DERVISH: The Rise And Fall Of An African Empire.

orange & brown hardbound 8vo. 8º (octavo). dustwrapper in protective plastic book jacket cover. fine cond. binding square & tight. covers clean. edges clean. contents free of markings. dustwrapper in fine cond. not worn or torn or price clipped. nice clean copy. no library markings or store stamps, no stickers or bookplates, no names, no inking , no underlining, no remainder markings etc ~. first U.S. edition. first printing ( FPu US1975 & nap ). 235p. footnotes throughout. 24 glossy b&w illustrations. 5 b&w maps. appendix. index. world history. british empire. history of egypt. history of sudan. rudolf slatin pasha. khartoum. general gordon. lord kitchener. omdurman. blue nile. white nile. mohammed ahmed ibn al~sayid abdullah (the mahdi). ~At the zenith of British colonial power, a local Holy War against the tyranny of Turkish/Egyptian overlords, led by a Sudanese religious leader called the Mahdi, spread in the 1880s to engulf a million square miles of arid desert territory. The Mahdi, whose name means one who guides, was a dynamic, charismatic leader and the fanatical zeal which he instilled in the Dervish forces that followed him eventually caused a confrontation that marked a most extraordinary episode in British political and military history. Aided by the rivalry that existed between the English and French colonial governments, the Mahdi took decisive action to stake his claim as a Messiah who would free his people from their oppressors, defeating an Egyptian force and then, in 1883, an Anglo~Egyptian force. Eventually, after a gruelling campaign, the Dervish soldiers who survived the Mahdi were overcome by a charge of the 21st Lancers which happened to include a young lieutenant named Winston Churchill. Illustrated with interesting photographs and plates, Mr. Warner's reconstruction of this conflict draws on firsthand diaries and reports to evoke the many amazing feats of courage and resourcefulness common to both sides.…