Customer Reviews

Dervish (Wordsworth Military Library)

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As the recent conflicts in both Afghanistan and Iraq show, the West has had to confront Islamic fundamentalism throughout its history. In the 1880s, the Mahdi rose to prominence as the hidden Iman and confronted both British and Egyptian Imperialism in the Sudan. The British Prime Minister withdrew from the region rather than confront the threat. For close to 15 years, most of the Sudan was ruled by the Mahdi and his successor Khalifa. During those years, many atrocities were committed in the Sudan including slavery and cruel punishment for those who didn't believe. When Britain decided to re-engage in the Sudan, it was only because the French were exploring the area. This is the jist of Warner's book.
As one of the previous reviewers has already noted, this book is a Western perspective and so perhaps is the slant on the cause of the Mahdi. The military campaigns were well detailed, but there is too little perspective from the other side. This is the only criticism of this book.

This book covers one of the more fascinating events of the 19th century--the rise of the Sudanese Mahdist Empire--solely in the terms of the series of Anglo-Egyptian expeditions to crush it. While one-sided histories aren't always bad, this one just sort of falls flat. There are better sources on the Mahdists and I'd recommend looking over this one unless you are solely interested in the military aspects [the British ones]. The maps were also of little use as they were zoomed out so much that the book's locales are hardly distinguishable--despite them being divided by great distances!

The book is fairly short and is illustrated with some black and white plates of the Mahdi, Slatin and the young Winston Churchill (slightly blurred) and a few small maps of the area and one or two of the main battles. It largely deals with the rise to power and eventual downfall of the religious and political leader termed the 'Mahdi' in late-19th century Sudan. It focuses particularly on military matters and uses some original sources including the diaries of British army officers involved in the fighting, plus some autobiographies and other writings such as that of Wingate, Slatin and of Fr Ohrwalder, an Austrian missionary captured by the Mahdists and imprisoned in their camp. The descriptions of the conditions and of the various battles are vivid and the author has tried to paint a balanced view, but also gives much detail of the routes followed by the armies and of the tactics employed. I thought that it also had fascinating detail on how the Mahdi became influential and the mistakes made by his adversaries. It is undoubtedly less detailed than some books on the Mahdist era, and the description of the final battle at Omdurman was less of a dramatic climax than I had expected. Overall it is good value for the price and was an interesting read.

First off I am not a book critic. My immediate observations about this book are that it is;
poorly written, disjointed, rambling, with a smattering of incoherent sentence structures that leaves you wondering just what he is talking about
. At times a jolly good read if you could deduce where they are and how they got there at any given time. What date it is anyway! What came first? Did, this chap die 20 pages ago or not? Most of the places mentioned are not on the map. (You will need a magnifying glass to read it) There is scant little development on the main participants and too much information on minor officers and men who die at a particular battle but have never been mentioned at all before.
There may be some good history here but you will need to keep a scorecard ready to follow any chronological order. It seems clear that a good ( OBJECTIVE) book on this subject could not be accomplished in less then 700 pages.

The West has fought with Islamic fundamentalists before: in the Sudan in between about 1880 and 1998. This book tells that story. As general history it's OK but for the military detail it is somewhat lacking. There is also an annoying tendancy to a Tarentino-esque timeline. Great in Pulp Fiction (and Lord of the Rings as it happens) but well executed in this case. Many of the big names of WW1 got their start in this ugly series of wars. Logistics reigned supreme and tactics were relegated to frontal attacks along lines of communication.