2023: Mahallati - Mahdiyah

 

Mahallati, Sayyid Hasan ‘Ali Shah
Mahallati, Sayyid Hasan ‘Ali Shah (Aga Khan) (Agha Khan) (Agha Khan-i Awwal) (Hasan 'Ali Shah) (Muhammad Hasan) (Sayyid Hasan ‘Ali Shah Mahallati) (1804 in Kahak, Iran – 1881 in Bombay, India).  Last of the Nizari Isma‘ili Imams to reside in Iran and the first of them to bear the title of Aga.  In 1836, he rebelled against the central Qajar government, and fled to Afghanistan in 1842.  He later acquired great wealth in Bombay.

Hasan 'Ali Shah was born in 1804 in Kahak, Iran to Shah Khalil Allah, the 45th Ismaili Imam, and Bibi Sarkara, the daughter of Muhammad Sadiq Mahallait, a poet and a Ni'mat Allahi Sufi.  Shah Khalil Allah moved to Yazd in 1815, probably out of concern for his Indian followers, who used to travel to Persia to see their Imam and for whom Yazd was a much closer and safer destination than Kahak.  Meanwhile, his wife and children continued to live in Kahak off the revenues obtained from the family holdings in the Mahallat region.  Two years later, in 1817, Shah Khalil Allah was killed during a conflict between some of his followers and local shopkeepers.  He was succeeded by his eldest son Hasah 'Ali Shah, also known as Muhammad Hasan, who became the 46th Imam.

Unfortunately, the family was left unprovided for after a conflict between the local Nizaris and Hasan 'Ali Shah's son-in-law Imani Khan Farshani, who had been in charge of the imam's land holdings.  The young imam and his mother moved to Qumm, but their financial situation worsened.  The Imam Hasan 'Ali Shah's mother decided to go to the Qajar court in Tehran to obtain justice for her husband's death and was eventually successful.  Those who had been involved in the Shah Khalil Allah's murder were punished and the Persian king Fath 'Ali Shah increased Hasan 'Ali Shah's land holdings in the Mahallat region and gave him one of his daughters, Sarv-i Jahan Khanum, in marriage.  Fath 'Ali Shah also appointed Hasan 'Ali Shah as governor of Qumm and bestowed upon him the honorific of Aga Khan.  Hasan 'Ali Shah thus became known as Aga Khan Mahallati, and the title of Aga Khan was inherited by his successors.  Aga Khan's mother later moved to India where she died in 1851.  Until Fath 'Ali Shah's death in 1834, the Imam Hasan 'Ali Shah enjoyed a quiet life and was held in high esteem at the Qajar court.

Soon after the ascension of Muhammad Shah Qajar to the Persian throne, the Imam Hasan 'Ali Shah was appointed governor of Kirman in 1835.  At the time, Kirman was held by the rebellious sons of Shuja al-Saltana, a pretender to the Qajar throne.  The area was also frequently raided by the Afghans.  Hasan 'Ali Shah managed to restore order in Kirman, as well as in Bam and Narmishair, which were also held by rebellious groups.  Hasan 'Ali Shah sent a report of his success to Tehran, but did not receive any compensation for his achievements. 

Despite the service he rendered to the Qajar government, Hasan 'Ali Shah was dismissed from the governorship of Kirman in 1837, less than two years after his arrival there, and he was replaced by Firuz Mirza Nusrat al-Dawla, a younger brother of Muhammad Shah Qajar.  Refusing to accept his dismissal, Hasan 'Ali Shah withdrew with his forces to the citadel at Bam.  Along with his two brothers, he made preparations to resist the government forces that were sent against him.  He was besieged at Bam for some fourteen months.  When it was clear that continuing the resistance was of little use, Hasan 'Ali Shah sent one of his brothers to Shiraz in order to speak to the governor of Fars to intervene on his behalf and arrange for safe passage out of Kirman.

With the governor having interceded, Hasan 'Ali Shah surrendered and emerged from the citadel of Bam only to be double crossed.  He was seized and his possessions were plundered by the government troops.  Hasan 'Ali Shah and his dependents were sent to Kirman and remained as prisoners there for eight months.  He was eventually allowed to go to Tehran near the end of 1838-39 where he was able to present his case before the Shah.  The Shah pardoned him on the condition that he return peacefully to Mahallat.  Hasan 'Ali Shah remained in Mahallat for about two years.  He managed to gather an army in Mahallat which alarmed Muhammad Shah, who travelled to Delijan near Mahallat to determine the truth of the reports about Hasan 'Ali Shah.  Hasan 'Ali Shah was on a hunting trip at the time, but he sent a messenger to request permission of the monarch to go to Mecca for the hajj pilgrimage.  Permission was given and Hasan 'Ali Shah's mother and a few relatives were sent to Najaf and other holy cities in Iraq in which the shrines of his ancestors, the Shi'a Imams were found.

Prior to leaving Mahallat, Hasan 'Ali Shah equipped himself with letters appointing him to the governorship of Kirman.  Accompanied by his brothers, nephews and other relatives, as well as many followers, Hasan 'Ali Shah left for Yazd, where he intended to meet some of his local followers.  Hasan 'Ali Shah sent the documents reinstating him to the position of governor of Kirman to Bahman Mirza Baha al-Dawla, the governor of Yazd.  Bahman Mirza offered Hasan 'Ali Shah lodging in the city, but Hasan 'Ali Shah declined, indicating that he wished to visit his followers living around Yazd.  Hajji Mirza sent a messenger to Bahman Mirza to inform him of the spuriousness of Hasan 'Ali Shah's documents and a battle between Bahman Mirza and Hasan 'Ali Shah broke out in which Bahman Mirza was defeated.  Other minor battles were won by Hasan 'Ali Shah before he arrived in Shahr-i Babak, which he intended to use as his base for capturing Kirman.  At the time of his arrival in Shahr-i Babak, a formal local governor was engaged in a campaign to drive out the Afghans from the city's citadel, and Hasan 'Ali Shah joined him in forcing the Afghans to surrender.

Soon after March 1841, Hasan 'Ali Shah set out for Kirman.  He managed to defeat a government force consisting of 4,000 men near Dashtab, and continued to win a number of victories before stopping at Bam for a time.  Soon, a government force of 24,000 men forced Hasan 'Ali Shah to flee from Bam to Rigan on the border of Baluchistan, where he suffered a decisive defeat.  Hasan 'Ali Shah decided to escape to Afghanistan, accompanied by his brothers and many soldiers and servants.

After arriving in Afghanistan in 1841, Hasan 'Ali Shah proceeded to Kandahar which had been occupied by an Anglo-Indian army in 1839.  A close relationship developed between Hasan 'Ali Shah and the British, which coincided with the final years of the First Anglo-Afghan War (1838-1842).  After his arrival, Hasan 'Ali Shah wrote to Sir William Macnaghten, discussing his plans to seize and govern Herat on behalf of the British.  Although the proposal seemed to have been approved, the plans of the British were thwarted by the uprising of Dost Muhammad's son Muhammad Akbar Khan, who defeated the British-Indian garrison on its retreat from Kabul in January 1842.  The uprising spread to Kandahar where the Afghans were in active hunt of the "infidel" Hasan 'Ali Shah.  Hasan 'Ali Shah managed to escape and helped to evacuate the British forces from Kandahar in July 1842.  The Afghans in Kandahar claimed that they would not rest until they had captured the "traitor of the Ahl ul Beit."

Hasan 'Ali Shah soon proceeded to Sind, where he rendered further services to the British.  The British were able to annex Sind and for his services, Hasan 'Ali Shah received an annual pension from General Charles Napier, the British conqueror of Sind with whom he had a good relationship.

Hasan 'Ali Shah also aided the British militarily and diplomatically in their attempts to subjugate Baluchistan.  He became the target of a Baluchi raid, likely in retaliation for his helping the British and to whom they considered a traitor and a "kufar" or infidel.  However, Hasan 'Ali Shah continued to aid the British, hoping that they would arrange for his safe return to his ancestral lands in Persia, where many members of his family remained. 

