Mahdist War

The Mahdist War was fought in Sudan from 1881 to 1899, beginning when the religious leader Muhammad Ahmad proclaimed himself the Mahdi and led a revolt against Turco-Egyptian rule, drawing on Sudanese resentment of heavy taxation, forced labor and foreign administration. Mahdist forces won a series of victories against Egyptian and, later, British-led forces, culminating in the fall of Khartoum in 1885 and the death of the British general Charles Gordon during its siege. The war continued under Muhammad Ahmad's successor, the Khalifa Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, until an Anglo-Egyptian reconquest campaign led by Lord Kitchener defeated the Mahdist army decisively at the Battle of Omdurman in 1898 and finished off the remaining resistance at Umm Diwaykarat in 1899. The war's end established Sudan as an Anglo-Egyptian condominium under effective British control, an arrangement that lasted until Sudanese independence in 1956.