Related Papers
The Bibliography of the Mahdist State in the Sudan, 1898-1898
Ahmed Abushouk
Islamic Africa
Fatwa and Propaganda: Contemporary Muslim Responses to the Sudanese Mahdiyya
2014 •
Fergus Nicoll
The powerful call (daʿwa) of Muḥammad Aḥmad, the self-styled Mahdī, and his ensuing jihad against Ottoman-Egyptian rule in Sudan provoked a variety of responses within the larger Muslim community. The ʿulamāʾ, al-Azhar-trained orthodox legal and religious scholars in Khartoum and Cairo, responded with outrage and detailed legal arguments, challenging the credentials of an individual they insisted was an impostor, and rehearsing instead the legitimacy of the Ottoman Sultan as the bona fide leader of the faithful. Beyond the establishment hierarchy, politically-and religiouslymotivated activists and propagandists, in Sudan, Egypt and beyond, joined the debate over Muḥammad Aḥmad's credibility: at stake was a substantial body of susceptible Muslim opinion, in the Ottoman provinces of the Hejaz and Syria and as far away as British-ruled India. This article describes in detail the spiritual and legal arguments over a personality whose claimed mandate had implications for two of the world's largest empires.
International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 43(1), 2010, p. 1-26.
ʻTransborder’ Exchanges of People, Things and Representations: Revisiting the Conflict between Mahdist Sudan and Christian Ethiopia, 1885-1889
2010 •
Iris Seri-Hersch
This article explores the intertwined history of late 19th century Sudan and Ethiopia from a transboundary perspective. Focusing on a specific border zone in a period of growing tensions between the newly-established Mahdist state and the expanding Christian kingdom (1885-1889), the study analyzes how various patterns of commercial, military and diplomatic interactions shaped and were shaped by the Sudanese-Ethiopian conflict. That the ruling elites used religious arguments to legitimize military operations did not prevent intense flows of people, things and representations in the borderlands northwest of Lake Tana. A precise historical enquiry into the changing conceptualizations of the border, trade dynamics in goods and human beings, war booty practices, and diplomatic epistolary exchanges allows assessing the complex role of this portion of the border zone in the evolution of Sudanese-Ethiopian relations. The research is based on previously untapped Mahdist archives, European travel accounts, and scholarly works in Arabic, English, French and German. It is meant to contribute to the rapidly expanding field of border studies, as well as give new insights into the entangled history of African societies which retained their political sovereignty in the early years of the European scramble for Africa.
International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 41(2), 2009, p. 247-267.
Confronting a Christian Neighbor: Sudanese Representations of Ethiopia in the Early Mahdist Period, 1885-89
2009 •
Iris Seri-Hersch
This article deals with the Sudanese–Ethiopian conflict (1885–89) from a Mahdist perspective, in the wider context of the European scramble for Africa. Focusing on Sudanese representations of Ethiopia as well as on the causes underlying the conflict, I confront a Mahdist chronicle of particular historiographical significance with a range of historical sources. Departing from a purely jihadist framework of analysis, I highlight various Mahdist conceptualizations of Christian Ethiopia as well as historical, political, military, and economic processes conducive to the outbreak of an armed confrontation between the two independent African states. I argue that the Sudanese ruling elite resorted to jihadist discourse as a legitimizing device rather than as an inflexible policy and examine more specific rhetoric instruments meant to justify Mahdist attitudes toward the Christian kingdom. Whereas prophetic visions were used to make the khalifa's Ethiopian policy acceptable to Mahdist eyes, the ambivalent legacy of early Muslim–Aksumite contacts was reactivated in the framework of a dialogue with the Ethiopian enemy.
Islam, Revival, & Reform: Redefining Tradition for the Twenty-First Century. Essays Inspired by John O. Voll
A Flame of Learning in the Winds of Change: Notes on the History of the Majādhīb of al-Qaḍārif
“Continuity and change” is the theme that John Voll (1982) placed at the center of attention in one of his most influential books on Islam in the modern world. The present piece investigates elements of this theme as it unfolded in the country where John Voll did his first fieldwork: the Sudan, in particular the eastern parts of it. Rather than painting a broad picture, however, it attempts to preserve what has come down to us of the local history of a particular group of people during the nineteenth century, a time and place where religious leaders who may be characterized as conservative representatives of Islam sought to preserve both their tradition and their social position in the face of dramatically changing circ*mstances. Highlighting local microhistory should serve to redress a perspective on Sudanese history that is still all too often focused on the center, the capital. Attention to regional nuances and diversity has always characterized Voll’s work, even in his masterly attempts at a synthesis. This chapter also pays homage to another field where John Voll has done pioneering research: the reconstruction of scholarly networks that connected individual religious specialists with a wider world of learning both through direct contact and through their introduction to a shared scholarly corpus that was held to be authoritative in understanding and defining Islam (Voll 1975, 1980, 2002). My contribution is based largely on oral and manuscript material that I collected during fieldwork in the Sudan in 1986–88 but that was not included in my doctoral dissertation (Hofheinz 1996), which focused on one particular reformer rather than chronicling the history of his family, the Majādhīb, over four centuries.
The Death of Gordon: A Victorian Myth, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (1982) 10/2: 285-310
Douglas H Johnson
The death of Charles Gordon is one of the most re-told stories of British imperial history, the dramatic climax to numerous biographies. This article examines the process by which Victorian authors fashioned the myth of his unresisting martyrdom as much from silences in the evidence as from a few tantalising details. The myth was used to justify both the reconquest of Sudan as well as the British administration of that country and has resisted most subsequent attempts to re-examine its content.
The Mahdi's Jihad in Sudan: A Bibliography
Ralph Davis
Listed below are a selection of books and articles on the Mahdi's of Sudan jihad that should be of interest in light of the Islamic State's declared intention to create a Caliphate.
Stephane Pradines and Manouchehr Moshtagh Khorasani (2018). SUFI IN WAR: PERSIAN INFLUENCE ON AFRICAN WEAPONRY IN 19TH CENTURY MAHDIST SUDAN, JAAS, Volume XXII, No 5, 2018, pp. 254-279.
Manouchehr Moshtagh Khorasani
This article deals with the influence of Persian culture on African weaponry, specifically the Sudanese arms and armour used in the " Anglo– Sudan War " or " Sudanese Mahdist Revolt ". The shape and the decoration of Sudanese weapons are very similar to those of the Qajar-period Persian weapons used by Sufis and dervishes in Iran. The objective of the present article is to establish whether this influence could have taken place via trade routes and or religious brotherhoods.
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
A manuscript biography of the Sudanese Mahdi
1969 •
Haim Shaked
Sufi in War: Persian influence on African weaponry in the 19th century Mahdist Sudan
Stephane Pradines, Manouchehr Moshtagh Khorasani
This article deals with the influence of Persian culture on African weaponry, specifically the Sudanese arms and armour used in the " Anglo– Sudan War " or " Sudanese Mahdist Revolt ". The shape and the decoration of Sudanese weapons are very similar to those of the Qajar-period Persian weapons used by Sufis and dervishes in Iran. The objective of the present article is to establish whether this influence could have taken place via trade routes and or religious brotherhoods.
