Organization and Uniforms
of the Mahdist Armies
1883-1898

Introduction

by Doug Johnson
Illustrations by Greg Rose

The Mahdist army was essentially a collection of regional armies. With the capture first of El Obeid in 1883, and then of Khartoum in 1885, a central administration was established and the various regional armies were officered, organized, reinforced and coordinated by the central government. in the early years (1883-5) Mahdist commanders in various parts of the country had to count mainly on the warriors they could raise locally.

After Hicks' defeat at Shaykan in 1883 the Mahdi was able to send reinforcements to other areas, but it was not until after the fall of Khartoum that the regional armies could be fully co-ordinated. Until then the bulk of the Mahdist army was to be found where the Mahdi was, whether that was in Kordofan or surrounding Khartoum. Butevenatthe height of the Madhiyya at the end of the 1880s, when the Mahdists could field an army of 80,000 men, the distances involved and difficulty of communications meant that the territorial nature of most of the Mahdist armies was never fully overcome. Thus the armies could not be regarded as uniform, frequently arming themselves and recruiting locally as best the could.

This article will give a brief account of the organization of the various Mahdist armies that fought the Egyptian and British armies between 1883-98. Numbers and percentages are only approximate (where they are not outright guesses!)

More Mahdist Armies 1883-1898

More Sudan

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