In February 1891, Colonel Holled-Smith, the head of the Egyptian and British garrison of Sawākin, led an expedition against the Mahdist administrative centre of Afafīt (Tūkar) in Eastern Sudan. As a result, he seized an important volume of documents, among which a letter-book, with the correspondence of the Mahdī and the Khalīfa to ʿUthmān Diqna. This document appears to be a copy of the original index of the letter-book by the Department of Military Intelligence.
c. 04/1891
