While the world has been focused on conflicts in Ukraine and Israel, a bloody civil war has been raging in Sudan for the last year–one that has killed over 14,000 Sudanese and displaced millions. The government (such as it is), headed by Army general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, is fighting against its former proxy, the “Rapid Support Forces” (Quwwat al-Da`m al-Sari`), led by Muhammad Hamdan Dagalu. The RSF, formed some years ago from provincial nomads, previously helped Khartoum against rebels and separatists. But last year its members decided to take over the country, and in fact control large sections of Sudan–to include the capital. Egypt and Iran (?) are said to be backing al-Burhan and the army, while the UAE is supporting Dagalu’s RSF. As too, allegedly, is Russia–which wants access to Sudanese gold to help offset Western sanctions.

The RSF logo, with its name on top and, below, the words “Equipped. Swift. Decisive.” Interestingly, this logo no longer has the word “Quds,” “Jerusalem, which the former one sported. (“Emblem of the Rapid Support Forces,” Wikipedia, Public Domain.)

But what’s a Sudanese Muslim conflict without some reference to the Mahdi? According to an expert at Omdurman Islamic University, Professor Ahmad Sabah al-Khayr, some of the supporters of the RSF view Muhammad Hamdan Dagalu as the Awaited Mahdi, “seeking to place him at the top of the pyramid of the Islamic Caliphate.” The professor also blamed “international intelligence services for the spread of [such] extremist movements” in Africa. Of course.

The Mahdi, for those who might not know, is Islam’s primary eschatological figure who will be sent by Allah to conquer the whole world. While more institutionalized in Shi`i Islam, the belief also exists in the larger Sunni world–thanks to a considerable number of hadiths (sayings of Muhammad) which predict his coming. And Sudan was the site of one of the most successful Mahdist movements in history: that of Muhammad Ahmad, who declared himself the Mahdi in 1880 and went on to lead a movement that conquered Sudan before his death in 1885. And which lasted until 1898, when it was destroyed by the British Army.

I do track modern Mahdist irruptions on this site, whenever they occur (see the archives). Sunni Mahdism shows up most often today as the domain of one-off madmen. But sometimes such transform into actual movements. The aforementioned Muhammad Ahmad. And, more recently, that of Juhayman al-Utaybi and his (puppet?) Mahdi, Muhammad al-Qahtani, in 1979 Saudi Arabia. (For more on eschatological rebellions, especially against the Ottoman Empire, see my 2020 book: The COIN of the Islamic Realm: Insurgencies and the Ottoman Empire, 1416-1916.)

Bottom line: while Mahdism has, historically, been prevalent in African Islam, that’s not the ONLY place it occurs; and while it’s often used as a populist-religious means of bolstering a leader’s legitimacy, it also can become a fervent belief. And that’s when Mahdism becomes quite dangerous.

“Muhammad Ahmad.” If only modern wanna-be Mahdis were so striking and dapper. (From “Muhammad Ahmad,” Wikipedia, Public Domain.)