[align=left]The Memoirs of Babikr Bedri-cntd
But then he travelled to the Mahdi, taking with him another poem, among whose lines were:
In Aba he appeared at God's behest,
For with the Mahdi God hath Aba blessed.
and at the end:
Izayriq prays forgiveness for his part
From him who knows the secrets of the heart
Hoping for pardon in the Prophet's name
And those who from the Prophet's loins came
My foul denial was a grievous sin
But now no evil thought can enter in
He went with this to the Mahdi at al-Rahad. My father was with him and told me later that when they were watching the Mahdi on his camel acknowledging the allegiance of the people, he said to al-Izayriq, `Reverend sir, I am ignorant and you are learned. Tell me, shall I believe that this man is the Expected Mahdi?
'I know not what to say concerning him,' he replied. `But, son of Bedri'-and here he fingered his beard to give force to his words-'at the end the English will rule you all.' When al-Izayriq returned from this journey he was murdered by Salim, as I have said; and may God have ample mercy on his soul.
CHAPTER 2
The Mahdia. The Siege of Khartoum
I
HAD left MadanY, not intending to return, at a time when our teacher's mosque was full of students, because al-SharSf Ahmad Taha, l whose village was near by, had risen against the Government in the name of the Mahdia. My people had been anxious about me, and had told me to come back and live in Rufa'a, against my wish and that of our teacher. Al-Sharif Ahmad Taha fought the government troops twice, and killed many of them; but at the third time Shaykh `Awad alKarim Abu Sinn and Shaykh Hamad al-Nil al-`Araki Z sided with. the Government. They advised al-Sharif to surrender, but he refused, and in the event was killed. Because of this the Mahdi wrote to Shaykh `Awad al-Karim and Shaykh Hamad al-Nil saying, `You have killed the son of Taha-a setback to the faith and a triumph for the unbelievers. Know well that you shall hear of this later.' 3
Well, I returned to Rufa`a. While I was there my brother Sa`id married Amina the daughter of al-Hajj al-Hasan, and one day when I was going to visit him I went by way of the house of our neighbour Zahra', who had asked me to look in on her. She was lying down, and said to me, `My stomach hurts me. Give me a charm for it, Faki Babikr'; but when I sat down on the bed and laid my finger on her she rolled over and sat on my knee, and began to make love to me. I pushed her off and went on my way, and when I reached home I prayed the evening prayer as prayer-leader. But when I had gone to bed I felt an urge to go to Zahra'. Desire vanquished me, and 1 went to her
i Ahmad Taha. an important faki in the territory east of the Blue Nile, and a leader of the Sammaniyya religious order (Fariqa), to which the Mahdi originally belonged. His title, al-Sharif, implying a claim to descent from the Prophet, was not uncommon in established holy families.
2 Hamad al-Nil al-Rayyah al-`Araki (d. 1894). Another of the leading fakis of the Blue Nile and a member of an old holy family. He subsequently became a follower of the Mahdi. See Hill, Biographical Dictionary.
3 And indeed they did, as both died in the prison of the Khalifa'Abdallahi, the successor of the Mahdi.
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and found her alone. She was glad to see me, and made me free of her body.
Then she said, `Who told you I went in for this sort of thing?? 'You told me yourself,' I said; and she laughed. At that moment my uncle Muhammad `Ali Hamad al-Sid knocked at the door; and she went out to him, and when I gathered that it was he I coughed, so that he should know I was there.
`Who is with you?' he asked her. `My brother al-Tamim,' she said.
I dressed ready for the street and waited for her `Where are you going? she said.
`That was my uncle,' I replied. `Perhaps other men will be coming too.' And off I went.
In the morning I told my mother all that had happened between me and Zahra' and my uncle Muhammad `Ali, and she cried, `Alas, alas, alas! By the life of my son Sa'id, that woman is doing the upside-down trick that the hippopotamus does with her young son!' 1 and she spat on the ground. T did not see Zahra' again until after I returned with my mother from swearing allegiance to the Mahdi, with whom be God's peace. Then she visited us, and held out her hand to me, but I refused to take it. She was surprised, and said reprovingly, `May God remember this against you!' After that-I tell you truly-I tasted no woman out of wedlock.
to come back.
