Muhammad Ahmad

For other people named Muhammad Ahmad, see ied rst under Sheikh al-Amin al-Suwaylih in the Gezira
Muhammad Ahmad (disambiguation).
region around Khartoum, and subsequently under Sheikh
Muhammad al-Dikayr 'Abdallah Khujali near the town
of Berber in North Sudan.[1] Determined to live a life of
n
asceticism, mysticism and worship, in 1861 he sought out
Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah (Arabic: Sheikh Muhammad Sharif Nur al-Dai'm, the grandson of
; August 12, 1844 June 22, 1885), also the founder of the Samaniyya Su sect in Sudan. Muhamknown as The Mad Mahdi, was a religious leader of mad Ahmad stayed with Sheikh Muhammad Sharif for
the Samaniyya order in Sudan who, on June 29, 1881, seven years, during which time he was recognized for his
proclaimed himself the Mahdi (or Madhi), the messianic piety and asceticism. Near the end of this period, he was
redeemer of the Islamic faith. His proclamation came awarded the title of Sheikh himself, and began to travel
during a period of widespread resentment among the Su- around the country on religious missions. He was permitdanese population of the oppressive policies of the Turco- ted to give tariqa and Uhd to new followers.
Egyptian rulers, and capitalized on the messianic beliefs popular among the various Sudanese religious sects In 1870, his family moved again in search for timber, this
of the time. More broadly, the Mahdiyya, as Muham- time to Aba Island on the White Nile south of Khartoum.
mad Ahmads movement was called, was inuenced by On Aba Island, Muhammad Ahmad built a mosque and
earlier Mahdist movements in West Africa, as well as started to teach the Qur'an. He soon gained a notable repWahhabism and other puritanical forms of Islamic re- utation among the local population as an excellent speaker
vivalism that developed in reaction to the growing mil- and mystic. The broad thrust of his teaching followed
itary and economic dominance of the European powers that of other reformers, his Islam was one devoted to the
words of Muhammad and based on a return to the virtues
throughout the 19th century.
of strict devotion, prayer, and simplicity as laid down in
From his announcement of the Mahdiyya in June 1881 the Qur'an. Any deviation from the Qur'an was therefore
until the fall of Khartoum in January 1885, Muham- heresy.
mad Ahmad led a successful military campaign against
the Turco-Egyptian government of the Sudan (known as In 1872, Muhammad Ahmad invited Sheikh Sharif to
the Turkiyah). During this period, many of the theo- move to al-Aradayb, an area on the White Nile neighlogical and political doctrines of the Mahdiyya were es- boring Aba Island. Despite initially amicable relations, in
tablished and promulgated among the growing ranks of 1878 the two religious leaders had a dispute motivated by
the Mahdis supporters, the Ansars. After Muhammad Sheikh Sharifs resentment of his former students growAhmads unexpected death on 22 June 1885, a mere six ing popularity. The dispute led to violence between their
months after the conquest of Khartoum, his chief deputy, followers, and while they temporarily reconciled their
Abdallahi ibn Muhammad took over the administration dierences, the experience revealed to Muhammad Ahmad his mentors ostensible faults. At a subsequent celof the nascent Mahdist state.
ebration in honor of the circumcision of Sheikh Sharifs
sons, Muhammad Ahmad expressed his disapproval of
the dancing and music, which reignited the latent ten1 Early life
sion between the two men. As a result of this second
dispute, Sheikh Sharif expelled his former student from
Muhammad Ahmad was born on 12 August 1845 at the Samaniyya order, and despite numerous apologies and
[2]
Labab Island - Dongola in Northern Sudan to a hum- emotional appeals, refused to forgive and re-admit him.
ble family of boat-builders, claiming descendent from Islamic prophet Muhammad through the line of his grandson Hassan.[1] When Muhammad Ahmad was still a
child, the family moved to the town of Karari, north of
Omdurman, where Muhammad Ahmads father, Abdullah, could nd a supply of timber for his boat-building
business.

