History of Sudan association with the single largest political grouping, the [[National Umma Party Sudan|Umma Party]] (once led by a descendant of the Mahdi, [[Sadiq al Mahdi]]). Taking advantage of conditions resulting from Ottoman-Egyptian exploitation and maladministration, the Mahdi led a nationalist revolt culminating in the fall of [[Khartoum]] on 26 January 1885. The interim governor-general of the Sudan, the British Major-General [[Charles George Gordon]], and many of the fifty thousand inhabitants of Khartoum were massacred. The Mahdi died in June 1885. He was followed by [[Abdallahi ibn Muhammad]], known as the [[Caliph|Khalifa]], who began an expansion of Sudan's area into Ethiopia. Following
Khartoum recently as the 13th-17th centuries A.D. Captain J.A. Grant, who reached Khartoum in 1863 with Captain Speke's expedition, thought the name was most probably from the Arabic "qurtum" ( ', i.e., "Carthamus tinctorius"), which was cultivated extensively in Egypt for its oil to be used as fuel. Some scholars speculate that the word derives from the Nubian word, "Agartum" ("the abode of Atum"), the Nubian and Egyptian god of creation. Other Beja scholars suggest "Khartoum" is derived from the Beja word, "Hartoom" ("meeting"). Additionally, the dream-interpreting magicians in Genesis 41:8 are referred to as חַרְטֻמֵּ֥י מצרים("Khartoumei Mitzrayim" - Magicians of