A Short but Interesting Visit by Ed Moorman

As we ramp up to this weekend's meeting on "The Adventure of the Empty House," Ed Moorman thought his article on the region of Holmes's travels would be interesting.  It was originally published in The Baker Street Journal in March of 1993, but is just as timely today.

A SHORT BUT INTERESTING VISIT
[BSJ. March 1993, V43:1, pp16-18. W.R. Cochran, ed.]
by ED MOORMAN

After two years in Tibet, Sherlock Holmes “passed through” Persia, looked in at Mecca, so he reports, and then “paid a short visit to the Khalifa at Khartoum.” It was the results of this “short visit” that Holmes communicated to the Foreign Office.  Persia and Mecca may have been mere way stations on his journey, but there can be no question that Holmes’s “short visit” to the Khalifa was a mission, a specific government mission that eventually figured greatly in the involvement of England in African affairs and, ultimately, world affairs.

England had occupied Egypt since 1882, at the request of the Egyptian government. This occupation helped shore up the ruling faction, and, not so incidentally, discouraged the involvement of other European powers in Egyptian affairs. This occupation kept important trade routes open.

At the time, Khartoum was the capital city of the Sudan and was located just south of Egypt. The city of Khartoum, located on the upper Nile, had been an important export center for slaves. The Sudan was in turmoil, due mainly to a rebel force led by a Muslim mystic known as Ahmad al-Mahdi. Mahdi was, in effect, the Ayatollah Khomeini of his day. He was a fundamentalist Muslim who wanted to conquer the Sudan and reform the Muslim faith. He claimed to be a direct descendant of
the Prophet Mohammed.

By 1884, Mahdi had amassed a large army of fanatical followers. These included the holy men, or fakis, who wanted as did Mahdi to reform Islam, but also included former slave merchants who hoped to reinstitute the slave trade. The fiercest fighters among the followers of Mahdi were so-called Baqqarat Arabs, cattle nomads who merely wanted to depose the Sudanese government. The leader of this fierce group of Baqqarat Arabs was the man called the Khalifa, or “deputy.” The Khalifa was the rebels’ military leader. If Mahdi was an Ayatollah, the Khalifa was a Saddam Hussein.

In 1884, the Mahdiists in large numbers were on the outskirts of Khartoum. To evacuate the Egyptian forces at Khartoum, the Egyptians called on the man who knew the Sudan better than any other Englishman, but who at the same time was the most hated by Mahdi and the Khalifa and their supporters. That man was General Charles George Gordon.

General Gordon eventually became one of England’s greatest heroes because of what was to happen at Khartoum. After Khartoum, all of England admired Gordon. Dr. Watson himself tells us in The Cardboard Box that he had a newly framed portrait of Gordon hanging on the wall at Baker Street.

Who was Gordon? Born in 1833, Gordon became known for “reckless” bravery at Sebastopol in the Crimean War (1853-56). He participated in the occupation of Peking in the “Arrow” war of 1860 and
in the rebellion in Shanghai in 1862. Back in England in 1865, and now known as “Chinese” Gordon, he developed what has been called an unorthodox, mystical brand of Christianity and generated something of a cult following.

In 1873, Gordon was appointed, or actually was hired by the reigning Sudanese government, to be governor of the province of Equatoria. He mapped the entire upper Nile and set up a line of stations.

One of Gordon’s accomplishments as governor from 1873 to 1876 was his crushing of the slave trade. He suppressed a number of rebellions as well. Back in England in the late 1870’s, Gordon had one last campaign ahead of him, and it came at Khartoum in 1884. Gordon got the job of going into Khartoum and rescuing the Egyptian forces threatened by Mahdi and his rebels. Gordon arrived in Khartoum in February 1884. One month later, in March, Mahdi and the Khalifa mounted a siege, and Gordon could not get out of Khartoum.

The English government dragged its feet and sent no reinforcements. Huge protests broke out in London as people demanded action. Finally, months later, a force headed by General Wolseley set sail for Africa. In January of 1885, with the siege already nine months old, Lord Beresford headed an expedition up the Nile to help out. But the waters of the Nile subsided, and the rebel forces led by the Khalifa stormed the city of Khartoum. On 26 January 1885, they massacred General Gordon and all of his forces. Lord Beresford arrived two days late, heard gunfire, and retreated.

The English people reacted with shock and outrage. General Gordon was no longer “Chinese” Gordon. He was “Gordon of Khartoum,” a martyr. And Gordon became Dr. Watson’s greatest hero.

Having taken over the city of Khartoum, Mahdi lived only five more months, died, and the Khalifa ruled the Sudan. This was in 1885. In an account reprinted in The Annotated Sherlock Holmes, Edgar Smith claims that the Khalifa “held forth embattled until 1888.” That is not true. In fact, the Khalifa lasted far longer. He moved the capital from Khartoum to its twin sister, Omdurman, just across the Nile. From Omdurman he set out, literally, to conquer the world.

