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MAHOMMED AHMED IBN SEYYID ABDULLAH (1...

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 411 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MAHOMMED AHMED See also:

IBN SEYYID ABDULLAH (1848-1885) , Sudanese See also:tyrant, known as " the See also:Mandi," was See also:born in See also:Dongola. His See also:family, known as excellent See also:boat-builders, claimed to be Ashraf (or Sherifs), i.e. descendants of See also:Mahomet. His See also:father was a fiki or religious teacher, and Mahommed Ahmed devoted himself See also:early to religious studies. When about twenty years old he went to live on Abba See also:Island on the See also:White See also:Nile about 150 M. above See also:Khartum. He first acquired fame by a See also:quarrel with the See also:head of the brotherhood which he had joined, Mahommed asserting that his See also:master condoned transgression of the divine See also:law. After this incident many dervishes (religious mendicants) gathered See also:round the See also:young See also:sheikh, whose reputation for sanctity speedily See also:grew. He travelled secretly through See also:Kordofan, where (with ample See also:justification) he denounced to the villagers the See also:extortion of the tax-gatherer and told of the coming of the mandi who should deliver them from the oppressor. He also wrote a pamphlet summoning true believers to purify their See also:religion from the defilements of the " See also:Turks " i.e. the See also:Egyptian officials and all non-native inhabitants of the See also:Sudan. The See also:influence he gained at length aroused the anxiety of the authorities, and in May 1881 a certain See also:Abu Saud, a notorious See also:scoundrel, was sent to Abba Island to bring the sheikh to Khartum. Abu Saud's See also:mission failed, and Mahommed Ahmed no longer hesitated to See also:call himself al-Mandi al Montasir, " The Expected See also:Guide." In See also:August he defeated another force sent to Abba Island to See also:arrest him, but thereafter deemed it prudent to retire to See also:Jebel Gedir, in the Nuba See also:country See also:south of Kordofan, where he was soon at the head of a powerful force; and 6000 Egyptian troops under Yusef • See also:Pasha, advancing from See also:Fashoda, were nearly annihilated in See also:June 1882. By the end of 1882 the whole of the Sudan south of Khartum was in See also:rebellion, with the exception of the See also:Bahr-el-Ghazal and the See also:Equatorial Provinces. In See also:January 1883 El Obeid, the See also:capital of Kordofan, was captured.

In the See also:

November following flicks Pasha's force of 1o,000 men was destroyed at Kashgil, and in the same See also:year the mandi's See also:lieutenant, See also:Osman Digna, raised the tribes in the eastern Sudan, and besieged Sinkat and Tokar, near See also:Suakin, routing See also:General See also:Valentine See also:Baker's force of 2500 men at El Teb in See also:February 1884. The operations undertaken by See also:Great See also:Britain in See also:face of this See also:state of affairs are narrated under See also:EGYPT: Military Operations. It need only be added that General See also:Gordon (q.v.) was besieged at Khartum by the mandi and was killed there when the See also:town was captured by the mandists on the 25th-26th of January 1885. The mandi himself died at See also:Omdurman a few months later (June 22, 1885), and was succeeded in See also:power by his See also:khalifa Abdullah. When he announced his divine mission Mahommed Ahmed adopted the Shi'ite traditions concerning the mandi, and thus put himself in opposition to the See also:sultan of See also:Turkey as the only true See also:commander of the faithful. To emphasize his position the mandi struck coins in his own name and set himself to suppress all customs introduced by the " Turks." His social and religious reforms are contained in various proclamations, one of which is See also:drawn up in the See also:form of ten commandments. They concern, chiefly, such matters as See also:ritual, prayers, soberness in See also:food and raiment, the cost of See also:marriage and the behaviour of See also:women. How far the mandi was the controller of the See also:movement which he started cannot be known, but from the outset of his public career his right-See also:hand See also:man was a See also:Baggara tribesman named Abdullah (the khalifa), who became his successor, and after his See also:flight to Jebel Gedir the mandi was largely dependent for his support on Baggara sheikhs, who gratified one of his leading tastes by giving him See also:numbers of their young women. In the few months between the fall of Khartum and his See also:death the mandi, relieved from the incessant See also:strain of toil, copied in his private See also:life all the vices of See also:Oriental despots while maintaining in public the austerity he demanded of his followers. His death is variously attributed to disease and to poisoning by a woman of his See also:harem. On the occupation of Omdurman by the See also:British (See also:Sept. 1898) the mandi's See also:tomb was destroyed, his See also:body burnt and the ashes thrown into the Nile (see SUDAN: Anglo-Egyptian).

See Mandiism and the Egyptian Sudan by F. R. See also:

Wingate (1891); Ten Years' Captivity in the Mandi's See also:Camp (1882–1892) from the MS. of Father See also:Joseph Ohrwalder by F. R. Wingate (1892) and See also:Fire and See also:Sword in the Sudan (1879–1895) by See also:Slatin Pasha (trans. F. R. Wingate, 1896). Both Ohrwalder and Slatin were personally acquainted with the mandi, and their narratives contain much first-hand See also:information. Wingate prints many See also:translations of the proclamations and See also:correspondence of the mandi.

End of Article: MAHOMMED AHMED IBN SEYYID ABDULLAH (1848-1885)

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