During this time I was studying again under Faki Yusuf Muhammad Ni'ma, and continued to do so until the Halawin joined the Mahdia, when their shaykh Muhammad al-Basir 2 responded to the call of the Mahdi, with whom be God's peace, and broke with the Government when his men killed the soldier in the Halawiyyun market, and cut the telegraph. Shaykh `Abdallah `Awad al-Karim3 at Rufa'a also rebelled openly, in despite of his father, Shaykh `Awad al-Karim Abu Sinn, who
1 The female hippopotamus was supposed to copulate with her foal. The author's mother is referring to the disparity of age.
2 Muhammad al-Tayyib al-Basir (d, i9o8). One of the Mahdi's principal followers in the early stages of the Mahdia, and his agent in the Jazira. See Hill, Biographical Dictionary, 275.
3 `Abdallah `Awad al-Karim Abu Sinn (d. igz3). Son of `Awad al-Karim Pasha (p. S). A schism in chiefly families between supporters and opponents of the Mahdi, of which the different attitudes adopted by `Abdallah and his father are an example, was not an uncommon phenomenon during the Mahdia. Subsequently, under the Condominium, `Abdallah was chief of the Shukriyya from 1902 until his death. See Hill, Biographical Dictionary,
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was supporting the Government in the Butana.l Then I put on the jubba2 and devoted myself both outwardly and inwardly to the Mahdist cause, as did my mother also, though my father, and my teachers merely made a show of doing so. And I exposed myself in the attacks on the government steamers without precautions, longing for martyrdom. Indeed, when our commander Shaykh `Abdallah `Awad al-Karim heard of it he put a guard on me until the steamers had passed.
Now Shaykh Muhammad al-Basir told Shaykh `Abdallah `Awad alKarim to take his men and besiege Salih's3 fortified camp from the east. I think Shaykh `Abdallah was not entirely whole-hearted at first, because he ordered us to march, and came with us for a bit, but then said, `Look here, go on to the village of al-`Aribab and then return to me, so that the men may not be exposed to rifle-fire.' But the distance between al-`Aribab and Fadasi, where Salih was, is twice the distance between Rufa'a and a1-`ArYbab. So when I saw that he was half-hearted I left him and went to the camp of Ahmad al-Basir (who had seen the Mahdi) and joined in the attack from the west. I took part in two engagements, in the first of which we reached the thorn fence surrounding Salih's camp, and pulled up some of it; but then the steamer opened fire on us from the river, and we had to retire, leaving many of our dead, and the enemy's.
Then Muhammad al-Basir heard that Shaykh `Awad al-Karim Abu Sinn had mustered the Shukriyya and was advancing to occupy the east bank of the river opposite Salih's camp, and he sent urgently to `Abdallah, who got there before his father and occupied it himself. When Salih saw what had happened he sent to Shaykh al-`Ubayd4 to come and intervene to persuade the Halawiyyun to accept the terms of truce which Salih was offering. But really he wanted to keep him as a hostage in the camp, so that just as he could insure himself through Shaykh Hamad al-Nil against attack by the `Arakiyyun, and against that of the Shukriyya through Shaykh `Abd al-llah and Abu `Aqla, he could gain immunity from the men of al-Masallamiyya through Shaykh al-`Ubayd, and thus make both banks of the Nile safe for his return to Khartoum.
1 The area between the Blue Nile and the River Atbara.
2 This was the long, patched shirt adopted by the Mahdists as a uniform. The patches were to indicate disregard for the things of this world.
3 Salih Pasha al-IVIakk (c. i 8z8-9o). An officer of the irregular cavalry recruited among the Ghaydiyya, who served the Turco-Egyptian administration as a kind of gendarmerie and tax-collectors. He played an important part in operations against the Mahdi's followers in the Jazira. In 18 84 he surrendered to Muhammad al-Tayyib al-Basir, and was imprisoned until after the fall of Khartoum. See Hill, Biographical Dictionary, 3 z 8-9.