In October 1844, Hasan 'Ali Shah left Sind for Bombay, passing through Cutch and Kathiawar where he spent some time visiting the communities of his followers in the area.  After arriving in Bombay in February 1846, the Persian government demanded his extradition from India.  The British refused and only agreed to transfer Hasan 'Ali Shah's residence in Calcutta, where it would be more difficult for him to launch new attacks against the Persian government.  The British also negotiated the safe return of Hasan 'Ali Shah to Persia, which was in accordance with his own wish.  The government agreed to Hasan 'Ali Shah's return provided that he would avoid passing through Baluchistan and Kirman and that he was to settle peacefully in Mahallat.  Hasan 'Ali Shah was eventually forced to leave for Calcutta in April 1847, where he remained until he received news of the death of Muhammad Shah Qajar. 

Hasan 'Ali Shah left for Bombay (Mumbai) and the British attempted to obtain permission for his return to Persia.  Although some of his lands were restored to the control of his relatives, his safe return could not be arranged, and Hasan 'Ali Shah was forced to remain a permanent resident of India.  While in India, Hasan 'Ali Shah continued his close relationship with the British, and was even visited by the Prince of Wales when the future King Edward VII was on a state visit to India.  The British came to address Hasan 'Ali Shah as His Highness.  Hasan 'Ali Shah received protection from the British government in British India as the spiritual head of an important Muslim community. 

The vast majority of Hasan 'Ali Shah's Khoja Isma'ili followers in India welcomed him warmly.  However, some dissident members, sensing their loss of prestige with the arrival of the Imam, wished to maintain control over communal properties.  Because of this, Hasan 'Ali Shah decided to secure a pledge of loyalty from the members of the community to himself, and to the Isma'ili form of Islam.  Although most of the members of the community signed a document issued by Hasan 'Ali Shah summarizing the practices of the Isma'ilis, a group of dissenting Khojas surprisingly asserted that the community had always been Sunni.  This group was outcast by the unanimous vote of all the Khojas assembled in Bombay (Mumbai). 

In 1866, the dissenters filed a suit in the Bombay High Court against Hasan 'Ali Shah, claiming that the Khojas had been Sunni Muslims from the very beginning.  The case, commonly referred to as the Aga Khan Case was heard by Joseph Arnould.  The hearing lasted several weeks, and included testimony from Hasan 'Ali Shah himself.  After reviewing the history of the community, Justice Arnould gave a definitive and detailed judgment against the plaintiffs and in favor of Hasan 'Ali Shah and his fellow defendants.  The judgment was significant in that it legally established the status of the Khojas as a community referred to as Shia Imami Isma'ilis, and of Hasan 'Ali Shah as the spiritual head of that community.  Hasan 'Ali Shah's authority thereafter was not seriously challenged again.

Hasan 'Ali Shah spent his final years in Bombay (Mumbai) with occasional visits to Pune.  Maintaining the traditions of the Iranian nobility to which he belonged, he kept excellent stables and became a well-known figure at the Bombay racecourse.  Hasan 'Ali Shah died after an imamate of sixty-four years in April 1881.  He was buried in a specially built shrine at Hasanabad in the Mazagaon area of Bombay.  He was survived by three sons and five daughters.  Hasan 'Ali Shah was succeeded as Imam by his eldest son Aqa 'Ali Shah, who became Aga Khan II.  


Aga Khan see Mahallati, Sayyid Hasan ‘Ali Shah
Agha Khan see Mahallati, Sayyid Hasan ‘Ali Shah
Sayyid Hasan 'Ali Shah Mahallati see Mahallati, Sayyid Hasan ‘Ali Shah
Hasan 'Ali Shah see Mahallati, Sayyid Hasan ‘Ali Shah
Agha Khan-i Awwal see Mahallati, Sayyid Hasan ‘Ali Shah
Muhammad Hasan see Mahallati, Sayyid Hasan ‘Ali Shah

Mahalli, Abu ‘Ali Jalal al-Din al-
Mahalli, Abu ‘Ali Jalal al-Din al- (Abu ‘Ali Jalal al-Din al-Mahalli) (1389-1459).  Egyptian scholar.  He is known above all as co-author of the famous Qur’an commentary called The Commentary of the Two Jalals, the other author being Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, who had been al-Mahalli’s pupil and completed the work.
Abu 'Ali Jalal al-Din al-Mahalli see Mahalli, Abu ‘Ali Jalal al-Din al-

Maharashtrians
Maharashtrians (Marathis).  Muslims constitute one of the small, yet significant cultural and social segments of the population of the west Indian state of Maharashtra and its capital, Bombay (Mumbai).  It is the largest minority in the state.  Although the various parts of the state were once under Muslim rule, the extent of Muslim cultural impact on Maharashtra is much less than on northern India.  Some of the factors limiting this impact are the state’s geographical location far south of the Muslim-dominated areas, the Hindu influence on former Muslim rulers, continuity of revenue administration, composition of the armies and the relative absence of intolerance.

The overwhelming majority of Maharastrian Muslims were converted from Hinduism, but a small number are descended from the original Muslim migrants who settled in the coastal region of Kakan around 700 C. C.   These are known as Kufas and originally lived in Egypt, but fled from persecution there.  Even today, surnames such as Khalib and Fakhi show the Arab origins.

Conversion began in the twelfth century in the wake of the Muslim invasion from north India.  This period also witnessed the continuous flow of Arabs, Turks, and Persians into western India.  In addition to the Mughals, some Muslims also migrated from south India.  After the establishment of British rule, some left western India, but many who had come as camp followers settled in the area.  Muslim communities of Kakars, Bedras, Mukris and Gaokasais are instances of those who came from different parts of India and stayed in Maharashtra.  Except in Marathwada, a large number of converts belonged to the lower stratum of Hindu society.  In Marathwada, which was a part of the old Hyderabad state, high-caste Brahmins and Marathas embraced Islam in order to safeguard their traditional rights and privileges.  During the British period, Shi‘a Muslim communities, such as Bohra, Khoja, and Memon, migrated from Kutch Gujarat and became Maharashtrians.


Kufas see Maharashtrians
Marathis see Maharashtrians

Mahdi
Mahdi (al-Mahdi -- “the rightly guided one”).  Name of the restorer of religion and justice -- the precursor of the Day of Judgment --  who, according to a widely held Muslim belief, will rule before the end of the world. The term mahdi is the name given to the divinely inspired prince who appears at the end of times, restores Islam to its previous glory and brings justice to bear.  The mahdi will carry the name Muhammad ibn ‘Abdallah.  For the Shi‘a, the mahdi is the hidden imam whose arrival is awaited. Throughout Islamic history there has been a recurrence of Mahdi movements.  In early days, the best known Mahdi was Ibn Tumart, the founder of the Almohad movement.  In modern times, the best known Mahdi was the Sudanese Muhammad al-Mahdi.  In radical Shi‘ism, belief in the coming of the Mahdi of the family of the Prophet became a central aspect of the faith.

The Mahdi is the prophesied redeemer of Islam who will stay on earth seven, nine, or nineteen years (depending on the interpretation) before the coming of Yaum al-Qiyamah -- "The Day of Resurrection".   Muslims believe the Mahdi will rid the world of error, injustice and tyranny alongside Jesus.  The concept of Mahdi is not mentioned in the Qur'an nor in any reliable hadiths such as Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim.  Many orthodox Sunni theologians accordingly question Mahdist beliefs, but such beliefs form a necessary part of Shi'a doctrine.