After recognizing that the split with Sheikh Sharif was

irreconcilable, Muhammad Ahmad approached a rival
leader of the Samaniyya order named Sheikh al-Qurashi
wad al-Zayn. The elderly sheikh eagerly accepted him
and his followers, and under his new master, Muhammad
Ahmad resumed his life of piety and religious devotion
at Aba Island. During this period, he also travelled to the
While his siblings joined his fathers trade, Muhammad province of Kordofan, west of Khartoum, where he visAhmad showed a proclivity for religious study. He stud- ited with the notables of the capital, el-Obeid, who were
1

enmeshed in a power struggle between two rival claimants

to the governorship of the province. While in Kordofan,
he also enhanced his reputation by granting baraka to the
common people who attended his sermons en masse.[3]
On 25 July 1878, Sheikh al-Qurashi died and his followers recognized Muhammad Ahmad as their new leader.
Around this time, Muhammad Ahmad rst met Abdallahi bin Muhammad al-Ta'aishi, who was to become his
chief deputy and successor in the years to come.

Announcement of the Mahdiyya

RESPONSE OF THE 'ULEMA

Mahdi and the career of the Prophet. For example, he

referred to himself as the Successor of the Messenger of
God (Arabic: Khalifat Rasul Allah, ) ,
and named his four closest deputies after the four successors to the Prophet Muhammad. Later, in order to distinguish his followers from adherents of other Su sects, he
forbid the use of the word darwish (commonly known as
dervish in English) to describe his followers, replacing
it with the title Ansar, the term the Prophet Muhammad
used for the people of Medina who welcomed him and
his followers after their ight from Mecca.
This revivalist vision of the Mahdi intersected with the
popular beliefs and legends of the Mahdi. Many of these
beliefs have obscure origins in unsubstantiated Hadith,
or are inuenced by a convergence of local mythologies,
Shi'a concepts, and Su traditions. It was believed that
the Mahdi would manifest himself at the turn of an Islamic century, that his coming would herald in the end of
time, that he would revitalize the faith and restore unity to
the Ummah, and that his reign would last for eight years.
At the end of his reign, it was believed that he would
be defeated in battle with the anti-Christ (al-Dajjal), who
would subsequently be vanquished by the return of Jesus
(Nabi 'Isa).[7]

On 29 June 1881, Muhammad Ahmad publicly announced his claim to be the Mahdi so as to prepare the
way for the second coming of the Prophet Isa (Jesus).[4]
In part, his claim was based on his status as a prominent
Su sheikh with a large following in the Samaniyya order
and among the tribes in the area around Aba Island.[5] Yet
the idea of the Mahdiyya had been central to the belief of
the Samaniyya prior to Muhammad Ahmads manifestation. The previous Samaniyya leader, Sheikh al-Qurashi
Wad al-Zayn, had asserted that the long-awaited-for redeemer would come from the Samaniyya line. According to Sheikh al-Qurashi, the Mahdi would make himself
known through a number of signs, some established in the
early period of Islam and recorded in the Hadith litera- 3 Response of the 'Ulema
ture, and others having a more distinctly local origin, such
as the prediction that the Mahdi would ride the sheikhs Despite his popularity among the clerics of the
pony and erect a dome over his grave after his death.[6]
Samaniyya and other sects, and among the tribes of westDrawing from aspects of the Su tradition that were in- ern Sudan, the Ulema, or Orthodox religious authorities,
timately familiar to both his followers and his opponents, ridiculed Muhammad Ahmads claim to be the Mahdi.
Muhammad Ahmad claimed that he had been appointed Among his most prominent critics were the Sudanese
as the Mahdi by a prophetic assembly or hadra (Arabic: Ulema loyal to the Ottoman Sultan and in the employ
Al-Hadra Al-Nabawiyya, ) . A hadra, in of the Turco-Egyptian government, such as the Mufti
Shakir al-Ghazi, who sat on the Council of Appeal in
the Su tradition, is a gathering of all the prophets from
the time of Adam to Muhammad, as well as many Su Khartoum, and the Qadi Ahmad al-Azhari in Kordofan.
holy men who are believed to have reached the highest
level of anity with the divine during their lifetime. The
hadra is chaired by the Prophet Muhammad, known as
Sayyid al-Wujud, and at his side are the seven Qutb, the
most senior of whom is known as Ghawth az-Zaman. In
the belief system of the Mahdiyya, it was this divine assembly that bestowed upon Muhammad Ahmad the title
of al-Mahdi. The hadra was also the source of a number of central beliefs about the Mahdi, including that
Muhammad Ahmad was created from the sacred light at
the centre of the Prophets heart, that the Mahdiyya was
eternal and the basic institution of the universe, and that
all living creatures had acknowledged the Mahdis claim
since his birth.
In order to frame the Mahdiyya as a return to the early
days of Islam, when the Muslim community, or Ummah,
was unied under the guidance of the Prophet Muhammad and his immediate successors, Muhammad Ahmad
drew many parallels between his manifestation as the

