In the Islamic world, the
Mahdi is defined as the Guided One or
Redeemer, with some serious and major
differences of opinion between the Shi’a and Sunni Muslim sects.
Shi’ites claim the Mahdi is
their 12th Imam, who “…will arise at some point before the Day of
Judgment, institute a kingdom of justice, and will in the last days fight
alongside of the returned Jesus against the Dajjal, the Antichrist.” The Sunnis
dispute this concept, despite its belief by most Muslims. Those Sunnis, who believe in the existence of
the Mahdi, believe that the Mahdi will be an ordinary man, born to an ordinary
woman. The leadership of the Islamic
Supreme Council of America strongly believes in the coming of the Mahdi during
the 21st century.
After the death of Muhammad
in 632, a number of individuals attempted to gain personal benefits with claims
of being the Mahdi. The first known
historical reference was in 686. The
latest is Iraqi al-Sadr (Hujjat al-islam Muqtada al-Sadr), who, while not
claiming to be the Mahdi, is claiming that his militia is the Mahdi’s militia defending
against the United States whose purpose in invading Iraq is to find and kill
the Mahdi when he appears in Iraq. His
supporters believe al-Sadr to be the son of the Mahdi, a belief that al-Sadr
accepts by his silence. In support of
his follower’s belief, al-Sadr has stated that his militia “belongs to the
Mahdi” and has named it the “Al-Mahdi Army,” a force that he claims he cannot
control or disband because it is not his militia, but belongs to the Mahdi and
whose purpose is to protect the Mahdi.
In the meantime, the “Al-Mahdi Army” has caused much bloodshed and
personal assassinations and much material damage during the past five years and
continues to do so into 2007.
The inability of the Shi’a
and Sunni sects to share the legacy of Muhammad over the centuries since his
death has perpetuated a religious war, which has grown into a massive power
struggle to determine who will rule Iraq. Both sects have determined that the solution
to the problem of power and rule is to eliminate the opposition by killing off
all who oppose their views and woe be unto the innocents who fail to support
them. As a result, present day suicide
bombings, financed by the Fattah, Hamas, similar terrorist organizations and
countries such as Saudi
Arabia, Syria and Iran, are a
common every day occurrence. Families of
the bombers are routinely compensated with cash awards for their contribution
to the carnage. Sect militia, dedicated
to destroying non-conforming civilians and opposing militia, operate indiscriminately. It is a rare day that the military or the
police don’t find Iraqis ritually killed with one shot to the back of the head
or systematically tortured to death. Yet,
others are killed by simply throwing them off tall buildings or other
structures. Beheadings are
frequent. Almost all bodies, when found,
are bound hand and foot. It must be
admitted that these sects are operating democratically – they will kill anyone,
Iraqi or non-Iraqi, local civilian or outsider.
Muhammad died almost 1400
years ago. Did the indiscriminate
violence immediately follow his death? If
not, when did it start? Was the violence
a gradual escalation or were there periods of war-like behavior that trended to
the extreme violence of today? The
available historical records show little to answer these questions directly,
but during the final quarter of the 19th century, a new Mahdi
appeared on the scene in what is now Sudan.
In 1844, Muhammad Ahmad Ibn
As-sayyid ‘abd Allah was born in Nubia and remained in Sudan devoting
his entire life to religious studies and the more mystic interpretation of
Islam. By 1870, he had attracted a small
number of disciples who joined him on Aba Island
8in the White Nile south of Khartoum.
At the time, Sudan
was a dependency of Egypt,
which was a province of the Ottoman Empire. The native population of the Sudan was
oppressed and highly discontent. The
political situation was extremely dangerous.
Muhammad Ahmad took advantage of the discontent and, convinced that the
ruling class had deserted Islam, revealed to his followers in 1881 “that God had
appointed him to purify Islam,” and he publicly assumed the title of
al-Mahdi.
