Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations, Figures & Maps
- Acknowledgements
- Glossary
- Egyptian Army Ranks & Turkish Honorifics
- Transliteration Note & List of Abbreviations
- Introduction: ‘Ali Jifun's Fashoda Homecoming
- 1 “Backbone of the Egyptian Army”
- 2 “Servants of His Highness the Khedive”
- 3 “Flavour of Domesticity”
- 4 “Brotherhood that Binds the Brave”
- 5 “Tea with the Khalifa”
- Epilogue: Mutiny at Omdurman
- Bibliography
- Index
1 - “Backbone of the Egyptian Army”
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations, Figures & Maps
- Acknowledgements
- Glossary
- Egyptian Army Ranks & Turkish Honorifics
- Transliteration Note & List of Abbreviations
- Introduction: ‘Ali Jifun's Fashoda Homecoming
- 1 “Backbone of the Egyptian Army”
- 2 “Servants of His Highness the Khedive”
- 3 “Flavour of Domesticity”
- 4 “Brotherhood that Binds the Brave”
- 5 “Tea with the Khalifa”
- Epilogue: Mutiny at Omdurman
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
It must be just as obvious to you as it is to me – speaking as an enthusiast regarding the future and with the practical experience of the fighting qualities of Black (Sudanese) troops – one can foresee an enormous acquisition of fighting strength by any Major Power whose influence is paramount in the Sudan – just as we utilise our Indian Troops to fight outside of India, so will the power holding the Sudan be capable of raising a large army of some of the best fighting material in the world, for use outside the Sudan – of course this is looking a long way ahead, but it is a point that should not be lost sight of, in considering the ultimate fate of the Sudan and it would be a pity to let others into the Sudan, when the game is practically in our own hands.
F. R. Wingate to J. J. Leverson 5 January 1890Whereas historians have tended to ignore, or understate, the contributions of Sudanese soldiers, Francis Reginald Wingate never did. He understood better than most the important military role they served in the Nile Valley, and could potentially occupy throughout the British Empire. The Upper Nile's hydrostrategic importance to Britain in terms of Egypt and the Suez Canal notwith-standing, for Wingate and the War Office that “wretched stuff ” of Sudan's Bahr al-Ghazal, as Lord Salisbury once referred to the region, also possessed those “martial races” that might prove useful in protecting British interests in Africa and elsewhere, and conversely, might otherwise be employed by rival Powers were “the ultimate fate of the Sudan” to be otherwise.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Slaves of FortuneSudanese Soldiers and the River War, 1896-1898, pp. 11 - 43Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2011