[APPENDIX AB.]
Translation of a letter addressed to General Gordon by the Kalifa Abdulla Mahommed, 10. 12. 85.
In the name of God the Merciful, the Compassionate. Praise be to the Bountiful God, and blessings be upon our Lord Mahomed and upon his family.
We, the servant of God Abdallah Mohammed Jifarah, one of the governors of the Mahdi, on whom be peace, on the East, to Gordon, the Pasha of Kartoum. You have paid no attention to the counsel and reasoning repeatedly sent to you, but have increased in folly; and the numerous kindly admonitions have only made you more haughty and wayward; because truth enlightens the breasts of believers and only increases the oppressors in their degenerations. Your letter has reached us, in which you deceived the population, saying that the British reinforcement is coming to you in three divisions, and that it will soon reach you and give you victory; thus your letter betrays the greatness of your fear, and anxiety, and alarm, as in your deceit you have caught hold of spider-web ropes and have feared to die at our hands; thou must inevitably die, O thou heathen! These promises you have been holding them out since last year to the inhabitants of Kartoum, and have been promising them that the English will come soon. Your promise has only increased their sorrows; and now that you are in straits, and that evil is coming upon you, you are practising deceit from the interior of your den (sic) in which God has imprisoned you, upon him who is in the land of peace and crowned with exceeding much honour, and who is able to get the news of riders arriving from the remotest regions. I ask, do the sounds, winged and free, unfettered, need news from the like of thee in the sea of billows covered by waves upon wave, above which are clouds of darkness piled one over the other. Know thou, O thou enemy of God, that the true news is with us and not with you, and that the news which has reached us contains nothing to cheer thy eye or uphold thy power; on the contrary, there is no escape for thee from death at our hands, and from death by lack of food. But it is no wonder that you deny the Mahdiship, for you did not believe in the Apostleship of Mahomed; but the wonder is that the learned men of wickedness, who are raised to prominent positions by you, and whom God has left to go astray, and whose hearts He has closed, whose ears He has sealed, and over whose eyes He has put a veil, since they have been satisfied with you as a leader, and have taken you as a teacher, and have waged war against Believers, and seek victory to those who believe in more than one God, as though they had not heard the word of God. “If you wage war, war will come upon you, and if you end war it is better for you, and if you return He will return, and God is with the Believers.” Do you not know, O you wicked learned men, that he who secedes from the Commonwealth has slipped away from the Faith, just as a hair is drawn out from the lump of dough? If you, by reason of your love of office and by reason of your association with darkness, are in doubt as to this Imàn, are you also in doubt as to the Apostleship of Mahommed, on whom be peace and blessings, that you followed his enemies the evil unbelievers, and have made your rulers in preference to the sons of Islam and desire them to be victorious? Have you not heard the word of God which says, “O ye who have believed, take not my enemy and your enemy to be rulers, nor bestow on them your affection, and I know what you have hidden and what you have made known; and he among you who does this has strayed away to the wrong path.” God also says, “O ye who have believed do not take your fathers and your brothers to be your chiefs if they prefer unbelief to faith.” God also says, “you will not find a people who believes in God and in the Last Day that will befriend those who stray from God and the Prophet, even though they be their fathers, brothers, or relations.” But you, you have taken the Christians to be your rulers when you have no doubt as to their heathenism. Look therefore to yourselves after these quotations; do you consider it to be counted of the company of Believers? (sic). It is strange how you frighten the people, saying the English are coming, and how you think that the Allies will be affected by your false rumours. No, by God! even though swarms of English and others should come, this would only increase the faith of the Allies, and their steadfastness would grow in the labour of the siege until God shall make you taste confusion and destruction. Take warning by those who are like you if you are children of intelligence. Before you the people of Obeid were longing for reinforcements like the longing of the thirsty for water; and they too were writing deceitful and cheering letters, more than you have done; and, nevertheless, you have heard what befel them.
If you are content to remain as you are, then prepare for what shall come: but if you knock at the door of repentance, peradventure it may be opened unto you.
Peace be upon those who follow after the right way.
(Signed)——Abdullah Mahommed.
19 S. 1302.
7th or 8th December, 1884.