The advent of the Mahdi is not a universally accepted concept in Islam.  Among those that accept the Mahdi there are basic differences among different sects of Muslims about the timing and nature of the Mahdi's advent and guidance.  The idea of the Mahdi has been described as important to Sufi Muslims, and a powerful and central religious idea for Shi'a Muslims who believe the Mahdi is the Twelfth Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi who will return from occultation.  However, among Sunni, it never became a formal doctrine and is neither endorsed nor condemned by the consensus of Sunni Ulama.  It has gained a strong hold on the imagination of many ordinary self-described orthdox Sunni due to Sufi preaching. 

While there are different perspectives held by Sunni and Shi'a with regards to the Mahdi, they agree on five principles: (1) The Mahdi will be a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad of the line of Fatima; (2) the Mahdi will bear the name Muhammad; (3) the Mahdi will rule for either seven, nine or nineteen years; (4) the coming of the Mahdi will be accompanied by the raising of a Black Standard in Khurasan; and (5) the coming of the Mahdi will be accompanied by the appearance of Dajjal (the anti-Mahdi) in the East.

Among Shi'a Muslims, the Mahdi symbol developed into a powerful and central religious idea.  Shi'a Muslims believe that the Mahdi is the Twelfth Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, the Twelfth and last Imam, who was born in 868 and was hidden by Allah at the age of five.  According to the Shi'a believers, Muhammad al-Mahdi is still alive but has been in "occultation" -- in hiding -- awaiting the time that Allah has decreed for his return.

The Hidden Imam will return as the Mahdi with a company of his chosen ones.  Also part of the return will be his enemies led by the one-eyed Dajjal and the Sufyani.  The two forces will fight one final apocalyptic battle where the Mahdi and his forces will prevail over the forces of evil.  After ruling earth for a number of years, Isa al-Maseeh (Jesus Christ), Imam Husayn and other Imams, prophets and saints will return to earth.

Human intellect and conscience are guides toward the establishment of a just Islamic order, but in addition God has entrusted to certain individuals the key function of “guidance.”  In the Qur’an, the chosen ones of God are termed muhtadun (recipients of guidance) and hudat (guides), and so they attain the status of hudat al-muhtadun -- the rightly guided leaders. 

While the concept of the mahdi does not appear in the Qur’an itself, the title “mahdi,” virtually a synonym of the Qur’anic term hudat al-muhtadun, seems to have gained importance through its usage in the hadith, where it refers to certain individuals in the past and to a future messianic figure.  A mahdi is divinely guided in a specific and individual way.

Muslims have the responsibility of establishing the ideal religio-political community, the umma, with a worldwide membership of all those who believe in God and his revelation through Muhammad.

Muhammad himself planted the seeds of this responsibility, which carry the revolutionary challenge of Islam toward any social order which might hamper its realization.  In the persistent aspiration for a more just society these seeds have borne fruit in rebellion throughout Islamic history. 

Muhammad’s message embodied in the Qur’an provided tremendous spiritual as well as political impetus for the creation of a just society.  Consequently, in the years following Muhammad’s death, there emerged a group of Muslims who, dissatisfied with the state of affairs under the Caliphs, looked back to the early period of Islam as the ideal epoch, unadulterated by the corrupt and worldly rulers of the expanding Islamic empire.  The idealization of the Prophet himself gave rise to the notion that he was something more than an ordinary man; he must have been divinely chosen and thus was the true leader who could guide his people.

Many began to look forward to the rule of a descendant of Muhammad, the Mahdi, who would also be named Muhammad.  The Mahdi would bear a title similar to that of the Apostle of God and would fill the earth with equity and justice.  The growth of such a hope was the inevitable outcome of the consistent stress Islam lays on the realization of the just society under the guidance of divine revelation.  With the establishment of various dynasties which failed to promote the Islamic ideal, the desire for a deliverer grew.  Those who looked for the appearance of the Mahdi were generally sympathetic to the claims of the Prophet’s descendants as heirs to the prophetic mission, and were the early adherents of the Shi‘a.  The idea of a messianic imam who would bring an end to corruption and wickedness was especially important in Imamite Shi‘ism where the firm belief in the return of the twelfth imam as the Mahdi continues to be expressed in the most repeated Shi‘ite prayer: “May God hasten release from suffering through his [the Mahdi’s] rise.”

The title “mahdi” was first used of Ali and al-Husayn as a designation of a righteous Islamic ruler.  In the messianic sense it seems to have been first used by al-Mukhtar ibn Abi ‘Ubayd al-Thaqafi, a man with Shi‘ite sympathies, to designate Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya, a son of Ali by a wife other than Fatima, in the context of a two year rebellion against Umayyad authority.  Ibn al-Hanafiyya apparently declined the extravagant claims made for him and died without achieving anything significant.  But the result of the movement were far-reaching.  Many of its adherents did not accept his death as a reality and declared that he was in hiding and would eventually return. 

The refusal of Ibn al-Hanafiyya’s followers to accept his death marked the beginning of the two central beliefs about the Mahdi: (1) the Mahdi’s ghayha (concealment) and (2) the Mahdi’s raj’a (return) at the appropriate time.  These beliefs helped Shi‘ites to endure under difficult circumstances and to hope for reform pending the coming of the Mahdi.  Such expectation did not require that they oppose the establishment actively.  Instead, a lack of information concerning the exact time when the Mahdi would appear required Shi‘ites to be on the alert at all times.

The decades prior to the end of the Umayyad rule in 750 C.C. were marked by several Shi‘ite revolutions and uprisings headed by adherents of the party of Ali or other members of the Hashimite clan who demanded a new social order.  Although the ‘Abbasids based their revolution on Shi‘ite expectations, they abandoned their messianic role after being established as caliphs and adopted Sunnism.  Nevertheless, they persisted in assuming messianic titles in the hope that the caliphate would have some resemblance to the ideals of the Shi‘ite imamate and its function of restoring the purity of Islam. 

Even after this disappointment, Shi‘ite hopes continued to run high, and it was believed that almost all imams from that time on had not died, but might return as the Mahdi.  This was especially true of the followers of the first twelve imams.  The twelfth was, however, by no means the last of those who were proclaimed as mahdi, and the title has continued to be bestowed to the present day.

In Africa, since the tenth century, several self-proclaimed mahdis have appeared in northern Africa, the best known was the late 19th century Sudanese leader Muhammad Ahmad.

The main principle of the mahdi is that he is a figure that is absolutely guided by God.  This guidance is a stronger form of guidance than normal guidance, which usually involves a human being willfully acting according to the guidance of God.  The mahdi, on the other hand, has nothing of this human element, and acts the will of God directly.

Neither the figure of the mahdi, nor his mission, are mentioned in the Qur’an, and there is practically nothing to be found among the reliable hadiths on him either.  The idea of the mahdi appears to be a development in the first two to three centuries of Islam.  In the case of the Shi‘a mahdi many scholars have suggested that there is a clear inspiration coming from Christianity and its ideas of a judgment day in the hands of a religious renewer. 

While there are many similarities between the Mahdi and the Messiah, there are also many variations over the Mahdi theme, which have differed from time to time and from region to region.

The first time we hear of the term “mahdi” is in 686 C. C., by the Muslim leader Mukhtar Thaqafi in reference to Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiya. 

There are more than one way of defining the mahdi in Sunni Islam, but never is it given such an importance as we can see it in Shi‘i  Islam:

“Mahdi” has been used as an honorific title for several prominent figures in Islam.  This applies to Ali, the fourth caliph; his son Hassan; as well as the Ummawiyy caliph Umar II.  In the latter case, theologians meant that Umar II was the first of altogether eight renewers of Islam.  The last of these eight would be a figure simply called Mahdi or Isa (Jesus).

When “mahdi” was used for the Abbasid caliph Nasir, he was defined as the final mahdi, and there was no need to expect any future mahdis.

“Mahdi” has sometimes been used for converts to Islam, because these people are believed to have been guided by God to find the truth. 

“Mahdi” has been frequently used for military leaders, both leaders that were occulted as well as leaders that appeared in flesh and blood.  Among the best known were El Mahdi of nineteenth century Sudan, and Ibn Tumart of twelfth century Morocco.

