Egyptian nationalists blamed Britain for provoking Sudanese rebellion against Egypt

Evidence

Kämil placed responsibility for this first on the British when he spoke in Alexandria in 1896: “Why did the Sudanese keep on determinedly rebelling against Egypt? Why would they not accept any agreement with us? No one can deny that the British presence in Egypt made the Sudanese behave that way.” But another quality in the Sudanese propelled them into the Mahdïya against the Egyptians (and Kämil never denies that the Mahdists rebelled against an Egyptian, and not Ottoman, authority)-a native fanaticism: In reality, the Muslims of the Sudan are very rigid and fanatical; they would never and will never accept that any but Muslims rule them. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 743