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An epic first hand account of high adventure The Victorian age was notable for the appearance of gentleman soldiers of fortune in the imperial world and there could be no more exotic and exceptional example of that than the author of this book, Rudolf Slatin. The son of a Viennese merchant, he went to Egypt to work as a bookseller's assistant in Cairo in the early 1870s. He travelled extensively through Egypt and the Sudan and made the acquaintance of the remarkable general, Charles Gordon. After a period of Austrian military service, Slatin returned to Africa at Gordon's invitation. He arrived in early 1879 and after a meteoric rise in career fortunes he secured, in 1881, the governor-generalship of Darfur with the rank of 'bey.' He then engaged in an extended war with the Mahdists, with considerable initial success, but after the annihilation of Hicks Pasha's force eventually surrendered to Mahdists in 1883. Slatin, who had converted to Islam, was taken to the now besieged Khartoum to induce Gordon to capitulate. This failed and the city and country fell, Gordon's severed head was displayed before him and Slatin entered into a period of eleven years captivity in the hands of the Khalifa. He was treated cruelly and indulgently by turns-sometimes employed upon essential services, sometimes a prisoner in the literal sense. In 1895, he eventually escaped and reached Aswan in Egypt after a perilous, 1,000 km journey across the desert. Slatin was appointed 'Pasha' by the Khedive and a host of honours were heaped upon him by the British and others. Subsequently he rejoined the Egyptian Army and was present for the final defeat of the Mahdists at Omdurman. This book, written by Slatin immediately after his escape, is a remarkable account of endurance and fortitude and provides us with a unique insight into events rarely reported by European witnesses. Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.… (més)
AndreasJ: Slatin was an eyewitness to the rise of the Mahdist state, Churchill to its downfall.
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Slatin was an Austrian officer in the service of the Egyptian government in the Sudan, who got caught up in the Mahdist rebellion. Leading the government forces in Darfur until forced to capitulate, he became a captive, and involuntary adviser, of the Mahdi. After being caught trying to communicate with the government forces in Khartoum he was for a while thrown in irons; being eventually pardoned he ended up in a curious position in the entourage of the Mahdi's successor, Abdullahi*. Valued for his knowledge of Egyptian affairs and European languages, as well as his watchmaking skills, he was also deeply mistrusted, because he was quite correctly suspected of lacking sympathy with the Mahdist cause, and of plotting to escape, which he finally did, with the help of the British and Austrian delegations in Cairo, in 1895, after twelve years' captivity. After the overthrow of the Mahdist state, he returned to the Sudan as an administrator in Anglo-Egyptian service until the First World War.
The book is a memoir covering the time from his stationing in the Sudan in 1879 until his escape in 1895. You can't accuse him of being an excellent writer, but it's an invaluable historical source and very interesting as an insider's view.
Towards the end of the book he makes some recommendations about how the outside world should act towards the Mahdist state; in short, he calls for invasion and reestablishment of Egyptian control. This is of course approximately what happened, and his appeal has been credited with swaying opinion in the British government towards action. He was quite wrong, however, in supposing that the Mahdist troops had lost their fanaticism and would not strongly defend Abdullahi's cause - in the event, they generally resisted Kitchener's forces with suicidal courage.
* Often known as "the Khalifa". The title means simply "Successor", sc. of the Mahdi, and is of course the same as "caliph", the title of Muhammed's successors. Why the older anglicization isn't used in the Mahdist case I do not know.
An epic first hand account of high adventure The Victorian age was notable for the appearance of gentleman soldiers of fortune in the imperial world and there could be no more exotic and exceptional example of that than the author of this book, Rudolf Slatin. The son of a Viennese merchant, he went to Egypt to work as a bookseller's assistant in Cairo in the early 1870s. He travelled extensively through Egypt and the Sudan and made the acquaintance of the remarkable general, Charles Gordon. After a period of Austrian military service, Slatin returned to Africa at Gordon's invitation. He arrived in early 1879 and after a meteoric rise in career fortunes he secured, in 1881, the governor-generalship of Darfur with the rank of 'bey.' He then engaged in an extended war with the Mahdists, with considerable initial success, but after the annihilation of Hicks Pasha's force eventually surrendered to Mahdists in 1883. Slatin, who had converted to Islam, was taken to the now besieged Khartoum to induce Gordon to capitulate. This failed and the city and country fell, Gordon's severed head was displayed before him and Slatin entered into a period of eleven years captivity in the hands of the Khalifa. He was treated cruelly and indulgently by turns-sometimes employed upon essential services, sometimes a prisoner in the literal sense. In 1895, he eventually escaped and reached Aswan in Egypt after a perilous, 1,000 km journey across the desert. Slatin was appointed 'Pasha' by the Khedive and a host of honours were heaped upon him by the British and others. Subsequently he rejoined the Egyptian Army and was present for the final defeat of the Mahdists at Omdurman. This book, written by Slatin immediately after his escape, is a remarkable account of endurance and fortitude and provides us with a unique insight into events rarely reported by European witnesses. Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.
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The book is a memoir covering the time from his stationing in the Sudan in 1879 until his escape in 1895. You can't accuse him of being an excellent writer, but it's an invaluable historical source and very interesting as an insider's view.
Towards the end of the book he makes some recommendations about how the outside world should act towards the Mahdist state; in short, he calls for invasion and reestablishment of Egyptian control. This is of course approximately what happened, and his appeal has been credited with swaying opinion in the British government towards action. He was quite wrong, however, in supposing that the Mahdist troops had lost their fanaticism and would not strongly defend Abdullahi's cause - in the event, they generally resisted Kitchener's forces with suicidal courage.
* Often known as "the Khalifa". The title means simply "Successor", sc. of the Mahdi, and is of course the same as "caliph", the title of Muhammed's successors. Why the older anglicization isn't used in the Mahdist case I do not know.