Major-General Rudolf von Slatin (1857–1932) was an Anglo-Austrian officer in the Sudan appointed Governor-General of Darfur in 1881. Members of the Mahdist forces took him captive after the fall of Khartoum in 1885 and for the next 11 years he was a prisoner of the Khalifa, Abdullah al-Taashi.  

Slatin eventually escaped with the assistance of the British officer Francis Reginald Wingate. In 1896, he wrote this personal narrative of his years in the Sudan living with the Mahdiyya under the Khalifa’s rule. The book was published in German and Wingate edited this English edition, dedicated to Queen Victoria. Queen Victoria made Slatin an honorary Member (fourth class) of the Royal Victorian Order later that year.