Rudolf Carl Von Slatin - Escape From Captivity

Escape From Captivity

At length, after over eleven years captivity, he was able to escape, with the help of Sir Reginald (then Major) Wingate of the Egyptian Intelligence Department and a local Sheikh of the Ababda tribe, in a perilous 1000 km. and three week journey across the desert, reaching Aswan, Egypt in March 1895. In a remarkable book, Fire and Sword in the Sudan, written in the same year and issued in English and German in 1896, Slatin gave not only a personal narrative of fighting and serving the dervishes but a comprehensive account of the Sudan under the rule of the Khalifa. The book, edited by F. R. Wingate, became a bestseller. Originally published in English in 1896 entitled "Fire and Sword in the Sudan", it was also published in German in 1896 by the Brockhaus Verlag in Leipzig entitled "Feuer und Schwert im Sudan. Meine Kämpfe mit den Derwischen, meine Gefangenschaft und Flucht.1879–1895." His book became an important inspiration for the German author Karl May and his trilogy "Im Lande des Mahdi". He also published another book entitled "Elf Jahre in der Gefangenschaft des Mahdi"

Raised to the rank of Pasha by the Khedive, Slatin was appointed an honorary Companion of the Order of the Bath by Queen Victoria. In autumn 1895, he was granted an audience with Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. Queen Victoria made him an honorary Member (fourth class) of the Royal Victorian Order in 1896.

On the eve of his surrender to the Mahdi at Christmas 1883, he had resolved, if he regained his liberty, to use the knowledge he would acquire while in captivity for the eventual benefit of the country, and after a year's rest he took part, as an officer on the staff of the Egyptian army, in the campaigns of 1897-98 which ended in the capture of Omdurman.