Battle of Omdurman

I

Introduction

Battle of Omdurman, battle fought on September 2, 1898, at Omdurman, on the Nile in the Sudan region of northern Africa, between a large Anglo-Egyptian army, under British command, and an even larger Sudanese army, fighting in defense of an independent Islamic state established in 1885. The British victory in the battle eliminated the Islamic state, leading to Britain’s claim over the entire Sudan region. The battle took place during the peak of the so-called Scramble for Africa, when nearly the entire continent came under European colonial rule.

II

Background to the Battle

Egypt invaded the Sudan in 1820, quickly overthrowing the indigenous Muslim Funj Sultanate that had been established around 1500. Egypt (at that time a province of the Ottoman Empire) set up administrative headquarters at Khartoum, on the junction of the Blue and White Nile, for its new province, known as Egyptian Sudan. Turkish-Egyptian rule, which was marked by southward expansion of the province, endured for 60 years. Egyptian and Sudanese merchants, based in Khartoum, raided deep into southern Sudan in search of ivory and slaves.

In 1882 Britain occupied Egypt, effectively bringing Egyptian Sudan under British rule. In 1881, meanwhile, the Sudanese religious leader Muhammad Ahmad proclaimed himself the Mahdi (the Muslim messiah) and launched an Islamic-inspired revolt against colonial rule. The Mahdi’s forces won a series of victories, culminating in the capture of Khartoum in 1885 after a 10-month siege. British general Charles Gordon, who was in charge of evacuating the Egyptians from Khartoum, was killed when Khartoum finally fell. The Mahdi then proclaimed a Mahdist state called Mahdiyya, establishing the Islamic center of Omdurman, on the west bank of the Nile opposite Khartoum, as its capital. The Mahdi died only five months later, and his associate, Abdullah al-Taashi, became the caliph (Arabic, khalifah, “successor”) of Mahdiyya.

The Mahdist state posed a formidable obstacle to Britain’s imperial ambitions in Africa. At that time, European powers were engaged in the so-called Scramble for Africa, building colonial empires through military conquest on the continent. The Egyptian evacuation of the Sudan in 1885, after the fall of Khartoum to Mahdist rebels, left the status of the Upper Nile area unclear. Whereas Great Britain argued that Egyptian (and hence British) authority still held, France maintained that the Sudan was now open for conquest.

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In 1896 a small French expeditionary force claimed French possession of the Upper Nile, raising the French flag at Fashoda, about 600 km (400 mi) south of Khartoum. Britain regarded its control of the Sudan as vital for the maintenance of authority in Egypt, and for the creation of a land route between British possessions in North and East Africa. The British realized that to secure Egypt they must control the entire Nile, from source to delta. That meant the conquest of the Mahdist state.

British general Horatio Kitchener, in command of Anglo-Egyptian forces, was prepared to take his time. The Sudan was too important a strategic objective to leave anything to chance. After six months spent negotiating his gunboats through the first three cataracts (waterfalls) of the middle Nile, Kitchener decided to bypass the cataracts by building a railway. He set up a railway factory at Wadi Halfa, near the second cataract, and laid the Sudan Military Railway straight across the desert to rejoin the Nile above the fifth cataract.

III

The Battle of Omdurman

By the end of August 1898, Kitchener had assembled his army within striking distance of Omdurman. Kitchener had at his command 25,000 infantry, a mixture of British, Egyptian, and Sudanese battalions, armed with the latest magazine-loading and breech-loading rifles. These were supported by 8 gunboats, 44 pieces of heavy artillery, and numerous machine guns.

The Mahdist forces, under the command of Abdullah al-Taashi, comprised an army of 40,000 Sudanese, divided into 5 divisions. They were equipped with a number of breech-loading rifles (rifles loaded from the back), but most of their firearms were muzzle-loading hunting guns, and they had no artillery. In addition, the Sudanese were armed with swords and spears. The followers of the Mahdi also held a fervent belief that Allah (God) was on their side.

At dawn on September 2 the Mahdist forces launched a preemptive attack, but the initial charge by 12,000 men was halted in its tracks by Kitchener’s heavy artillery and machine-gun and rifle fire. In the first hour, 2,000 Sudanese were killed. A mounted British troop of 400 (including a young Lieutenant Winston Churchill) was sent forward to reconnoiter and rashly conducted a cavalry charge in which 22 British were killed (almost half the total British losses that day). Through late morning and early afternoon the bulk of Kitchener’s forces advanced on Omdurman, smashing one Sudanese division after another.

Even if they had been able to coordinate their divisions better, the Mahdist forces never had a chance in open battle against such a heavily equipped modern army. About 10,800 Sudanese were killed outright and 16,000 wounded, many of whom died later from their wounds. Of Kitchener’s forces, 48 were killed and 382 wounded.

With the Battle of Omdurman, the British eradicated the Mahdist state, and more broadly Mahdism as a force for Islamic nationalism in Sudan. Soon after the battle, Kitchener turned his attention to the small French force at Fashoda and persuaded the French to withdraw. In 1899 France abandoned all claims to the area. Britain took control of not only the Nile, but also the entire Sudan region.