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A manuscript biography of the Sudanese Mahdi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Haim Shaked
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Extract

Recent surveys of historical writing on the modern history of the Nilotic Sudan show the rather late appearence of critical historical studies which draw on contemporary Arabic source materials. Only in the last decade or so has the abundant contemporary Mahdist documentation been decribed, partly classified, and utilized by scholars. So far, few of these documents have been reproduced and, although some attempts to prepare critical editions of texts have been made, they remain unpublished.

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Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , October 1969 , pp. 527 - 540
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1969

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References

1 See R. L. Hill, ‘Historical writing on the Sudan since 1820’, in Lewis, B. and Holt, P. M. (ed.), Historians of the Middle East, London, 1962, 357–66Google Scholar; Sanderson, G. N., ‘The modern Sudan, 1820–1956: the present position of historical studies’, J A H, IV, 3, 1963, 435–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Collins, R. O., ‘Egypt and the Sudan’, in Winks, R. W. (ed.), The historiography of the British EmpireCommonwealth, Durham, North Carolina, 1966, 279–95.Google Scholar

2 See, e.g., Holt, P. M., ‘The Mahdist archives and related documents’, Archives, V, 28, 1962, p. 196, n. 8, p. 197, n. 10, p.200Google Scholar. The only critical publication of a Mahdist document is Sverdrup, G., Jr., ‘A letter from the Mahdi Muhammad \sic] Aḥmad to General C. G. Gordon’, JAOS, XXXI, 1911, 368–88.Google Scholar

3 cf. P. M. Holt, in a seminar on Islamic influences on the literary cultures of Africa, Centre of African Studies, SOAS, 16 Jenuary 1969, referring to Pre-Mahdist bistoical writing.

4 This work is referred to subsequently as the Sīra or the MS, and its author as Ismā,ī.

5 See Wingate, Ronald, ‘Two African battles∔I. Sheikan: 4th and 5th November, 1883’, Journal of the Royal United Service Institution, CIX, 633, 1964, 56–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar; ‘Two African battles∔II. The battle of Galabat: 8th–11th March, 1889’, JRUSI, CIX, 634, 1964, 149–54Google Scholar.

6 London, 1896, 515–16. The version in the German ed., Leipzig, F. A. Brockhaus, 1896, 474, is apparently a summary of the English Passage. Ismā,īl and his works are not mentioned in the ‘General report on the Egyptian Sudan, March 1895, compiled [by Wingate] from statements made by Slatin Pasha’. See below, p. 531, n.30.

7 Cairo, n.d. [1903], in particular III, 559–60.

8 Contains six folios. Now at School of Oriental Studies, University of Durham: Sudan Archive, Box 260/12. Listed in the author catalogue (card-index) as: Shuqayr, Na,ūm Bey, Memorandum to Director of Military Intelligence on Ismā,īl ‘A bd al-Qādir and his Biography of the Mahdi. I am indebted to Mr. I. J. C. Foster, Keeper of Oriental Books, University Library, Durham, and his staff, who provided photographic copies of this ‘Memorandum’ and of the Sīra.

9 This form has been chosen in conformity with the MS, pp. I, 2. Shuqayr, Ta'rīkh, III, 529, adds the nisba al-Kurdufānī to his name. Other forms are: Ismail Abd EI Kader (‘Memorandum’, fol. 1); Ismail Wad Abdel Kader, and Abdel Kader (Slatin, Fire and sword, 515); ‘Abdal-Qādir Ismā, il (see below, p. 532, n. 35).

10 SeeHill, R. L., A biographical dictionary of the Sudan, second ed., London, 1967 (hereafter BD), 183Google Scholar, s.v. ‘Ismā,īl ‘A bd Allāhi al-Walī’. Shuqayr (‘Memorandum’ and Ta, rīkh) is the only source of information concerning Ismādir,īl b. ‘A bd al-Qā,īl al-Walī is briefly discussed in Holt, P. M., Holy families and Islam in the Sudan (Prinecton Near East Papers, No. 4), 1967 (hereafter Holy families), 9–10.Google Scholar

11 I have not found any information concerning Ismā‘īl’s father. Trimingham, , I slam in the Sudan (1949), rep., London,1965 (hereafter Islam), 157Google Scholar, says that he was the son of Ismā,īl al-Walī.

