CONFRONTING A CHRISTIAN NEIGHBOR: SUDANESE REPRESENTATIONS OF ETHIOPIA IN THE EARLY MAHDIST PERIOD, 1885–89

2009/04/07 by Iris Seri‐Hersch · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #African history and culture analysis #Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics #Colonialism, slavery, and trade #Emperor #Ancient history #Period (music) #Islam #History #Nile delta #Geography #Archaeology #Art

paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s0020743809090655

openalex publication_date 2009/04/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02

Abstract

This is how Ismaʿil bin ʿAbd al-Qadir, a Mahdist chronicler of late 19th-century Sudan, gave a broad Islamic significance to the defeat of Ethiopian armies by Mahdist forces at al-Qallabat in March 1889. Culminating in the death of Emperor Yohannes IV, the four-year confrontation between Mahdist Sudan and Christian Ethiopia (1885–89) had repercussions that transcended the local setting, reaching far into the intertwined history of Sudan, Ethiopia, and European imperialism in the Nile Valley and Red Sea regions.

Citations

• Muslim Societies in African History

Cited by

• Mahdist State [wikipedia]

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