Full Description
This book is the first analysis of the Sudanese Mahdiyya from a socio-political perspective that treats how relationships of authority were enunciated through symbol and ceremony. The book focuses on how the Mahdi and his second-in-command and ultimate successor, the Khalifa Abdallahi, used symbols, ceremony and ritual to articulate their power, authority and legitimacy first within the context of resistance to the imperial Turco-Egyptian forces that had been occupying the Nilotic Sudan since 1821, and then within the context of establishing an Islamic state. This study examines five key elements from a historical perspective: the importance of Islamic mysticism as manifested in Sufi brotherhoods in the articulation of power in the Sudan; ceremony as handmaids of power and legitimacy; charismatic leadership; the routinization of charisma and the formation of a religious state purportedly based upon the first Islamic community in the seventh century C.E.
Contents
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ............................................................................ vii
Introduction ........................................................................................ 1
Chapter One Islam in the Sudan ................................................. 7
A Brief Geographical Introduction ............................................ 7
The Arrival of Islam ...................................................................... 7
The Funj Sultanate ........................................................................ 11
The Darfur Sultanate .................................................................... 16
The Turco-Egyptian Invasion and Occupation ........................ 18
Causes of the Mahdist Revolt ...................................................... 21
The Mahdī's Origins ..................................................................... 24
Chapter Two Protocol, Ceremony, and Symbols of Authority ...... 29
Mystical Islam: Sufi Brotherhoods ............................................. 39
Protocol and Ceremony ............................................................... 41
Symbols of Authority .................................................................... 54
Chapter Three The Charismatic Leader ...................................... 65
Charisma ......................................................................................... 66
Saints and Zāwiyas ........................................................................ 74
Mahdist Expectations: The West African Connection ............ 80
Chapter Four The Khalīfa and the Routinization of Charismatic Authority ..... 89
A New Era for the Mahdiyya ...................................................... 90
The Mythic Concordance: The Khalīfa's Claims to Authority ............................. 92
The Khalīfa's Origins .................................................................... 96
The Khalīfa as the Locus of Power and the City of Omdurman ..................... 109
Chapter Five The Creation of an Islamic State ......................... 119
State Hierarchy .............................................................................. 127
Jihad as a Symbol of Legitimacy ................................................. 129
The Treasury .................................................................................. 135
The Implementation of Sharīʿa ................................................... 138
The Construction of Buildings and Roads ................................ 141
Conclusion .......................................................................................... 149
Bibliography ........................................................................................ 153
Index .................................................................................................... 157
