
The First Jihad
, the use of that material, as well as the conclusions and opinions drawn from it, are my responsibility alone.
I wouldn’t have it any other way.

— Daniel Allen Butler
Santa Monica, California

SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

OFFICIAL RECORDS, MUSEUMS, AND ARCHIVES

Imperial War Museum, London

Institute of African and Asian Studies, University of Khartoum

International Islamic University, Khartoum

National Records Office, Khartoum

Public Records Office, London

Scottish National Records Office, Edinburgh

Archives of the Division of Guards, Wellington Barracks, London

Archives of the Royal Highland Regiment, Balhousie Castle, Perth

Sudan Archives, University of Durham

NEWSPAPERS

Edinburgh Review

Glasgow Herald

Illustrated London News

London Daily Express

London Daily Mail

London Daily Standard

London Morning Post

PERIODICALS

Ali, Abbas Ibrahim Muhammad, “Contemporary British Views on the Khalifa’s Rule,”
Sudan Notes and Records
, Khartoum, vol.
li, 1970, 31–46.

Holt, P.
M.
“Correspondence on Mahdiya Archives,”
Sudan Notes and Records
, Khartoum, vol.
xxxiii, 1, 1952, 182–86.

____“The Archives of the Mahdiya,”
Sudan Notes and Records
, Khartoum, vol.
xxxvi, 1, 1955.

____“The Source Material of the Sudanese Mahdia,” St.
Antony’s Papers 4,
Middle Eastern Affairs
, 1.
London, 1967.

Mirak-Weissbach, Muriel.
“Why The British Hate Sudan: The Mahdia’s War Against London,”
The American Almanac
, September 4, 1995.

Peters, R., “Islam and the Legitimation of Power: The Mahdi-Revolt in the Sudan,”
Zeitschrift der deutschen Morgenländische Gesellschaft
, Supplement: XXIV Deutscher Orientalistentag, 1980.

Sanderson, G.N.
“The Modern Sudan, 1820–1956: The Present State of Historical Studies,”
Journal of African History
, vol.
iv, 1963.

BOOKS

abu-Shouk, Ahmed Ibrahim.
The Public Treasury of the Muslims: Monthly Budgets of the Mahdist State in the Sudan
(n.p., 1897).

al-Mahdi, Al-Athar al-Kamila li’l-Iman (Muhammad Ibrahim Abu Salim, editor).
The Complete Writings of the Mahdi of the Sudan
(Centre for Middle East & Islamic Studies, Universi, 1993).

Baring, Evelyn (as Lord Cromer).
Modern Egypt
(Routledge, 2000).

Bermann, Richard A., introduction by Sir Winston S.
Churchill.
The Mahdi of Allah
(Simon Publications, reprint 2002, originally published 1932).

Chaillé-Long, Charles.
The Three Prophets: Chinese Gordon, Mohammed-Ahmed (El Maahdi), Arabi Pasha
(D.
Appleton, 1884).

Churchill, Winston.
The River War
(Longmans Green, 1899).

Collins, Robert O.
The Southern Sudan 1883–1898
(Yale University Press, 1962).

Daniel, N.
Islam, Europe and Empire
(Edinburgh University Press, 1966).

Farwell, Bryon.
Prisoners of the Mahdi: The Story of the Mahdist Revolt Which Frustrated Queen Victoria’s Designs on the Sudan, Humbled Egypt, and Led to the Fall of Gladstone
(W.W.
Norton & Company, 1989).

Featherstone, Donald.
Omdurman 1898: Kitchener’s Victory in the Sudan
(Osprey Publishing, 1994).

Fradin, Murray.
Jihad: The Mahdi Rebellion in the Sudan
(Author’s Choice Press, 2003).

Gordon, Charles.
Journals
(Negro Universities Press, 1969).

Holt, P.
M.
(ed.
& trans.).
A Calendar of Correspondence of the Khalifa Abdallahi and Mahmud Ahmad, 1315/1897–98
(Khartoum, 1950).

____
A Modern History of the Sudan
(Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1961).

Ibn Warraq.
What the Koran Really Says: Language, Text, and Commentary
(Prometheus Books, 2002).

Keown-Boyd, Henry.
A Good Dusting
(Leo Cooper, 1986).

Lewis, Bernard.
The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror
(The Modern Library, 2003).

____
What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response
(Oxford University Press, 2001.

Mahdi, Muhsin.
Alfarabi and the Foundation of Islamic Political Philosophy
(University of Chicago Press, 2001).

Marlowe, John.
Mission to Khartum
(Victor Gollancz, 1969).

Moorehead, Alan.
The White Nile
(Harper-Collins, 2000).

Neillands, Robin.
The Dervish Wars
(John Murray, 1996).

Power, Frank.
Letters from Khartoum
(Sampson Low, 1885).

Robson, Brian.
Fuzzy-Wuzzy: The Campaigns in the Eastern Sudan, 1884–85
(Spellmount, 1993).

Schmidt, Alvin J., and Marvin Olasky.
The Great Divide: The Failure of Islam and the Triumph of the West
(Continental Sales, 2004).

Slatin, Rudolf C.; Translated by Major F.
R.
Wingate.
Fire and Sword in the Sudan: a Personal Narrative of Fighting and Serving the Dervishes, 1879–1895
(John Wilson and Sons, 1896).