• People
• al-Mahdī, Muḥammad Aḥmad b. sayyid ʻAbd Allāh b. Faḥl

Ṣūfī scholar of the Sammāniyya order who led the resistence of Sudan against the Egyptian occupation of the country, known as the Mahdist movement. It began in 1881 and could finally establish a statein 1885-98 after the defeat of the Egyptians and of their British superiors (Egypt itself was occupied by Britain in 1882. The movement was inspired and fostered by messianic expectations, as Muḥammad Aḥmad was believed to be the Mahdī, the well guided one, sent by God to redeem Islam from humiliation.
After the defeat of the occupying troops he founded a new capital, Umm Durmān, which was organized on the principle of the Islam of the origins, with a strict obedience of the Islamic law, with the intent to fight all Muslim who did not want to accept him as their leader. He died for typhoid fever in 1885 and was succeeded by his ḫalīfa ʻAbd Allāh al-Taʻāyš.
Before dying the Mahdī had invited aṣe Yoḥannes IV to accept Islam and become his follower but of course he refused. But when the Mahdist amīr of Eastern Sudan, ʻUṯmān b. Abī Bakr Diqna, wanted to penetrate the Ethiopian territory the Mahdī discouraged him. Nonetheless the relations with Ethiopia deteriorated and culminated with the nəguś Täklä Haymanot's victory in January 1887. One year later the Mahdist obtained a revange by invadig Gondär while the Ethiopians were concentrate against the Italian invaders on the Massawa coast. In 1889 the nəguś marched against the Mahdists but he himself was killed during the battle, but once the Ethiopians gained their victory against Italians in ʻAdwa 1896, the Mahdist were defeated by Anglo-Egyptian army ("River war" 1896-98).