Holy City on the Nile : Omdurman during the Mahdiyya, 1885-1898

The late nineteenth century of the Common Era also marked the end of the thirteenth Islamic century, a time when millions of Muslims - especially in sub-Saharan Africa - fervently expected the arrival of a Mahdi, a 'divinely guided one', who would fill the world with justice and equity and defeat the enemies of Islam.