[citation needed] Gordon wrote to Baker of 1 October 1875, "Rauf Pasha (when at Ismailia) let all discipline go to the dogs; and I do not wonder at it: for unpaid and uncared-for soldiers will never be amenable to discipline..."[9] On 10 January 1874, Werner Munzinger wrote to the Isma'il Pasha, urging him to seize Harar, the Swiss officer explained to the Egyptian ruler the economic and strategic advantages which would accrue from such a move, and that the revenue from the city's taxes would be sufficient for the upkeep of an Egyptian garrison.

In 1875, Muhammad Rauf Pasha led a well armed Egyptian force of 1,200 men from Zeila into the interior of eastern Ethiopia and without encountering any opposition, seized Harar on 11 October 1875.

[13] He also ordered the abolition of the slave trade in Harar and organized a campaign against the city's "witch doctors" and "medicine men", books of magic were burnt and apothecaries' shops were destroyed, the chewing of khat was also discouraged by the levy of heavy taxes.

[17] He made inefficient efforts to calm down the population, whom Gordon had pushed close to rebellion, and to reduce the size of the garrisons in the Sudan, following orders from Riaz Pasha.

[1] When Rudolf Carl von Slatin arrived in Khartoum in January 1881 Rauf Pasha appointed him general governor of Darfur in place of Massedaglia.

"[1] Rauf Pasha sent a small party to arrest the Mahdi, but on 11 August 1881 it was overwhelmed, and the insurrection on the southern Sudan began to grow.

[19] Rauf Pasha downplayed the "affray" in his report to Cairo, and sent the governor of Kordofan to Aba Island with 1,000 soldiers to crush the Mahdi.

The Sudanese conscripts he had dismissed as ordered by Riaz Pasha were going over to the Mahdi, while his Egyptian officers were hoping that with the change of government they could get softer jobs in northern Egypt.

[20] In December 1888 Governor Rashid Ayman at Fashoda led 400 soldiers and a mob of friendly Shilluk tribesmen to attack the Mahdi at Jebel Gadir, 150 miles (240 km) to the southwest.