These critics were careful not to deny the concept of the

Mahdi as such, but rather to discredit Muhammad Ahmads claim to it.[8] They pointed out that Muhammad
Ahmads manifestation did not conform to the prophecies laid out in the Hadith literature. In particular, they
argued that he had been born in Dongola, that he lacked
proof of descent from Fatima, that he did not have the
prophesied physical characteristics of the Mahdi, and that
his manifestation did not conform with the time of troubles when the land is lled with oppression, tryanny,
and enmity.[7]
While his challenge to the legitimacy of Turco-Egyptian
rule, and the Sublime Porte by extension, set many of the
religious elite against him, some of his radical changes
to Islamic doctrine and practice alienated other Muslim scholars, both Sudanese and foreign.[9] In particular,
the Mahdi abolished the four Sunni schools of jurisprudence (Arabic: Mahdahib, ), rejected all authoritative texts in the history of tafsir or Qur'anic exegesis,

3
changed the Shahada, or profession of faith, to include
del Turks and let everyone who nds a Turk
the phrase, Muhammad al-Mahdi is the Khalifa of the
kill him, for the Turks are indels [11]
Prophet of God, and revised the ve pillars of Islam by
replacing the Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca with the obli- Unlike other Muslim reformers, the Mahdi did not advogation to undertake jihad, and adding a sixth pillar, which cate the application of ijtihad but claimed to receive diwas belief in the Mahdiyya.[10]
rect inspiration from God, so that his own proclamations
superseded traditional jurisprudence. This, however, did
not usurp the prophet Muhammads position as seal of the
Prophets, because the Prophet was in some way the
4 Advance of the rebellion
intermediary of his revelations.
Information came from the Apostle of God
that the angel of inspiration is with me from
God to direct me and He has appointed him.
So from this prophetic information I learnt that
that with which God inspires me by means of
the angel of inspiration, the Apostle of God
would do, were he present.[12]
The Mahdi and a party of his followers, the Ansr
(helpers, known in the West as the Dervishes"), made
a long march to Kurdufan. There he gained a large number of recruits, especially from the Baqqara, and notable
leaders such as Sheikh Madibbo ibn Ali of Rizeigat and
Abdallahi ibn Muhammad of Ta'aisha tribes. They were
also joined by the Hadendoa Beja, who were rallied to
the Mahdi by an Ansr captain in east of Sudan in 1883,
Osman Digna.

Extent of the Mahdi rebellion in 1885 (green hatching)

After consulting the Ulema, Egyptian authorities attempted to arrest him for spreading false doctrine. A military expedition was sent to reassert the governments authority on Aba Island, but the governments forces were
ambushed and nearly annihilated by the Mahdis followers.
Muhammad Ahmad retaliated by declaring jihad, an act
A Sudanese man wearing the typical Mahdist clothing in Omdurwhich was highly criticized as unjust by the then scholars
man, 1936
of Islam:
I am the Mahdi, the Successor of the
Prophet of God. Cease to pay taxes to the in-

Although the Mahdist revolution started in June 1881 in

Northern Sudan and was backed by western Sudan, it
found a great support from the Nuer, Shilluk and Anuak

5 KHARTOUM

tribes from southern Sudan in addition to the tribes of

Bahr Alghazal, a thing which armed that the Mahdist
revolution was a national revolution and not a regional
one.

portation northward was still open and the telegraph lines

intact. However, the uprising of the Beja soon after his
arrival changed things considerably, reducing communications to runners.

The Khatmiyya su order which had enjoyed popular support in east and north Sudan rejected the
Mahdis claim outright. Mahdist forces attacked the
Khatmiyya adherents and even ransacked the tomb of
sayyid Al-Hassan grandson of the revered religious
leader Mohammed Uthman al-Mirghani al-Khatim in
Kassala. The head of the Khatmiyya su order was forced
into exile in Egypt for fear of assassination.

Gordon considered the routes northward to be too dangerous to extricate the garrisons and so pressed for reinforcements to be sent from Cairo to help with the withdrawal. He also suggested that his old enemy Al-Zubayr
Rahma Mansur, a ne military commander, be given tacit
control of the Sudan in order to provide a counter to the
Ansr. London rejected both proposals, and so Gordon
prepared for a ght.

