Books about Khartoum from Amazon.com

.
Price: $7.79 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In the Sudan, decades of brutal misgovernment by the ruling Egyptian Khedive in Cairo precipitate a fierce and bloody rebellion and Holy War headed by a charismatic new religious leader, The Madhi or Expected One. The British are forced to intervene to protect their national interests and to attempt to rescue the hundreds of British subjects stranded in the country. Along with hundreds of others, British trader and businessman, Ryder Courtney is trapped in the capital city of Khartoum. It is here that he meets Captain Penrod Ballantyne of the 10th Hussars, as well as the British Consul, David Benbrook and his three beautiful daughters. Against the vivid and bloody backdrop of the siege of Khartoum, in which British General Charles George Gordon is killed and the British retreat, these three powerful men fight to survive. Rich with vibrant historical detail and infused with his inimitable powers of storytelling, The Triumph of the Sun is Wilbur Smith at his masterful best. Wilbur Smiths novels are #1 bestsellers both nationally and internationally. A major lead title for Macmillan..
Price: $7.19 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Before there was Osama bin Laden, Abu al-Zarqawi or Ayatollah Khomeini, there was the Mahdi-the "Expected One"-who raised the Arabs in pan-tribal revolt against infidels and apostates in the late 19th-century Sudan.

Born on the Nile in 1844, Muhammed Ahmed grew into a devout, charismatic young man, whose visage was said to have always featured the placid hint of a smile. He developed a ferocious resentment, however, against the corrupt Ottoman Turks, their Egyptian lackeys, and finally the Europeans who he felt held the Arab people in subjugation. In 1880, he raised the banner of holy war, and thousands of warriors flocked to his side.

The Egyptians dispatched a punitive expedition to the Sudan, but the Mahdist forces destroyed it. In 1883, Col. William Hicks gathered a larger army of nearly 10,000 men. Trapped by the tribesmen in a defile at El Obeid, it was massacred to a man. Three months later, another British-led force met disaster at El Teb.

Prime Minister William Gladstone ordered a withdrawal from Sudan, and dispatched one of Victoria's most celebrated heroes, General Charles "Chinese" Gordon, to effect the evacuation. Instead, Gordon was besieged by the Mahdi at Khartoum. In an epic contest pitting military innovation and discipline against religious fervor, the Mahdi and Gordon dueled throughout 1884, while the British government hesitated to send relief.

On January 26, 1885 a treacherous native (or patriot, depending on one's point of view) let the Mahdist forces into the city of Khartoum. Gordon, realizing that the end was at hand, donned a white uniform, took up his sword, and walked out upon his palace steps. He was hacked to death by jihadists and his head was carried around the city on a pole. A British relief column arrived two days later.

The Mahdi died shortly afterward, yet his revolt had succeeded. The British vacated the territory for almost 15 years until in 1899, led by Herbert Kitchner, they returned to forestall encroachments by other European powers. The Mahdist forces were crushed at the Battle of Omdurman, and the great jihad temporarily dissolved into the desert, not to be renewed for another century.

In today's world the Mahdi's words have been repeated almost verbatim by the Muslim jihadists who have attacked New York, Washington, Madrid and London, and continue to wage war from the Hindu Kush to the Mediterranean. Along with Saladin, who once defeated a holy war, the Mahdi stands as an Islamic icon who once launched his own successful crusade against the West.

This deeply researched work reminds us that the "clash of civilizations" that supposedly came upon us in September 2001 in fact began much earlier. This book is essential reading for all those who seek to understand the roots of our current relationship with Islam..
Price: $10.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The book, The Dash for Khartoum, is the story of two English lads who accompany the expedition to rescue General Gordon from the besieged city of Khartoum Here Mr. Henty has composed a story around an event which occurred during his lifetime, and of which he had significant personal knowledge as you will read in our special foreword by Mrs. Ann King.

Henty, Wolseley, and Gordon were contemporaries. Mr. Henty had been in the area twenty years prior to the event depicted in this story as a correspondent for the Standard. As an extra, PrestonSpeed Publications has included in this volume one of Mr. Henty's special despatches.

Date: 1885
Location: Africa, Sudan
Main Event: Rescue of General Gordon.
Price: $15.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Early in 1881 unrest in the Sudan began to crystallise around Mohammed Ibn Ahmed el-Sayyid Abdullah. Proclaiming himself the long-expected Madhi, the Guided One of the Prophet, he preached that the Sudan was to be purged of its Egyptian oppressors. Drawn in by the Egyptian failure to deal with the situation, the British sent General Gordon to organise an evacuation. On reaching Khartoum however, General Gordon believed, incorrectly, that the Madhi could be reasoned with. Instead of negotiating, the Madhi besieged the town for 317 days. This title looks in particular, although not exclusively, at the battles fought by the British columns sent to relieve Khartoum..
Price: $10.40 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Salma Nageeb's book provides case studies and analysis of the lives of four Muslim women living in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. Nageeb examines how these women negotiate their social space, locating their daily struggles within the increasingly rigid Islamic practice in Sudan..
Price: $67.90 [Notify me when price goes down.]