A Prisoner of the Khaleefa: Twelve Years Captivity at OmdurmanNeufeld, Charles
History
A Prisoner of the Khaleefa: Twelve Years Captivity at Omdurman
Neufeld, Charles
Neufeld, Charles, 1856-1918; Prisoners -- Sudan -- Omdurman; Sudan -- History -- 19th century
Some days before the arrival of Gordon, in 1884, H. E. Nubar Pasha and
Sir Evelyn Wood sent for Fauzi, and told him to be in readiness to
proceed to the Soudan, as Gordon had asked for his services. When Fauzi
said that he had been dismissed, and was no longer on the army-list,
Nubar Pasha replied, “General Gordon will see to the matter.” It had
not been Gordon’s intention to call at Cairo, and Fauzi was to have
gone to Suez or viâ the Nile, as Gordon might decide. However, Gordon
was stopped at Port Said, and asked to come through Cairo; Fauzi went
to the station to meet him, and Gordon, on alighting, went up to
his old Soudan lieutenant, and asked how it was that he was not in
uniform. Fauzi detailed his dismissal, upon which Gordon turned to Sir
Evelyn Wood, and asked him how it was. It appears that when Gordon saw
Fauzi’s name amongst the names of the colonels to be tried, he wired,
or wrote—or both—to Sir Evelyn Wood, asking him to look after Colonel
|343| Ibrahim Fauzi. General Wood did do so, but there was another
Colonel Ibrahim Fauzi; and while Gordon’s Fauzi was dismissed in
disgrace, the other Fauzi retired in glory and with a pension.
Gordon had some difficulty in seeing Fauzi reinstated, for his enemies
were powerful; but, not to be thwarted, he took Fauzi direct to His
Highness the Khedive, and carried his point. Two days later, Fauzi
took his seat in the carriage with Gordon and Stewart, and left Bulac
Dacroor station on that journey from which he only was to return alive,
and that fourteen years later.
On the way to Khartoum, Gordon named Stewart sub-Governor-General
of the Soudan, and Fauzi Director of Military and Marine, and, in
communicating these appointments to Cairo, he wrote of Fauzi, “I
especially recognize in Fauzi Bey the desired activity which he has
displayed with me while previously in the Soudan; he has already given
proof of his abilities, and I am more than ever satisfied with him.”
Soon after his arrival at Khartoum, Fauzi was entrusted with the
clearing out of the rebels from Khor Shambat and Halfeyeh, and the
restoring of the telegraphic communications which they had cut. Fauzi
won his dual victory, and restored the line, but, in leading his men,
he was hit in the right leg with a bullet fired from an elephant-gun,
which split and shattered the bone. Owing to want of skill on the
part of the Greek doctor, the broken bone was allowed to overlap,
and a suppurating wound set in from the unextracted fragments, which
kept Fauzi confined to his official residence for about six months,
although he was able to transact the executive part of his duties. On
the departure of Stewart, Gordon named Fauzi Governor of Khartoum and
Commandant of Troops, calling a special parade for the occasion. Fauzi
Pasha must be left to relate, at some future date, the incidents of the
siege of Khartoum; I pass on to January 25, 1885.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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