Rudolf Carl von Slatin Major - General Rudolf Anton Carl Freiherr von Slatin , Geh . Rat , GCVO , KCMG , CB ( 7 June 1857 , Ober - Sankt - Veit , Hietzing , Vienna – 4 October 1932 , Vienna ) was an Anglo - Austrian soldier and administrator in the Sudan . Early life . Slatin was born in Ober St Veit near Vienna . Rudolf Carl Slatin was born the fourth child of the merchant Michael Slatin , who had converted from Judaism to Roman Catholicism , and his second wife , Maria Anna Feuerstein . Their other children were the twins Maria and Anna ( born in 1852 ) , Heinrich ( 1855 ) , Adolf ( 1861 ) , and Leopoldine ( 1864 ) . Their father died on 13 March 1873 , while Rudolf was at the Viennese commercial academy . While there , he heard that a German bookseller in Cairo was looking for an assistant . Rudolf traveled to Trieste and thence in five days ' time to Alexandria . He worked in the bookstore until he travelled with the German businessman and consul Rosset to Khartoum . From Khartoum , Slatin went through Kordofan to Dar Nuba , exploring the mountains of that region with the German explorer and ornithologist Theodore von Heuglin . He was forced to return to Khartoum when the local Arabs rebelled against the Egyptian government . There Slatin met Dr . Schnitzer , later famous as " Emin Pasha " , and with him intended to visit General Charles George Gordon at Lado , Gordon at that time being Governor of the Equatorial Provinces . Slatin , however , was obliged to return to Austria without accomplishing his desire , though Emin did go to Lado and at Slatin ' s request recommended the young traveller to Gordon for employment in the Sudan . Slatin left Africa in order to serve his conscription order in the Austrian army . On 25 September 1876 he joined his unit the 12 . Feldjägerbatallon as recruit and one year later he was promoted to a Lieutenant in the reserves of the 19th Infantry Regiment of the Austro - Hungarian Army . In 1878 , while Slatin was serving as a lieutenant in the crown prince Rudolf ' s regiment in the Bosnian campaign . he received a letter from Gordon inviting him to the Sudan , where Gordon had become the Governor - General . At the close of the campaign , Slatin received permission to go to Africa . He started his travel via train and ship on 1 December 1878 and he arrived in Khartum in January 1879 . After a brief period as financial inspector , Slatin was appointed Mudir ( governor ) of Dara , the south - western part of Darfur , a post he held until early in 1881 , when he was promoted Governor - General of Darfur and given the rank of bey . Surrender of Dara . While administering Dara , Slatin conducted a successful campaign against one of the Darfur princes in revolt , and later , as governor of Darfur . Early in 1882 the Rizeigat tribesmen of Southern Darfur rebelled , led by Sheikh Madibbo ibn Ali , a convert to the cause of the religious leader known as the Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad . Slatin gallantly defended his province and though he fought many successful battles , he gradually lost ground . At Om Waragat he lost 8 , 000 of his men in the first 20 minutes of the battle and was himself wounded three times but he managed to fight his way back to Dara . Believing his troops attributed their failure in battle to the fact that he was a Christian , Slatin publicly adopted Islam in 1883 and took the Islamic name , Abd al Qadir . The Mahdists then captured el Obeid , the capital of Kordofan , severing all Slatin ' s links with Khartoum . When Hicks Pasha ' s expedition was annihilated at the Battle of Shaykan in 1883 , Slatin finally surrendered to his old enemy the Mahdist Emir Madibbo , refusing to make any further sacrifice of life in a hopeless cause . When the Mahdists reached Khartum , an attempt was made to use him to induce the commander Charles George Gordon , now Governor General of Sudan , to surrender . This failing , Slatin was placed in chains , and on the morning of 26 January 1885 , an hour or two after the fall of Khartum , Gordon ' s head was brought to the camp and shown to the captive . After the sudden death of the Mahdi the same year , Slatin was kept at Omdurman by his successor , the Khalifa Abdullahi , being treated alternately with savage cruelty and comparative indulgence . During his captivity , he worked as adviser and interpreter for the Khalifa , and was made to serve in his personal retinue of bodyguards . Escape from captivity . At length , after over eleven years captivity , he was able to escape , with the help of Sir Reginald ( then Major ) Wingate of the Egyptian Intelligence Department and , in a perilous 1000 km . and three - week journey across the desert , reaching Aswan , Egypt in March 1895 . In a remarkable book , " Fire and Sword in the Sudan " , written in the same year and issued in English and German in 1896 , Slatin gave not only a personal narrative of fighting and serving the dervishes but a comprehensive account of the Sudan under the rule of the Khalifa . The book , edited by F . R . Wingate , became a bestseller . Originally published in English in 1896 entitled " " Fire and Sword in the Sudan " " , it was also published in German in 1896 by the Brockhaus Verlag in Leipzig entitled " " Feuer und Schwert im Sudan . Meine Kämpfe mit den Derwischen , meine Gefangenschaft und Flucht . 