Evening star., 1907-11-16
Copyright 1907. by Frank G. Carpenter)
Special Correspondence of The Star.

oMDbf<MA-S.
~ MDTRMAN. The biggest native
city of the sultan. The capital
Of the Nahdi and the kha'ita,
and the future great commercial
center of this part of the world
/ wish I could show 1T 1t to you as
saw If while riding on donkey back
through Il with its Egyptian governor
1t is one Of the queerest cities of the
world and one of the most important
To-. Africa Of the future. Founded by the
Nahdi or the Mohammedan Messiah. ana
the scene oI the most atrocious cruelties
and extravaeances of the Khaifa who
succeeded LIm. it once contained about
one million of African SudareSe. 1t was
then a great military camp. composed of
one hundred thousand mud houses. and
Inhabited 10y tribes from all parts of the
one million square miles. comprised in the
rraIm Of that savage governor. The kha-
Iff4 forced the people to come here to
live that lie might have their services in
time OF war, and he allowed them to go
home only to cultivate and harvest their
crops which they were forced TO bring
here for sale. He made Omdurman his
seat OF government, ana he had his own
residence here inside great wall OF sun
dried brick which iuCIOsed about sixty
acres, and in which was an open-air
mosque of ten acres or more Here the
khaifa had his palace and here he kept
his four hundred wives. Just outside here
lie had the great pattle which ended in
the destruction of himself and the city.
Omdurman in 1907.
The Omdurman of today is on the site
of the great city of the khalifa 1t lies
at the junction of the White and Blue
Niles, in the bend where the White Nile
flows into the main stream. BY the
course of the river it is about eighteen
hundred miles from the Mediterranean
sea. and, in a straight line, perhaps an
equal distance north of the valley of the
kongo. II is far inland from the Red sea,
and hundreds of miles from the source of
the Blue Nile in the A(oyssinian hills.
The Omdurman of the present is laid
out on practically the same lines as that
OF the past, and il covers almost the same
ground. although it has much fewer peo-
pie. During my trip l climbed to the top
of the old palace of the khalifa and took
q look over the city,
The houses stretch along the Nile for
seven or eight miles, with a thicket of
boats upon the shore opposite where the
Blue Nile flows in. Some of the town is
on the main stream. and it reaches out
from the river in every direction. 1t is
native city in every sense of the word.
In its many thousand houses there
not score which are of more than one
story, and you can count the houses made
OF burnt brick your fingers. 1t Is a
city of mud pure and simple The one
story mud houses have mud walls about
them. and the mud stores face strAts
paved only with mud. The vast Enclosures
of the khalifa are made of mud bricks,
and the houses inside. which now form
the quarters of the Anglo-Egyptian SOL
diers and officers, of sunbaked dirt.
Standing on the khalifa's palace. one
can follow many of the streets with
his eye. Some of them are of great
width, but the majority are narrow ana
winding. The whole city. In fact is a
labyrinth cut up by the new avenues
laid out by the British, with the holy
buildings and the khalifa's government
structures in the center.
Guided by the Governor.
I was shown through the city by the
Elamour. All the towns Of the Sudan
have a British official who rules them;
but under each such governor is a sub
governor, who must be a native Egyp-
tian. This man is the real executive, as
far as carrying out the orders of the gov
eminent is concerned. He represents the
natives. and understands all about them
and their ways. The mamour, with whom
I went through Omdurman. is an ex-