Situated on the verandah of the simple former home of al-Mahdi in Omdurman is the Gatling gun captured by his armies at Shekan in 1883 from a force of 8,000 men with a huge train of camels commanded by General William Hicks. This force from Egypt was butchered almost to a man. Born Muhammad Ahmad ibn Abd Allah, he assumed the title of al-Mahdi in 1881. His crowning victory in his campaign to purify Islam and destroy the governments that defiled it was the capture of Khartoum on 26th January 1885 and the killing of the British Commander, Major General Charles Gordon, during the final assault on the capital.