page_title: Muhammad Ahmad
hierarchical_section_title: Muhammad Ahmad
caption_attribution_description: Muhammad Ahmad
context_page_description: Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah was a Nubian religious leader of the Samaniyya order in Sudan who, as a youth, combined orthodox religious study with a mystical interpretation of Islam. On 29 June 1881, he was proclaimed the Mahdi by his disciples, the messianic redeemer of the Islamic faith. His proclamation came during a period of widespread resentment among the Sudanese population towards the oppressive policies of the Turco-Egyptian rulers and was supported by the messianic belief popular among the various Sudanese religious sects of the time. He led a successful war against Ottoman-Egyptian military rule and achieved a remarkable victory over the British, in the Siege of Khartoum. He then created a vast Islamic state extending from the Red Sea to Central Africa and founded a movement that remained influential in Sudan a century later.
  From his announcement of the Mahdiyya in June 1881 until 1898, many of the theological and political doctrines of the Mahdiyya were established and promulgated among the growing ranks of the Mahdi's supporters, the Ansars.
context_section_description: Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah (Arabic: محمد أحمد ابن عبد الله‎; 12 August 1844 – 22 June 1885) was a Nubian religious leader of the Samaniyya order in Sudan who, as a youth, combined orthodox religious study with a mystical interpretation of Islam. On 29 June 1881, he was proclaimed the Mahdi by his disciples, the messianic redeemer of the Islamic faith. His proclamation came during a period of widespread resentment among the Sudanese population towards the oppressive policies of the Turco-Egyptian rulers and was supported by the messianic belief popular among the various Sudanese religious sects of the time. He led a successful war against Ottoman-Egyptian military rule and achieved a remarkable victory over the British, in the Siege of Khartoum. He then created a vast Islamic state extending from the Red Sea to Central Africa and founded a movement that remained influential in Sudan a century later.
  From his announcement of the Mahdiyya in June 1881 until 1898, many of the theological and political doctrines of the Mahdiyya were established and promulgated among the growing ranks of the Mahdi's supporters, the Ansars. After Muhammad Ahmad's unexpected death on 22 June 1885, his chief deputy, Abdallahi ibn Muhammad took over the administration of the nascent Mahdist state.
  Following Ahmad's death, Abdallahi ruled as Khalifa. However, while the Mahdi had created one of the few nineteenth-century African states to have defeated a foreign colonial power, the Khalifa's autocratic rule, as well as directly applied British military force, destroyed the Mahdi state following the Anglo-Egyptian conquest of Sudan in 1899. Despite that, the Mahdi remains a respected figure in the Sudan, and a direct descendant of Ahmad, Sadiq al-Mahdi, was twice prime minister of Sudan (1966–1967 and 1986–1989) and pursued democratizing policies.
caption: Artistic representation of Muhammad Ahmad
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