The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-04-04
EL MAHDI.
ILe Reveil de Maroc.l


 Mohammed Ahmed, the religious head of the Soudanese insunection, is a man of about terty years of age He IS a native of Donsols, one of the oldest towns of Aoyssinia. This town, situated on the Nile, had its day of splendor and power in the middle ages, but xow it has only three or four hundred inhabitants. Mohammed Ahmed was bora of poor parents. His father was named Abdcl- lahi, and his mother Amina. One ofthe few Europeans who knew him person. aliy--M. Peney, of khar,oum--g,ves us the following account of this man:
 When seven years of age Mohammed Ahmed commenced to attend the Mussul- man school, and when twelve years old he had completed the study ct the Koran. For the means of pursuing his religious education he was indebted to his brothers, who were established as carpenters and boatbuiIders. They en. abled him to pursue his studies in the neighborhood of Khartoum under the instructions of such able masters as Fl Gomaehem and Abdel Ayim, son of the cation was completed he removed to the island of B abo, on the White Nile He had lived there fifteen years venerated by the Baggarah, when he announced him. self as the Mahdi. or Divine Messenger, destined to regenerate slam.
 This enterprise has, up to the present, fully succeeded. Has not tue east al- ways proved a propitious sphere for all reli gious innovators? The new proshet enlisted in his train the majority of the population of the Egyptian Soudan, ard in three years of waiflre he succeeded in expelling the Turks, who had occupied the country for sixty years. The insur. rection burst forth with fury inc 1880 The governor of the Soudan sent two successive expeditions in 1881 against the Mahdi. Both met the same fate = the E ,yptian soldiers were annihilated by the partisans of the prophet. In 1882 a third expedition followed, but the in- surrection had grown in strength and importance, and seven hundred Eyypt- ians were encountered by fifty thousand Arabs, 0. negroes, commanded by Mo- hammed's two brothers. They were necessarily annihilated
 The whole of Sennaar then uprose. The Mahdi marched on Fl Ooeid, and, after vigorous siege and bloody fight, captured that city. The succeeding events are in the memory of all--Hicks' expedition and his defeat at K ,sgell that Of Baker Pasha at Fl Teb the de- parture of Gordon for Khartoum; his blockade and vigorous resistance. Butit is chiefly to the D. rsonality of the Mahdi that this article is dedicated, and we con- clude it by reproducing his portrait as drawn by M Peney.
 Ahmed Mohammed is man of mid de stature. His complexion is copper colored, his beard very black, and on each cheek he bears tree parallel scars. He IS extremely spare, the probable re- suit of the rigorous lasts to which he condemns himself Previous to his en- tering upon active life he used to dwell in suhterranean cell or cave, where, according to his followers, he was con- tinually weeping over the universal cor. ruption of his race The Mahdi always wears as his invariable costume a shirt and drawers of damoni, a coarse material of native manufacture. His feet are clothed with sandals, and small turban surmounts his head.
 Such is the man who now leads the Egyptian rebellion. Like all eastern agitAtors, he burst forth from the great est obscurity to assume the united roles of reformer and conqueror. Yesterday but poor man, to-day we see him at the head of an innumerable army. What is the secret of this rapid change of fortune2 It is found in the fact that Mahdi has ap- pealed to that sentiment which, as history testifes. in every age and in every cline has been the parent of the bitterest ran- cor, led to the most savage wars, and de- luged the earth with blood-religious fanaticism.