The Battle of Umm Diwaykarat on November 24, 1899 marked the final obliteration of Muhammad Ahmad's short-lived Sudanese empire, when Anglo-Egyptian forces under the command of Lord Kitchener wiped out what was left of the Mahdist armies under the command of the Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, known as the Khalifa, after the equally disastrous Battle of Omdurman a year earlier. November 24 is the 328th day (329th on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1899 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Muhammad Ahmad ibn as Sayyid Abd Allah (otherwise known as The Mahdi or Mohammed Ahmed) (12 August 1844–June 22, 1885) was a Muslim religious leader, a faqir, in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. ... ... Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum (June 24, 1850 - June 5, 1916) was a British Field Marshal and statesman. ... Abdullah Ibn-Mohammed or Abdullah et Taaisha ( 1846 – November 24, 1899), also known as The Khalifa was a Sudanese Dervish General and ruler. ... Khalifa (خليفة ) is Arabic for stewardship of nature and family, and is a key obligation of a Muslim. ... At the Battle of Omdurman (September 2, 1898) an army commanded by the British General Sir Horatio Kitchener defeated the army of the successor to the self-proclaimed Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad, Abdullah al-Taashi. ...

After Omdurman the defeated Mahdist forces, still 25,000 strong, retreated southward from Khartoum to Kordofan. The Mahdists still controlled the territory of Kordofan, Darfur and lands bordering Ethiopia. In October 1899 the British obtained information that the Khalifa and his forces were among his native Baqqara to the west of Kusti (Kaka) in Kordofan. Kitchener dispached 8,000 soldiers under command of general F.R. Wingate to intercept him. Wingate marched from Kusti to the mountains of Kordofan, destroyed a Mahdist supply unit, and soon located the Khalifa's camp. Map of Sudan with Khartoum Map of Khartoum with Ohmdurman and Bahri Khartoum (Arabic الخرطوم al-Ḫarṭūm elephant trunk) is the capital of Sudan, as well as the capital of the state of Khartoum. ... Darfur (Arabic دار فور, meaning home of the Fur) is a region of far western Sudan, bordering the Central African Republic, Libya, and Chad. ... 1899 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... The Baggara or Baqqarah are a nomadic Bedouin people inhabiting the Darfur region of western Sudan and Chad. ...

By this time the Khalifa's Sudanese forces had retained at least 10,000 people. The Khalifa decided to make a stand against the British rather than to retreat further. During the night Wingate approached the camp from the east and the north sides. At about 5am the Mahdist's began to attack the approaching British, but were driven back by withering fire from Maxim guns. The Khalifa's attempts to rally his men failed, and he soon accepted that all was lost. He called his main leaders to sit with him on a farwa – a yeanling skin. According to tradition, defeated Muslim generals who refuse to surrender sit on this skin to wait for death. His guards protected him, but all were mown down by British fire. An early Maxim gun in operation with the Royal Navy The Maxim gun was the first self-acting machine gun. ...

The Mahdist losses were around 1,000 killed and wounded. The British captured most of the rest, including Osman, the son of the Khalifa, and a son of Emir Yuni.

The remnants of the Mahdists continued to resist for a short while under Omar Digba, but he was caught in January 1900. The last free territories of Darfur were captured in 1916. 1900 is a common year starting on Monday. ... 1916 is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January-February January 1 -The first successful blood transfusion using blood that had been stored and cooled. ...

Bibliography

• Daniel Gazda, Powstanie Mahdiego 1881-1899 (English: Mahdi uprising 1881-1899), (Warsaw: 2004), pages 197-199.