1879 – 1895 . " " His book became an important inspiration for the German author Karl May and his trilogy " Im Lande des Mahdi " . He also published another book entitled " Elf Jahre in der Gefangenschaft des Mahdi " Raised to the rank of Pasha by the Khedive , Slatin was appointed an honorary Companion of the Order of the Bath by Queen Victoria . In autumn 1895 , he was granted an audience with Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria . Queen Victoria made him an honorary Member ( fourth class ) of the Royal Victorian Order in 1896 . On the eve of his surrender to the Mahdi at Christmas 1883 , he had resolved , if he regained his liberty , to use the knowledge he would acquire while in captivity for the eventual benefit of the country , and after a year ' s rest he took part , as an officer on the staff of the Egyptian army , in the campaigns of 1897 - 98 which ended in the capture of Omdurman . Further service . For his services in these campaigns , he was created an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George by Queen Victoria in 1898 and in 1899 was knighted by Franz Joseph I of Austria . Also in 1899 , he was made a Brigadier - General in the British Army . In 1900 he was appointed Inspector - General of the Sudan , in which capacity his mastery of Arabic and his profound knowledge of the land and peoples proved invaluable in the work of reconstruction undertaken by the Anglo - Egyptian government in that country . He was a close friend of the Governor General , F . R . Wingate , and was free to define his role as Inspector - General without much interference from his colleagues and superiors . Never before or since did any official hold the title of Inspector - General . He was a frequent guest of Queen Victoria . In 1906 , he was ennobled by Franz Joseph I of Austria . He was since styled " Freiherr von Slatin " . In 1907 , he was made an honorary major - general in the British army and in 1909 he was created an honorary Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order by King Edward VII of the United Kingdom . His rank in the Austro - Hungarian Army always remained Leutnant d . R . His position as Inspector - General of the Sudan terminated in 1914 due to the commencement of hostilities in World War I between Great Britain and Austria - Hungary . He then headed the Prisoners - of - War section of the Austrian Red Cross . He was awarded with the title Geheimrat by Franz Joseph I of Austria in December 1914 . He was involved in the plans of Charles I of Austria to get a separate peace with Great Britain and France . Later life . He received absolution from the Pope for his conversion to Islam , which he had reversed . On 21 June 1914 , Rudolf Carl von Slatin married " Baroness " Alice von Ramberg . The wedding took place in the Votivkirche in Vienna . In 1916 , their daughter Anne Marie Helene was born [ Baroness Anne Marie von Slatin ( 1916 – 2007 ) married in 1943 , in London , Prince George Vladimirovitch Galitzine ( 1916 – 1992 ) , they had 3 children , and divorced in 1954 ] . During the years he served the British Empire , he became acquainted with Robert Baden - Powell and became his friend . So it was not surprising that he was asked to serve within the new founded Austrian Scout organisation . From 1914 to 1918 , he was the Honorary Chief Scout of the Österreichischer Pfadfinderbund . In January 1929 a letter of Rudolf Carl von Slatin is published under the title Ehrenbundesfeldmeister ( National Chief Scout ) in the Austrian Scout Magazine " Unser Weg " . He was also a Honorary member of the Royal Geographical Society . In 1918 , on behalf of the Austrian government led by Renner , he was instrumental , through his British contacts , in ensuring the supply of food and coal from Czechoslovakia for the beleaguered and starving inhabitants of Vienna . For this he was made an honorary citizen of Vienna in June 1932 . In 1919 , he was a member of the Austrian delegation in St . Germain . and was responsible for the repatriation of Prisoners of War . In 1919 , a Scout group of the Österreichischer Pfadfinderbund in Klosterneuburg was named Slatin Pascha . In November 1918 after the war Rudolf Carl von Slatin moved to Switzerland . In 1922 after the early death of his wife he moved to the South Tyrol and lived in a villa in Obermais a quarter of Meran . Every Summer , with his daughter , he would visit his old Sudan comrades in England . In November and December 1926 he visited the Sudan one again . In June 1932 , he and his daughter Anne Marie were guests of George V . He died on 4 October 1932 , during an operation for cancer in Vienna , and was buried on 6 October in the cemetery of Ober St . Veit , a suburb of Vienna . His funeral looked like a state funeral . His grave is still there . Memory and legacy . In 1936 , a drinking fountain was erected in Khartum in his memory , but the bronze portrait plaque and dedication were removed in 1956 by the Sudanese government , after Sudan became independent . A Commemorative plaque is placed on his former house in Khartum . The Spitzvilla in Upper Austria near Traunkirchen is a memorial site for Rudolf Carl von Slatin . He bought it in 1897 and there entertained many grand persons of his epoch . In 1967 the public - service German television channel ZDF produced a movie in two parts about Rudolf Carl von Slatin . It was titled Slatin Pascha . A documentary film about Slatin Pascha , Sudanese history and Sudan today was produced by Thomas Macho for the Austrian company Fischer Film in 2011 . At the Austrian National Jamboree in 1961 a Subcamp was named Slatin Pascha . An Old Scouts Guild , affiliated with the Pfadfinder - Gilde Österreichs is named Slatin Pascha . An Old Scout Group , belonging to the Österreichischer Pfadfinderbund in Vienna is named Slatin Pascha . A Scout Group in Vienna , belonging the National Scout Organisation Pfadfinder Österreichs , was also named Slatin Pascha . In October 2011 a stamp was issued commemorating Slatin Pascha , Emmerich Teuber and the Viennese Scoutleader Kara Barteis .