4`Libayd walad Badr was one of the leading fakis of the Blue Nile region. He subsequently played an important part in the siege of Khartoum. See Hill, Biographical Dictionary, zs3, under Muhammad Badr al-'Ubaid.
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When Shaykh al-`Ubayd reached the river, Salih sent him his steamer to bring him to the camp, but al-`Ubayd made his famous reply: `Prickety prank, I stop on the bank. i No mouse am I, to a hole to hie. I'm Rayyah's son, and know what's good to be done. I'm not like Tiray$'s son (Hamad al-Nil), who thought he had wit, but his tent-pegs split. Save yourself by surrender, and if you don't surrender, .Abu Qarja's 2 on his way now, to put an end to the row.'
Shaykh al-`Ubayd returned to Rufa'a, and when Abu Qarja arrived with artillery Salih was sorry, and sent for Shaykh al-`Ubayd again; but he had already left Rufa'a and returned home. (Later, it was to him that Salih surrendered.) But now Salih returned by steamer to Khartoum and Halfaya 3 with his troops. Then Abu Qarja marched with his army to besiege Khartoum, and the whole of the Jazira except Khartoum and Sinnar submitted to the Mahdia.
At this time I and my mother (I took her at her urgent request) journeyed to the Mahdi, full of single-hearted devotion and eager desire. I had known him, as I said, and believed in him when he used to visit Rufa'a to see his relatives, accompanied by his disciples and deacons, with their shining faces and spotless clothes. Often when we were students we would attend the sunset prayer with him and listen to him reciting the Koran in his reverent, humble voice. Once when he was reciting the Chapter of the Calamity during the first part of the service, and when he came to the verse `A day will come when mankind will be as a cloud of scattered moths', he fell down unconscious in a trance, and one of his disciples came forward in his place to finish the prayer. I was among the worshippers, and when we left he was still unconscious.
1 Part of an old Sudanese riddle, referring to the shadow of the trees.
2 Mulianiniad `Uthman Abn Qarja (d. i 9 i 6). A Dunqulawi who served under al-Zubayr Ralima Mansur (see below, p. ioi, n. 3). He early became a follower of the Mahdi and one of his leading generals. In March 18 8¢ he was sent by the Mahdi to organize the siege of Khartoum, where operations had previously been conducted by local notables, such as Shaykh al-`Libayd. Ab6 Qarja remained a prominent figure throughout the Mahdia until 1892, when he was sent as commander to al-Rajjaf (see below, p. i9o, n.
. This was virtually exile, and he was soon displaced from his command. He was liberated by the Belgians in :897. See Hill, Biographical Dictionary, 279.
3 Halfaya (Halfayat al-Muluk, i.e. Hallaya of the Kings) was formerly the residence of the `Abdallab viceroys, who represented the Funj kings to the Arab and arabized tribes of the north. When the viceroyalty was extinguished, after the Turco-Egyptian conquest, Sh-ayqiyya, loyal to the new regime, were settled on the tribal lands of the `Abdallab.
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Well, my mother and I made our pilgrimage to him, accompanied by my relative Pasha, whose name the Mahdi (with whom be God's peace) changed to Muhammad Yusuf.l We found him in a1Hinayk camp, or in the village of that name just south of it.
While I was away, at the time when the Blue Nile came down in flood, the army of Khartoum made a sortie against Abu Qarja in the suburb of Bum, 2 and the steamers attacked from the river. Abu Qarja was defeated, and his two brothers were killed-Mustafa, and Nasr, who urged his horse (or perhaps his horse ran away with him) into the fortress well in front of the people, and was the first to be killed. Abu Qarja retired up the river to a position opposite Walad jar al-Nabi's village, about a day and a half by camel south of Khartoum, and while there he received a letter from the Mahdi saying, `Do not grieve at what has happened, when God wishes to single out the bad from the good, He places the bad upon the bad and piles it up together, and thrusts it all at last within our grasp.'
