Muhammad Ahmad (1844-1885)
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- Muhammad Ahmad ibn as Sayyid Abd Allah (otherwise known as The Mahdi or Mohammed Ahmed) was a Muslim religious leader in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. He led a successful military campaign against the British to liberate Egypt form an independent Islamic state. Ahmad was an inspirational figure for many Muslims who wanted to fight against the oppression of imperial and colonial powers.
Muhammad Ahmed was born in 1844 on Dirar Island off Dongola. Him and his family would move to the capital Khartoum in search of better opportunities. His father and brothers went into boat-building while the young Muhammad studied religion like his grandfather. He became proficient in the Qur’an and other Islamic teachings, eventually building his own mosque and teaching. He was known as an excellent speaker and a devotee of Islam. He began traveling and saw the hatred for the Ottoman-Egyptian rulers, who were pawns of the British. In 1869 the Suez Canal opened, and to defend the waterway, Britain sought a greater role in Egypt. Thee British government started meddling in Egypt’s fiscal affairs and ended up dispersing the slave trade, which proved disastrous because the country relied on its business. Many citizens were angered and saw it as a purge by the European Christians. Ahmed then declared a jihad and self-anointed himself as the Madhi, or the “Guided One”.
The government simply thought of him as a religious zealot but were soon confronted with a dilemma when Ahmed started to build an army. In 1883, Ahmed and his followers, armed with spears and swords, overwhelmed an eight thousand-man Egyptian force in the Battle of El Obied and seized their rifles and ammunition. Ahmad followed up this victory by laying siege to the capital of South Sudan and starving it into submission after four months. The town remained the headquarters of Ahmed’s regime for much of the decade, which grew to over 30,000 members. After several more successful campaigns, all of Sudan was controlled by the Ahmed and the Sudanese people. Ahmed formed an independent government called it The Mahdiyah (Mahdist regime) and imposing traditional Islamic laws, claiming they were visions sent to him from God. Ahmed’s rule was short-lived, as he died from typhus in 1885 in Khartoum, but not before choosing three deputies to succeed him, just like the Prophet Muhammad. This led to fighting and disarray within the regime and it would eventually grow weaker and dissipate. However, Ahmed left his legacy and is viewed as the precursor of Sudanese nationalism.