Part 50

On the 29th of July, after several reconnaissances, Major-General Hunter, with a flying column, marched up the Nile from near Merawi to Abu Hamed, 133 m. distant, along the edge of the Monassir desert. He arrived on the 7th of August and captured it by storm, the dervishes losing 250 killed and 50 prisoners. By the end of the month the gunboats had surmounted the 4th cataract and reached Abu Hamed. Berber was found to be deserted, and occupied by Hunter on the 5th of September, and in the following month a large force was entrenched there. The khalifa, fearing an attack on Omdurman, moved Osman Digna from Adarama to Shendi. In the 23rd of October Hunter, with a flying column lightly equipped, left Berber for Adarama, which he burned on the 2nd of November, and after reconnoitring for 40 m. up the Atbara, returned to Berber. The Nile was falling, and Kitchener decided to keep the gunboats above the impassable rapid at Um Tuir, 4 m. north of the confluence of the Atbara with the Nile, where he constructed a fort. The gunboats made repeated reconnaissances up the river, bombarding Metemma with effect. The railway reached Abu Hamed on the 4th of November, and was pushed rapidly forward along the right bank of the Nile towards Berber.

The forces of the khalifa remaining quiet, the sirdar visited Kassala and negotiated with the Italian General Caneva for its restoration to Egypt. The Italians were anxious to leave it; and on Christmas day 1897 Colonel (afterwards General Sir Charles) Parsons, with an Egyptian force from Suakin, took it formally over, together with a body of Arab irregulars employed by the Italians. These troops were at once despatched to capture the dervish posts at Asabri and El Fasher, which they did with small loss.

Sudan campaign, 1898.

On his return from Kassala to Berber the sirdar received information of an intended advance of the khalifa northward. He at once ordered a concentration of Egyptian troops towards Berber, and telegraphed to Cairo for a British brigade. By the end of January the concentration was complete, and the British brigade, under Major-General Gatacre, was at Dakhesh, south of Abu Hamed. Disagreement among the khalifa's generals postponed the dervish advance and gave Kitchener much-needed time. But at the end of February, Mahmud crossed the Nile to Shendi with some 12,000 fighting men, and with Osman Digna advanced along the right bank of the Nile to Aliab, where he struck across the desert to Nakheila, on the Atbara, intending to turn Kitchener's left flank at Berber. The sirdar took up a position at Ras el Hudi, on the Atbara. His force consisted of Gatacre's British brigade (1st Warwicks, Lincolns, Seaforths and Camerons) and Hunter's Egyptian division (3 brigades under Colonels Maxwell, MacDonald and Lewis respectively), Broadwood's cavalry, Tudway's camel corps and Long's artillery. The dervish army reached Nakheila on the 20th of March, and entrenched themselves there in a formidable zeriba. After several reconnaissances in which fighting took place with Mahmud's outposts, it was ascertained from prisoners that their army was short of provisions and that great leakage was going on. Kitchener, therefore, did not hurry. He sent his flotilla up the Nile and captured Shendi, the dervish depôt, on the 27th of March. On the 4th of April he advanced to Abadar. A final reconnaissance was made on the 5th. On the following day he bivouacked at Umdabia, where he constructed a strong zeriba, which was garrisoned by an Egyptian battalion, and on the night of the 7th he marched to the attack of Mahmud's zeriba, which, after an hour's bombardment on the morning of the 8th of April, was stormed with complete success. Mahmud and several hundred dervishes were captured, 40 amirs and 3000 Arabs killed, and many more wounded; the rest escaped to Gedaref. The sirdar's casualties were 80 killed and 472 wounded.

Preparations were now made for the attack on the khalifa's force at Omdurman; and in the meantime the troops were camped in the neighbourhood of Berber, and the railway carried on to the Atbara. At the end of July reinforcements were forwarded from Cairo; and on the 24th of August the following troops were concentrated for the advance at Wad Hamad, above Metemma, on the western bank of the 6th cataract:--British division, under Major-General Gatacre, consisting of 1st Brigade, commanded by Colonel A. G. Wauchope (1st Warwicks, Lincolns, Seaforths and Camerons), and 2nd Brigade, commanded by Colonel the Hon. N. G. Lyttelton (1st Northumberlands and Grenadier Guards, 2nd Lancashire and Rifle Brigade); Egyptian division, under Major-General Hunter, consisting of four brigades, commanded by Colonels MacDonald, Maxwell, Lewis and Collinson; mounted troops--21st Lancers, camel corps, and Egyptian cavalry; artillery, under Colonel Long, 2 British batteries, 5 Egyptian batteries, and 20 machine guns; detachment of Royal Engineers. The flotilla, under Commander Keppel, R.N., consisted of 10 gunboats and 5 transport steamers. The total strength was nearly 26,000 men.