Like Saddam Hussein, the Khalifa was fanatically religious, lusted after power, and was totally ignorant of the world outside of his own country. He amassed his forces and marched them off in four different directions: eastward, where they conquered the Ethiopians; westward, where they occupied the desert; southward, where they were driven back by a Belgian force from the Congo; and northward, where they were soundly defeated by an Anglo-Egyptian force under General Grenfell.

The Khalifa abandoned his dreams of world conquest.

From 1889 to 1892, the Khalifa, beaten in war and beset by famine, epidemic, and death, tried to hold on. The crops improved, however, after 1892, and by the time Holmes came for his “short visit” in 1893, things were improving in the Sudan. Edgar Smith claims that the Khalifa was not in Khartoum in 1893, but if he was not, he was a few paces across the bridge in Omdurman. If Holmes says it was Khartoum, it probably was Khartoum.

But why would Holmes, or any Englishman, bother to pay a short visit to the Khalifa? This was definitely not the occasion for a friendly chat. General Gordon was Watson’s hero and had been not merely defeated but actually murdered, massacred by the Khalifa. It has been said that England does not have permanent friends or permanent enemies, only permanent interests. Still in all, one does not idly sip tea with butchers. One is certain that Holmes told Watson a lot more about this visit than a line which reads almost like “And by the way, Watson, I stopped and had a nice little visit with the chap who murdered your hero, General Gordon.”

So why make the visit? Well, we learn that the French in 1893 came up with an ingenious plan. The French were never much in favor of anything England did, and England’s partnership with Egypt was
particularly troublesome to the French. In 1893, the French started a project under which they would march across Africa to the city of Fashoda, 400 miles south of Khartoum on the Nile. There they would build a dam and obstruct the Nile. England vitally needed a detailed investigation of this matter. It would have been absolutely necessary that someone visit Khartoum to determine whether the Khalifa was willing or able to defend the Nile from this French threat, or whether England and
Egypt would have to provide all of the defense.

When Holmes returned to London in 1894, no one in England outside of the government could have known how important an investigation of the Khalifa in 1893 would have been. But by the time The Adventure of the Empty House was published, in 1903, all of England knew what eventually had happened in the Sudan during the 1890’s.

General Kitchener, later Lord Kitchener, had become commander of the Egyptian forces in 1892. In 1893, he needed intelligence information about the Khalifa which could be provided only by a brave
and perceptive Englishman, totally reliable, an experienced investigator, and a master of disguise. There would have been only one choice.

Kitchener’s request for investigation assistance would have gone to the Foreign Office and from there been relayed by Mycroft to Holmes in Tibet. That is why Persia was only a “pass-through” and Mecca only a “look-in” for Holmes as he proceeded to Khartoum. The British had to find out as soon as possible what lay in store if the French went ahead with their plan to dam the Nile at Fashoda. One pictures Holmes perhaps disguised as an Arab merchant, looking over Khartoum, sipping tea with the Khalifa. This was Holmes single-handedly putting the “Impossible Mission” force to shame.

It would have become apparent to Holmes that the Anglo-Egyptian force would have to stop the French themselves. The Khalifa was too obtuse to realize that his own interests were at stake. One suspects that he may have even been bribed by the French to provide Sudanese labor for the project. Before Kitchener could face down the French, he would have to defeat the Khalifa. This must have been the message Holmes communicated to the Foreign Office.

The French force did not leave for Africa until 1896, under Captain Jean-Baptiste Marchand. Two years later, after landing on the West coast of Africa and crossing the continent, they were at Fashoda, ready to build the dam.

But Kitchener, thanks to the intelligence provided by Holmes’s visit with the Khalifa, had known for years what would be necessary, and he could not have been better warned and better prepared. On 2
September 1898, Kitchener and his force of 25,000 men met and soundly defeated the Khalifa and his 60,000 men outside of Omdurman.

Gordon was avenged. Watson must have cheered. The Khalifa fled and was killed a year later.

Kitchener then moved on south, up the Nile, and confronted the French at Fashoda. Both sides prepared for war. If you do not recall ever having read about the heroic battle of Fashoda, it is because the battle never happened. Facing the well-prepared forces of Kitchener, France backed down. The dam project was abandoned. Th French left the Sudan.

Kitchener became a hero, later leading forces in the Boer War in South Africa. By the time of World War I, Kitchener was able to mobilize all of the British forces With his leadership, his ability, and his
face on a million posters proclaiming, “Your Country Needs You.”

So what Holmes called a “short but interesting visit to the Khalifa” helped shape English history well into the twentieth century. If the term “hiatus” implies mere absence, idleness, or inactivity, we must find a better word.