Jihad - The Holy War in Egypt and Sudan

Summary of Hodder Stjernswärd's article in RSAWSPJ no 6 2001.

Jihad, the Holy War, has been fought in many ways. Today, when it is being fought by Palestinian fundamentalists and the Taliban, it is interesting to study what happened in Sudan during the latter part of the 19th century. Of course it is difficult to compare such a wide variety of circumstances, weapons and methods, but it is anyhow thrilling from a purely historical point of view to do so. Osama bin Laden began his war by building up his organization al-Qaeda in different regions of Sudan in the early 1990s.

There once lived in Sudan a poor priest named Muhammad Ahmad. He preached from a little island in the middle of the White Nile. The island was called Abba. In 1881 he made his mark not only as a preacher but also as a leader. He gathered the poor Sudanese people around him. And thus began the Mahdist rebellion. Egypt occupied Sudan, and Egyptian rule was corrupt. The attitude of the rulers towards the Sudanese people was overbearing.

Muhammad Ahmad now called himself Mahdi, i.e. "he who is guided in the right way". He proclaimed Jihad, a Holy War against the hated Egyptians. His dervish army was successful. In spite of antiquated weapons and obsolete tactics the fanatic and religious devotion paid off. The Egyptian garrisons were forced to surrender and were captured one after another.

Also, various expeditions sent from Egypt under the command of British officers were defeated.

The British Government was not interested in intefering directly in the struggle. Viewing the matter quite cynically they sent only one man to Khartoum to solve the problem - General Gordon.

Gordon was an extremely able man and he did everything he could to defend the capital and help the inhabitants. But he was no Messiah, and despite almost a year of superhuman efforts he failed - Khartoum was attacked and occupied by Mahdist forces. Gordon was killed and his head carried away in triumph to the Mahdis.

It took many years of preparations before an Anglo-Egyptian army under General Herbert Kitchener slowly advanced up the Nile against Khartoum.

The railway was built along the lines of approach, ammunition and food had been stored, and gunboats constructed. Not until 2nd September 1898 did Kitchener attack Omdurman, the Moslem capital opposite Khartoum. The battle proved to be an extremely bloody one, and the dervish army under Caliph Abdullah was crushed. Mahdi’s tomb was destroyed and his body thrown into the Nile.

Abdullah, the successor to Mahdi, ruled Sudan with a rod of iron, but in spite of famine, enemies and mishaps he succeeded in keeping the country together.

Mahdi’s and Abdullah’s Holy War was a struggle for freedom. Their religion was radical Islamic fundamentalism.

The Jihad of the Taliban and other fundamentalists is a struggle primarily against the USA and Israel. Their foremost weapon is terror. It is not a poor priest who has raised the standard of rebellion, it is a wealthy Arab who has had the means to build up a deadly network of followers.

Mahdi’s and Abdullah’s empire was doomed from the start, but in a way their struggle was a just one. To many a Moslem the present struggle of the terrorists seems a righteous one, but to most people in the world, Moslems included, it seems entirely uncalled for.