Late in 1883, the Ansr, armed only with spears and

swords, overwhelmed a 4,000-man Egyptian force not far
from Al Ubayyid (El Obeid), and seized their ries and
ammunition. The Mahdi followed up this victory by laying siege to al-Ubayyid and starving it into submission
after four months. The town remained the headquarters
of the Ansar for much of the decade.

In March 1884, Gordon tried a small oensive to clear the

road northward to Egypt but a number of the ocers in
the Egyptian force went over to the enemy and their forces
ed the eld after ring a single salvo. This convinced
him that he could carry out only defensive operations and
he returned to Khartoum to construct defensive works.

The Ansr, now 40,000 strong, then defeated an 8,000man Egyptian relief force led by British ocer William
Hicks at Sheikan, in the battle of El Obeid. The defeat of
Hicks sealed the fate of Darfur, which until then had been
eectively defended by Rudolf Carl von Slatin. Jabal
Qadir in the south was also taken. The western half of
Sudan was now rmly in Ansr hands.
Their success emboldened the Hadendoa, who under the
generalship of Osman Digna wiped out a smaller force
of Egyptians under the command of Colonel Valentine
Baker near the Red Sea port of Suakin. Major-General
Gerald Graham was sent with a force of 4,000 British
soldiers and defeated Digna at El Teb on February 29,
but were themselves hard-hit two weeks later at Tamai.
Graham eventually withdrew his forces.

Khartoum

Main article: Mahdist War

Given their general lack of interest in the area, the British
decided to abandon the Sudan in December 1883, holding only several northern towns and Red Sea ports, such
as Khartoum, Kassala, Sannar, and Sawakin. The evacuation of Egyptian troops and ocials and other foreigners
from Sudan was assigned to General Gordon, who had
been reappointed governor general with orders to return
to Khartoum and organize a withdrawal of the Egyptian
garrisons there.

5.1

Arrival of Gordon

By April 1884, Gordon had managed to evacuate some

2500 of the foreign population that were able to make the
trek northwards. His mobile force under Colonel Stewart
then returned to the city after repeated incidents where
the 200 or so Egyptian forces under his command would
turn and run at the slightest provocation.

5.2 Siege
That month the Ansr reached Khartoum and Gordon
was completely cut o. Nevertheless, his defensive
works, consisting mainly of mines, proved so frightening
to the Ansr that they were unable to penetrate into the
city. Stewart maintained a number of small skirmishes
using gunboats on the Nile once the waters rose, and in
August managed to recapture Berber for a short time.
However, Stewart was killed soon after in another foray
from Berber to Dongola, a fact Gordon only learned about
in a letter from the Mahdi himself.
Under increasing pressure from the public to support him,
the British Government under Prime Minister Gladstone
eventually ordered Lord Garnet Joseph Wolseley to relieve Gordon. He was already deployed in Egypt due to
the attempted coup there earlier, and was able to form up
a large force of infantry, moving forward at an extremely
slow rate. Realizing they would take some time to arrive,
Gordon pressed for him to send forward a "ying column"
of camel-borne troops across the Bayyudah Desert from
Wadi Halfa under the command of Brigadier-General Sir
Herbert Stuart. This force was attacked by the Hadendoa Beja, or "Fuzzy Wuzzies", twice, rst at the Battle of
Abu Klea and two days later nearer Metemma. Twice the
British square held and the Mahdists were repelled with
heavy losses.

Gordon reached Khartoum in February 1884. At rst he At Metemma, 100 miles (160 km) north of Khartoum,
was greeted with jubilation as many of the tribes in the Wolseleys advance guard met four of Gordons steamers,
immediate area were at odds with the Mahdists. Trans- sent down to provide speedy transport for the rst reliev-

5.5

Death of Muhammad Ahmad and his succession

ing troops. They gave Wolseley a dispatch from Gordon

claiming that the city was about to fall. However, only
moments later a runner brought in a message claiming
the city could hold out for a year. Deciding to believe the
latter, the force stopped while they ret the steamers to
hold more troops.

