El Teb, a halting-place in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan near Suakin on the west coast of the Red Sea, 9 m. southwest of the port of Trinkitat on the road to Tokar.
In mid-December 1883, the British Prime Minister William Gladstone ordered an evacuation of the Anglo-Egyptian forces in Sudan following a ferocious revolt of Mahdists, led by Muhammad Ahmad, against the British protectorate Egypt.[1]
At El Teb, on 4 February 1884, a heterogeneous force under General Valentine Baker, marching to the relief of the Egyptian garrison of Tokar, was completely routed by the Mahdists, led by Osman Digna.[1]
The British response was to send forces under the command of Major-General Sir Gerald Graham V.C. from Egypt to Suakin. Graham's forces fought powerfully and defeated the Mahdists on 29 February 1884.[2]