British Infantryman vs Mahdist Warrior: Sudan 1884-98

In the early 1880s, Britain intervened in independent Egypt and seized control of the Suez Canal.

British forces were soon deployed to Egypt's southern colony, the Sudan, where they confronted a determined and capable foe amid some of the world's most inhospitable terrain. In 1881 an Islamic fundamentalist revolt had broken out, led by a religious teacher named Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah, who proclaimed himself al-Mahdi, 'The Guided One'. In 1884, Mahdist forces besieged the Sudanese capit...