Even in Shi‘a Islam, there are variations, but these all give the Mahdi an elevated and unique position.  In the now extinct sect of Kaisaniya, founded around Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiya, son of Ali with another wife than Fatima, this Muhammad was defined as “mahdi.” Muhammad appears to have refused this status, but nevertheless the Kaisaniya sect developed especially after his death.  They developed a theology where they waited for his return from his grave in Mount Radwa, where they believed that he was living, and not dead.

Over the course of history, there have been several individuals who have declared themselves to be the Mahdi prophesied in Islam.  Similar to the notion of a Messiah in the Judeo-Christian religions, the notion of a Mahdi as a redeemer to establish a society has lent itself to various interpretations leading to different claims within minorities or by individuals within Islam.

The first historical recorded reference to a movement using the name of Mahdi is al-Mukhtar's rebellion against the Umayyid Caliphate in 686, almost 50 years after Muhammad's death.  Al-Mukhtar claimed that Ibn al-Hanifiya, a son of the fourth Caliph Ali (the first Imam of the Shi'a), was the Mahdi who would save the Muslim people from the unjust rule of the Umayyads.  Ibn al-Hanifiya was not actively involved in the rebellion, and when the Umayyads successfully quashed it, they left him undisturbed.

Another claim was that of the Bab in 1844.  The Bab is the founder of the religion of Babism.  He was later executed in the town of Tabriz by a firing squad.  His remains currently reside in a tomb at the Baha'i World Center in Haifa, Israel.  The Bab is considered to be the forerunner of Baha'ullah.  Both are considered Prophets of by Baha'is.

The late nineteenth century saw another person, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who appeared in British India and claimed to be the promised Mahdi as well as the Promised Messiah being the only person in Islamic history to have claimed to be both.  He founded the Ahmadiyya religious movement in 1889 which, though claims to be Muslim in every sense of the word is not recognized as such by a majority of mainstream Muslims.

The Sudanese Sufi, Muhammad Ahmad, declared himself to be the Mahdi in 1882, and defeated Ottoman-Egyptian forces to set up his own state.  Muhammad Ahmad died in 1885, but his Mahdist state lasted until 1899 when a British army destroyed it.

The most recent notable claim to Mahdism was by Mohammad Abdullah a-Querishi whose brother-in-law, Juhayman ibn-Muhammad ibn-Sayf al-Otaibi, led several hundred men to take over the Grand Mosque in Mecca in November of 1979.  This uprising was defeated after a two week siege with at least 250 rebels, soldiers and pilgrims killed.   
   

The Rightly Guided One see Mahdi
al-Mahdi see Mahdi

Mahdi, al-
Mahdi, al-.  See Mahdi.

Mahdi, Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad al-
Mahdi, Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad al- (Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad al-Mahdi) (b. 743) was an ‘Abbasid caliph who ruled from 775 to 785.  His reign was in the main a period of peace and prosperity.
Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad al-Mahdi see Mahdi, Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad al-

Mahdi, Al-Sadiq al-
Mahdi, Al-Sadiq al- (Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi) (Sadiq al-Mahdi) (Sadiq Al Siddiq) (b. 1936).  Sudanese Islamic-Mahdist theologian and contemporary political leader.  As great-grandson of the Sudanese Mahdi, Muhammad Ahmad ibn ‘Abdallah (d. 1885), Sadiq was born into a leading Islamic family and trained for his leadership role from birth.  He received a broad traditional Muslim education and later a modern one at Victoria College in Alexandria.  He then studied at the University of Khartoum and graduated from St. John’s College, Oxford, where he read philosophy, politics, and economics.  Sadiq rose to prominence in 1961 following the death of his father, Imam Siddiq al-Mahdi.  The shura council of the Ansar decided that he was too young to become their imam and appointed his uncle al-Hadi instead.  With the leadership divided and Sadiq heading the Ummah party, a split within the Ummah and the Ansar became unavoidable.  It paved the way for a long-term pact between Sadiq and Hasan al-Turabi, the leader of Sudan’s Muslim Brothers.  This was probably one of the factors that led Sadiq, a presumed liberal, to announce his intention, on becoming prime minister in 1966, to promulgate an Islamic constitution and found an Islamic state.  Sadiq and his followers were defeated in the 1968 elections and had to seek a reconciliation with his conservative uncle.  This seems to have turned him into a conservative, and the Ummah-Ansar complex in the 1980s was as autocratic as it had been under previous imams.  As prime minister after the 1986 elections, Sadiq was in full control of both the Ansar and the Ummah.  His failure to lead on the most crucial issues, the Islamic nature of the state and its inter-ethnic and inter-religious relations, probably caused his downfall in June 1989.

Sadiq was the most prominent leader to oppose the so-called shari ‘a laws implemented by President Ja‘far Nimeiri in September 1983.  He denounced them as un-Islamic because shari ‘a could only be implemented in a just society in which Muslims were not forced to steal in order to survive.  He failed to abolish these laws, however, while he was prime minister in 1986-1989, owing both to his ambivalence and to his weak leadership.  His ambivalence was the result of his reluctance to abolish the existing Islamic laws, which after all he too had advocated, without introducing alternative ones first.  He assumed that he would lose popular support if he submitted to southern and secularist demands for unconditional abrogation.

Sadiq expressed his views on the Islamic state in many of his writings, and in these his ideology is by far more liberal and progressive than his political career would suggest.  He asserts that the modern formulation of shari‘a should be entrusted to universities, with lay scholarly supervision.  Otherwise, shari‘a will wither away, and Muslim leaders will have abdicated their trust.  Islamic states may be traditional, moderizing, or revolutionary, as long as they abide by the general constitutional principles of Islam and as long as their legal systems are based on a traditional or modern formulation of shari‘a.  In the sphere of economics, two principles should be applied.  First, wealth is collectively owned by humanity, and while individual ownership is legitimate, society has to provide for the poor.  Second, it is mandatory to implement special injunctions such as zakat, inheritance laws, and the prohibition of usury.  Hence there is no contradiction in an economic system that is both Islamic and modern.  Islamic international relations, according to Sadiq, are to be based on peaceful coexistence; war is justified to deter aggression and is not permitted as a way of enforcing Islam.  Even pagans are not to be converted by force.  In Islamic international relations there are four basic principles: human brotherhood, the supremacy of justice, the irreversibility of contracts, and reciprocity.  Finally, Sadiq regards taqlid, or the uncritical adoption of a tradition or a legal decision, as a major curse.  He claimed that when non-Muslim opinion refers to Islamic fundamentalism, it is taqlid they have in mind, which therefore should be abolished.


Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi see Mahdi, Al-Sadiq al-
Sadiq al-Mahdi see Mahdi, Al-Sadiq al-
Mahdi, Sadiq al- see Mahdi, Al-Sadiq al-
Sadiq Al Siddiq see Mahdi, Al-Sadiq al-
Siddiq, Sadiq Al see Mahdi, Al-Sadiq al-

Mahdids
Mahdids.  Dynasty at Zabid in Yemen (r.1136-1176).  It took its name from the father of the first leader, ‘Ali ibn Mahdi (d. 1159).

Mahdi, El
Mahdi, El (El Mahdi) (Muhammad Ahmad) (Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah) (Muhammad Ahmed Al Mahdi) Muhammad Ahmad ibn ‘Abdallah al-Mahdi (Muhammad Ahmad ibn 'Abdallah) (the Mahdi) (August 12, 1844 - June 22, 1885).  Sudanese politician and religious leader.  His original name was Muhammad Ahmad, and he was arguably the single most influential personality in the history of the modern Sudan.  A descendant of an “Arabized Nubian” family from Dongola, he was born in 1844 in Dirar Island off Dongola.

