Anṣār (الأنصار) banner
Item
Title
Anṣār (الأنصار) banner
flag
Creator
Creator Unrecorded
Subject
Mahdi
Flags and Colours
Description
Banner carried by Anṣār (الأنصار) soldier and described in current interpretation as having been “picked up after the enemy’s charge at Abu Klea”. (This battle, at Abū-Ṭulayḥ on the Gordon Relief Expedition’s route across the Bayūḍa Desert between Kūrtī and al-Matamma, took place on 17 January 1885 and claimed more than a thousand anṣār lives.) The original fabric square is of a very high quality, possibly silk, and was imported, perhaps as a tablecloth or decoration. The Arabic script – appliqued in dark blue cotton in a barely literate style – represents the most basic form of the anṣār declaration of loyalty. The Arabic script reads:
lā illah ill’allah muḥammad rasūl allah muḥammad mahdī allah
There is no god but Allah Muḥammad is the Prophet of Allah Muḥammad is the Mahdī of Allah
There is also a line of finely appliqued Arabic text on the reverse of the banner, running down the flagstaff:
yā allah yā raḥīm yā qayūm yā ḍhi’l-jalāl wa’l-ikrām naṣr min allah wa fataḥ qarīb
O Allah O merciful O everlasting, O Lord of Majesty and Generosity | Victory is from Allah and a new era imminent
[FN/ON/FHM 2019]
lā illah ill’allah muḥammad rasūl allah muḥammad mahdī allah
There is no god but Allah Muḥammad is the Prophet of Allah Muḥammad is the Mahdī of Allah
There is also a line of finely appliqued Arabic text on the reverse of the banner, running down the flagstaff:
yā allah yā raḥīm yā qayūm yā ḍhi’l-jalāl wa’l-ikrām naṣr min allah wa fataḥ qarīb
O Allah O merciful O everlasting, O Lord of Majesty and Generosity | Victory is from Allah and a new era imminent
[FN/ON/FHM 2019]
Listed in the Gordon's School register as 'Magill (bequest)' [NSty 23/10/20]
Note taken from Gordon's School register:
'Framed flag, one of the Mahdi's flags picked up by Sir James Magill immed[iately] after the enemy's charge Abu Klea. '
Surgeon Colonel Sir James Magill, Royal Army Medical Corps and Coldstream Guards, he took part in the 1884 expedition and was severely wounded at Abu Klea. [NSty 23/10/20]
'Framed flag, one of the Mahdi's flags picked up by Sir James Magill immed[iately] after the enemy's charge Abu Klea. '
Surgeon Colonel Sir James Magill, Royal Army Medical Corps and Coldstream Guards, he took part in the 1884 expedition and was severely wounded at Abu Klea. [NSty 23/10/20]
Publisher
Making African Connections
Date
1871
1898
Type
PhysicalObject
Format
1060 mm x 1040 mm
Identifier
GGC100
Source
Language
Relation
Rights
© Royal Engineers Museum
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| Title | Alternate label | Class |
|---|---|---|
| Flags of the Mahdiyya | Text |