The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1885-03-12
A Portrait o The Mahdi.

| Imagine q man ABOUT IOTJy years
of age, OF medium height, as lean,
as the saying is, as shotten herring,
with mohogany complexion, coal
black beard and eyes, and three
vertical slashes on his palid cheeks
add to this a long cotton shirt as a
garment, q narrow turban as a head
dress, a pair of wooden sandals and
in the hands-dry as those from a
mummy---a string of ninety beads,
| corresponding to an equal number
of divine attributes and you have
the mahdi. Those who have seen
him say that Mohammed-Ahmed
plays to perfection the part Of a
visionary dervisb, waving his head
when walking and murmuring con
slant prayers, his eyes fixed On
heaven. His father was a carpen-
ter on Matt Island, in the Nubian
province of DongOla, and about
1852 came, with his four children, to
ChIndi, q small city on the banks
OF the Nile, south of Berber. When
still very young lie was placed as
an apprentice under the care of one
OF his uncles, a shipbuilder Of
Chabbhak, opposite SEMINAR. 1t
seems that the future prophet was
not without his fatings, for one day
his uncle thought well OF fogging
him in Il regular French style. The
proceeding was not appreciated, and
the child ran away until he arrived
in Khartoum, where he entered
sort Of school or convent of begging
dervishes, who were in charge of
the monument erected over the ven
Grated remains of Cheick Hoghali,
patron Of the city. There his life
was q remarkable one for his piety;
but as to education, he never Learn
ed how to write or even how to
read fuently. Later he went to q
similar Institution in Berber, then
TO one in Aradup, On the south of
Kenna. In the latter city he be-
came, in 1860, the favorite disciple
Of an eminent fakir, Cheick Nur- ell
daim, and finally was ordained by
him and went to Abbas island,
White Nile. His fame as a sanity
man was every year on the increase.
He lived in kind of pit or subter-
rauean 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 day and night and repeat
ing the name of Allah for hours at
a time until he would fall to the
ground painting and exhausted. If
anybody spoke to him he gave back
no answer, except sentences from
the sacred books of Islam. Earth
-y things seemed to inspire him on
y with disgust and pity. He had |
made q VOW to absorb himself in the |
contemplation of divine projections
and to weep all his life for the sin |
IF mankind. But his tears did not |
destroy his powers of vision, and he
Kept his best eye wide open to bu-
'iness; and the faithful coming by |
and depositing rich offer
ngs at the mouth of his silO, he |
never failed to see the gifts nor to I
'tOw them away carefully for stormy
lays. In 1873 he had become so
Wealthy that he felt the necessity to
declare that Allah had ordered him
o leave his sllo and take unto him
elf a large collection of wives,
whom, as truly practical man, he
hose among the most influential
antilles of the country, especially
hat Of the Bagaras, the most opu-
ent slave traders on the White
Nile.
B. Everyone has still fresh in his
memory the appalling extermina-
ion of Hicks Pasha's 1000 men,
on the 9th of November,
-SS3-the first day of the fourteenth
century of the Hegira at Kasghil
while marching on Ell Obeid This
horrible butchery, happening on the
threshold of the century announced
Is one of the Last Prophet, gave a
bloody conservation to Mohammed-
Ahmed, who, after the three days
,attle, went all over the battlefield,
piercing with his spear the ghastiy
orpses of his enemies and exclaim-
ng: ut is l, 1, the prophet, who
destroyed the herctics!' Compar-
d to him Mohammed was no more,
n his mind, than a small prophet.
lie alone was the only great and
powerful Messiah announced by
iohammed himself. The sultan of
jonstantinopls was no more the su-
rene caliph, the chief of Islamism;
was he, Mohammed-Ahmed, and
e ordered his own name to be in
Oked in public worship in the
lace Of Mohammed's, right after
lie name of Allah!
l have said enough to show what
ind of a man is the Nubian Mahdi.
ALFRED NJ. COTE, LII. D.