His father was a descendant of a respected religious man, a shariff known for his good “faith” among the people of that area.  He migrated to Khartoum for better prospects for his family.  All Muhammad’s brothers preferred to master the father’s profession of building boats, but he found himself attracted to religious studies like his great grandfather, the shariff.

Muhammad Ahmad learned the Qur’an in Khartoum and Kararie and later he studied fiqh under Sheikh Muhammad Kheir’s patronage.  Muhammad Ahmad mastered different aspects of Islamic Studies and was known for his Sufi tendency among his mates.  In 1861, he approached Sheik Muhammad Sheief, the leader of the Sammaniyya Sect, and requested to join his students and learn more on Sufism.  Muhammad had shown a great deal of devotion and dedication to his Sheikh and teacher as well as a great deal of faith which distinguished him from his colleagues.  When sheikh Muhammad realized Muhammad’s dedication and devotion, he appointed him shaykh and permitted him to give tariqa and uhud to new followers wherever he wanted to be.

In 1871, Muhammad Ahmad migrated with the rest of his family to Aba Island in western Sudan where he built a mosque for prayers and started to teach the Qur’an and Islamic Studies.  Shortly he could gather all the inhabitants of Aba Island around him and got a wide popularity and fame among them.

The following years, and until he declared himself Mahdi, he spent time visiting people in different neighboring areas warning them and asking them to follow the “path of God Almighty.”  He roamed all the areas as far as Dongola in the north, the Blue Nile region, Kordofan in the west, Sinnar and East of Sudan.  He noticed the people’s discontent with the ruling Turks (the Ottoman-Egyptians) and their desire to get rid of the Turks – a desire that made many wish for the appearance of the awaited Mahdi to save them.  Thus, whenever the people found in a man a great deal of knowledge, dedication and devotion to the religion they thought that he was the Mahdi.

Muhammad found in the people the desire and belief that he was the awaited Mahdi.  Meanwhile, he was very much concerned by the bleak condition of Islam in Sudan under the self-proclaimed Shaykhs.  Compelled by all this, in addition to his consideration of the wish and desire of the majority of the people and the sense of expectation of El Mahdi, Muhammad Ahmad started to prepare himself to proclaim Mahdism.  

During this period, the Khalifa Abdullahi came to recognize Muhammad Ahmad as “Mahdi” even before Muhammad himself had proclaimed it.  From then on, and until the fall of Khartoum, to the Mahdi’s forces in January 1885, there was a continuous triumphal progress of volunteer armies fighting for the victory of Islam and the accomplishment of the eschatological mission.

It was in 1881 at Aba Island that Muhammad Ahmad proclaimed himself as the “Mahdi” and started to unify central and southern Sudanese tribes to exploit their increasing social and economical discontent with the ruling Turks and their exploitation of the country’s resources and mal-administration.  El Mahdi led a national revolution and an “Islamic revivalism” uprising against the ruling Turks which was culminated by the fall of Khartoum and the assassination of Gordon Pasha in 1885.

Even though El Mahdi died shortly after the fall of Khartoum, his Mahdist Islamic regime survived until 1898 when the Anglo-Egyptian forces under Kitchener captured Khartoum, regained control and proclaimed a British-Egyptian condominium dominated mainly by British policies.  The British presence would last until 1956 when Sudan achieved its independence.

Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah (otherwise known as the Mahdi or Muhammad Ahmed Al Mahdi (August 12, 1844 – June 22, 1885) was a Sufi sheikh of the Samaniyya order in Sudan who, on June 29, 1881, proclaimed himself as the Mahdi or messianic redeemer of the Islamic faith. His proclamation came during a period of widespread resentment among the Sudanese population of the oppressive policies of the Turco-Egyptian rulers, and capitalized on the messianic beliefs popular among the various Sudanese sufi sects (or tariqa/turuq) of the time. More broadly, the Mahdiyya, as Muhammad Ahmad's movement was called, was influenced by earlier Mahdist movements in West Africa, as well as Wahabism and other puritanical forms of Islamic revivalism that developed in reaction to the growing military and economic dominance of the European powers throughout the 19th century.

From his announcement of the Mahdiyya in June 1881 until the fall of Khartoum in January 1885, Muhammad Ahmad led a successful military campaign against the Turco-Egyptian government of the Sudan (known as the Turkiyya). During this period, many of the theological and political doctrines of the Mahdiyya were established and promulgated among the growing ranks of the Mahdi's supporters. After Muhammad Ahmad's unexpected death on 22 June 1885, a mere six months after the conquest of Khartoum, his chief deputy, the Khalifa Abdullah took over the administration of the nascent Mahdist state.

Muhammad Ahmad was born on August 12, 1844 on Labab Island in the province of Dongola in Northern Sudan to a family that claimed to be descendants of the Prophet Muhammad through the line of his grandson Hassan.  As a child, the family moved to the town of Karari, north of Khartoum, where Muhammad Ahmad's father, Abdullah, could find a supply of timber for his boat-building business.

While his siblings joined his father's trade, Muhammad Ahmad showed a proclivity for religious study. He studied first under Sheikh al-Amin al-Suwaylih in the Gezira region around Khartoum, and subsequently under Sheikh Muhammad al-Dikayr 'Abdallah Khujali near the town of Berber in North Sudan.

Determined to live a life of asceticism, mysticism, and worship, in 1861 he sought out Sheikh Muhammad Sharif Nur al-Dai'm, the grandson of the founder of the Samaniyya Sufi sect in Sudan. Muhammad Ahmad stayed with Sheikh Muhammad Sharif for seven years, during which time he was recognized for his piety and asceticism. Near the end of this period, he was awarded the title of Sheikh himself, and began to travel around the country on religious missions. He was permitted to give tariqa and Uhūd to new followers.

In 1870, his family moved again in search for timber, this time to Aba Island on the White Nile south of Khartoum. On Aba Island, Muhammad Ahmad built a mosque and started to teach the Qur'an. He soon gained a notable reputation among the local population as an excellent speaker and mystic. The broad thrust of his teaching followed that of other reformers, his Islam was one devoted to the words of Muhammad and based on a return to the virtues of strict devotion, prayer, and simplicity as laid down in the Qur'an. Any deviation from the Qur'an was therefore heresy.

In 1872, Muhammad Ahmad invited Sheikh Sharif to move to al-Aradayb, an area on the White Nile neighboring Aba Island. Despite initially amicable relations, in 1878 the two religious leaders had a dispute motivated by Sheikh Sharif's resentment of his former student's growing popularity. The dispute led to violence between their followers, and while they temporarily reconciled their differences, the experience revealed to Muhammad Ahmad his mentor's faults. At a subsequent celebration in honor of the circumcision of Sheikh Sharif's sons, Muhammad Ahmad expressed his disapproval of the dancing and music, which reignited the latent tension between the two men. As a result of this second dispute, Sheikh Sharif expelled his former student from the Samaniyya order, and despite numerous apologies and emotional appeals, refused to forgive and re-admit him.

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 province of Kordofan, west of Khartoum, where he visited with the notables of the capital, el-Obeid, who were 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.

On July 25, 1878, Sheikh al-Qurashi died and his followers recognized Muhammad Ahmad as their new leader. Around this time, Muhammad Ahmad first met Abdallahi bin Muhammad al-Ta'aishi, who was to become his chief deputy and successor in the years to come.

On June 29, 1881, Muhammad Ahmad publicly announced his claim to be the Mahdi. In part, his claim was based on his status as a prominent Sufi sheikh with a large following in the Samaniyya order and among the tribes in the area around Aba Island. Yet the idea of the Mahdiyya had been central to the belief of the Samaniyya prior to Muhammad Ahmad's 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 literature, and others having a more distinctly local origin, such as the prediction that the Mahdi would ride the sheikh's pony and erect a dome over his grave after his death.

