1881–1898: (The Mahdist State — Muhammad Ahmad Declaring Himself Mahdi in 1881, the Baqqara Pastoralists of Kordofan Sweeping West of Khartoum, Gordon’s Deat…

1881–1898: (The Mahdist State — Muhammad Ahmad Declaring Himself Mahdi in 1881, the Baqqara Pastoralists of Kordofan Sweeping West of Khartoum, Gordon’s Death in 1885, the Khalifa Abdallahi Creating a More Secular Centralized Military Government, Pressing on the Ethiopian Frontier, and the British Reconquest at Omdurman in 1898 — Mahdism Laying the Foundations of Sudanese Nationalism): Revolt against Egyptian rule broke out among the Baqqara, Arabic-speaking pastoralists of Kordofan and the Nuba mountains, who had long resented Egyptian taxation. Muhammad Ahmad, a Sammaniyya teacher, declared himself the Mahdi in 1881, promising to restore Islam to a pure state. His forces swept across much of the region west of Khartoum in 1882–1883, and the riverain Arabs began to join the movement. The British acted too late to prevent the capture of Khartoum and Gordon’s death in 1885. Between 1881 and 1885, the Mahdi had conquered to bring about Islamic revolution, but after his death, his successor — the khalifa Abdallahi — created a rather more secular state that kept the British and Egyptians at bay even as the scramble was underway. Centralized military government characterized the khalifa’s administration, while his Muslim policy aimed at standardizing Islamic practice and eradicating localism. The Islamic state also pressed on the Ethiopian frontier through the late 1880s and 1890s. Only in 1898, at considerable expense, did the British reconquer the Sudan, defeating Mahdist forces at Omdurman near Khartoum. Darfur was largely left to its own devices until 1916. Even after military defeat, the Mahdists retained considerable popular support, and in its appeal beyond narrow regional or tribal interests, Mahdism laid the foundations for the later emergence of Sudanese nationalism. Across Islamic Africa, anti-imperial resistance combined with sufism and militant brotherhoods to create frameworks within which modern nationalism would flourish.