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What happened to Mahdist forces at Tushki in 1889?
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In August 1889, the Mahdist forces led by Emir ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Nujūmī were destroyed at Tūshkī by an Egyptian army commanded by Sir Francis Grenfell.12
This engagement occurred after the khalīfah, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad, ordered the force of approximately 6,000 men into Egypt as part of his expansionist campaign to spread al-Mahdiyyah and challenge the British-backed authorities. The defeat at Tūshkī represented the most significant setback for the Mahdist jihad on the northern Egyptian frontier and marked a turning point where the movement's expansionist drive began to wane, leading to a period of consolidation and contraction for the Mahdist state.12