Drawing from aspects of the Sufi tradition that were intimately familiar to both his followers and his opponents, Muhammad Ahmad claimed that he had been appointed as the Mahdi by a prophetic assembly or hadra. A hadra, in the Sufi tradition, is a gathering of all the prophets from the time of Adam to Muhammad, as well as many Sufi holy men who are believed to have reached the highest level of affinity 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 center of the Prophet's heart, that the Mahdiyya was eternal and the basic institution of the universe, and that all living creatures had acknowledged the Mahdi's 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 unified under the guidance of the Prophet Muhammad and his immediate successors, Muhammad Ahmad drew many parallels between his manifestation as the Mahdi and the career of the Prophet. For example, he referred to himself as the Successor of the Messenger of God (Arabic: Khalifat Rusul 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 Sufi 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 flight 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 influenced by a convergence of local mythologies, Shi'a concepts, and Sufi 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).

Despite his popularity among Sufis of the Samaniyya and other sects, and among the tribes of western Sudan, the Ulema, or Orthodox religious authorities, ridiculed Muhammad Ahmad's claim to be the Mahdi. Among his most prominent critics were the Sudanese Ulema loyal to the Ottoman Sultan and in the employ of the Turco-Egyptian government, such as the Mufti Shakir al-Ghazi, who sat on the Council of Appeal in Khartoum, and the Qadi Ahmad al-Azhari in Kordofan.

These critics were careful not to deny the concept of the Mahdi as such, but rather to discredit Muhammad Ahmad's claim to it. They pointed out that Muhammad Ahmad's 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 filed with oppression, tryanny, and enmity."

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. In particular, the Mahdi abolished the four Sunni schools of jurisprudence (Arabic: madhahib), rejected all authoritative texts in the history of tafsir or Qur'anic exegesis, changed the Sha'hada, or profession of faith, to include the phrase, "Muhammad al-Mahdi is the Khalifa of the Prophet of God," and revised the five pillars of Islam by replacing the Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca with the obligation to undertake jihad, and adding a sixth pillar, which was belief in the Mahdiyya.

Linguistically, the Arabic term "al-Mahdi" can be translated as "the one who guides". The term is not found explicitly in the Qur'an, nor is it recorded in two of the most prominent collections of hadith, that of Bukhari and Muslim.

Beyond his charismatic leadership, early military success, and religious appeal, there were numerous social and political factors that led to the rapid growth of Muhammad Ahmad's influence and the ultimate success of the Mahdiyya under his command. One of the most salient factors was the way in which Turco-Egyptian rule (1821–1885) interfered with local power structures, disenfranchised many influential segments of the Sudanese population, and subjected Sudan to the increasing penetration of the European powers.

Throughout the period of Turco-Egyptian rule, many segments of the Sudanese population suffered extreme hardship due to the system of taxation imposed by the central government. Under this system, a flat tax was imposed on farmers and small traders and collected by government-appointed tax collectors from the Sha'iqiyya tribe of northern Sudan. In bad years, and especially during times of drought and famine, farmers were unable to pay the high taxes. Fearing the brutal and unjust methods of the Sha'iqiyya, many farmers fled their villages in the fertile Nile Valley to the remote areas of Kordofan and Darfur. These migrants, known as "Jallaba" after their loose-fitting style of dress, began to function as small traders and middlemen for the foreign trading companies that had established themselves in the cities and towns of central Sudan. At the time, trade was dominated by two goods: ivory and slaves. The slaves were kidnapped in extensive slave raids led by Egyptian, European, and Sudanese slave traders in the provinces of Bahr Al-Ghazal and elsewhere in what is today South Sudan. While in the early years of the Turco-Egyptian rule, many slaves were sent north to serve as soldiers in Muhammad Ali's army, those taken captive later in the century were often forced to undertake the labor-intensive cultivation of crops in the Nile Valley.

In 1863, concern in Europe about the slave trade was ignited by the Speke and Grant expedition to discover the source of the Nile. The British government, increasingly involved in the administration of Egyptian affairs under the Khedive Ismail, began to target slave-ships transporting their cargo up the Nile. Recognizing that this approach was ineffective, the British eventually succeeded in establishing The Convention for the Suppression of the Slave Trade, which granted the British navy the right to search Egyptian ships leaving from Suakin (the site of Port Sudan today) on the Red Sea. This two-pronged assault on the slave trade not only threatened the prosperity of all those involved directly in the procurement and sale of slaves, but also the large segments of northern Sudanese society that relied on slave labor for agricultural and domestic work. In many cases, the same Jallaba that had been forced to flee their land due to excessive taxation were now under threat of losing their livelihood from the slave trade.

By the middle 19th century the Ottoman Imperial subject administration in Egypt was in the hands of Khedive Ismail. Although not a competent or devoted leader, Khedive Ismail had grandiose schemes about Egypt. His spending had put Egypt into huge debt and when his financing of the Suez Canal started to crumble, Great Britain stepped in and repaid his loans in return for controlling shares in the canal. As the canal took on a vast strategic importance as a control point for British trade with India, the need to ensure its security and stability became paramount. Thus, control of the canal required an ever increasing role in Egyptian affairs. With Khedive Ismail's spending and corruption causing instability, in 1873 the British government supported a program where an Anglo-French debt commission assumed responsibility for managing Egypt's fiscal affairs. This commission eventually forced Khedive Ismail to abdicate in favor of his son Tawfiq in 1877, leading to a period of political turmoil.

Ismail had appointed General Charles "Chinese" Gordon Governor of the Equatorial Provinces of Sudan in 1873. For the next three years, General Gordon fought against a native chieftain of Darfur, Zobeir, who had erected, on the basis of slave-traffic, a dangerous military power. Zobeir's organisation was eventually dismantled. Although unsuccessful at total pacification, Gordon was successful in limiting the power of the slave traders. Thus, he was made Governor-General of the Sudan in 1877. Soon after he arrived at his new post he started to end the slave trade, which at that point dominated the economy and was controlled by the tiny minority of Arabs. Before his arrival some 7 out of 8 blacks in the Sudan were enslaved by the tiny minority of Arabs; the native Africans formed well over 80% of the overall population. Gordon's policies were effective, but the effects on the economy were disastrous, and soon the Arab Social Ascendancy came to see this not a liberation from slavery, but a modern-day European Christian crusade and a threat to Muslim and Arab social dominance. It was this anger that fed the Ansars' ranks.

Upon Ismail's abdication, Gordon found himself with dramatically decreased support. He eventually resigned his post in 1880, exhausted by years of work, and left early the next year. His policies were soon abandoned by the new governors, but the anger and discontent of the dominant Arab minority was left unaddressed.

Although the Egyptians were fearful of the deteriorating conditions, the British refused to get involved, "Her Majesty’s Government are in no way responsible for operations in the Sudan", the Foreign Secretary Earl Granville noted.

Among the forces historians see as the causes of the uprising are ethnic Sudanese anger at the foreign Turkish Ottoman rulers, Muslim revivalist anger at the Turks' lax religious standards and willingness to appoint non-Muslims such as the Christian Charles Gordon to high positions and Sudanese Sufi resistance to "dry, scholastic Islam of Egyptian officialdom".

In 1881, Muhammad Ahmed declared himself Mahdi and ruler so as to prepare the way for the second coming of the Prophet Isa (Jesus),. "After consulting the ulama", Egyptian authorities "attempted to arrest him for spreading false doctrine." A military expedition was sent to reassert the government's authority on Aba Island, but the government's forces were ambushed and nearly annihilated by the Mahdi's followers.[citation needed] Muhammad Ahmed retaliated by declaring jihad.

I am the Mahdi, the Successor of the Prophet of God. Cease to pay taxes to the infidel Turks and let everyone who finds a Turk kill him, for the Turks are infidels 

Unlike other Muslim reformers, the Mahdi did not advocate the application of ijtihad but "claimed to receive direct inspiration from God", so that his own proclamations superseded traditional jurisprudence. This, however, did not usurp the prophet Muhammad's position as seal of the Prophets, because the Prophet was — in some way — the 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.


