On the evening of the day Khartoum fell, they heard shouts on both banks of the river about the fall of the city and the killing of the martyr Gordon. They did not believe it until the morning of the second of Rabi' [spring]. I was then in the prison of Umm Durman. I heard the guards say on the second of Rabi' [spring] that they had tightened security on the prisoners, as the English steamers would arrive in Khartoum today. The Mahdi and his deputies rode and stopped in Umm Durman, and bullets and shells rained down on the two steamers before they reached Umm Durman, about ten miles away. The English flags fluttered above them until they reached the confluence of the two rivers, intending to go to Gordon's palace. Then the cannons from the Tabia al-Maqran, which was not more than a mile from the palace, fired at them. At that moment, Sir Charles and his men became certain of the fall of Khartoum and the killing of Gordon. He turned back the way he came. The Mahdi did not see the two steamers returning. He dismounted and prostrated himself in thanks to God, who had placed Khartoum in his grasp before the English could reach it. The next day, the steamer "Tawfiq" collided with a rock in the Shalaal Daham, and it sank. Sir Charles and his soldiers transferred to the second steamer, which also sank two days later. They were forced to fortify themselves on the island of Wad al-Mayshi until help reached them from the camp of al-Matamma. Two days later, a steamer reached them and rescued them after they had been surrounded and attacked several times by the Mahdists.

The appointment of Abd al-Rahman al-Najumi to fight the English in al-Matamma was mentioned. On the 10th of Rabi' al-Thani, year 1305 AH, the Mahdi sent Abd al-Rahman al-Najumi, and I, Jurji, and the army that was with them to fight the English in al-Matamma, and he wrote a proclamation.