CHINESE GORDON: THE STORY OF A HERO (256 pp.)—Lawrence and Elisabeth Hanson—Funk & Waqnalls ($4). When General Charles George Gordon was speared to death at ...

In 1884 a Sudanese boatman, turned religious seer, involved the British Empire in a sticky little war. Mohamed Ahmed, who had declared himself the Mahdi, the long-awaited messiah of Islamic tradition, ...