The Mahdi and a party of his followers, the Ansār -- the "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 noble 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 Ansār captain in east of Sudan in 1883, Osman Digna.

The Khatmiyya sufi order which had enjoyed popular support in east and north Sudan rejected the Mahdi's 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 sufi order was forced into exile in Egypt for fear of assassination.

Late in 1883, the Ansār, armed only with spears and swords, overwhelmed an 4000-man Egyptian force not far from Al Ubayyid ("El Obeid"), and seized their rifles 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.

The Ansār, now 40,000 strong, then defeated an 8000-man Egyptian relief force led by British officer William Hicks at Sheikan, in the battle of El Obeid. The defeat of Hicks sealed the fate of Darfur, which until then had been effectively defended by Rudolf Carl von Slatin. Jabal Qadir in the south was also taken. The western half of Sudan was now firmly in Ansārī 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 4000 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.

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 officials 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.


Gordon reached Khartoum in February 1884. At first he was greeted with jubilation as many of the tribes in the immediate area were at odds with the Mahdists. Transportation 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.

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 fine military commander, be given tacit control of the Sudan in order to provide a counter to the Ansār. London rejected both proposals, and so Gordon prepared for a fight.

In March 1884, Gordon tried a small offensive to clear the road northward to Egypt but a number of the officers in the Egyptian force went over to the enemy and their forces fled the field after firing a single salvo. This convinced him that he could carry out only defensive operations and he returned to Khartoum to construct defensive works.

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.

That month the Ansār reached Khartoum and Gordon was completely cut off. Nevertheless, his defensive works, consisting mainly of mines, proved so frightening to the Ansār 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 "flying 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, first 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.

At Metemma, 100 miles (160 km) north of Khartoum, Wolseley's advance guard met four of Gordon's steamers, sent down to provide speedy transport for the first relieving 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 refit the steamers to hold more troops.

They finally arrived in Khartoum on January 28, 1885 to find the town had fallen during the Battle of Khartoum two days earlier. When the Nile had receded from flood stage, Faraz Pasha had opened the river gates and let the Ansār in. The garrison was slaughtered, and Gordon was killed fighting the Mahdi's warriors on the steps of the palace, hacked to pieces and beheaded which the Mahdi had forbade. When Gordon's head was unwrapped at the Mahdi's feet, he ordered the head transfixed 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 Wolseley's force arrived, they retreated after attempting to force their way to the center of the town on ships, being met with a hail of fire.

The Mahdi Army continued its sweep of victories. Kassala and Sannar fell soon after and by the end of 1885 the Ansār 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.

With Sudan now in Sudanese hands, the Mahdi formed a government. The Mahdiyya (Mahdist regime) modified 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 modified to include and Muhammad Ahmad is the Mahdi of God and the representative of His Prophet. Among the five pillars, service in the "jihād" replaced the hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) as a duty incumbent on the faithful (though Jihad-warfare is central to orthodox Islam, it is not considered one of the five pillars of faith).

He also authorized the burning of lists of pedigrees and books of law and theology because of their association with the old regime and because he believed that they accentuated tribalism at the expense of religious unity.

Six months after the capture of Khartoum, Muhammad Ahmad died of typhus. He was buried in Omdurman. The Mahdi had planned for this eventuality and had chosen 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 Mahdi's family and many of his early religious disciples.

The "Khalifa" was committed to the Mahdi's vision of extending the Mahdiyah through jihād, which led to strained relations with practically everyone else. For example, the "Khalifa" rejected an offer of an alliance against the Europeans by Ethiopia's Emperor, Yohannes IV. Instead, in 1887 a 60,000-man Ansar army invaded Ethiopia, penetrated as far as Gonder, and captured prisoners and booty. The Khalifa then refused to conclude peace with Ethiopia.

In March 1889, an Ethiopian force commanded personally by the Nəgusa nagast (Emperor, lit. "King of Kings") marched on Gallabat; however, after Yohannes IV fell in battle, the Ethiopians withdrew.

After the final defeat of the Khalifa by the British under General Kitchener, Muhammad Ahmad's tomb was destroyed and his bones were thrown into the Nile. Kitchener retained his skull.  Allegedly the skull was later buried at Wadi Halfa. The tomb was eventually rebuilt.

In modern-day Sudan, Muhammad Ahmad is sometimes seen as a precursor of Sudanese nationalism. The Umma party claim to be his political descendants. Their leader Imam Sadiq al-Mahdi, is also the imam of the Ansar, the religious order that pledges allegiance to Muhammad Ahmad. Sadiq al-Mahdi was Prime Minister of Sudan on two occasions: first briefly in 1966–67, and then between 1986 and 1989.

El Mahdi see Mahdi, El
Muhammad Ahmad see Mahdi, El
Ahmad, Muhammad see Mahdi, El
Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah see Mahdi, El
Muhammad Ahmed Al Mahdi see Mahdi, El
Muhammad Ahmad ibn ‘Abdallah al-Mahdi see Mahdi, El

Mahdi li-Din Allah Ahmad, al-
Mahdi li-Din Allah Ahmad, al-. Title and name of a number of Zaydi Imams of Yemen, occurring in the thirteenth, fifteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Mahdi, ‘Ubayd Allah al-
Mahdi, ‘Ubayd Allah al- ('Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi) (Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi Billah) (Said ibn Husayn) (Abdul'Allah al-Mahdi Billah) (873-934).  First “manifested” Isma‘ili Imam and the first caliph of the Fatimid dynasty in Ifriqiya  (r.910- 934).

Said ibn Husayn is considered the founder of the Fatimid dynasty, the only major Shi'ite caliphate in Islam, and established Fatimid rule throughout much of North Africa.

After establishing himself as the first imam of the Fatimid dynasty Al-Mahdi 'Ubayd Allah made claim to genealogic origins dating as far back as Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, through Husayn, Fatima's son, and Isma'il. It was at this time as well that he changed his name from Said ibn Husayn to 'Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi. 

'Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi began his conquest by establishing his headquarters at Salamiyah and began riding towards northwestern Afric, which at the time was under Aghlabid rule, following the propagandist success of his chief dai', Abu 'Abdullah al-Husayn al-Shi'i.  Al-Shi'i, along with laying claim to being the precursor to the Mahdi, was instrumental in sowing the seeds of sedition among the Berber tribes of North Africa, specifically the Kutamah tribe. 

It was al-Shi'i success which was the signal to 'Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi who set off from Salamyah disguised as a merchant.  However, he was captured by the Aghlabid ruler Ziyadat-Allah and thrown into a dungeon in Sijilmasa.  Al-Shi'i was then required to rescue 'Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi in 909 after which the Aghlabid dynasty, the last stronghold of Sunni Islam in North Africa, was expelled from the region.

'Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi established himself at the former Aghlabid residence at Raqqdah, a suburb of al-Qayrawan in Tunisia.  Two years after he achieved power, 'Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi had his missionary commander al-Shi'i executed.  After that his power only grew.  At the time of his death, he had extended his reign to Morocco of the Idrisids, as well as Egypt itself.  In 920, 'Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi took up residence at the newly established capital of the empire, Al-Mahdiyyah, which he founded on the Tunisian coast sixteen miles southeast of al-Qayrawan, and which he named after himself. 

After his death, 'Ubayd Allah was succeeded by his son, Abu al-Qasim Muhammad al-Qaim, who continued his expansionist policy.


Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi Billah see Mahdi, ‘Ubayd Allah al-
Said ibn Husayn see Mahdi, ‘Ubayd Allah al-
'Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi see Mahdi, ‘Ubayd Allah al-

Mahdiyya, al-
Mahdiyya, al- (Mahdiyah).  Movement in the Egyptian Sudan, launched in 1881 by Muhammad al-Mahdi for the reform of Islam.  It was continued by ‘Abd Allah ibn Muhammad al-Ta‘a’ishi and came to an end in 1898 with the battle of Karrari, often called the battle of Omdurman.

