MAHDI, AL-

( (Arabic: Right-Guided One), ) born Aug. 12, 1844 died June 22, 1885, Omdurman, Sudan original name Muhammad Ahmad Ibn As-sayyid 'abd Allah creator of a vast Islamic state extending from the Red Sea to Central Africa and founder of a movement that remained influential in The Sudan a century later. As a youth he moved from orthodox religious study to a mystical interpretation of Islam. In 1881 he proclaimed his divine mission to purify Islam and the governments that defiled it. His extensive campaign culminated in the capture of Khartoum (Jan. 26, 1885). He then established a theocratic state in the Sudan, with its capital at Omdurman. Additional reading F.R. Wingate, Mahdiism and the Egyptian Sudan (1891, reprinted 1968); A.B. Theobald, The Mahdiya (1951); P.M. Holt, The Mahdist State in the Sudan, 2nd ed. (1970); B. Farwell, Prisoners of the Mahdi (1967). Al-Mahdi's collected works in Arabic have been reprinted in a series of volumes under the auspices of the Sudan Government Central Archives, Khartoum.