Mahdists - but not to fight the Brits!

[James Morris]

I'm considering expanding my Italian/Ethiopian interests for the 1880s-90s, and was thinking of putting together a small Mahdist force suitable for the tangles with the Abyssinians (Battle of Gallabat etc) and Italians (Kassala etc.)   What would you expect to be the majority troop type in these armies?  I have a scenario book which suggests a fairly standard composition of Jihadiya (sp?) riflemen - though I don't know how effective these would be by the late 1880s/1890s, Beja, Ansar and a few Baggara horse.  Any thoughts would be gratefully received!  Cheers.

[Plynkes]

Not sure what you mean by Ansar in that context. Ansar is the word for everyone who followed the Mahdi, it does not really describe a troop type.


I would probably not use Beja figures. Even though they were still staunch Mahdists and I have no doubt they were involved in the Abyssinian theatre (it borders their neck of the woods), they would have adopted the Mahdist uniform of the Jibbeh, trousers, skullcap and imma (turban) etc. by the time of the battles you are interested in (they adopted it in late 1885). There aren't many miniatures around in the version of the uniform from the period you are interested in, most are for the 1884-85 period (the early Jibbehs were sleeveless). The Perrys have released a measly two packs of infantry in the later uniform (SA28 and SA29, labelled as "Late War").

I would have no problem using the Perry Baqqara cavalry, though. They were still dressing like that during the Great War, complete with Jibbeh patches (and still fighting the Brits).


Unfortunately none of the accounts I have read of these battles go into any detail about Ansar force composition, other than splitting infantry and cavalry (e.g. 600 Baqqara in an army of 12000, and again 600 Baqqara cavalry with an infantry force of 2000). Numbers of rifles in a force seems to varied wildly, with some forces having almost half their strength rifle-armed, and some not having any rifles at all. So somewhere in between those two extremes might be a reasonable average "guess."

[HerbyF]

If you are doing a force from scratch for this campaign. I would put most of the warriors in the later jibbeh with or without trousers. There might still be some tribesmen still in their trditional dress that were more recently joined or pressed into the Maudi's service. I would go lighter on the rifles though. Maybe just a few and maybe a unit of Jihaidiya. If you already have a force I would just go ahead & use it. I have used mine in the South east against French & Belgians with askaris & African allies too.

[James Morris]

Thanks chaps, that's very useful indeed.  Apologies for the misuse of the word 'Ansar',  I did know better but was typing while looking over at the Death in the Dark Continent army lists, which use "Ansar" as a catch-all for the poorer-quality skirmishers in the Mahdist army.

I'd noted the two Perry 'later war' packs and they look the business for this project.  I'm wondering if I can get away with using any of the Perry plastics for some of the troops - it sounds like 'fuzzy wuzzy' haircuts are out by this period (so '80s), but a mix of jibbehs and tribal dress might be OK?

As regards force composition, I have a copy of 'The Mahdist Wars Source Book, vol II 1885-1899' (published by The Virtual Armchair General) that has a really interesting article on the Kassala campaign of 1896 - essentially covering how a Mahdist army tried to take advantage of the aftermath of the disaster of Adowa and capture the Italian outpost of Kassala, on the Sudanese border.  The author says that the army was that of the 'Emir Ahmed Fadil, governor of the south-eastern Sudan...4,000 riflemen, 1,000 spear and swordsmen and 1,000 cavalry.'  He goes on to describe surprise attacks by cavalry and infantry; massed rushes of warriors; and accurate rifle fire that drove the Italians back, especially at the well-fortified Mahdist camp ('dem').  There is a hint at clothing, when a group of Italian Askaris apparently mistook 'white jibbas for Askari uniforms' at a distance, so jibbehs of some sort were presumably being worn.  The article is by Marco Fantozzi, who cites Italian sources, so may have access to more than most by dint of language! :-)

[Plynkes]

If you want to use some Beja figures, you could use them as "Friendlies" on the Italian side. Not all Beja were Mahdists. The Beni-Amer, a Beja-offshoot who live in this area served as scouts, guides and irregulars for the Italians. They looked very, very similar to Osman Digna's "Fuzzy Wuzzies" and I reckon you could use Perry Beja figures to represent them.

[Plynkes]

Check out this link for a colour plate of a Beni-Amer warrior:

http://www.warflag.com/shadow/uniforms/ital5.jpg

And a photo of one:

[James Morris]

Thanks, that's even more useful!  I have some metal Perry Beja who will make excellent irregular scouts for my Italians.  The recent Osprey 'Armies of Adowa' book has some very similar plates.

[H.M.Stanley]

An interesting project James.

Nice John may have some Mahdists/Beja that are surplas to requirements unless they've gone the way of all spare figures and he's flogged them.

We'll have to get in that DitDC game soon.

J

[John Grant]

No the spares weren't 'flogged' just hung, drawn and quartered!

Actually I painted both bags up and added them to the horde.

John

[James Morris]

I'm just 18 figures away from completing my Azande DitDC army, so yes to a game very soon, James!

[Plynkes]

Azande? You know they fought the Mahdists too, right? 

[James Morris]

Azande? You know they fought the Mahdists too, right? 

I didn't!  Please tell me more.  Sounds like my whole Abyssinians-Italians-Mahdists-Azande project might be about to link up!

[HerbyF]

Here are some other threads on this subject.

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=42268.15

I know there is a thread about Madists vs La Force Publique & ashanti. But I haven't been able to find it.

[Plynkes]

Firstly Chaltin's Force Publique expedition to the Lado Enclave that fought the Mahdists at the battles of Bedden, Rejaf (and Rejaf again) contained about 600 Azande allies.


But for a purely Azande affair we have King Gbudwe, a long-time opponent of anyone non-Azande poking their noses into Azande affairs. The Mahdists initially ignored him, but did in the end send an army to sort him out.

This Wikipedia article says Gbudwe soundly defeated the Mahdist force without giving any details, but Chris Peers tells a slightly different story. He says a small Azande force initially successfully ambushed the advancing Mahdist column, but they were too few to fight a pitched battle against them and so withdrew. All the king's men had not assembled so he was forced to evacuate his headquarters at Birikiwe which the Mahdists occupied and fortified.

Once Gbudwe's army had assembled they attacked the Mahdist stockade, throwing their spears over the parapets. Seems like they were driven back with heavy losses, but it also seems that the Mahdists sallied out, because a number of Mahdist dead fell into Azande hands, and the king ordered his men to eat the corpses to terrorise the enemy bottled up in the fortifications (so folk tradition asserts, anyway).

Even though the assault had been a failure, the Mahdists decided to withdraw, and Gbudwe pursued, intending to ambush them. Unfortunately the Azande themselves came under attack from their foes who had emplaced themselves in a defensive thorn boma or zariba. Gbudwe lost more men and abandoned the pursuit, letting the Mahdists leave his country. They never came back, as their own regime was destroyed by the British a few months later.

So you have an ambush, an assault on a stockade and a bit of a skirmish at a boma, plus any number of hypothetical encounters. Or you could do it as a mini-campaign and create your own battles. Unfortunately, as it was a "native on native" affair, we don't really have any idea of numbers.

[H.M.Stanley]

And i have Force Publique. I'm just saying ... 

Ready when you are James. J