Battle of Omdurman.

While the army moved along the west bank of the river, a force of Arab irregulars or "Friendlies" marched along the east bank, under command of Major Stuart-Wortley and Lieutenant Wood, to clear it of the enemy as far as the Blue Nile; and on the 1st of September the gunboats bombarded the forts on both sides of the river and breached the great wall of Omdurman. Kitchener met with no opposition; and on the 1st of September the army bivouacked in zeriba at Egeiga, on the west bank of the Nile, within 4 m. of Omdurman. Here, on the morning of the 2nd of September, the khalifa's army, 40,000 strong, attacked the zeriba, but was repulsed with slaughter. Kitchener then moved out and marched towards Omdurman, when he was again twice fiercely attacked on the right flank and rear, MacDonald's brigade bearing the brunt. MacDonald distinguished himself by his tactics, and completely repulsed the enemy. The 21st Lancers gallantly charged a body of 2000 dervishes which was unexpectedly met in a khor on the left flank, and drove them westward, the Lancers losing a fifth of their number in killed and wounded. The khalifa was now in full retreat, and the sirdar, sending his cavalry in pursuit, marched into Omdurman. The dervish loss was over 10,000 killed, as many wounded, and 5000 prisoners. The khalifa's black flag was captured and sent home to Queen Victoria. The British and Egyptian casualties together were under 500. The European prisoners of the khalifa found in Omdurman--Charles Neufeld, Joseph Ragnotti, Sister Teresa Grigolini, and some 30 Greeks--were released; and on Sunday the 4th of September the sirdar, with representatives from every regiment, crossed the river to Khartum, where the British and Egyptian flags were hoisted, and a short service held in memory of General Gordon, near the place where he met his death.

The results of the battle of Omdurman were the practical destruction of the khalifa's army, the extinction of Mahdism in the Sudan, and the recovery of nearly all the country formerly under Egyptian authority.

The khalifa fled with a small force to Obeid in Kordofan. The British troops were quickly sent down stream to Cairo, and the sirdar, shortly afterwards created Lord Kitchener of Khartum, was free to turn his attention to the reduction of the country to some sort of order.

Captain Marchand at Fashoda.

He had first, however, to deal with a somewhat serious matter--the arrival of a French expedition at Fashoda, on the White Nile, some 600 m. above Khartum. He started for the south on the 10th of September, with 5 gunboats and a small force, dispersed a body of 700 dervishes at Reng on the 15th, and four days later arrived at Fashoda, to find the French Captain Marchand, with 120 Senegalese soldiers, entrenched there and the French flag flying. He arranged with Marchand to leave the political question to be settled by diplomacy, and contented himself with hoisting the British and Egyptian flags to the south of the French flag, and leaving a gunboat and a Sudanese battalion to guard them. He then steamed up the river and established a post at Sobat; and after sending a gunboat up the Bahr-el-Ghazal to establish another post at Meshra-er-Rek, he returned to Omdurman. The French expedition had experienced great difficulties in the swampy region of the Bahr-el-Ghazal, and had reached Fashoda on the 10th of July. It had been attacked by a dervish force on the 25th of August, and was expecting another attack when Kitchener arrived and probably saved it from destruction. The Fashoda incident was the subject of important diplomatic negotiations, which at one time approached an acute phase; but ultimately the French position was found to be untenable, and on the 11th of December Marchand and his men returned to France by the Sobat, Abyssinia and Jibuti. In the following March the spheres of interest of Great Britain and France in the Nile basin were defined by a declaration making an addition to Article IV. of the Niger convention of the previous year.

