Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"Prodded by public opinion, Gordon's predicament finally forced the government to organize a relief expedition under General Wolseley. Despite a dash across the desert, the expedition arrived just too late. Two days before, after a siege of more than 320 days, one of Gordon's Egyptian officers had opened the city to the Mahdists. Gordon was either shot or speared to death and his severed head paraded in triumph. . . . The incident, which occurred while the European powers' colonial 'Scramble for Africa' was at its height, has been interpreted as a key moment in the conflict between self-confident Western imperialism and resurgent Islam. [Furtado: 1001 Days] "In the nineteenth century the Mahdi’s Ansar warriors had fought to rid Sudan of the Egyptian army and captured Khartoum in 1885, killing a British general, Charles Gordon, on the steps of the governor’s residence. The Islamic state they set up lasted for thirteen years." [The Fate of Africa, p. 346]