Abu Qarja remained there until Walad al-Nujumi s and `Abdallah alNur4 joined him, and they built quarters for the women and children halfway between Mahi Bey's Tree and Jiray£ 5 Then they resumed the siege of Khartoum, Walad al-Nujumi on the White Nile, `Abdallah alNur on the Blue Nile, and `Abdallah Jubara and Hajj Khalid al-`Llmarabi s in Khartoum North.
When I returned to RuFa'a from visiting the Mahdi, I found that my father had been among those summoned to the siege of Khartoum, and had directed me to look after the harvesting of our crops, and to deal with a large quantity of sesame which he had brought from Karkuj. But passion for the Holy War had mastered my mind, and I embarked my mother and my wife8 and my father's second wife and all the sesame in a boat which I had hired, and sailed to Jirayf, leaving my brother Musa Bedri and the slaves that were with him to work the farm. At Jirayf I disembarked and went to the camp by myself, and when my father saw me he was astonished.
`Why on earth have you come here? he said. `In whose care did you leave the farm??
'In God's care,' I replied. `The Holy War is more important than farming.'
Sensing the strength of my faith in the Mahdia and knowing the weakness of his own he said nothing, in case those sitting around should overhear what passed between us and suspect us of recreancy.
After a bit he asked, `Who has come with you??
'I left no one at home except Musa and the slaves.' `But what about the sesame??
'I've brought it with me.'
And he shook his head, whether in astonishment or admiration I do not know. But he lost no time in buying three store-rooms for the sesame, and wood and palm-leaf mats to build huts for us.
Next morning my father went to the boat with some boys of his acquaintance, but T went to the camp at al-Ghurqan, and did not return to my wife or father or brothers for two weeks. I was in the most advanced of the positions surrounding Khartoum, so that at night we could see the glow of the enemy's cigarettes and hear their conversation; nor could we leave our trenches in daylight to get water, but only at night.
Every Friday the army would be called out for review, and when it was over they would halt near the mosque area by `Abdallah al-Nur's house, which I wrongly thought was that of Walad al-Nujumi. Now one day there came a man called Muhammad al-Hajj Khalid the Rubatabi with a proclamation about those who had failed to come to the siege, saying that we should not intermarry with them or have any dealings with them, and that when one of them died we should not join in the funeral prayers for him, and finishing with the Koranic verse: `God the
1 The reason why the Mahdi changed the name would be that `Pasha', being a Turkish title, was unsuitable for a pious Muslim.
2 Outside the fortifications of Khartoum to the east.
3 'Abd al-Rahman al-Nujumi (d. i889). Of Ja'ali origin, he was an early adherent of the Mahdi, and became one of his most trusted generals. He commanded the vanguard of the Mahdist forces in the advance on Khartoum, which he reached in September t884. For a time he held the apparently unique title of amir al-umard', i.e. commander-in-chief. Like other Mahdist notables who originated from the riverain tribes (awldd al-balad), his career suffered a check after the accession of the Khalifa `Abdallalu in June 18 85. His last great exploit was the expedition against Egypt, ending in his death at the battle of Tushki (see below, pp. 6t-7S). See Hill, Biographical Dictionary, 17.
4 `Abdallah al-N& (d. c88s). Originating like Hamad al-Nil (see above, p. is, n. z) from the `Arakiyyfm tribe of the Jazira, he was the Mahdi's agent in co-ordinating risings against the Turco-Egyptian administration in Kordofan during 18
5 He was killed during the siege of Khartoum. See Hill, Biographical Dictionary, 7.
6 Both near Khartoum to the south, Mahi Bey's Tree (Gordon's Tree) on the White Nile, and Jirayf on the Blue Nile.
7 Khalid Ahmad al-`IImar-abi (18i8-i9oi). A prosperous and pious Ja'ali merchant, who made the pilgrimage to Mecca (hence his title, al-Hdjj) and was in touch with Muhammad Al,unad when the latter visited El Obeid before the announcement of the Mahdi. He retained his prestige throughout the Mahdia. See Hill, Biographical Dictionary,
8 It is significant that the author has not previously mentioned his marriage. His wife was older than he, and he had married her for family reasons.[/align]