Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetAbd al-Rahman al-Mahdi
Imam of the Ansar and politician of Sudan
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Omdurman, Khartoum, Sudan
About Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi
- Sayyid Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi, KBE (Arabic: ??? ?????? ???????) (15 July 1885 – 24 March 1959) was one of the leading religious and political figures during the colonial era in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (1898–1955), and continued to exert great authority as leader of the Neo-Mahdists after Sudan became independent.
- The British tried to exploit his influence over the Sudanese people while at the same time profoundly distrusting his motives.
- Throughout most of the colonial era of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan the British saw Sayyid Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi as important as a moderate leader of the Mahdists.Abd al-Rahman was the posthumous son of Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah, who had proclaimed himself the Mahdi or redeemer of the Islamic faith in 1881, and died in 1885 a few months after his forces had captured Khartoum.
- A joint British and Egyptian force recaptured Sudan in 1898.
- At first, the British severely restricted Abd al-Rahman's movement and activity.
- However, he soon emerged as the Imam (leader) of the Ansar religious sect, supporters of the Mahdist movement.The British maintained a close political relationship with Abd al-Rahman, despite him being a Muslim leader.
- Meanwhile, he grew wealthy from cotton production, for which his supporters provided labor since he was a child exiled to Aba Island, and was influential and well loved among his people.
- The British administration distrusted him because they could not control him or use him to exert influence on Sudan. In the 1930s Abd al-Rahman spoke out against a treaty between Egypt and Britain that recognized Egyptian claims of sovereignty in Sudan, although no Sudanese had been consulted, travelling to London to make his case.
- His Ansar followers became an influential faction in the General Congress established in 1938, and in the successor Advisory Council set up in 1944.
- Abd al-Rahman was patron of the nationalist Ummah (Nation) political Party in the period before and just after Sudan became independent in 1956.
- In 1958 the Umma party won the most seats in the first parliamentary elections after independence.
- In November 1958 the army staged a coup, which Abd al-Rahman supported.
- He died on 24 March 1959, aged 73.In the post-war period, the Mahdi's family became the wealthiest family in Sudan from cotton production, mainly supported by the Baggara followers from Darfur and Kordofan.
- These western tribes had been the backbone of the original Mahdist movement.
- The riverine tribes were more inclined to side with the rival Khatmiyya movement.
- Abd al-Rahman's economic activity, and the resulting wide range of contacts with merchants and owners and his schemes for irrigating cotton fields, gave him influence among Sudanese engaged in commerce.
- As of 1 January 1922, the government became wary of his influence and power, and so suspended his economic activity.
- The allowance of Abd al-Rahman was increased somewhat, but only so that he could support old women and other incapable people whose income had also been stopped by the government.
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