intolerable state of things, and when the Mahdi raised the flag of rebellion the oppressed people, whether Pagans or Moslems, flocked around him. The best war cry for a rebellion in any part of the world is a religious one, and the Mahdi shrewdly proclaimed himself the divine messenger. Not long after his trial and banishment to Ceylon, Arabi Pasha said to an English visitor: "Rely on it, if Ceylon had been governed like the Soudan, you would have had your Mahdi to deal with; and had the Soudan been governed like Ceylon, we should never have heard of the Mahdi."
The time which the Mahdi had selected for rising was after the garrisons of the Soudan had been diminished for economical reasons. In July, 1881, the attention of Raouf Pasha, Governor-General of the Soudan, was drawn to the Mahdi's claims and demands, and he sent a commission of inquiry from Khartoum to see the Mahdi at Marabieh, and learn the exact state of affairs. On the return of this commission, it was decided to send a military force of about 200 men to bring the Mahdi to Khartoum. The expedition started early in 1882, and reached the residence of the Mahdi, where it was attacked and defeated by his followers, 120 men and 2 officers being killed or captured. Another expedition met the same fate, being driven back with loss, and in June, 1882, Yussuf Pasha's army of the Soudan of 6,000 men was practically destroyed, all the soldiers, save a few hundreds, being killed or captured. The Mahdi then took the offensive; he attacked Bara, but was repulsed, and three times he attacked El Obeid, the capital of Kordofan. Finally, he captured Bara, and then El Obeid surrendered, most of the Egyptian garrison taking service with their captor.
On the 20th February, 1883, the Pashas Ala-ed-Deen and Suleiman Nyasi arrived at Khartoum. The latter was to take command of the troops; the duties of the former were not announced, though it was whispered that he was
