Mohave County miner., 1884-02-03
ELI MAHDT.
The Life Sketch of a Remark
 able Man.

Mahomet Achmet, the Mahdi, is $
 Dongolaw1, or native of the province
 of Dongola. His grandfather was
 called Fahil, and lived on the Island
 of Naft Arti(Ar IS Dongolawi fol
 ''island'). This island lies east ct
 and opposite to OrdIa, the native
 name for the capital of Dongola
 His father was AbduIlahi, by trade a
 carpenter. In 1852 this man left
 and went to Shindi, town on the
 Nile south of Berber At that time
 his family consisted of three sons
 and one daughter, called respective
 Iy Mahomed, Hamid, Mahomat Ach i net (the Mahdi), and Nur el-Sham
 Night Of fiS5Sy7iri 5y7fiiaa11 a1 sAt Shindi another
 son was born, called Abdnl-ah. As Asa 2 boy, Mahonet Aehmet vas appren
 ticed to Slerif-edDeen. his uncle, a boatman, residing at Shakabeh, an
 island opposite Senaar. Having one
 day received beating from his un-
 cle, he ran away to Khartoum, and joined the free school or ''Medressu''
 of fakirQearned man, head of a
 sect of dervishes) who resided at
 Hoghali, a village east of and close
 to khartoum. Thls school is attach ed to the tomb of Sheikh Hoghali. the patron saint of Khartoum, and
 who Is greatly revered by the 1nhab- itants of that town and district. The Sheikh of this tomb or shrine, al though he keeps free school and feeds the poor, derives very hand some revenue from the gifts of the pious. He claims to be a descend ant Of the original Hoghali, and through him of Mahonet. Here he remained for some time, stEdying re- ligion, the tenets of his Sheikh, etc, but did not make much more pro gress ln the more worldly accom- phsLments of reading and writing. After time he left and went to Der Der, where he joined another free school, kept by Sheikh Ghubush, at village of that name nearly op- posite to Makherref (Berber). The school is also attached to a shrine greatly venerated by the natives Here Mahomet Achmet remained si X months, completing his religious ed ucaticn. Thence he went to Aradup (Talnariud Tree) village, south of Kama. Here, in 1870, he became a Disciple of another fakir- -Sheikh Nur-el- Daim Continuous Light 1 Nur el-Daim subsequently, ordained him a Sheikh or Fakir, and he then left to take up his home in theisland of Abba, near Kana, on the White Nile.Her he began by making a sab terraneap excavation (khaliva-re- treat) into which he made a practice of retiring to repeat for hours one of the names of the Deity, and this. ac companied by fasting, incense-burn ing and prayers. His fame and sanctity by degrees spread far and wide, and Mahomet Achmet became collected disciples, and several wives, all of whom he was careful to select from among the daughters of the most infuen tial Baggara Sheiks (Baggara-tribes owning cattle and horses) and other To keep within the legal ized number (fonr), he was in the habit of divorcing tne surplus and taking them on again according to his fancy. About the end of May, 1881, he began to write to his brother fakis religious chiefs), and to teach that he was foretold by Mahomet and that he had divine mission to reform Islam, to establish a universal universal law, a univer- sal religion, and a community of