Zeilinger, Johannes Der Mahdi

Der Gottesstaat im Sudan 1881-1898

Muhammad Ahmad al-Mahdi liberated his country and created the first Islamic theocracy of the modern era in Sudan. This book is a German premiere; never before has the life of the Mahdi been described in such a balanced, detailed and exciting way. The biography opens a window into the complex world of thought in Islam. He was a man of undeniably noble character, a priest, a soldier and a patriot. (Winston Churchill on Muhammad Ahmad al-Mahdi) At the end of the 19th century, a rebellion shook Sudan. There, the Sufi monk Muhammad Ahmad proclaimed himself the Mahdi, the redeemer who, according to Islamic tradition, is to unite the world in faith and bring peace before its downfall. Until then, Sudan had been ruled by a corrupt Egyptian-Ottoman administration. Muhammad al-Mahdi skilfully combined religious, political and social impulses to create a revolutionary movement, the Mahdiyya, which finally liberated Sudan from foreign colonial rule under the banner of Islam. In its place, the Mahdi established a theocracy that sought to uncompromisingly realise the pure faith and was intended as the first stage of a worldwide Islamisation. Shortly after his victory, however, Muhammad Ahmad died unexpectedly and under his successor the theocracy was transformed into an ordinary despotism, which in 1898 fell victim to the imperialist ambitions of Europe. The British Empire struck back and an Egyptian-British force destroyed the army of Sudanese holy warriors near Omdurman. The campaign was prepared by a media campaign in which Karl May was also prominently involved in the German Empire, and which still shapes and distorts the image of the Mahdi in the West. In his biography, Zeilinger demystifies the Sudanese rebel and portrays a charismatic person. In order to explain the mission of a Mahdi, the author sketches out his significance in the Islamic canon of belief.