They took the usual precautionary measures, and it was a custom followed in Sudan that the soldiers would be surrounded at night by thorny fences, but they did not do so this time, so the Mahdi came to them at night with his soldiers and annihilated them. At that point, his stature grew and his followers' faith in him strengthened. He had followers in Cairo who preached about him, and people flocked from all over Sudan to see the saint of God and present him with gifts. His appearance at that time was that of a mystic ascetic, wearing a robe and trousers of linen and girded with a belt. However, he later imitated the early Muslims in choosing one-fifth of the spoils of war, and added to that his confiscation from thieves and warriors and smokers of tobacco. Thus, wealth increased for him, and he became luxurious. He forbade his followers from studying theology and jurisprudence and burned books that dealt with these subjects, but he recommended returning to the original principles of Islam: the Quran and Hadith. When the British government occupied Egypt after the Urabi revolt, it wanted to subjugate Sudan, so it sent ten thousand Egyptians led by Hicks Pasha. But unfortunately, it announced this and was slow in preparing the expedition. This enabled the Mahdi to prepare well, so the Mahdi attacked the Egyptians. However, the Egyptians repelled his attack at first.