Muhammad Ahmad A.K.A The Mad Mahdi, was a religious leader of the Samaniyya order in Sudan who, on June 29, 1881, proclaimed himself the Mahdi, the 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 religious sect of the time.
Background
Muhammad Ahmad was born on 12 August 1845 at Labab Island - Dongola in Northern Sudan to a humble family of boat-builders claiming descent from Islamic prophet Muhammad through the line of his grandson Hassan. When Muhammad Ahmad was still a child, the family moved to the town of Karari, north of Omdurman, where Muhammad Ahmad's father, Abdullah, could find a supply of timber for his boat-building business.
A few years later, Abdullah settled down in Karari, a town lying to the north of Omdurman, the largest city of Sudan.
Education
Muhammad Ahmad was inclined towards Islamic theology, and was taught by the likes of Sheikh al-Amin al-Suwaylih and Sheikh Muhammad al-Dikayr 'Abdallah Khujali, both renowned religious teachers in Sudan.
Deeply influenced by the teachings of Islam, Ahmad visited Sheikh Muhammad Sharif Nur al-Dai'm, who was a major proponent of the ‘Samaniyya’ Sufi order in Sudan. From 1861-68, the adolescent boy lived with Sharif, mastered the nuances of his religion, and was subsequently honoured with the title of ‘Sheikh’.
Career
After receiving the title of 'Sheikh', Muhammad became a teacher and was allowed to give spiritual education, also known as 'tariqa', to new members of the sect.
In 1870, Ahmad's family moved to Aba Island, south of Khartoum, and here, the young man constructed a mosque so he could teach the 'Quran'. He gained popularity amongst his students for the way he taught, and for his loyalty to the holy book.
Two years later, in 1872, Sheikh Sharif was invited by Muhammad to live in the al-Aradayb region, close to Aba Island. For some time, the two religious leaders fostered a friendly relationship, but eventually their differences began to surface.
In 1878, Sharif started disliking the adulation that his former student was receiving, leading to a violent altercation between the followers of both the teachers. Though the conflict was temporarily sorted out, they had a second contention, which caused Sharif to oust Ahmad from the ‘Samaniyya’ sect.
Post this dissension, the expelled leader, along with his followers, requested rival ‘Samaniyya’ teacher Sheikh al-Qurashi wad al-Zayn to accept him as his follower, and the latter readily obliged.latter readily obliged. The same year, al-Qurashi died and Muhammad was made the new leader of the order, during which he met his successor, Abdallahi bin Muhammad al-Ta'aishi.
On June 29, the 'Samaniyya' leader declared himself to be the 'Mahdi', which means the prophet of Islam, who would redeem the religious order and deliver the world from evil. He claimed to have been chosen as the 'Mahdi' by a 'hadra', or an assembly of all prophets beginning from Adam to Muhammad.
The spiritual teacher drew several comparisons to prove that he was a divine manifestation of the Messenger of God. He also named the followers of his sect as 'Ansar', so as to differentiate them from practitioners of other forms of Sufism.
Though he was extremely popular amongst followers of 'Samaniyya', the conservative Islamic leaders, known as the 'Ulema', including teachers like Mufti Shakir al-Ghazi and Qadi Ahmad al-Azhari, derided his claims.
Despite controversies, Muhammad continued to spread his doctrines, obliterating the four Sunni orders of Islam. He also redrafted the declaration of faith, known as the 'Shahada', inserting the new phrase, "Muhammad al-Mahdi is the Khalifa of the Prophet of God".
The Egyptian government decided to arrest the 'Mahdi', after discussing the matter with the 'Ulema' orthodox leaders. However, the 'Samaniyya' leader's disciples defeated the army of 200 Egyptian soldiers in the 'Battle of Aba'.
The 'Mahdi' declared 'jihad', a resistance movement against the Turks, ordering his followers to annihilate any Turk who crossed paths with them. This move was considered blasphemy by orthodox Muslims, but Ahmad travelled to the province of Kurdufan in Central Sudan, accompanied by his disciples.
In Kurdufan, he built an army made up of members of the 'Baqqara', 'Rizeigat', 'Hadendoa Beja' and 'Ta'aisha' ethnic tribes. The army included prominent leaders like Sheikh Madibbo ibn Ali, Osman Digna and Abdallahi ibn Muhammad.
The 'jihad' movement also gained popularity with the Nuer, Bahr Alghazal, Shilluk and Anuak ethnic races of Southern Sudan, giving the revolt nation-wide importance. The army of 'jihadis' started their protest by launching an attack against the orthodox Khatmiyya religious order in Kassala, eastern Sudan.
