Muhammad Ahmad
From 1844-1881
Much has been written of Muhammad Ahmad the Mahdi, but few have followed the life of Muhammad Ahmad the man, the boat builder's son, the dedicated student, or the respected shaykh. Thus, the following will be a brief description of the life of Muhammad Ahmad from his birth in 1844 to his manifestation as al-Mahdi al-Muntazar on Aba Island in 1881.
Muhammad Ahmad Ibn al-Sayyid Abdallahi was born on August 12th, 1844, on Labab Island in just south of the town of New Dongola (Holt 45. Nicoll 12. Qadal 37). The son of a Dongolawi shipbuilder who claimed to be a member of the Ashraf (to be descended from the Prophet Muhammad), a legacy which was drilled into the mind of the young boy, whom, it is said, could recite his full lineage back to Ali ibn Abi Talib (cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet), a full list of which can be found in Nu'am -Shoucair's Tarikh al-Sudan and Haim Shaked's The Life of the Sudanese Mahdi (Nicoll 13. Qadal 37-8 Shaked 56. Shoucair 321-2). The family would not stay much longer at Labab however, being uprooted in about 1849 or 50 to move to the village of Karari closer to the capital in Khartoum, either with the hope of escaping hostile conditions in Dongola or in finding work building boats for the government, possibly both. But along this journey Muhammad Ahmad's father would fall sick, passing not long after, leaving his eldest sons Muhammad and Hamid to continue his craft and care for the family (Holt 45. Nicoll 18-21. Qadal 40-42. Shoucair 322). Settling in Karari the young Muhammad Ahmad, already said to have been keen to learn the ways of religion, was sent to study in Khartoum whilst his brothers set about establishing the family's business.
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| Karari Village, 1898. Photo by Francis Gregson |
Over the next decade it seems that the business proved profitable, allowing them to move to Khartoum and for Muhammad Ahmad to move from khalwa to khalwa, shaykh to shaykh, in his pursuit of further knowledge (Nicoll 21. Qadal 45-6). In 1861 he would join the school of Shaykh Amin Suwaylih in Kutrang where he stayed until 1863-4 when he would travel north seeking to attend the al-Azhar university of Cairo but along the way whilst in Berber he was convinced to become a pupil of Muhammad al-Dikayr (later known as Muhammad al-Khayr) of al-Ghobosh instead. It is during his studies in Ghobosh that he took as his first bride his cousin, Fatima Bint al-Hajj Sharif in 1865 (Kramer 151-2. Nicoll 35. Qadal 51). later that year he would leave Ghobosh, traveling to Umm Marhi in order to join the Sammaniya sufi order of Muhammad al-Sharif Nur al-Daim (Holt 45. Qadal 46-53). Muhammad Ahmad would study under Muhammad al-Sharif for the next 7 years before being granted the title of Shaykh thus being allowed to travel freely and accumulate a following of his own (Holt 46. Nicoll 35. Qadal 55. Searcy 25. Shoucair 322-3).