5.3

Fall of Khartoum

They nally arrived in Khartoum on 28 January 1885

to nd the town had fallen during the Battle of Khartoum two days earlier. When the Nile had receded from
ood stage, Faraz Pasha had opened the river gates and
let the Ansr in. The garrison was slaughtered, and Gordon was killed ghting the Mahdis warriors on the steps
of the palace, hacked to pieces and beheaded which the
Mahdi forbade. When Gordons head was unwrapped at
the Mahdis feet, he ordered the head transxed between
the branches of a tree where all who passed it could look
in disdain, children could throw stones at it and the hawks
of the desert could sweep and circle above. When Wolse- The Mahdist State (1881 1898)
leys force arrived, they retreated after attempting to force
their way to the center of the town on ships, being met
5.5 Death of Muhammad Ahmad and his
with a hail of re.
The Mahdi Army continued its sweep of victories.
Kassala and Sannar fell soon after and by the end of 1885
the Ansr had begun to move into the southern regions
of Sudan. In all Sudan, only Suakin, reinforced by Indian
troops, and Wadi Halfa on the northern frontier remained
in Anglo-Egyptian hands.

5.4

succession

Modications of Sharia

With Sudan now in Sudanese hands, the Mahdi formed a

government. The Mahdiyya (Mahdist regime) modied
the Shariah (Islamic law), which would be implemented
by Islamic courts headed by various Islamic imams, in accordance with the view of an Islamic state. The courts enforced a Sharia law that the Mahdi claimed was founded
on instructions conveyed to him by God in visions.
According to this doctrine, loyalty to him was essential
to true belief. The recitation of the shahada was modied to include and Muhammad Ahmad is the Mahdi of
God and the representative of His Prophet. Among the
ve pillars, service in the "jihd" replaced the hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) as a duty incumbent on the faithful
(though Jihad-struggle is central to orthodox Islam, it is
not considered one of the ve pillars of faith).
The rebuilt tomb of Muhammad Ahmad in Omdurman
He also authorized the burning of lists of pedigrees and
books of law and theology because of their association Six months after the capture of Khartoum, Muhammad
with the old regime and because he believed that they ac- Ahmad died of typhus. He was buried in Omdurman
near the ruins of Khartoum. The Mahdi had planned for
centuated tribalism at the expense of religious unity.

7 IN POPULAR CULTURE

this eventuality and chose three deputies to replace him,

in imitation of the Prophet Muhammad. This led to a
long period of disarray, due to rivalry among the three,
each supported by people of his native region. This continued until 1891, when Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, with
the help primarily of the Baqqara Arabs, emerged as unchallenged leader. Abdallahi, referred to as the "Khalifa"
(Caliph, lit. successor) purged the Mahdiyya of members of the Mahdis family and many of his early religious
disciples.

in his ambition to become King of Sudan when the country gained independence.[15] 'Abd al-Rahman sponsored
the Umma (Nation) political Party in the period before
and just after Sudan became independent in 1956.[16]

In modern-day Sudan, Muhammad Ahmad is sometimes seen as a precursor of Sudanese nationalism. The
Umma party claim to be his political descendants.[17]
Their leader Imam Sadiq al-Mahdi, is the great-greatgrandson of Muhammad Ahmad,[18] and also the imam
of the Ansar, the religious order that pledges allegiance
The Khalifa was committed to the Mahdis vision of ex- to Muhammad Ahmad. Sadiq al-Mahdi was Prime Mintending the Mahdiyah through jihd, which led to strained ister of Sudan on two occasions: rst briey in 196667,
relations with practically every neighboring nation in and then between 1986 and 1989.
Africa. For example, the Khalifa rejected an oer of
an alliance against the Europeans by Ethiopias Emperor,
Yohannes IV because the majority of the Ethiopians were
7 In popular culture
not Muslim which made them less in the eyes of the Khalifa. Instead, in 1887 a 60,000-man Ansar army invaded
Mahdi-Trilogie (Mahdi Trilogy, 1896) by Karl May,
Ethiopia, penetrated as far as Gondar, and captured priswhere Kara Ben Nemsi meets Muhammad Ahmad.
oners and booty. The Khalifa continued to refuse to conclude hostilities or negotiate peace with Ethiopia unless
In Desert and Wilderness, a young adult novel by
every Ethiopian converted to Islam.
Henryk Sienkiewicz (1912)
In March 1889, an Ethiopian force commanded personally by the Ngusa nagast (Emperor, lit. King of Kings)
In the 1966 movie Khartoum, the Mahdi was played
invaded the Sudan and marched on Gallabat; however, afby Laurence Olivier.
ter Yohannes IV fell in battle, the Ethiopians withdrew.
In the British sitcom, Dads Army, Lance-Corporal
After the nal defeat of the Khalifa by the British under
Jones often talks about his encounters with the
General Kitchener in 1898, Muhammad Ahmads tomb
Mahdi.
was destroyed to prevent it from becoming a rallying point
for his supporters, and his bones were thrown into the
In the 1999 lm Topsy-Turvy, characters discuss the
Nile. Kitchener retained his skull.[13] Allegedly the skull
news of the Mahdis destruction of the British garriwas later buried at Wadi Halfa. The tomb was eventually
son at Khartoum.
rebuilt.

