Mahdi the honorific (Expected Guide) was Muhammad Ahmad (1844-85), a carpenter and boat-builder by training, which enabled him to travel widely, making contacts and gathering intelligence. On 29 June 1881 he proclaimed himself ‘the Mahdi’ and exhorted his followers to wage a jihad and overthrow the Egyptian authorities. Despite lacking any formal military training, he led his army of devoted followers to a succession of victories in battles and sieges. Although lacking modern weapons or foreign allies, they defeated or killed some 40, 000 Egyptian troops, including an expeditionary army of over 10, 000 soldiers and camp followers under English Col William Hicks near El Obeid (5 November 1883). The Mahdists also engaged British forces in northern and eastern Sudan, killing Maj Gen Gordon in the storming of Khartoum, and gained control over some 1 million square miles (2, 590, 000 sq km). The Mahdi died on 22 June 1885 before British retaliation made itself felt, but he had laid the foundations of a new state, uniting his people and reforming their religion.
Bibliography
- Holt, P. M., The Mahdist State in the Sudan 1881-1898 (Oxford, 1958).
- Theobald, A. B., The Mahdiya (London, 1951)
— Edward M. Spiers