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| Muhammad al-Sharif Nur al-Daim d.1908/9 (seated) with his son and nephews. |
After becoming a Shaykh Muhammad Ahmad would briefly move to Khartoum where he lived with his brothers and where he married his second wife, Fatima Bint Ahmad Sharafi, daughter of their grand uncle, Ahmad Sharafi (Kramer 151-2. Nicoll 39. Qadal 57). It is this marriage which possibly influenced Muhammad Ahmad's decision to move with his brothers to Aba Island, where Ahmad Sharafi had lived "for some years" (Qadal 57. Slatin 118), in 1870. Arriving at Aba Island Muhammad Ahmad established a mosque whilst his brothers set about reestablishing their business alongside Ahmad Sharafi who was also a shipbuilder (al-Shafee). Quickly Muhammad Ahmad's following on the island grew, particularly amongst the Dighaym and Kinana whom occupied the riverbanks of the White Nile but was even being paid tribute by government steamers which passed by the island (Casati 22-3. Holt 46. Qadal 57. Shoucair 323, 326). In 1872 Muhammad Ahmad invited his teacher Muhammad al-Sharif to live nearer to him, who accepted and established an occasional residence at al-Aradib near Aba (Holt 46. Shibikah 39). However, by 1878 the two Shaykh's had begun to quarrel, the exact nature of this event is not known with two versions being retold in by Nu'am Shoucair, though as Prof. P.M. Holt states: "Shoucair gives in detail the Mahdist account of the crisis which has more inherent probability," (47). The following is a paraphrase of the Mahdist account of the event: jealous of Muhammad Ahmad's growing following Muhammad al-Sharif began to intrigue against his young adherent causing a physical confrontation between followers of al-Sharif and Muhammad Ahmad, Ahmad's followers were defeated but al-Sharif's followers were imprisoned by the authorities of nearby al-Kawa only being released at the behest of Muhammad Ahmad, who now had a brief reconciliation with al-Sharif. This quarrel would, however, be reignited when Muhammad Sharif held a celebration feast due to the circumcision of his sons, during which he allowed there to be singing and dancing, which, being a breach of Sharia Law, were quickly pointed out by Muhammad Ahmad and, once more at odds, Muhammad al-Sharif expelled Muhammad Ahmad from the Sammaniya order (Holt 47. Nicoll 41. Qadal 58-61. Shibikah 39-40. Searcy 26-7. Shoucair 323-6).
After his expulsion from the Sammaniya Tariqa Muhammad Ahmad tried in vain to gain forgivness from his Shaykh but upon realizing its futility he made a final rebuke against his ex-master before travelling to al-Halawin near al-Musslamiya on the Blue Nile to become an adherent of Shaykh al-Qurashi Wad al-Zayn, the leader of a rival branch of the Sammaniya order to that of Muhammad al-Sharif (Hill 312. Holt 38.) And it would seem the aged Shaykh took a great liking to his new pupil praising him, gifting him his horse, and allowing him to marry his daughter, al-Ni'ma (Kramer 153. Nicoll 41-2. Qadal 61-2, 71-2. Searcy 27. Shoucair 326-7). It is also suggested that al-Qurashi played a role in inspiring Muhammad Ahmad's later declaration as the Mahdi as, it is claimed, that al-Qurashi once stated "that his pony would only be ridden by himself and the Mahdi, and it happened that one day he gave instructions to Muhammad Ahmad to take the pony and go to lead the 'Id prayer on his behalf" with it also being said that al-Qurashi proclaimed that the Mahdi would be the one to build his tomb, something Muhammad Ahmad would later do in 1880-1. Though Dr. Qadal contests this, stating that it is likely a confusion stemming from al-Qurashi's high praises of his pupil or was made up after his death (Holt 50. Ibrahim 29. Qadal 71-2. Shoucair 327). After his warm reception with Shaykh al-Qurashi, Muhammad Ahmad returned briefly to Aba before travelling on tour through Kordofan where he spread his teachings amongst the people who looked upon him most favorably, some supposedly even came to believe him to have been the Mahdi (Shoucair 327). He then, in 1879-80, visited Kordofan's capital, al-Ubayyid, where he convened with notables such as the merchant Ilyas Pasha Umm Birayr and the Shaykhs of various Sufi orders (Bolton 232. Clark 14. Holt 49-50. Nicoll 55-6. Qadal 63-70).
After his time in al-Ubayyid Muhammad Ahmad travelled back to al-Halawin in 1880 to complete the tomb of the Shaykh al-Qurashi who had died in 1878 not long after Muhammad Ahmad's departure (Hill 312. Holt 50. Shoucair 327). During this time Muhammad Ahmad was deemed to be an appropriate successor to the late Shaykh al-Qurashi and thus became the head of his own branch of the Sammaniya order and ostensibly an equal to Muhammad al-Sharif. It is also during the building of al-Qurashi's tomb that Muhammad Ahmad was approached by one Abdallahi bin Muhammad al-Turshayn, a Dar-Furi Baqqara of the Ta'aisha tribe, who sought him out in order to become one of Muhammad Ahmad's disciples but is also said to have been expecting to find the Imam al-Mahdi along his journey. Accepting this dedicated foreigner Muhammad Ahmad put Abdallahi to work in the construction of the tomb, and upon its completion, granted his new disciple the honor of being one of his flag bearers (as in sufi ceremony flags bearing the Shahada and other holy phrases are carried, see: Karrar 136) before returning to Aba Island (Holt 50-3. Nicoll 58-62. Qadal 71-2. Reid 208. Searcy 98. Slatin 122-5. Shoucair 327-8).
