The Battle of El Obied between Anglo-Egyptian forces under the command of Lietenant-General William "Billy" Hicks and forces of Mohammed Ahmed, the self-proclaimed Mahdi, on a plain near the town of Al Ubayyid (El Obied) on November 3rd-5th, 1883. The battle is particularily infamous in British history, as it is the only instance of their defensive "square" being defeated in combat. Muhammad Ahmed ibn-Seyyid Abdullah (otherwise known as The Mahdi or Mohammed Ahmed) (1845 – 1885) was a Sudanese revolutionary. ... The Mahdi (Arabic: مهدي, also transliterated as: Mehdi or Mihdi; translated as: Guided One), in Islamic eschatology, is the prophesied redeemer of Islam, who will change the world into a perfect society before Yaum al-Qiyamah (literally Day of the Resurrection). The exact nature of the Mahdi differs between Sunni and... Al-Ubayyid (also El Obeid) is the capital of the state of North Kurdufan in central Sudan. ...

After the Mahdi retreated into Kordofan in 1881 he started to raise an army there and in Darfur. A force of 3,000 was sent to capture him, but he continued moving about and they were never able to find him. Over time his forces grew, and by 1883 British sources placed their size at 200,000, although that is almost certainly an overestimate. Kordofan is a former province of central Sudan. ... Darfur (Arabic دار فور, meaning home of the Fur) is a region of far western Sudan, bordering the Central African Republic, Libya, and Chad. ...

The Egyptian Governor, Reouf Pasha, decided that the only solution to the growing rebellion was a fight, and against the advice of his British advistors started to raise an army of his own. He hired a number of retired British generals to lead his force, placing them under the command of William "Billy" Hicks, who had experience in India and Abyssinia. The force initially stayed near Khartoum and met small portions of the Mahdist forces on April 29th, near the fort of Kawa, on the Nile, beating them off without too much trouble. Similar skimishes followed over the next few weeks. This article needs cleanup. ... Map of Sudan with Khartoum Khartoum ( الخرطوم al-Ḫarṭūm elephant trunk) is the capital of Sudan, as well as the capital of the state of Khartoum. ...

Later that summer they heard that the Mahdi himself was advancing on El Obied, a small town set up by the Egyptians some years earlier and now the capital of the Kordofan. Hicks decided to capture him, and planned an expedition from their current location at Duem on the Nile to El Obied, about 200 miles away. The so-called Kordofan expedition was made up of about 8,000 Egyptian regulars, 1,000 bashi-bazouks, 100 tribal irregulars, and 2,000 camp followers. They carried supplies for 50 days on an immense baggage train consisting of 5,000 camels. A bashi-bazouk (in Turkish başıbozuk, meaning disorganized, leaderless) was an irregular soldier of the Ottoman army. ...

Their guides led them astray, and after marching for some time they were set upon by the entire Mahdist army on November 3rd. The Egyptian forces quickly formed into a defensive square. According to reports published in England soon after, the square held for two days before finally collapsing. About one-third of the Egyptian soldiers surrendered and were later freed, while all the officers were killed. Apparently only two or three Europeans survived.

After the battle the Mahdist army continied their march on El Obied, capturiting it soon after and making it a center for operations for some time. Their success also emboldened Osman Digna, who's Beja tribesmen, the so-called fuzzy-wuzzies, joined the rebellion from their lands on the Red Sea coast. Location of the Red Sea The Red Sea (Arabic البحر الأحمر Baḥr al-Aḥmar, al-Baḥru l-’Aḥmar; Hebrew ים סוף Yam Suf; Tigrigna ቀይሕ ባሕሪ QeyH baHri) is a gulf or basin of the Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia. ...