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Philip Warner

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Dervish: The Rise and Fall of an African Empire Kindle Edition

by Philip Warner (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.1 26 ratings

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Dervish is the vivid and colourful story of one of the more remarkable episodes in the high Empire period of British history. The Mahdis rising in the Sudan in the 1880s starting as a localized Holy War against the decadent Turkish/Egyptian overlords, engulfed a million square miles of arid territory and forced the British Liberal Government to get involved after the early disasters of the Hicks expedition and Gordons death at Khartoum.The narrative, which makes excellent use of the first-hand diaries and reports, including those of Rider Haggards brother Andrew and of Father Ohrwalder (the Austrian missionary who spent ten years of captivity in the Mahdis camp), brilliantly describes the growth and strength of the Mahdist movement and the extraordinary devotion and discipline of the Dervish troops. Facing such opponents with stoic endurance were the British, Egyptian and Sudanese Negro soldiers, and the resulting military engagements evoked amazing feats of courage and derring-do on both sides.The Dervish Empire outlasted the Mahdi by thirteen years. It ended in the battle of Omdurman and Kitcheners reconquest of the Sudan, which was well supported by Reginald Wingates military intelligence operations. It lasted a comparatively brief span of time, but it had been established at the expense not only of the neighbouring Abyssinians but also of the European white man, at a time when Britain was approaching the zenith of its imperial power.Philip Warner is author of Passchendale and The Zeebrugge Raid and numerous other first rate histories. He wrote the biographies of Auchinleck and Horrocks. He was the military obituary writer of The Daily Telegraph for many years. In WW2 he was a POW of the Japanese for 1,000 days. He died in 2000.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"…vivid and colorful story of one of the more remarkable episodes in the “high Empire” period of British history…makes excellent use of the first hand diaries and reports…brilliantly describes the growth and strength of the Madhi movement and the extraordinary devotion and discipline of the Dervish troops."
Spartacus Review

About the Author

Philip Warner (1914-2000) enlisted in the Royal Corps of Signals after graduating from St Catherine's, Cambridge in 1939. He fought in Malaya and spent 1,100 days as 'a guest of the Emperor' in Changi and on the Railway of Death, an experience he never discussed. He was a legendary figure to generations of cadets during his thirty years as a Senior Lecturer at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. Yet he will arguably be best remembered for his contribution of more than 2,000 obituaries of prominent army figures to The Daily Telegraph.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00KDS6FYO
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pen & Sword Military (April 14, 2010)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 14, 2010
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 19614 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 235 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #1,920,943 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #41 in History of Sudan
- #146 in Sudan History
- #531 in History of North Africa

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4.1 26 ratings

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David Bromley

A Military History of the 19th Century Mahdists in the Sudan

Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2006

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.

7 people found this helpful

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nickro

Interesting subject by bad writer

Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2008

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.

2 people found this helpful

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Kevin M Quigg

Civil War in the Sudan in the 1880s and 1890s.

Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2005

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.

8 people found this helpful

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C. P. J. Millhouse

The West vs Islam in a Different Era

Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2003

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.

4 people found this helpful

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John Buflod

Could Have Been Better

Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2005

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!

6 people found this helpful

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Bill McVey

Baggara and Hadendowa

Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2021

Dervish is a short military history of the Sudan during the Dervish dominance of 1881-1898 by the late eminent British historian, Philip Warner. This is not "dry" history, only the desert is dry in this enjoyable read. One finds marching, charging and suffering across these pages; Hicks Pasha, the Mahdi, Gordon (of course), Kitchener, the Kalifa , Osman Dinga, Churchill and Rudolf Slatin among many others including the redoubtable and irrepressible Tommy Atkins . This is not a history of a singular campaign but a military overview of the rise and fall of the Mahdist movement stretching over just under twenty years.

The author describes the cruelty, ferocity and courage of the Dervishes while crediting black Sudanese and Egyptian regiments, with their Remingtons, standing "toe to toe" against their fanatical onslaught. The reader will share the pulsing adrenaline of the Seaforths and Camerons as they assail the zariba at Atbara or in heated gunboat action on the Nile with future naval great, Lt David Beatty.
Hector MacDonald's, ( J Scott Skinner's Hector the Hero), 1st Egyptian Brigade boldly turning the Dervish tide at Omdurman and Winston Churchill's vivid and very personal description of the charge of the 21st Lancers quoted from his own personal writings (My Early Life) are gripping.

I realize that there have been important and more recent published works on this subject but this does not diminish the enjoyment derived from this read.

My copy was published in 1975 by Taplinger Publishing Company of New York. Recommended

2 people found this helpful

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Philip R Saunders

A Must for History Lovers

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 29, 2019

Verified Purchase

I read this book many years ago at my parents home and was impressed with it. So it is nice to have my own copy. If you like history then you'll enjoy this book which covers Gordon of Khartoum through to the battle of Omdurman. The Sudan back then was a Godforsaken hole which must have been hell for our troops. The Dervishes were fearless and skilful fighters and the British suffered a good few disasters before the final victory at Omdurman. It is well told and in some considerable detail making it consistently worth reading.

Amazon Customer

Ideal for the layman

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 3, 2019

Verified Purchase

I worked in Sudan for eight years and have read extensively about ‘the Mahadiyah’. I enjoyed ‘Dervish’ because of the insights it gives to conditions suffered by the Hicks Pasha Expedition and what life was like in the areas (especially Omdurman) controlled by the Khalifa’s rule.

Misspuddleduck

Faith in Battle

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 3, 2013

Verified Purchase

Worth reading and learning from these experiences. Other purchases that I have made reflect different viewpoints of this battle. Thoroughly enjoyed.

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