During the sirdar's absence from Omdurman Colonel Hunter commanded an expedition up the Blue Nile, and by the end of September had occupied and garrisoned Wad Medani, Sennar, Karkoj and Roseires. In the meantime Colonel Parsons marched with 1400 men from Kassala on the 7th of September, to capture Gedaref. He encountered 4000 dervishes under the amir Saadalla outside the town, and after a desperate fight, in which he lost 50 killed and 80 wounded, defeated them and occupied the town on the 22nd. The dervishes left 500 dead on the field, among whom were four amirs. Having strongly entrenched himself, Parsons beat off, with heavy loss to the dervishes, two impetuous attacks made on the 28th by Ahmed Fedil. But the garrison of Gedaref suffered from severe sickness, and Colonel Collinson was sent to their aid with reinforcements from Omdurman. He steamed up the Blue Nile and the Rahad river to Ain-el-Owega, whence he struck across the desert, reaching Gedaref on the 21st of October, to find that Ahmed Fedil had gone south with his force of 5000 men towards Roseires. Colonel Lewis, who was at Karkoj with a small force, moved to Roseires, where he received reinforcements from Omdurman, and on the 26th of December caught Ahmed Fedil's force as it was crossing the Blue Nile at Dakheila, and after a very severe fight cut it up. The dervish loss was 500 killed, while the Egyptians had 24 killed and 118 wounded. Two thousand five hundred fighting men surrendered later, and the rest escaped with Ahmed Fedil to join the khalifa in Kordofan.

Operations in the Sudan, 1899.

On the 25th of January 1899 Colonel Walter Kitchener was despatched by his brother, in command of a flying column of 2000 Egyptian troops and 1700 Friendlies, which had been concentrated at Faki Kohi, on the White Nile, some 200 m. above Khartum, to reconnoitre the khalifa's camp at Sherkela, 130 m. west of the river, in the heart of the Baggara country in Kordofan, and if possible to capture it. The position was found to be a strong one, occupied by over 6000 men; and as it was not considered prudent to attack it with an inferior force at such a distance from the river base, the flying column returned. No further attempt was made to interfere with the khalifa in his far-off retreat until towards the end of the year, when, good order having been generally established throughout the rest of the Sudan, it was decided to extend it to Kordofan.

Death of the khalifa.

In the autumn of 1899 the khalifa was at Jebel Gedir, a hill in southern Kordofan, about 80 m. from the White Nile, and was contemplating an advance. Lord Kitchener concentrated 8000 men at Kaka, on the river, 380 m. south of Khartum, and moved inland on the 20th of October. On arriving at Fongor it was ascertained that the khalifa had gone north, and the cavalry and camel corps having reconnoitred Jebel Gedir, the expedition returned. On the 13th November the amir Ahmed Fedil debouched on the river at El Alub, but retired on finding Colonel Lewis with a force in gunboats. Troops and transport were then concentrated at Faki Kohi, and Colonel Wingate sent with reinforcements from Khartum to take command of the expedition and march to Gedid, where it was anticipated the khalifa would be obliged to halt. A flying column, comprising a squadron of cavalry, a field battery, 6 machine guns, 6 companies of the camel corps, and a brigade of infantry and details, in all 3700 men, under Wingate, left Faki Kohi on the 21st of November. The very next day he encountered Ahmed Fedil at Abu Aadel, drove him from his position with great loss, and captured his camp and a large supply of grain he was convoying to the khalifa. Gedid was reached on the 23rd, and the khalifa was ascertained to be at Om Debreikat. Wingate marched at midnight of the 24th, and was resting his troops on high ground in front of the khalifa's position, when at daybreak of the 25th his picquets were driven in and the dervishes attacked. They were repulsed with great slaughter, and Wingate advancing, carried the camp. The khalifa Abdullah el Taaisha, unable to rally his men, gathered many of his principal amirs around him, among whom were his sons and brothers, Ali Wad Helu, Ahmed Fedil, and other well-known leaders, and they met their death unflinchingly from the bullets of the advancing Sudanese infantry. Three thousand men and 29 amirs of importance, including Sheik-ed-din, the khalifa's eldest son and intended successor, surrendered. The dervish loss in the two actions was estimated at 1000 killed and wounded, while the Egyptian casualties were only 4 killed and 29 wounded. Thus ended the power of the khalifa and of Mahdism.

On the 19th of January 1900 Osman Digna, who had been so great a supporter of Mahdism in the Eastern Sudan, and had always shown great discretion in securing the safety of his own person, was surrounded and captured at Jebel Warriba, as he was wandering a fugitive among the hills beyond Tokar.

