Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1885-02-17
PORTRAIT OF THE mAHDI.

Alfred NJ. Cottle, l.. L. D., writing to the
Catholic World gives the following descrip-
tien of the Ma hdi.
Imagine q man about forty years OF age,
of medium height, as lean, as the saying is,
as shotten herring, with o mahogany com
plexion, coal black beard and eyes, with
three vertical slashes on his pallid cheeks;
add to this q long cotton shirt as a garment,
narrow turban as a headdress, q pair of
wooden sandals, and in the hands-dry as
those of q mummy-a string ofninety beads
corresponding to an equa! lumber of divine
attributes, and you have the mahdi. Those
who have seen him say that Mohammed-
Ahmed plays to perfection the part of Wis
ionary dervish, waving his head when walk
ing, and murmuring constant prayers, his
eyes fixed on heaven. His father was car
vince of Dongola, and about 1852 came, with
his four children, to Chindi small city on
the banks the Nile south Of Berber. When
still very young be vas placed us an ap
prentice under the care of one of his uncles,
shipbuilder of Shebekah, opposite Senaar.
IT seems that the future prophet was not
without his failinSs, for one day his uncle
thought of tlogging him in regular French
style. The proceeding was not appreciated
and the child ran away until he arrived ut
Khartoum, where he entered q sort of school
or convent of begging deryishes, who were
in charge of the monument erected over the
venerated remains of Cheick Hoghali, pat
ron of the city There his life was re-
markable one for his piety; but as TO edu-
cation he never learned how to write or
even how to read fuently. Later he
went 10 similar institution in Berber,
then 10 one in Aradup, on the south
of Bena. In the latter city lie became, in
1870, the favorite disciple Of an eminent
fakir, Cheick Nur-el Daim, and finally was
ordained by him and went to Abbes Islands. |
White Nile His fame as sanity man
WAS every year on the increase. He lived |
in kind of pit or subterranean repository |
for grain, called silo, which he had dug up |
with his own hands; and there he passed !
his life, fasting and praying, burning incense |
AflaBndo PighU}u and repeating the name OF
fall to the ground painting and exhausted.
II anybody spoke 10 him he gave hacE no
answer except sentences from inc sac'eu
hook of Isla1n. Earthly things seemed TO
inspire him only with disgust and pity.
He had made VOW to absorb himself IN
the CO0LoHplSllOu VI ulS4ho IS'A
tn weep all his life for the sins Of mankind.
Rnt his tears did not destroy his powers OF
vision. and he kept his best eye wide open
to business; acd the faithful coming hy
thousands and depoaliing llcs' oll'rinSs a'
tho mouth If his silo, tie uerer failed 10 see
tn, gifts nor 10 slow them away Tor stormy.
days Ia 1878 II. bad bscome 80 wealthy ina"
he fell the necessity 10 declare !hat Allan
had ordered him To leave his siio ard 10 take
un.o himself large collection oi wives,
whom. rs a truly practical man, he chose
amupr the most infuentia! families OF the
couptrv, especially that of the Bagaras, Tho
most onulent slave traders on tho White
Nile. Every one has still fresh in his mem
ory the appalling determination OF HICKS
Pasha's eleven thousand men, surrounded
on November 5, 1SS3-the first day of the
fourteenth century of the Heglra-at
Kasgbil. while marching on El Obeid. This
horrible butchery, happening on the thres
hold of the century, announced as the one
of the Last Prophet gave bloody conse-
Grafton to Mohammed-Ahmed, who, after
the three days battle, went over the battle
field piercing with his spear the ghastiy
corpses Of his enemies, and exclalmlng: III
is I, l, the Prophet, who destroyed the
heretics w Compared to him, Mohammed
ryas no more in his mind, than small!
prophet. he alone was the only great and
powerful Messiah announced by Moham-
med himself. The Sultan Of Constantine
ple was no more the Supreme Caliph, the
Chief of Islamism it was he, Mohamned-
Ahmed. and he ordered his own name TO
be invoked in public worship in the place
of Mohammeds, right after the name OF
Allah have said enough to show what
kind of a man is the Nubiaa Mahdi.
| I.1EE =