The news spread
like wild-fire through the country: the Mahdi had arisen, the
Egyptians were destroyed. But it was clear to the little band of
enthusiasts at Abba Island that their position on the river was
no longer tenable. The Mahdi, deciding upon a second Hegira,
retreated south-westward, into the depths of Kordofan.
The retreat was a triumphal progress. The country, groaning under
alien misgovernment and vibrating with religious excitement,
suddenly found in this rebellious prophet a rallying-point, a
hero, a deliverer. And now another element was added to the
forces of insurrection. The Baggara tribes of Kordofan, cattle-
owners and slave-traders, the most warlike and vigorous of the
inhabitants of the Sudan, threw in their lot with the Mahdi.
Their powerful Emirs, still smarting from the blows of Gordon,
saw that the opportunity for revenge had come. A holy war was
proclaimed against the Egyptian misbelievers. The followers of
the Mahdi, dressed, in token of a new austerity of living, in the
'jibbeh', or white smock of coarse cloth, patched with variously
shaped and coloured patches, were rapidly organised into a
formidable army. Several attacks from Khartoum were repulsed; and
at last, the Mahdi felt strong enough to advance against the
enemy. While his lieutenants led detachments into the vast
provinces lying to the west and the south--Darfur and Bahr-el-
Ghazal--he himself marched upon El Obeid, the capital of
Kordofan.
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