6
6.1

Aftermath
Political heritage

The Four Feathers, a much-lmed adventure novel

from 1902 is set during the British military expedition against the Mahdi.
A 2007 episode of the crime drama Waking the
Dead featured an attempt to locate the Mahdis
missing skull, in order to defuse tensions due to the
hunger strike of a Sudanese Mahdist politician. The
episode also made reference to the 1966 lm in particular reference to Oliviers portrayal of the Mahdi.
The 2008 novel After Omdurman by John Ferry
deals with the reconquest of the Sudan and the destruction of the army of the Mahdis successor, the
Khalifa.

Flag ratio: 1:2

Muhammed Ahmads posthumous son, Abd al-Rahman

al-Mahdi, whom the British considered important as a
moderate leader of the Mahdists, became a leader of the
neo-Mahdist movement in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.[14]
However, the British would not support Abd al-Rahman

Winstons Lost Night, a 2013 episode of Murdoch

Mysteries, involves the murder of a man for desecrating the Mahdis tomb. The young Winston
Churchill is initially suspected of the murder. He
gives a speech denouncing the desecration.
Wilbur Smith's novel The Triumph of the Sun, is set
around the siege of Khartoum led by the Mahdi.

See also
History of Mahdist Sudan
In Desert and Wilderness
People claiming to be the Mahdi

[16] Sayyid Abd al-Ramn al-Mahd". Encyclopdia Britannica. Retrieved 2011-08-23.

[17] Ummah party ocial website
[18] Gamal Nkrumah (1521 July 2004). Sadig Al-Mahdi:
The comeback king. Al-Ahram. Retrieved February 1,
2011.

Rabih az-Zubayr
Reginald Wingate

References

[1] Holt, P.M. The Mahdist State in Sudan, 1881-1898. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970. pp 45 cf. In fact, the family
was probably of Nubian origin but later on, after 1882,
a 'Sayyid' or prophetic connection was 'developed'. Later
on, more spurious and fantastic legends grew around him

10 Sources
David Levering Lewis, Khalifa, Khedive, and
Kitchener in The Race for Fashoda. New York:
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987. ISBN 1-55584-0582
Winston Churchill, "The River War: An Account
Of The Reconquest Of The Sudan, 1902, available
at Project Gutenberg.

[2] For a more detailed account of this conict, see P.M. Holt,
cf., 46-50

THE MAHDIYAH, 1884-98, at the Library of

Congress-Country Studies

[3] Holt, 49-50

Fergus Nicoll, The Sword of the Prophet:The Mahdi

of Sudan and the Death of General Gordon, The
History Press Ltd, 2004, ISBN 978-0-7509-32998

[4] Holt, 54.

[5] Warburg, Gabriel. Islam, Sectarianism and Politics in Sudan since the Mahdiyya. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2003. pp. 30-42.
[6] Ibrahim, Ahmed Uthman. Some Aspects of the Ideology
of the Mahdiyya. See also PM Holt, p 50 cf
[7] Kapteijns, The Religious Background of the Mahdi

John Obert Voll, The Sudanese Mahdi: Frontier

Fundamentalist, International Journal of Middle
East Studies 10 (1979), p. 145166

11 Further reading

[8] Islah and Tajdid.

