ليس دفاعاً عن غردون ولكن لتصويب وتصحيح التاريخ الشفاهي أين وكيف قتل غردون؟

Quote: Babikr Bedri, later a leading educator in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, gave this vivid description of the Mahdi's orders. . . . on the eve of Monday rhe 7th [sic] of Rabi'a al-Thani 1302 (Sunday night, 24 January 1885) the Mahdi, with whom be God's peace, came and gathered all the army between the village of al-Ghurqan and the city of Khartoum, and harangued us, mounted on his camel . . . he said, 'Swear allegiance to me unto death!' and was silent for a moment, when the whole army with one voice shouted three times, 'We swear allegiance to you unto death!'Then he said, 'If God grants you the victory, Gordon is not to be killed, and Shaykh Husayn al-Majdi is not to be killed, and Faki al-Amin al-Darir is not to be killed' [these were religious leaders who opposed the Mahdil . . . Then we swore the accustomed oath . . . the flags were unfurled, and we were on our way to the fortress ... we continued to advance along the edge of the inner ditch until we reached a spot opposite Gordon's palace, where we met other Mahdist soldiers who had entered the city from the direction of Burri. We turned towards the palace. and there found Gordon Pasha struck down and covered with blood, and were very angry at whoever had killed him, for only two hours before the Mahdi had proclaimed in the loudest of voices that he was not to be killed. It was then aboutfour o'clock in the morning. Then we took the road along the Blue Nile bank until we arrived opposite the mosque, to which we turned, and the sun rose as we reached it. There I saw Faki al-Amin al-Darir... I praised God for his safety; but Shaykh Husayn al-Majdi had been killed.2