For many in Egypt before the Mahdïya, the Sudan had long been a remote place of exile, a natural prison for the disgraced. For Egyptian sol- diers however, the Sudan often represented chances for promotion, rare enough in the military establishment run by Ottoman Egyptians during the reign of Khedive Ismaïl. After the defeat of the Uräbï rebellion, many Egyptian soldiers who had been loyal to the colonel defected from the Egyptian army and joined the growing forces of the Mahdï.

Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Coloni…, loc. 500