Khedivate of Egypt minority of European and Egyptian inhabitants. Instead of evacuating the city, Gordon prepared for a siege and held out from 1884 to 1885. However, Khartoum eventually fell, and he was killed. The British Gordon Relief Expedition was delayed by several battles, and was thus unable to reach Khartoum and save Gordon. The fall of Khartoum resulted in the proclamation of an Islamic state, ruled over first by the Mahdi and then by his successor Khalifa Abdullahi. In 1896, during the reign of Tewfik's son, Abbas II, a massive Anglo-Egyptian force, under the command of General Herbert Kitchener, began the reconquest
Khartoum North the area of the Nile confluence before the Egyptians established Khartoum as their military garrison and administrative center in the 1820s. It was thereafter eclipsed by the Egyptian Khartoum, its Mahdist replacement Omdurman, and the British refounding of Khartoum following their reconquest of the country in 1898. Khartoum North began to grow again, however, as the southern terminus of the Sudan Military Railroad, which was completed in 1899. (The Blue Nile was bridged in 1910 and the line extended to Sennar, but Khartoum North continued to serve as the main railroad station and yard.) On August 20, 1998 the Al-Shifa