12 Based on information in Holt, Holy fomilies; Hill, BD; Shuqayr, Ta, rīkh, III; J. S. Trimingham, Islam, 235–6; and MacMichael, H.A., A history of the Arabs in the Sudan (1922), repr., London, 1967 (hereafter Arabs), II, 61–80Google Scholar (a genealogical work, Khulāṣat al-iqtibās fi-, ttiāṣāl nasabinā bi, l-Sayyid al-, Abbās, compiled by Aḥmad al-Azharī. The original draft of this genealogy was completed in 1263/1847, and in 1270/1854 it was produced in its final form. Ismā, l b., Abd al-Qādir is not mentioned in this work, but other living relatives of its author are also not mentioned by name. For this work see alsoḤasan, Y. F., The Arabs and the Sudan, Edinburgh, 1967, 206–7Google Scholar. I have checked only one of the extant MSS, copied 26 Rabi, I 1331/4 March 1913.

13 Holt, P. M., The mahdist state in the Sudan, 1881–1898, Oxford, 1958 hereafter Mahdist state, 54, 117, 120–1.Google Scholar

14 For the text of this treatise completed on 6 July 1882 see Shuqayr, , Ta, rīkh, III, 383–91.Google Scholar

15 Hill, , BD, 34, and also Egypt in the Sunda, 1820–1881, London, 1959, 165, states, erroneously, that Ahmad died in the battle of Abā August 1881.Google Scholar

16 Accounts of the length of their stay in Cairo refer to 16, 12, and 8 years. See respectively Shuqaur, ‘Memorandum’, fol. 2; MacMichael, Arabs, II, 61; Shuqaur, T arīkh, III, 559.

17 Shuqayr, ‘Memorandum’, fol. 2. Shuqayr’s very high opinion if Imsā‘īl should be taken with a grain of salt. He may have been keen on praising both the author and his works which he places ‘ in the same rank as Ibn EI Atbir, Ibn Khaldun, Abu EI fida and EI Makrizi’), since he had acquired the MSS with much effort and paid for them ‘a good reward’ (‘Memorandum’, fol. 5). It is noteworthy that Shuqayr, s praise of Ismāl, unreservedly expressed in the ‘Memorandum’, was condensed in Ta, rīkh, III, 559, into three words. Slatin, Fire and sowrd, 515, decribes Ismā,īl rather laconically as one who ‘had been well educated in Cairo’. The style of the MS attests to the good education Jsmā,īl had had.

18 ‘Memorandum’, fol. 2. Shuqayr states that, in EI Obied, Ismā,īl ‘acquired a high fame for his knowledge and genious [sic]’. This statement was omitted in ta, rīkh.

19 ‘Memorandum’, fol. 2; Ta, rīkh, III. This corroborated indirectly by Ismaā,īl’s statements in the MS, 2, 65, 177. The so-calledFriday Battle took place on 8 September 1882.

20 The desertion of the inhabitants of EI Obied is described in the MS (167–70 in a completely detached manner. As has already been noted, Muhammad al-Makkī was one of the deserters from EI Obied, but there is no evidence that this had any bearing on Ismā,īl, s Own decision. Like all the other relatives of Ismā,īl, s known works.

21 5 Novermber 1883. This is corrborated indirectly by the MS, 22.

22 ‘Memorandum’, fol. 2.

23 Fire and sicord, 515. This version was closely followed by Dietrich, EI, first ed., s.v. ‘Muhammad Ahmad b. ‘Abd Allāh’.

