At the Battle of Omdurman (2 September 1898), an army commanded by the British Gen. Sir Herbert Kitchener defeats the army of Abdullah al-Taashi, the successor to the self-proclaimed Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad.

It is a demonstration of the superiority of a highly disciplined European-led army equipped with modern rifles and artillery over a vastly larger force armed with older weapons, and marks the success of British efforts to reconquer the Sudan.

However, it is not until the 1899 Battle of Umm Diwaykarat that the final Mahdist forces are defeated.Omdurman is today a suburb of Khartoum in central Sudan, with a population of some 1.5 million.

The village of Omdurman is chosen in 1884 as the base of operations by the Mahdi, Muhammad Ahmad.

After his death in 1885, following the successful siege of Khartoum, his successor (Khalifa) Abdullah retains it as his capital.