Muhammad Ahmad ibn 'Abd Allah, the man known to history as al Mahdi was born in the Sudan in 1844. Al Mahdi is an Arabic term meaning The Divinely Guided One which has been claimed by a number of Islamic leaders, including the founder of the Ahmadist sect in Pakistan, but Muhammad Ahmad ibn 'Abd Allah is the most famous al Mahdi and he will be referred to this appellation in what follows.

The father of al Mahdi was a ship builder in the Dungulah district of the Sudan. The family moved south to a village near Khartoum shortly after the birth of al Mahdi.

As a boy and young man al Mahdi was devouted devoted to religious study. His devotion deviated from the orthodox toward a mystic Sufism. He aspired to strong self discipline and an ascetic life. As a young man he joined a religious order called the Sammanujah. He was given the status of shaykh.

Even as a very young man al Mahdi's devoutness attracked a following. In 1870 he and some of his disciples journeyed 175 miles of Khartoum to an island in the While Nile called Abba. They went there to receive religious instruction from one of the teachers living on that island. But al Mahdi found fault with his teacher's worldliness and was expelled from the following. He then joined the following of another teacher on Abba Island.

In 1880-81 al Mahdi became convinced that the rulers of Egypt and the Sudan were all corrupt puppets of the infidel Europeans and that the ruling class in general had abandoned true Islam. He felt his mission was to destroy those defiling forces and agents.

On June 29, 1881 Muhammad Ahmad ibn 'Abd Allah assumed the title of al Mahdi, The Divinely Guided One. He and a small number of his followers began the insurrection. Quickly he gained followers and took control of territory. The government in Egypt sent troops to subdue the uprising. Two such expeditionary forces were wiped out. The government then sent a force of eight thosand troops commanded by a British general. This too was wiped out, to a man. In 1884 al Mahdi forces besieged Khartoum. The defense was under the command of Charles Gordon, who recently had commanded British forces in the Chinese Empire.

The defenders of Khartoum withstood the siege for months and a military expedition under Lord Kitchener was sent to relieve the defenders but it was delayed. In January of 1885 the forces of al Mahdi overwhelmed the defenses. When Gordon's headquarters was stormed he took up a sword to valiently fight to the end. Apparently against the express wishes of al Mahdi Gordon was killed.

Al Mahdi was not to live long after his brilliant military victory over the Anglo-Egyptian forces in Khartoum. He died about six months later on June 22, 1885. He was not quite 41 years of age. It had taken not quite four years from his assumption of the title of al Mahdi to conquer the Sudan and establish theocractic rule over it. It was a truly meteoric rise to fame and power.

Before his death al Mahdi named three Khalifas to be his successors. One emerged as the dominant figure and ruled with the support of the Baqqara Arabs.

About ten years later British forces under Lord Kitchener re-established British control over the region, including Khartoum. When Kitchener's forces invaded the Mahdist territories the Khalifa sent his 52 thousand man army against Kitchener's troops with their modern firepower. The Mahdist army suffered eleven thousand deaths in a five hour battle while Kitchener's army lost only 48.