24 Ismā‘īl’s own statement MS, 2–3 that the Khalifa had ‘ordered me to compile’)the Mahadi’s sīra does not exclude the possibility that he had been engaged in writing the Sīa while Mahdi was still alive.

25 Fire and sword, 515.

26 ‘Memorandum’ fols. 2–3; Ta’rīkh, III, 559. An approbation by Ismā‘īl is appended (pp. 263–4) to al. Hasan b. Sa, d al-, Abbāī,…Kitāb al-risāla al-musammāh al-anwār al-saniyya al-māhiya li-zalām al-munkirīn ‘alaā, l-hadra al-makdiyya, [Omdurman], 5 Dhu, I-Qa, da 1305 [14 July 1888].

27 See below, p. 534, n. 44.

28 School of Oriental Studies, University of Durham: Sundan Archive, Hand-list of Arabic manuscripts and lithographs with accessions since 1963, third draft, [Druham], 1966, item 175. The colophon of the unique exemplar which is at present at the Sundan Archive, reads (p.183): ‘Completed by its copier and owner Muhammad Ahmad Hāshim inthe forenoon of the day of ‘Āshūrā’ [10 Muharram] 1308 [26 August 1890]’. See also Holot, ‘Mahdist archives’, 196. For the English translation of tirāz, by Shuqayr, see durham Hand-list, item 176.

29 ‘Memorandum’, fol. 3–4, Ismā,īl Was also noted then by Shuqayr as one of the Khalifa, s ‘greatest Olamas’ and ‘the most learned man in the Sundan’ (‘Memorandum’, fol. I). In Ta, rīkh, III, 560, he does not repeat the information about Ismā,īl, s appointment as qādī. Slatin, Fire and Sword, 515, described Ismā,țl as ‘a certain Kadi’. An edict of a council of notables dated 23 Sha, bān 1309/23 February 1892 (see Cambridge University Library, Ms Or. 234, reproduced in Holt, ‘Mahdist archives’ facing p. 195), bears the seal of an Ismā,īl ‘Abd al-Qādir. The same name is also listed on the sentence of imprisonment passed on the khalīfa Muhammad Sharīf by a special court on 2 march 1892 (see Shuqayr, Ta, rīkh, III, 552–3; Holt, Mahadist state, 183). The Qādī al-Islām, Ahmad ‘Alī, appears first on both documents.

30 Fire and sword, 515–16. This version (but, significantly, without the other details about Ismā,īl which are in Fire and sword) is also given in Slatin, s ‘Meine Erlebnisse in Soudan’, Mittheilungen der k. k. Geographischen Gesellschaft in Wien, XXXIX, 1896, 52 (the paper was read on 22 October 1895, before Slatin, s book was published). Ismā,īl Pasha Sadīq, known as almufattish ‘the inspector’ served as the Khedive Ismā,īl, sMinister of Finance. Shuqayr, ‘Memorandum’, fol. 4, mentions this comparison in adifferent context, as proof of the author, s high position with the Khalifa and without any connection with Ismā,īl, s downfall.

31 Ta, rī III, 560. Intelligence Report, Egypt (hereafter I R E), may 1893, 2, reads: ‘Khalifa Sherif and the Emirs Zongal and Hassan Khalifa are still in prison, and the late acting Kadi of Omdurman, Ismail Wad Abdel Kader (formerly Mufti of Kordofan) has also been imprisoned‘.

32 Ahmad ‘Alī is the only informant whose name Ismā,īl took care to mention in the Sīra (207, 391) and in Tirāz. He is also mentioned, not unfavourably, on two other occasion (Sīra, 134, 392,; see also Tirāz.104,120). This suggests some kind of a relationship between Ismā,īl and Ahmad‘Alī.

