The Battle of Umm Diwaykarat on 25 November 1899 marked the final defeat of the

Mahdist State The Mahdist State, also known as Mahdist Sudan or the Sudanese Mahdiyya, was a state based on a religious and political movement launched in 1881 by Muammad Ahmad bin Abdullah, Muhammad Ahmad bin Abdullah (later Muhammad Mahdi, al-Mahdi) against ...

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

, when

Anglo Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to, or descent from England, English culture, the English people or the English language, such as in the term ''Anglosphere''. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people of British d ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

ian forces under the command of Lord Kitchener defeated what was left of the Mahdist armies under the command of the

Abdallahi ibn Muhammad Abdullah ibn-Mohammed al-Khalifa or Abdullah al-Taashi or Abdallah al-Khalifa, also known as "The Caliph, Khalifa" (; 184625 November 1899) was a Sudanese Ansar (Sudan), Ansar ruler who was one of the principal followers of Muhammad Ahmad. Ahmad c ...

, known as the

Khalifa ''Khalifa'' or ''Khalifah'' (; commonly "caliph" in English) is a name or title which means "successor", "ruler" or "leader". It most commonly refers to the leader of a Caliphate, but is also used as a title among various Islamic religious groups ...

, after the equally disastrous

Battle of Omdurman The Battle of Omdurman, also known as the Battle of Karary, was fought during the Anglo-Egyptian conquest of Sudan between a British–Egyptian expeditionary force commanded by British Commander-in-Chief (sirdar) major general Horatio Herbert ...

a year earlier.

Background

After

Omdurman Omdurman () is a major city in Sudan. It is the second most populous city in the country, located in the State of Khartoum. Omdurman lies on the west bank of the River Nile, opposite and northwest of the capital city of Khartoum. The city acts ...

, the defeated Mahdist forces, still 25,000 strong, moved southward from

Khartoum Khartoum or Khartum is the capital city of Sudan as well as Khartoum State. With an estimated population of 7.1 million people, Greater Khartoum is the largest urban area in Sudan. Khartoum is located at the confluence of the White Nile – flo ...

Kordofan Kordofan ( ') is a former province of central Sudan. In 1994 it was divided into three new federal states: North Kordofan, South Kordofan and West Kordofan. In August 2005, West Kordofan State was abolished and its territory divided between N ...

. The Mahdists still controlled the territory of

Darfur Darfur ( ; ) is a region of western Sudan. ''Dār'' is an Arabic word meaning "home f – the region was named Dardaju () while ruled by the Daju, who migrated from Meroë , and it was renamed Dartunjur () when the Tunjur ruled the area. ...

, and lands bordering

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

. In October 1899 the British obtained information that the Khalifa and his forces were among his native

Baggara The Baggāra ( "heifer herder"), also known as Chadian Arabs, are a nomadic confederation of people of mixed Arab and Arabized indigenous African ancestry, inhabiting a portion of the Sahel mainly between Lake Chad and the Nile river near sou ...

to the west of Kusti (Kaka) in Kordofan. Kitchener dispatched 8,000 Sudanese and Egyptian soldiers under command of General F.R. Wingate to intercept him. Wingate marched from Kusti to the mountains of Kordofan, destroyed a Mahdist supply unit, and soon located the Khalifa's camp.

Battle

By this time, the Khalifa's Sudanese forces had retained at least 10,000 people. The Khalifa decided to make a stand rather than to retreat further. During the night Wingate approached the camp from the east and the north sides. At about 5am, the Mahdists began to attack the approaching British-led forces, but were driven back by withering fire from

Maxim gun The Maxim gun is a Recoil operation, recoil-operated machine gun invented in 1884 by Hiram Maxim, Hiram Stevens Maxim. It was the first automatic firearm, fully automatic machine gun in the world. The Maxim gun has been called "the weapon most ...

s. The Khalifa's attempts to rally his men failed, and he soon accepted that all was lost. He called his main leaders to sit with him on a farwa – a

yearling Yearling may refer to: *Yearling (horse), a horse between one and two years old *''The Yearling ''The Yearling'' is a novel by American writer Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, published in March 1938. It was the main selection of the Book of the ...

skin; to wait for death. His guards protected him, but all were mown down by the fire of the Anglo-Egyptian forces. The Mahdist losses were around 1,000 killed and wounded. The Sudanese/Egyptian forces captured many of the rest, including a son of Emir Yuni.

Aftermath

Osman Digna Osman Digna () ( 1840–1926) was a follower of Muhammad Ahmad, the self-proclaimed Mahdi, in Sudan, who became his best known military commander during the Mahdist War. He was claimed to be a descendant from the Abbasid family. As the Mahd ...

was injured almost at the start of the battle, and fled after being taken from the field; the only

Emir Emir (; ' (), also Romanization of Arabic, transliterated as amir, is a word of Arabic language, Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocratic, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person po ...

to do so. After the defeat, the remnants of the Mahdists continued to resist for a short while under his command, but he was caught in January 1900. The last unoccupied territories of Darfur were captured in 1916.

References

* Winston S. Churchill, ''The River War: An Historical Account of the Reconquest of Soudan'' (London: Longman, Green, and Co, 1902), pp. 347–360. * Daniel Gazda, ''Powstanie Mahdiego 1881–1899'' (English: ''Mahdi uprising 1881–1899''), (Warsaw: 2004), pages 197–199. {{DEFAULTSORT:Umm Diwaykarat 1899 in Sudan Battles of the Mahdist War Conflicts in 1899 November 1899