The mahdiyya was a politico-religious movement which, in the last twenty years of the nineteenth century, dominated the northern territories of the present day Democratic Republic of the Sudan and which aimed initially to reform worldwide Islam, but which was ultimately realized in the formation of a territorial state along the Nile.  Although its fortunes and ideals changed with the fluctuating political conditions within and outside the Sudan, the movement -- popularly called the Mahdiyah after its founder -- succeeded in creating symbols and evoking an ethos that had lasting importance to Sudanese identity.

Turco-Egyptian rule of the Nilotic Sudan, which had been established by the armies of the Egyptian viceroy Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha from 1820 to 1822, began to unravel with the spread of a revolutionary movement led by Muhammad ‘Ahmad al-Sayyid ‘Abd Allah, a shaykh of the Sammaniyah Sufi brotherhood originally from the region of Dongola, who in 1881 declared himself to be the “Expected Mahdi” (al-Mahdi al-Muntazar) and called for the overthrow of Turkish rule.  Muhammad Ahmad’s millenarian message of an age of justice and equity prior to the end of time was readily accepted by a Sudanese people suffering the dislocating effects of Turco-Egyptian rule.  Moreover, the timing of the Mahdi’s manifestation at the end of the thirteenth Islamic century accorded with messianic expectations long held across the Sudanic belt of Africa and along the Nile River Valley.  Asserting his conformity with Sunni doctrines of the Mahdi contained in the authoritative hadith literature (doctrines numerous and contradictory enough to establish almost any claim), Muhammad Ahmad confounded his critics from the ‘ulama’, and his military successess against government troops sent to arrest him enhanced his credibitlity among both sedentary and nomadic populations.  After an initial vicotry in August 1881 at his base on Aba Island, the Mahdi moved from the White Nile region to the more defensible highlands of the Nuba Mountains in the west-central province of Kordofan.  In a deliberate reference to the Prophet's own experience, the Mahdi termed this withdrawal a Hijrah and named his followers ansar (“helpers”), while calling for a jihad against all “unbelievers” who opposed him.  The name of his sanctuary in Kordofan, Jabal Qadir, was changed to Massa in further conformity to messianic tradition.  Two more government expeditions sent to capture him were defeated in 1881 and 1882.  As pastoral Arab tribesmen of the west (Baqqara) flocked to his banner, the Mahdi laid seige to the provincial capital al-Ubayyid, which surrendered in January 1883.  After destroying a British-commanded Egyptian force at Shaykan in Kordofan in November 1883, the Mahdi accepted the surrender of the remaining Egyptian garrisons in the west.  By early 1884, he was effectively in command of at least the northern provinces of the Egyptian Sudan.  The capital city Khartoum alone held out against the Mahdi’s forces, but after the fall of the city of Berber in May 1884 and the closure of the Nile escape route, Khartoum’s fate was sealed.  On January 25, 1885, Khartoum was taken, its British governor General Charles Gordon being killed in the fighting.  The Mahdi next retired to his army’s encampment at Omdurman on the western bank of the Nile, anxious to avoid the spiritual contamination of “the city of the Turks.”  Six months later he was dead, the victim of a sudden illness (typhus), and his body was laid to rest in Omdurman.  His tomb (al-Qubbah) towered over the city, a reminder of the Mahdi’s teachings and a symbol of the movement he had launched.

The man who assumed the leadership of the Mahdist state, ‘Abd Allah ibn Muhammad of the Ta‘a’ishah Baqqarah, had been one of the Mahdi’s earliest followers as well as his most powerful general, commanding the huge western tribal levies.  In official Mahdist ideology, the Mahdi had represented the successor to the prophet Muhammad (Khalifat Rasul Allah), while ‘Abd Allah represented the successor to the first caliph, Abu Bakr (Khalifat al-Siddiq).  Two further leaders, ‘Ali ibn Muhammad Hilw of the White Nile Arabs and the Mahdi’s cousin Muhammad Sharif ibn Hamid, respectively represented the successors to the caliphs ‘Umar (Khalifat al-Faruq) and ‘Ali (Khalifat al-Karrar).  (Succession to the caliph ‘Uthman, offered to Muhammad al-Mahdi of the Libyan Sanusiyah, was declined.)

‘Abd Allah’s identification as khalifat al-siddiq helped solve the ideological problem of the Mahdi’s premature death.  However, the more practical problems of governing the Sudan plagued Khalifah ‘Abd Allah throughout his reign.  On two occasions, in 1886 and 1891, he faced overt challenges to his leadership from the Mahdi’s jealous kinsmen the Ashraf, led by the junior khalifah Muhammad Sharif.  Throughout the period, an underlying tension between the settled riverine population (awlad al-balad) and the western pastoralists who had emigrated to the Nile (awlad al-Arab) eroded the Mahdist ideal of a unified community and intensified economic and political competition within the state.  A famine in the years 1888-1890, originating in natural causes but exacerbated by the Khalifah’s policy of forced migration to the capital, decimated the population.  Meanwhile the Khalifah’s tendency to concentrate authority in his own hands and those of his brother, Amir Ya‘qub, robbed his subordinates of needed initiative and led to serious administrative failings.  The institutional development of the state did not advance much beyond what the Mahdiyah had inherited from the previous regime (many Mahdist officials had in fact earlier served the Turks) , and leadership of both the judiciary and the state treasury often fell victim to political expediency.  Finally, the jihad itself, the original raison d’etre of the Mahdiyah, came to an effective end with the destruction of a Mahdist army by the Anglo-Egyptians at Tushki, north of Wadi Halfa, in August 1889.  Although fighting continued along the state’s borders for the remainder of the period, no further effort was made to export the Mahdist movement.

To his credit, the Khalifah was able to convince most Sudanese of his personal integrity long after they had grown disaffected with his regime.  His status as Khalifat al-Mahdi continued to carry supreme moral and political authority.  However, just as the Mahdiyah was beginning to coalesce into a socio-religious and political order, foreign powers were planning its destruction.  An Anglo-Egyptian invasion of the Sudan, carried out on behalf of larger British imperial interests, began with the occupation of Dongola province in 1896.  Within a year, a railway had been built across the Nubian desert, safeguarding Anglo-Egyptian supply lines, and the invasion proceeded steadily up the Nile.  The end of the Mahdiyah came at the battle of Karari, north of Omdurman, on September 2, 1898.  The Khalifah himself survived the battle and fled with a small following into Kordofan, only to be hunted down and killed by a British force one year later.  For the next fifty-six years, the Sudan was ruled by an Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, though Mahdist belief persisted.  F. R. Wingate, governor-general from 1899 to 1916, was regarded by some former ansar as the Anti-Christ (al-Dajjal), who in theory was supposed to follow the Mahdi; and numerous neo-Mahdist revolts erupted in the first two decades of the new regime.

Viewed in the context of modern Sudanese history, the Mahdiyah represents an acceleration of the ongoing process of arabization and islamization, as the Mahdi’s practice of Islam -- essentially the normative Islam of the riverine population -- was adopted by other Sudanese peoples.  With the creation of powerful symbols of common identity (e.g., the Mahdi as leader and Omdurman as capital), a degree of national coherence was imparted to the otherwise disparate provinces of the region.  The obvious legacy of the period was the Ansar religious movement, established by the Mahdi’s posthumous son ‘Abd al-Rahman (1885-1959), and its political branch the Ummah Party (founded in 1945).  Both derive their chief support from the former Mahdist strongholds of Kordofan, Darfur, and White Nile provinces, though reverence for the Mahdi’s family and observance of his collection of prayers (ratib) are common throughout the northern Sudan.  In a wider context, the Mahdiyah has been interpreted variously as a fundamentalist movement within the Islamic tradition of reform and renewal, a proto-nationalist and anti-colonial movement, or even an example of “Semitic messianism.”

Mahdiyah see Mahdiyya, al-