Abdallahi ibn Muhammad

Abdullah Ibn-Mohammed or Abdullah al-Taaisha, also known as "The Khalifa" (Arabic: c. عبدالله بن سيد محمد خليفة‎; 1846 – November 25, 1899) was a Sudanese Ansar General and ruler.

Early years

Abdullah was born into the Ta'aisha Baqqara tribe in Darfur around 1846 and was trained and educated as a preacher and holy man. He became a follower of Mohammed Ahmed "the Mahdi" in the 1870s and was named Khalifa by the Mahdi in 1881, becoming one of his chief lieutenants.^[1] The other Kalifas were Ali wad Hilu and Muhammad Sharif.^[2] He was given command of a large part of the Mahdist army, and during the next four years led them in a series of victories over the Anglo-Egyptians.^[1] He fought at the Battle of El Obeid, where William Hicks's Anglo-Egyptian army was destroyed (November 5, 1883), and was one of the principal commanders at the siege of Khartoum, (February 1884 - January 26, 1885).^[3]

Mahdist leader

After the unexpected death of the Mahdi, Abdullah succeeded as leader of the Mahdists on the death of the Mahdi in June 1885, declaring himself "Khalifat al-Mahdi", or successor of the Mahdi.^[1] He had to suppress several revolts in 1885-1886, 1888-1889, and 1891 before emerging as sole leader.^[3] At first the Mahdiyah was run on military lines as a jihad state, with the courts enforcing Sharia law and the precepts of the Mahdi, which had equal force. Later the Khalifa established a more traditional administration.^[4]

The Khalifa invaded Ethiopia with 60,000 Ansar troops and sacked Gondar in 1887. He later refused to make peace.^[4] He successfully repulsed the Ethiopians at the Battle of Metemma on March 9, 1889, where the Ethiopian emperor Yohannes IV was killed.^[1] He created workshops to maintain steam boats on the Nile and to manufacture ammunition.^[4] In the 1890s his state became strained economically, and suffered from crop failures. The Sudan became threatened by Italian, French and British imperial forces which surrounded it. In 1896, an Anglo-Egyptian army under General Herbert Kitchener began the reconquest of the Sudan.^[1]

Defeat and death

Following the loss of Dongola in September 1896, then Berber and Abu Hamed to Kitchener's army in 1897, the Khalifa Abdullah sent an army that was defeated at the battle of Atbara River (April 8, 1898), afterwards falling back on Omdurman. At the Battle of Omdurman on 2 September 1898 his army of 52,000 men was destroyed. He then fled south and went into hiding with a few followers but was finally caught and killed by Sir Reginald Wingate's Egyptian column at Umm Diwaikarat in Kordofan on November 25, 1899.^[5]

Devout, intelligent, and an able general and administrator, the Khalifa was unable to overcome tribal dissension to unify Sudan, and was forced to employ Egyptians to provide the trained administrators and technicians he needed to maintain his self-proclaimed Islamist military dictatorship.^[3]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Lipschutz & Rasmussen 1989, pp. 1.
2. ^ Spiers 1998, pp. 207.
3. ^ ^{a b c} Lewis 1987.
4. ^ ^{a b c} Fadlalla 2004, pp. 29.
5. ^ Fadlalla 2004, pp. 30-31.

Sources

• Fadlalla, Mohamed H. (2004). Short History of Sudan. iUniverse. ISBN 0595314252. http://books.google.ca/books?id=dymO_3uCQagC&pg=PA29. 
• Lewis, David Levering (1987). "Khalifa, Khedive, and Kitchener". The Race for Fashoda. New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 1-55584-058-2. 
• Lipschutz, Mark R.; Rasmussen, R. Kent (1989). Dictionary of African historical biography. University of California Press. ISBN 0520066111. http://books.google.ca/books?id=QYoPkk04Yp4C&pg=PA1. 
• Spiers, Edward M. (1998). Sudan: the reconquest reappraised. Routledge. ISBN 0714647497. http://books.google.ca/books?id=pfe-8_bFX3IC&pg=PA207. 

Persondata
Name	Muhammad, Abdallahi ibn
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1846
Place of birth
Date of death	November 25, 1899
Place of death