Sayyid Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi, was one of the leading religious and political figures during the colonial era in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (1898–1955), and continued to exert great authority as leader of the Neo-Mahdists after Sudan became independent.
Abd al-Rahman helped the British to retain Sudanese support during the First World War, when they were opposed to the Turkish Empire, despite his being a Muslim leader.
Background
Abd al-Rahman was born on 15 July 1885 in Omdurman, three weeks after his father's death. His mother was granddaughter of a former Sultan of Darfur, Mohammed al-Fadl. As a child, Abd al-Rahman's only formal education was that of a religious school where the pupils memorized the Quran.By the age of eleven he had recited the Quran.
Education
After 1908 Abd al-Rahman was allowed to live in Omdurman and study under a distinguished Azharite named Muhammad al-Badawi, where he gained some understanding of Islamic jurisprudence and the fundamentals of his religion, including the Hadith, or Prophet's tradition. However, he was never to become a well-educated and knowledgeable Islamic scholar as his father had been.
Career
In 1915 Sayyid Abd al-Rahman made a series of tours and visits to parts of the country where Mahdism was still strong, particularly among the Baggara of the White Nile region, speaking in opposition to the Turkish sultan's calls for Jihad.
By the 1920s Abd al-Rahman was a respected religious and political leader. In 1921 he held a meeting at his home where the attendees signed two documents that laid out the Mahdist objectives. These were for Sudan to be ruled by Britain rather than Egypt, and for Sudan to eventually achieve self-government.
Politics
Abd al-Rahman could not be seen as supporting an indefinite colonial status, and continued to promote independence. Abd al-Rahman and the British were engaged in delicate and unstable arrangements characterized by mutual distrust.
He and his followers set up an "Independence Front" and organized huge demonstrations throughout Sudan against the draft Anglo-Egyptian agreement on Sudan.