33 See Holt, Mahdist state, 190–1.

34 Accourding to Holt, Mahdist state, passim, the following persons fell out of the Khalifa, s favour prior or close to the banishment of Ismā,īl and the destruction of his works (those whose names are preceded by an asterick are mentioned, almost always favourably, in the MS): *Muhammad al-Khayr, *Muhammad Khaālid Zuqal, Ilyās Umm Birayr, Ahmad Sulaymān, Yūsuf Ibrāhīm, *Abd al-Rahmān w, al-Nujūmī, Ibrāhīm Ahmad ‘Adlān, Muhammad Sharī *al-Zākī Tamal (in Tirāz), *Ahmad ‘Alī, *al-Husayn Ibrāhīm w. al-Zahrā,.

35 Ta, rīkh, III, 560. Muhammad Khālid Zuqal was sent as an exile with the expedition of, Arabī Dafa, allāh, the Khalifa, s relative, who left Omdurman on 12 August 1883 with two steamers and 300 men, the majority of whom were political prisoners. See Holt, Mahdist state, 200; R. O. Collins, The southern Sundan, 1883–1898, a struggle for control, New Haven, 1962, III., Arabī reported to the Khalifa on 12 Jumā II 1311/21 December 1893 tgat ‘Abd al-Qādir Ismā,īl (sic) was held prisoner pending receipt of instruction (MAHADIA 1/32, 17/1, 53/11; Central Records Office, Khartoum).

36 ‘Memorandum’, fol. 6.

37 III, 560. See also Sundan Intelligence Report (hereafter SIR), 60, 25.5–31.12.1898, 12, 106, 108. In November 1967, I heard privately that relatives of Ismā,īl in the Sundan deny this story. Al-Rajjāf was taken by a Belgian expedition on 17 February 1897. The Belgians released a number of political prisoners who were there, among them Muhammad Khālid Zuqual. See Collins,Southern Sudan, 156–72; Holt, Mahdist state, 220.

38 See SOS, Durham: Sudan Archive, Hand-list, item 173. For the English translation and the detailed list of contents and dates, made by Shuqayr (Box 247/4), see hand-list, item 174. The English translation has all the deficiences mentioned in Holt, s introduction to F. R. Wingate, Mahdiism and the Eguyptian sudan, second ed., London, 1968, ix.

39 The colophon of Tirāz may also belong to the Sīa.

40 The catch-words at the end of pp. 148, 208 are not repeated at the beginning of the pages following them, and form an integral part of the sentences.

41 ‘Memorandum’, fol. 5; Ta, rīkh, III, 560.

42 MS, 327, 362. The context is Hamdān Abū ‘Anja, s expedition against the Ethiopians. Abū ‘Anja was dispatched by the Khalifa on 7 October 1887 and died on 29 January 1889.

43 MS,405.

44 2 Rabī, I 1306 corresponds to 6 November 1888, but this date fell on a Tuesday. Shuqayr, Ta,īkh, III, 559, and ‘Memorandum’, fol.3, dates the complection of the Sīra as 3 Rabī I 1306 and 7 Novermber 1888, respectively. For the discrepancy of one day between the hijriyya dates in teh Sundan and in Egypt, see Holt, Mahdist state, vi; Shuquayr, T, rīkh, III, 358.

45 ‘Memorandum’, fol. 3; MS,79, 164–5, 188.

46 ‘Memorandum’, fol. 3; Ta,īkh, III, 560. Slatin, Fire and swird, 516, mentions ‘several copies’. Ismā,īl, s works are not in the ‘List of books printed in the lithographic taken press [soc] from Khartoum’, SIR, 60, 63.

47 Shuqayr, ‘Memorandum’, fol. 4; Ta, rīkh, III, 560. See also Slatin, Fire and sword, 516. Cf.colophon of Tirāz and Hill, BD, 23, s.v. ‘Abū’ I-Qāsim Ahmad Hāshim’.

48 A relative of ‘Abdullāh Sa, d’; Holt,Mahdist state, 213–14. On ‘Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed Kawai’. see IRE, 27, June 1894, 1–2, and Na,ūm Shuqayr to Wingate, 8 July 1895, SOS, Durham: Sudan Archive, Box 261.