Having returned to Aba Island Muhammad Ahmad now began to research the attributes of the Imam al-Mahdi, visiting and sending letters to the important Shaykhs of the country, and made contact with the Shaykh Muhammad al-Tayyib al-Basir, leader of the third of the Sammaniya Sects (Ibrahim 29. Nicoll 62-3. Shoucair 327). And, in March of 1881, Muhammad Ahmad had a revelation in which "divine voices and prophetic messages" (Shaked 62-5) informed him of his Mahdiship, but he did not yet publicly announce himself only sharing his vision with his closest of followers, the "Abkar al-Mahdi" (Holt 52-3, 133. Ibrahim 29. Nicoll 64. Reid 208. Slatin 124-5. Shoucair 328). This revelation as the Imam al-Mahdi now spurred a second tour through Kordofan where he again met with the notables in al-Ubayyid before visiting Makk Adam of Taqali, in the Nuba Hills; thus, returning to Aba where on 29th June 1881 Muhammad Ahmad made his public announcement as the Mahdi al-Muntazar (Holt 53-4. Shoucair 328-334). It is this declaration which changed the future of Sudan even into the modern day and sparked the flame of the Mahdist Revolt.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Published Works:
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Records, 17(2), 229–241. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41716083
Casati, Gaetano, et al. Ten Years in Equatoria and the Return with Emin Pasha. United Kingdom, F.
Warne and Company, 1898.
Clark, Peter. Three Sudanese Battles. Khartoum, Institute of African and Asian Studies (University of
Khartoum), 1977.
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2nd edn. Nairobi, Oxford University Press, 1979.
Ibrahim, A. U. (1979). SOME ASPECTS OF THE IDEOLOGY OF THE MAHDIYA. Sudan Notes and
Records, 60, 28–37. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44947394
Karrar, Ali Salih. Sufi Brotherhoods in the Sudan. Evanston, Northwestern University Press, 1992.
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Wiener Publishers, 2010.
Nicoll, Fergus. The Sword of the Prophet, The Mahdi of Sudan and the Death of General Gordon.UK,
Sutton Publishing, 2004.
Qadal, Muhammad Said. Lawha li-tha`ir sudani: al-Imam al-Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad b.
'Abd Allah
(1844-1885). Beirut, Dar al-Jeel, 1992.
Reid, J. A. (1938). SOME NOTES ON THE KHALIFA ABDULLAHI FROM CONTEMPORARY
SUDANESE SOURCES. Sudan Notes and Records, 21(1), 207–211.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/41716288
Searcy, Kim. The Formations of the Sudanese Mahdist State, Ceremony and Symbols of Authority:
1882-1898. Leiden, Brill, 2011.
Shaked, Haim. The Life of the Sudanese Mahdi. New Brunswick, Transaction Books, 2008.
Shibikah, Makki. The Independent Sudan. New York, Robert Speller & Sons, Publishers, Inc., 1959.
Shoucair, Nu'am and Saleem, Muhammad Abu (editor). Tarikh al-Sudan. Beirut, Beit al-Jih, 1981.
Slatin, Rudolf Carl and Wingate, Francis Reginald. Fire & Sword in the Sudan, Personal Recollections
of Both Fighting and Serving the Mahdists During the Later 19th Century. USA, Leonaur Books,
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UNPUBLISHED THESES:
Nur, Salih Mohammad. "A Critical Translation of the Memoirs of Yūsif Mikhā’īl." D.Phil thesis
(University of London: 1962).
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