Both the priest and the Governor-General prepared for military enterprise.  The Mahdi proclaimed a holy war against the foreigners, alike the enemies of God and the scourge of men.  He collected his followers.  He roused the local tribes.  He wrote letters to all parts of the Soudan, calling upon the people to fight for a purified religion, the freedom of the soil, and God’s holy prophet ‘the expected Mahdi.’  He promised the honour of men to those who lived, the favour of God to those who fell, and lastly that the land should be cleared of the miserable ‘Turk.’  ‘Better,’ he said, and it became the watchword of the revolt, ‘thousands of graves than a dollar tax.’ [Ohrwalder, ten YEARS’CAPTIVITY in the Mahdi’s camp.]

Nor was Raouf Pasha idle.  He sent two companies of infantry with one gun by steamer to Abba to arrest the fanatic who disturbed the public peace.  What followed is characteristically Egyptian.  Each company was commanded by a captain.  To encourage their efforts, whichever officer captured the Mahdi was promised promotion.  At sunset on an August evening in 1881 the steamer arrived at Abba.  The promise of the Governor-General had provoked the strife, not the emulation of the officers.  Both landed with their companies and proceeded by different routes under the cover of darkness to the village where the Mahdi dwelt.  Arriving simultaneously from opposite directions, they fired into each other, and, in the midst of this mistaken combat, the Mahdi rushed upon them with his scanty following and destroyed them impartially.  A few soldiers succeeded in reaching the bank of the river.  But the captain of the steamer would run no risks, and those who could not swim out to the vessel were left to their fate.  With such tidings the expedition returned to Khartoum.

Mohammed Ahmed had been himself wounded in the attack, but the faithful Abdullah bound up the injury, so that none might know that God’s Prophet had been pierced by carnal weapons.  The effect of the success was electrical.  The news spread throughout the Soudan.  Men with sticks had slain men with rifles.  A priest had destroyed the soldiers of the Government.  Surely this was the Expected One.  The Mahdi, however, profited by his victory only to accomplish a retreat without loss of prestige.  Abdullah had no illusions.  More troops would be sent.  They were too near to Khartoum.  Prudence counselled flight to regions more remote.  But before this new Hegira the Mahdi appointed his four Khalifas, in accordance with prophecy and precedent.  The first was Abdullah.  Of the others it is only necessary at this moment to notice Ali-Wad-Helu, the chief of one of the local tribes, and among the first to rally to the standard of revolt.