49 MS, 177.

50 MS, 22.

51 MS, 93.

52 Slatin, Fire and sword, 515; Shuqayr, ‘Memorandum’, fols. 2–3, cf. Ta, rīkh, III, 559.

53 e.g. MS, 191.

54 See above, p. 532, n. 32.

55 Out of a total of 67 references, 51 are made to informants who are said to have furnished Ismā,īl with details about the Mahdi. It is noteworthy that the author, s references to informants about the Mahdi are moe frequent before p. 171 (where the account of the Friday Battle begins) than in the su bse bsequent parts of the narrative. Taken with the author, own tenstimony as a witness, these may indirectly corroborate Shuqayr, s dating of Ismā,īl, s desertion to the Mahdīs camp atKābā. In the following instances, however, the author, s need to rely on informants, although explicable, would seem to be incompatible with his known biographical details: (a MS, 166, the execution of the Mahadi, s messengers to Muhammad Sa,īd Wahbī. in EI Obied during the close siege after the Friday Battle); d MS, 187, the Mahidi, s sections on entering Ei Obied; e MS., 400, the Khalifa, s participation in the building Mahdi, s tomb.ī

56 MS, 32–3. See Trimingham, Islam, 156. Several copies of the Mahdi, s Rātib are extant, See SOS, Durham: Sudan Archive, Hand-list, note on p. 44 and items 274a–281.

57 MS, 398 ef. Trimingham, Islam, p. 157, n. 3.

58 MS, 79. See Hill, BD, 30;Shuqayr, , Ta‘rīKh, 3, 265Google Scholar; Beshir, M. O., 'Nasihat Al Awam‘, SNR, XLI, 1960, 59–65; SOS, Durham: Sudan Archive, Hand-list, items 53, 54Google Scholar

59 MS, 43, 374.See Manshūrāt al-Imām al-Mhadī, reproduction by Idārat al-Maḥfūẓāt al-Markaziyya, Wizārat al-Dākhiliyya, Khartoum, Maṭbū'āt 11–14, 1964.

60 MS, 222–80.

61 MS, 270.

62 See Waqā‘i”Uthmān Diqna, reproduction by Idārat al-Maḥfūṭāt al-Markaziyya, Khartoum, Maṭbū'āt 2, 1964; F.R. Wingate, Mahdiism, 509–21. In his ‘Memorandum ’, fol. 5, Shuqayr draws Wingate’s attention to this matter. Both in Wingate, Mahdiism, 509, 521, and in the reproduction of the Waqā‘i', the reader‘s attention is drawn to missing pages in the manuscript copy of the report, which was captured by the British at'Afāfit. It seems that Ismā‘īl had access to that copy of the report which had been sent to the Mahdi and that an (inaccurate) recension of the pages missing in the extant Waqā’i' is retained in the Sīra, 252 ff.

63 e.g. the Khatmiyya, which is mentioned several times in the report, is altogether omitted in the Sīra, perhaps becarse of Ismā‘il’s family ties with the Ismā'īliyya branch of this ṭarīqa.

64 Muhyi al-Dīn ibn al-'Arabī is quoted twice, MS, 8, 385.

65 Sometimes in colloquial Arabic, e.g. MS, 71, 77.

66 MS, 252, verses from a qaṣīda on the Mahdi by al-Majdhūb, Muhammad b. al-Tāhir, cf. Shuqayr, Ta’rīkh, 3, 359–60; MS, 404– a qaṣīda on the dome of the Mahdi‘s tomb, by the author of the SīraGoogle Scholar.

67 Holt‘s description, ‘Mahdist archives ’, 196, of the Sīra as a ‘court-chronicle’ or‘chronicle ’ is not comprehensive enough. A ‘biographical chronicle’ may be a more suitable term.

68 See, e.g., H. A. R.Gibb, ‘ Islamic biographical literature’, in Lewis and Holt (ed.), Historians of the Middle East, 54–8.

