Notes on Sultanic Bodyguards in Sinnar and Darfur








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Bibliography of the Mahdiyya

Notes on the Mahdiyya Unpublished Theses: Ahmed Ibrahim Ahmed Shouk. “The Fiscal Administration of the Mahdist State in the Sudan (1881–1898).” MA thesis (University of Bergen, 1991).  Ahmed Khalid Abdalla. “The Lahawiyin: Identity and History in a Sudanese Arab Tribe.” PhD thesis (Durham University, 2010).  Badini, Francesca. “Le Pie Madri della Nigrizia e i Comboniani prigionieri della Mahdiyya (1881–1898): memoire ed epistole.” MA thesis (University of Bologna, 2016–2017). Deemer, James (Khalid) Davidson. “Umm Durmān during the Mahdiyya.” PhD thesis (Harvard University, 1988). Ewald, Janet Joran. “Leadership and Social Change on an Islamic Frontier: The Kingdom of Taqali, 1780–1900.” PhD thesis (University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1982). Johnson, Nels. “The Ideological Structure of the Sudanese Mahdiya.” MA thesis (McGill University, 1972). Kramer, Robert S. “Holy City on the Nile: Omdurman, 1885–1898.” PhD dissertation (Northwestern University, 1991).  Kuhn, Michael Will...
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Khalwa Education in the Funj Sultanate, c. 1500–1820

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  Khalwa Education in the Funj Sultanate, c. 1500–1820 @CaspoidII Image: Hilliard Atteridge, Towards Khartoum  (1897), 221. Although the Nile Valley came under the tutelage of the Muslim Funj sultanate in the early 16th century, it would be until the 17th century that Muslim holymen began to make their mark upon the region under Sultan ʿAdlān I. [1] Further, it was not until midway through the 17th century that Sudan saw the birth of its mythical “folk heroes” in the homegrown holymen. [2] The Sudanese holyman, or fakī , came in two forms: the Sufi mystic, and the orthodox. The Sufis organized themselves into ṭarīqa (s), whilst the orthodox tended to emerge from the urbanites and provided judges for towns such as Sinnār, ʿArbajī, etc. [3] It was also the responsibility of the holy man to educate their pupils. Islamic education in the Funj Sultanate came in three prominent forms: the Qurʾānic khalwa [or kuttab ], the orthodox madrasa , and the Sufi khalwa . [4]   In ...
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Mahdist Military Drill

Mahdist Military Drill Many European observers to the battle of Karari offered compliments to the Ansar and their level of drill. The correspondent Bennet Burleigh, for example, remarked: “It seemed to be a well-organised, intelligently-handled enemy we had in front” (Khartoum Campaign, 131). Likewise, Churchill asserted: “[t]heir drill was excellent, and they all stopped as by a single command,” and that “[t]he Dervishes were not the abandoned savages they had long been declared. They possessed a drilled and disciplined army, an organised Government, a mint, a powder factory, and courts of law” (River War, 2/99, 394). But what did said drill look like?  The Mahdist system of drill often times mirrored those of the Turco-Egyptian government which had preceded the, though with some modifications. For example, the Mahdists employed soldiers of the old army as drill instructors, both Egyptians, such as Muhammad Bey Iskandar, ex-commander of soldiers in al-Ubayyid, as well as Sudanese,...
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