The reconquest of Dongola and the Sudan provinces during the three years from March 1896 to December 1898, considering the enormous extent and difficulties of the country, was achieved at an unprecedentedly small cost, while the main item of expenditure--the railway--remains a permanent benefit to the country. The figures are:--

Railways £E.1,181,372 Telegraphs 21,825 Gunboats 154,934 Military 996,223 ------------ Total £E.2,354,354

Towards this expense the British government gave a grant-in-aid of £800,000, and the balance was borne by the Egyptian treasury. The railway, delayed by the construction of the big bridge over the Atbara, was opened to the Blue Nile opposite Khartum, 187 m. from the Atbara, at the end of 1899. (R. H. V.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] By the Greek and Roman geographers Egypt was usually assigned to Libya (Africa), but by some early writers the Nile was thought to mark the division between Libya and Asia. The name occurs in Homer as [Greek: Aigyptos], but is of doubtful origin.

[2] A vivid description of Cairo during the prevalence of plague in 1835 will be found in A. W. Kinglake's _Eothen_.

[3] A _kantar_ equals 99 lb.

[4] To the ministry of public instruction was added in 1906 a department of agriculture and technical instruction.

[5] The place of publication is London unless otherwise stated.

[6] The figures of the debt are always given in £ sterling. The budget figures are in £E. (pounds Egyptian), equal to £1, 0s. 6d.

[7] _Egypt_, No. 1 (1905), p. 20.

[8] Similar mortality, though on a smaller scale, recurred in 1889, when Sudanese battalions coming from Suakin were detained temporarily in Cairo.

[9] Formerly transcribed _hau_ or "heap"-problems.

[10] Clepsydras inscribed in hieroglyphic are found soon after the Macedonian conquest.

[11] Annual reports of the progress of the work are printed in the _Sitzungsberichte_ of the Berlin Academy of Sciences; see also Erman, _Zur ägyptischen Sprachforschung_, ib. for 1907, p. 400, showing the general trend of the results.

[12] In the temple of Philae, where the worship of Isis was permitted to continue till the reign of Justinian, Brugsch found demotic inscriptions with dates to the end of the 5th century.

[13] The Arabic dialects, which gradually displaced Coptic as Mahommedanism supplanted Christianity, adopted but few words of the old native stock.

[14] In the articles referring to matters of Egyptology in this edition, Graecized forms of Old Egyptian names, where they exist, are commonly employed; in other cases names are rendered by their actual equivalents in Coptic or by analogous forms. Failing all such means, recourse is had to the usual conventional renderings of hieroglyphic spelling, a more precise transcription of the consonants in the latter being sometimes added.

[15] It seems that "acrophony" (giving to a sign the value of the first letter of its name) was indulged in only by priests of the latest age, inventing fantastic modes of writing their "vain repetitions" on the temple walls.

[16] In the prehistoric age when absolute dating is out of reach a "sequence dating" by means of the sequence of types in pottery, tools, &c., has been proposed in Petrie's _Diospolis Parva_, pp. 4 et sqq. The earliest prehistoric graves yet known are placed at S.D. 30, and shortly before S.D. 80 the period of the first historic dynasty is entered.

[17] Ten-day periods as subdivisions of the month can be traced as far back as the Middle Kingdom. The day consisted of twenty-four hours, twelve of day (counted from sunrise to sunset) and twelve of night; it began at sunrise.

[18] For the "sequence" dating (S.D.) used by archaeologists for the prehistoric period see above (§ Art and Archaeology, ad init. note).

[19] Reisner (_Early Dynastic Cemeteries_, p. 126), from his work in the prehistoric cemeteries, believes that Egypt was too uncivilized at that early date to have performed this scientific feat.

[20] The history of Hatshepsut has been very obscure, and the mutilations of her cartouches have been variously accounted for. Recent discoveries by M. Legrain at Karnak and Prof. Petrie at Sinai have limited the field of conjecture. The writer has followed M. Naville's guidance in his biography of the queen (in T. M. Davis, _The Tomb of Hatshopsîtû_, London, 1906, pp. 1 et seq.), made with very full knowledge of the complicated data.

[21] This, it may be remarked, is the time vaguely represented by the Dodecarchy of Herodotus.

[22] Khosrev Pasha afterwards filled several of the highest offices at Constantinople. He died on the 1st of February 1855. He was a bigot of the old school, strongly opposed to the influences of Western civilization, and consequently to the assistance of France and Great Britain in the Crimean War.