By the end of 1883, the small
band of followers armed with sticks and spears, had grown to an army, and had destroyed
three Egyptian armies capturing “an enormous booty of money, bullion, jewels
and military supplies, including Krupp artillery and Remington rifles. Through his military operations and
intelligent and subtle propaganda, he made himself master of almost all the
territory formerly occupied by the Egyptian government. He created an Islamic state extending from
the Red Sea to Central
Africa.
In early 1884, the khedive of
Egypt
appointed General Charles Gordon as governor-general of the Sudan. Gordon reached Khartoum in February and successfully
evacuated about 2,000 women, children, sick and wounded before the Mahdist
forces laid siege to the town in March.
A British relief force arrived at Khartoum
in January 1885 two days after the city had fallen and its inhabitants,
including Gordon, were slaughtered.
Records show that the Mahdi had issued express orders against the
killing of Gordon, something the British public refused to believe. The British relief force engaged the Mahdist
forces, but eventually retreated downriver.
The Mahdi abandoned Khartoum
and made neighboring Omdurman
his administrative capital.
At the age of 41, Muhammad
Ahmed died in June 1885 of what appeared to be typhus. One of four caliphs, Abdullah al-Taashi, assumed
the leadership.
It wasn’t until 1898, ten
years later, that the British government decided to reconquer Sudan. A force of 25,800, in- cluding 8,000 British
regulars and 17,000 Sudanese and Egyptian troops, armed with Maxim machine
guns, artillery and a flotilla of gunboats in support, led by British General
Sir Horatio Kitchener advanced on Omdurman. The British light cavalry regiment, the 21st
Lancers led the advance. Riding with the
cavalry was Winston Churchill who had just completed a tour reporting on the
Boer War and was now riding with Kitchener. In the ensuing battle, the Ansar force of
50,000 had 23,000 casualties and 5,000 captured. The Kitchener
force had 430 casualties.
After Omdurman a force of approximately 25,000
Mahdists moved southward pursued by the British. In October 1899, the Khalifa decided to make
a stand with a force of 10,000. The
battle of Umm Diwaykarat ended with 1,000 Khalifa casualties and 3,000
captured, including the sons of the Khalifa and Emir Yuni. The British suffered 26 casualties.
The remnants of the Mhadists
continued to resist for a short while under Osman Digna, who was captured in
January 1900. The last territories of Darfur were captured in 1916.
“In the century since the
Mahdist uprising, the neo-Mahdist movement and the Ansar, supporters of Mahdism
from the west, have persisted as a political force in Sudan. Many groups, from the Baqqara cattle nomads
to the largely sedentary tribes on the White Nile,
supported this movement. The Ansar were
hierarchically organized under the control of Muhammad Ahmad’s successors, who
have all been members of the Mahdi family (known as the ashraf). The ambitions
and varying political perspectives of different members of the family have led
to internal conflicts, and it appeared that Sadiq al Mahdi, putative leader of
the Ansar since the early 1970s, did not enjoy the unanimous support of all
Mahdists. Mahdist family political goals
and ambitions seemed to have taken precedence over the movement’s original
religious mission. The modern days Ansar
were thus loyal more to the political descendants of the Mahdi than to the
religious message of Mahdism.”
Thus, we have in today’s
political world in Sudan,
the western province
of Darfur under repeated
attacks of internal forces bent on genocide with the support of the existing
Sudanese government and its disinterest in protecting the residents of Darfur despite many toothless overtures by the United
Nations.
Bibliography
Churchill, Winston
Spencer. River War: An Historical
Account of the Reconquest of the Soudan. London.
Longmans & Green, 1899.
Gazda, Daniel. Mahdi Uprising 1881-1899. Warsaw,
2004.
Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahdi
Islamic History
Sourcebook. www.fordham.edu/halsall/islam/1885khartoum
1.html
“Khartoum, Siege of.” Encyclopædia Britannica 2006 Ultimate
Reference Suite CD.
Al-Mahdi Army / Active Religious
Seminary. www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/al-sadr.htm
July 2007
LFC
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