[9] For a detailed account of an ambivalent view of the Mahdi
from a prominent religious scholar in the Hijaz, in what is
today Saudi Arabia, see Sharkey, Heather. Ahmad Zayni Dahlans 'Al-Futuhat Al-Islamiyya': A Contemporary
View of the Sudanese Mahdi, Sudanic Africa: A Journal
of Historical Sources, 5 (1994), 67-75.
[10] Kapteijns, The Religious Background of the Mahdi.
[11] Holt, P.M., The Mahdist State in Sudan, Clarendon Press,
Oxford 1958, p.51
[12] Holt, P.M., The Mahdist State in Sudan, Clarendon Press,
Oxford 1958, p.112
[13] Undoing the Mahdiyya: British Colonialism as Religious
Reform in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 1898-1914 by Noah
Salomon (University of Chicago Divinity School)
[14] Stiansen, Endre; Kevane, Michael (1998). Kordofan invaded: peripheral incorporation and social transformation in Islamic Africa. BRILL. pp. 2327. ISBN 90-0411049-6.
[15] Warburg, Gabriel (2003). Islam, sectarianism, and politics
in Sudan since the Mahdiyya. Univ of Wisconsin Press. p.
125. ISBN 0-299-18294-0.

Mohamed Hassan Fadlalla, Short History of Sudan,

iUniverse, (30 April 2004), ISBN 0-595-31425-2.
Mohamed Hassan Fadlalla, The Problem of Dar
Fur, iUniverse, Inc. (July 21, 2005), ISBN 978-0595-36502-9.
Mohamed Hassan Fadlalla, UN Intervention in Dar
Fur, iUniverse, Inc. (February 9, 2007), ISBN 0595-42979-3.
Dominic Green, 2011. Three Empires on the
Nile: The Victorian Jihad, 18691899. ISBN 9781451631609.

12

12

TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

12.1

Text

Muhammad Ahmad Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ahmad?oldid=715975969 Contributors: Maury Markowitz, Paul

Barlow, Llywrch, WhisperToMe, Maximus Rex, Paul-L~enwiki, Cjrother, Fvw, Huangdi, Fredrik, PBS, RedWolf, Babbage, Henrygb,
Wally, DocWatson42, J heisenberg, Rudolf 1922, Tom harrison, Zigger, Berasategui, Everyking, Gzuckier, Christian.B, Epimetreus, D6,
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Geo Swan, Ricky81682, KingTT, Mikeo, Richard Weil, Fred26, Woohookitty, FeanorStar7, Syamil, Bkkbrad, Jacobolus, Je3000, Cbdorsett, Kiergray, Galwhaa, Canderson7, Rjwilmsi, AllanHainey, FlaBot, Who, Jaraalbe, The One True Fred, Adoniscik, YurikBot, Quentin
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12.2

Images

File:Allah-green.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Allah-green.svg License: Public domain Contributors: Converted to SVG from Image:Islam.png, originally from en:Image:Ift32.gif, uploaded to the English Wikipedia by Mr100percent on
4 February 2003. Originally described as Copied from Public Domain artwork. Original artist: ?
File:Allah_logo.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Allah_logo.svg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors:
File:Allah1.png Original artist: Tauhid16; Originally uploaded by Ibrahim ebi of the png picture.
File:FIAV_111111.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/FIAV_111111.svg License: Public domain Contributors: User:3247{}s Image Wizard Original artist: 3247 using av dots.pl script
File:Flag_of_Sudan.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Flag_of_Sudan.svg License: Public domain
Contributors: www.vexilla-mundi.com Original artist: Vzb83
File:Mahdi_1885.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Mahdi_1885.png License: Public domain Contributors:
Africa_1885.jpg Original artist: Africa_1885.jpg: F.R.G.S. John Bartholomew (1831 1893)
File:Mahdi_Grave_in_Omdurman.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Mahdi_Grave_in_Omdurman.
jpg License: Public domain Contributors: No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims). Original
artist: No machine-readable author provided. Sven-steen arndt assumed (based on copyright claims).
File:Mahdist_in_the_Khalifa{}s_house,_Omdurman,_Sudan.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/
Mahdist_in_the_Khalifa%27s_house%2C_Omdurman%2C_Sudan.png License: Public domain Contributors: This image is available from
the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID matpc.00310.
This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing for more information.

Original artist: Matson Photo Service, photographer. (G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection)
File:P_vip.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/69/P_vip.svg License: PD Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Question_book-new.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/99/Question_book-new.svg License: Cc-by-sa-3.0
Contributors:
Created from scratch in Adobe Illustrator. Based on Image:Question book.png created by User:Equazcion Original artist:
Tkgd2007
File:The_Mahdist_State,_1881-98,_modern_Sudan.png Source:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/The_
Mahdist_State%2C_1881-98%2C_modern_Sudan.png License: Public domain Contributors: ? Original artist: ?

12.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0