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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Sudan
Index
Six months after the capture of Khartoum, the Mahdi died of
typhus. The task of establishing and maintaining a government
fell to his deputies--three caliphs chosen by the Mahdi in
emulation of the Prophet Muhammad. Rivalry among the three, each
supported by people of his native region, continued until 1891,
when Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, with the help primarily of the
Baqqara Arabs, overcame the opposition of the others and emerged
as unchallenged leader of the Mahdiyah. Abdallahi--called the
Khalifa (successor)--purged the Mahdiyah of members of the
Mahdi's family and many of his early religious disciples.
Originally the Mahdiyah was a jihad state, run like a
military camp. Sharia courts enforced Islamic law and the Mahdi's
precepts, which had the force of law. After consolidating his
power, the Khalifa instituted an administration and appointed
Ansar (who were usually Baqqara) as amirs over each of the
several provinces. The Khalifa also ruled over rich Al Jazirah.
Although he failed to restore this region's commercial wellbeing , the Khalifa organized workshops to manufacture ammunition
and to maintain river steamboats.
Regional relations remained tense throughout much of the
Mahdiyah period, largely because of the Khalifa's commitment to
using the jihad to extend his version of Islam throughout the
world. For example, the Khalifa rejected an offer of an alliance
against the Europeans by Ethiopia's negus (king), Yohannes IV. In
1887 a 60,000-man Ansar army invaded Ethiopia, penetrated as far
as Gonder, and captured prisoners and booty. The Khalifa then
refused to conclude peace with Ethiopia. In March 1889, an
Ethiopian force, commanded by the king, marched on Qallabat;
however, after Yohannes IV fell in battle, the Ethiopians
withdrew. Abd ar Rahman an Nujumi, the Khalifa's best general,
invaded Egypt in 1889, but British-led Egyptian troops defeated
the Ansar at Tushkah. The failure of the Egyptian invasion ended
the Ansar' invincibility. The Belgians prevented the Mahdi's men
from conquering Equatoria, and in 1893 the Italians repulsed an
Ansar attack at Akordat (in Eritrea) and forced the Ansar to
withdraw from Ethiopia.
Data as of June 1991
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