Then they were defeated in the end and annihilated to the last man throughout Sudan, under the rule of the Mahdi. The Europeans who were there fled to Egypt, and Slatin Pasha surrendered to the Mahdi. He had previously been an officer, then governor of Darfur. Then the Egyptian government decided to make peace with the Mahdi and abandon Sudan, and sent Gordon Pasha on this mission. Gordon sent to the Mahdi, recognizing him as Sultan of Kordofan and recognizing the legality of the slave trade. The Mahdi replied, demanding his surrender. The Mahdi resolved to besiege Khartoum, where Gordon Pasha was. He advanced towards it. Gordon made a mistake by not announcing the evacuation of the city of non-combatants, which caused unrest and extreme need for essential provisions. Finally, he ordered his followers to attack the city. They captured it, and Gordon was killed. The British temporarily left Sudan, and the Mahdi surrounded Sudan with a strong cordon to prevent evil plots. He was forced to temporarily prevent Sudanese from performing the Hajj, but he was afflicted in mid-June 1885 with dysentery and died a week later. He bequeathed the caliphate after him to his old friend Abdullah, giving him the kunya of Abu Bakr, who is the famous Abdullah al-Ta'aishi. This Abdullah was deluded by his strength.