69 MS, 2, 21–2.

70 Both in his ‘Mimorandum’ and Ta’rīkh, Shuqayr was at pains to plead for Ismā‘īl, saying that his presentation of the Mahdi resulted from compulsion under the circumstances and that he ‘did not believe’ in all that he wrote. More than an objective comment, Shuqayr’s statement seems to reflect the war-propaganda atmosphere which Wingate was so keen on fostering and which, in this case, influenced the work of an official inside his Intelligence Department. See Holt, P. M., ‘The source-materials of the Sudanese Mahhdia’, Middle Eastern Affairs, 1 (St. Antony’s Papers, No.4), London, 1958, 110–13Google Scholar; Hill, R. L., Slatin Pasha, London, 1965, 38–45Google Scholar; Daniel, N, Islam, Europe and Empire, Edinburgh, 1966, 426–33.Google Scholar

71 Mentioned only once in the MS, 5208, as a Mahdist who was killed in battle.

72 The gap in the record of events between the Mahdi’s death and the date of the completion of the Sīra is filled to some ectent by Tirāz.

73 The contents of the Sīra are as follws: (a) preface (pp. 2–6), a comparison of the sīra of the Prophet with that of theMahdi_some information regarding the composition of the Sīra_a list of contents; (b) introduction (pp.6–9), Traditions announcing the manifestation of the Mahdī in the end of the age; (c) ch.i (pp.9–15) the Mahdi’s conformity with the previous Traditions; (d) ch.ii (pp. 15–26), the Mahdi’s ehracteristics, attributes, and miracles; (e)ch.iii (pp. 27–35), the Mahdi’s religious observances, to his manifestation; (f)ch. iv (pp. 35–46), the Mahdi’s propaganda and correspondence; (g) ch. v (pp. 46–53), the mustering of the tribes and the arrival of successive deputations to the Mahdi; (h) ch. vi (pp. 53–84), the battle of Abā; (i) ch. vii (pp. 84–189), the Mahdi''s hijra to Qadīr and his jihād, to the fall of El Obeid to the fall of Khartoum; (k) epilogue (pp. 384–405), the death of the Mahdi_brief remarks on the Khalifa, his accession and miracles_the constructrion of the mosque and the dome of the Mahdi's tomb in Omdurman. 13 proclamations and letters of the Mahdi are fully transcribed in the Sīra. Many others (some by the Khalifa) are quoted or mentioned

74 See MS, 62.

75 See, e.g., MS, 290, 297, 356, 363.

76 e.g. MS, 107, 120 (a tactical military reason); 255 (an economic reason); 99–100 (personal reasons).

77 MS, 176, 350, 365–7.

78 MS, 246 (the third battle of the Coast, cf. Holt, Mahdist state, 78); MS, 315–16 (the failure of Abū Qarja near Khartoum); MS, 348–50 (Abū Ṫulayḥ. cf. Holt, Mahdist state, 94–5).

79 See above, p. 527, n. 1; Hill, R. L., ‘The Gordon literature’, Durham University journal, NS, 16, 3, 1955, 97–103Google Scholar; Holt, P. M., ‘The archives of the Mahdia’, SNR, 36, 1, 1955, 71–8Google Scholar; Holt, P. M., ‘Three Mahdist letter-books, BSOAS, 18, 2, 1956, 227–38.Google Scholar

80 For a later biography of the Mahdi see Beshir, M. O., ‘Abdek Rahman Ibn Hussein El Jabri and his book “History of the Mahdi”’, SNR, XLIV, 1963, 136–9.Google Scholar

81 Duetrich, ‘Der Mahdi, Moḥmed vom Sudan nach arabischen Quellen ’, Der Islam, 14, 1925, p.200, n.4.

82 Islam, p. 157, n. 2.

83 See pp. 195–7. The biographical information on Ismā‘īl is based on Shuqayr, Ta’rīkh.

84 See above, p. 527, n. 5.

85 Fire abd sword, 516.

86 ‘Memorandum ’, fol. 6.