Major-General Rudolf Anton Carl Freiherr von Slatin, Geh. Rat, GCVO, KCMG, CB was born on 7 June 1857, in Ober-Sankt-Veit, Hietzing, Vienna, Austria. When Slatin was 16 and studying at the Viennese commercial academy his father died. And so Slatin began the first steps that initially took him to Alexcandria to work in a bookshop and then travelling with the German businessman and consul Rosset to Khartoum. From there Slatin went through Kordofan to Dar Nuba, exploring the mountains of that region with the German explorer and ornithologist Theodor von Heuglin. A rebellion by local arabs forced his return to Khartoum where he met "Emin Pasha", and with whom he intended to visit General Charles George Gordon at Lado, who at the time was Governor of the Equatorial Provinces. Slatin, however had to return to Austria in 1876 to fulfil his conscription order in the Austrian army with the 12.Feldjägerbatallon. A year later he was promoted to a Lieutenant in the reserves of the 19th Infantry Regiment of the Austro-Hungarian Army. In 1878, while Slatin was serving as a lieutenant in the crown prince Rudolf's regiment in the Bosnian campaign he received a letter from Gordon inviting him to the Sudan, where Gordon had become the Governor-General. He arrived in Khartum in January 1879. After a brief period as financial inspector, he was appointed Mudir (governor) of Dara, the south-western part of Darfur, a post he held until early in 1881, when he was promoted Governor-General of Darfur and given the rank of Bey. Early in 1882 the Rizeigat tribesmen of Southern Darfur rebelled, led by Sheikh Madibbo ibn Ali. Slatin defended his province and though successful in many battles he gradually lost ground. At the battle of Om Waragat he lost 8,000 of his men in the first 20 minutes and was wounded three times but he managed to fight his way back to Dara. Believing his troops would fight better if led by a Muslim, Slatin publicly adopted Islam in 1883 and took the Islamic name, Abd al Qadir. When the Mahdists captured el Obeid, severing all Slatin's links with Khartoum and Hicks Pasha's expedition was annihilated at the Battle of Shaykan in 1883, Slatin finally surrendered to his old enemy the Mahdist Emir Madibbo, refusing to make any further sacrifice of life in a hopeless cause. When the Mahdists reached Khartum, an attempt was made to use him to induce the commander, the legendary General Gordon, to surrender. With this failing, Slatin was placed in chains, and on 26 January 1885, hours after the fall of Khartum, Gordon's head was brought and shown to the Slatin. After the sudden death of the Mahdi the same year, Slatin was kept at Omdurman by his successor, the Khalifa Abdullahi, being treated alternately with savage cruelty and comparative indulgence.