The Nubian Geographic Presents: The Clash of the Worlds, The Mahdi Revolution (1881-1898).

The Nubian Geographic: Al Mahdi Dynasty The Mahdist Revolution was an Islamic revolt against the Egyptian government in the Sudan. An apocalyptic branch of Islam, Mahdism incorporated the idea of a golden age in which the Mahdi, translated as “the guided one,” would restore the glory of Islam to the earth. Attempting to overhaul Egypt through an aggressive westernization campaign, Egyptian ruler Muhammad Ali, who was himself a provincial governor of the Ottoman Empire, invaded the Sudan in 1820. Within a year his armies had subdued the Sudan and he began conscripting local Sudanese men into the Egyptian military. In 1822 Khartoum became the capital of Egyptian-occupied Sudan and a distant outpost in the Ottoman Empire.