- 19 -It was not easy for Max to regain Sudan. But when this good news reached Egypt, and that was in early 1883 AD, and the British had taken control of its affairs, orders were issued to dismiss Abd al-Qadir Pasha for this reversed reason, at a time when the Mahdi said about him in one of his sermons: "Among the men of the government that I intend to oppose, there is no man like Abd al-Qadir, who is very cunning and resourceful with courage, which makes me implore God to spare me and my companions from his evil. And I pledge to all the believers who have entered my call to enlist and stand in the Jezira by any means necessary to confront them in the battlefields with Abd al-Qadir Pasha. I instruct them to keep my call secret and not to reveal it in the Jezira as long as Abd al-Qadir Pasha is in charge of Sudan, and I order all my companions to raise their voices after every prayer with this supplication: (O God, the Powerful, the Capable, spare us from the evil of Abd al-Qadir). After his return from Khartoum, Abd al-Qadir Pasha wrote a comprehensive report to the government on what it should do, the summary of which was to avoid