[23] The work was carried out under the supervision of the Frenchman, Colonel Sève, who had turned Mahommedan and was known in Islam as Suleiman Pasha. The effectiveness of the new force was first tried in the suppression of a revolt of the Albanians in Cairo (1823) by six disciplined Sudanese regiments; after which Mehemet Ali was no more troubled with military _émeutes_.

[24] THE DYNASTY OF MEHEMET ALI.

(i.) Mehemet Ali, b. 1769, d. 1849. | +-------------+----------+---+-------+--------------+-------------+ | | | | | | (ii.) Ibrahim, Tusun, Ismail, (iv.) Said, Abdul Halim, Mehemet Ali, b. 1789, b. 1796, b. 1798, b. 1823, b. 1831, the Younger, d. 1848. d. 1816. d. 1822. d. 1863. d. 1894. and other | | | children. | (iii.) Abbas I., Tusun | b. 1813, d. 1854. d. 1876. | | | El Hami. | | | Amina (married the Khedive Tewfik). | +---+-----------+--------------------+ | | | Ahmed, (v.) Ismail (Khedive), Mustapha Fazil, d. 1858. b. 1830, d. 1895. d. 1875. | +--+-------------+-------------+------------+ | | | | (vi.) Tewfik, Hussein Kamil. Hassan. 8 other children. b. 1853, d. 1892. | +------------------+------------+ | | | (vii.) Abbas II., Mehemet Ali. 2 daughters. b. 1874. | +----------------+--------------+ | | | Mahommed Abdul, Abdul Kader, 4 daughters. b. 1890. b. 1902.

[25] Part of this money was devoted to an expedition sent against Abyssinia in 1876 to avenge losses sustained in the previous year. The new campaign was, however, equally unsuccessful.

[26] Lord Cromer, writing in 1905, declared that the movement "was, in its essence, a genuine revolt against misgovernment," and "was not essentially anti-European" (vide _Egypt No. 1_, 1905, p. 2).

[27] Except in so far as it was necessary to call out men to guard the banks of the Nile in the season of high flood.

[28] The Egyptians keep large numbers of pigeons, which are allowed to be shot only by permission of the village omdeh (head-man). After the occurrence here related, officers were prohibited from shooting pigeons in any circumstances.

[29] On the 8th of January 1908, the anniversary of the khedive's accession, the whole of the Denshawai prisoners were pardoned and released. For the Denshawai incident see the British parliamentary papers, _Egypt No. 3_ and _Egypt No. 4_ of 1906.

[30] See _Egypt No. 2_ (1906), Correspondence respecting the Turco-Egyptian Frontier in the Sinai Peninsula (with a map).

EHRENBERG, CHRISTIAN GOTTFRIED (1795-1876), German naturalist, was born at Delitzsch in Saxony on the 19th of April 1795. After studying at Leipzig and Berlin, where he took the degree of doctor of medicine in 1818, he was appointed professor of medicine in the university of Berlin (1827). Meanwhile in 1820 he was engaged in a scientific exploration conducted by General von Minutoli in Egypt. They investigated parts of the Libyan desert, the Nile valley and the northern coasts of the Red Sea, where Ehrenberg made a special study of the corals. Subsequently parts of Syria, Arabia and Abyssinia were examined. Some results of these travels and of the important collections that had been made were reported on by Humboldt in 1826; and afterwards Ehrenberg was enabled to bring out two volumes _Symbolae physicae_ (1828-1834), in which many

## particulars of the mammals, birds, insects, &c., were made public. Other

observations were communicated to scientific societies. In 1829 he accompanied Humboldt through eastern Russia to the Chinese frontier. On his return he gave his attention to microscopical researches. These had an important bearing on some of the infusorial earths used for polishing and other economic purposes; they added, moreover, largely to our knowledge of the microscopic organisms of certain geological formations, especially of the chalk, and of the modern marine and freshwater accumulations. Until Ehrenberg took up the study it was not known that considerable masses of rock were composed of minute forms of animals or plants. He demonstrated also that the phosphorescence of the sea was due to organisms. He continued until late in life to investigate the microscopic organisms of the deep sea and of various geological formations. He died in Berlin on the 27th of June 1876.

PUBLICATIONS.--_Die Infusionsthierchen als vollkommene Organismen_ (2 vols. fol., Leipzig, 1838); _Mikrogeologie_ (2 vols. fol., Leipzig, 1854); and "Fortsetzung der mikrogeologischen Studien," in _Abhandl. der k. Akad. der Wissenschaft_ (Berlin, 1875).