In 1883, the followers seized an Egyptian army of 4000 soldiers near El Obeid in Kurdufan, using nothing but swords and spears. Post this invasion, they emerged victorious in the 'Battle of El Obeid', against an Anglo-Egyptian army of 8000 soldiers led by British Colonel William Hicks, also called Hicks Pasha.
Following the two wars in El Obeid, western Sudan was completely taken over by Muhammad. They continued their rampage in the Suakin port, but was defeated in the ‘Battle of El Teb’, led by General Gerald Graham.
In December 1883, British officer Charles George Gordon, also known as Gordon of Khartoum, was given the responsibility of clearing the soldiers from most of Sudan. Gordon arrived in February, the following year, and apprehending trouble in his mission, prepared for a fight against the 'Ansar'.
For almost a year, the British forces were able to hold back the 'Ansar' army, but when Gordon reached Khartoum his infantry witnessed the invasion of the city by the 'Mahdists', in the 'Battle of Khartoum'.
The insurgents found their way to Gordon's garrison and he was killed, his body slashed, and his head cut off. Gordon's comrade, Lord Garnet Joseph Wolseley, had to flee with his soldiers after being attacked by the 'Mahdists'.
Muhammad's army continued to capture towns of Sudan, including Sannar and Kassala. Having gained control over most of Sudan, the self-declared 'Mahdi' established a new government, by reforming the whole Islamic law, known as 'Shariah'. He also ordered other religious books to be burnt, since they allowed different sects to co-exist.
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). 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 centre 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, 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).
(On 29 June 1881, Muhammad Ahmad publicly announced his cl...)
1881
Religion
He was a staunch Muslim. As a boy and young man al Mahdi was devoted to religious study. His devotion deviated from the orthodox toward a mystic Sufism. He aspired to strong self discipline and an ascetic life. As a young man he joined a religious order called the Sammanujah. He was given the status of shaykh.
Even as a very young man al Mahdi's devoutness attracted a following. In 1870 he and some of his disciples journeyed 175 miles of Khartoum to an island in the While Nile called Abba. They went there to receive religious instruction from one of the teachers living on that island. But al Mahdi found fault with his teacher's worldliness and was expelled from the following. He then joined the following of another teacher on Abba Island.
In 1880-81 al Mahdi became convinced that the rulers of Egypt and the Sudan were all corrupt puppets of the infidel Europeans and that the ruling class in general had abandoned true Islam. He felt his mission was to destroy those defiling forces and agents.
Politics
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 Turkiyah). 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, the Ansars. After Muhammad Ahmad's unexpected death on 22 June 1885, a mere six months after the conquest of Khartoum, his chief deputy, Abdallahi ibn Muhammad took over the administration of the nascent Mahdist state.
Views
Quotations:
”I have the Midas touch, in the way that when I hook up with a project, I feel, not speaking cocky or conceited, but there’s a confidence I have. I learned that from Muhammad Ali; I used to bodyguard him. He taught me about confidence. So when it comes to any job I work, I’m gonna do it good; I’m going to bring it over the top.”
”The name Muhammad is the most common name in the world. In all the countries around the world – Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon – there are more Muhammads than anything else. When I joined the Nation of Islam and became a Muslim, they gave me the most famous name because I was the champ.”
”I’m hungry for knowledge. The whole thing is to learn every day, to get brighter and brighter. That’s what this world is about. You look at someone like Gandhi, and he glowed. Martin Luther King glowed. Muhammad Ali glows. I think that’s from being bright all the time, and trying to be brighter.”
”The greatest legacy is that which benefits the widest number of people for the longest period without limit to value. No one but the Prophet Muhammad was given that role as the seal of God’s message.”
”Women are the twin halves of men”
Personality
Muhammad Ahmad was arguably the single most influential personality in the history of the modern Sudan
Quotes from others about the person
Father Joseph Ohrwaled: "His outward appearance was strangely fascinating, he was a man of strong constitution, very dark complexion, and his face always wore a pleasant smaile. He had singularly white teeth, and between the two middle ones was a vee-shaped space, which in the Sudan is considered a sign that the owner will be lucky. His mode of conversation, too, had by training become exceptionally pleasant and sweet".
Muhammad Ahmad Biography - Childhood, Life Achievements & Timeline
Muhammad Ahmad was a Sudanese religious leader, who claimed to be deliverer of evil, the ‘Mahdi’, and led a successful ‘jihad’ movement. Read on for detailed information about his childhood, profile, career and timeline