Beja flags

[ozwarrior]

Gentlemen,

Does anyone know if the Beja carried battle flags?

If so any references to there make ,colour or design?

Ozwarrior

[Atheling]

Gentlemen,

Does anyone know if the Beja carried battle flags?

If so any references to there make ,colour or design?

Ozwarrior

There are some free flags in the Perry plastic Ansar box set.

Otherwise, there's Flag Dude and Victorian Steel.

BTW, are you watching the Ashes? 

Darrell.

[zuluwar]

here

http://www.warflag.com/flags/colonial/colonial.shtml

it's free and you can print the flags

regards

[ozwarrior]

No cricket is not that interesting to me, sorry?

I was more referring that I have read no accounts of Beja actually carrying flags although
I have a print of a painting , sorry cant recall the artist, showing them carrying fags but
wondered if this was in fact poetic licence.

Does anyone know of any reference to them in books of the period.

[Atheling]

No cricket is not that interesting to me, sorry?

Fair enough  . I was just getting very excited 

I was more referring that I have read no accounts of Beja actually carrying flags although
I have a print of a painting , sorry cant recall the artist, showing them carrying fags but
wondered if this was in fact poetic licence.

I'm reasonably sure that Mike Snook's Go Strong into the Desert describes them as using flags of differing colours describe the 'units'. Examples (from the top of my head) include, The Red Banner, The Black Banner.

Darrell.

[Plynkes]

I'm reasonably sure that Mike Snook's Go Strong into the Desert describes them as using flags of differing colours describe the 'units'. Examples (from the top of my head) include, The Red Banner, The Black Banner.

The three "flags" at this time were the armies of the three Khalifas under the Mahdi. The Black Flag was the Khalifa Abudullah's force from western Sudan, the Red Flag was the Khalifa Muhammed al-Sharif's force from the Nile region north of Khartoum, and the Green Flag  was the force of the Khalifa Ali-an-Hilu from the region south of Khartoum.

Osman Digna and his Beja don't seem to have been part of this organisation and he is not mentioned as being a Khalifa or having a flag colour at this time. It seems individual unit flags were manufactured in Omdurman and generally kept there, along with the firearms and artillery the Mahdists had accrued. Digna's relative distance and isolation from the rest of the Ansar may well have meant they weren't issued any flags. Their firearms had been acquired in their own local victories, so it may be that they weren't part of the main Ansar supply chain at all.

Fripp's painting of Tofrek does indeed show a white banner with coloured Arabic lettering on it, but as Ozwarrior says, this may be artistic licence. Skimming through my books I am yet to find a specific reference to any flags. I need to see if I can find my old copy of "Fighting the Fuzzy Wuzzy" by E.A. De Cosson, as it is an eyewitness account, and see what he has to say. Unfortunately I'm not quite sure where I put it. 

[Volleyfire!]

IIRC in Beyond the reach of Empire by Mike Snook he mentions that at the Battle of Abu Klea there was a line of Mahdists flags planted in the distance. I can't recall the exact passage in the book but I wonder if they were perhaps indicating a rallying point or centre of command perhaps?

[Plynkes]

IIRC in Beyond the reach of Empire by Mike Snook he mentions that at the Battle of Abu Klea there was a line of Mahdists flags planted in the distance. I can't recall the exact passage in the book but I wonder if they were perhaps indicating a rallying point or centre of command perhaps?

Yes, but Abu Klea wasn't fought against Osman Digna and his Beja, but against part of the main Ansar army from Omdurman. Nobody is saying the Mahdists didn't carry battle flags, the question is whether the coastal Beja did. At this point in the war they hadn't really been incorporated into the Ansar proper (after which they adopted Ansar dress and cut their hair), they were more like allies of theirs.