ABSTRACT
Introduction and Argument Modern Sudanese history is perceived in neat chunks - the Turkiya from the Egyptian conquest of 1821 to the fall of the city of Khartoum in 1885; the Mahdia from 1885 to the battle of Omdurman in 1898; the AngloEgyptian Condominium from 1899 to Sudanese independence in 1956. Attention has been paid by historians to the burgeoning seeds of the next phase: the rise of the Mahdia, the reconquest, the Sudanese nationalist movement. Most historians of modern Sudan have followed this 'whiggish' perception of history. I
Such periodisation suits traditional Islamic historical scholarship that sees regimes establishing their legitimacy or their authority by striking coinage in the name of the ruler, and having the ruler's name invoked during Friday prayers. But what may be of more significance to more people may be changes - perhaps brought in by new regimes - to ways of life, economic or intellectual. The Turkiya was not a monolithic slab of 60 years. There have been continuities affecting the lives of most Sudanese that have been unaffected by changes of regime over the last two hundred years. Arguably the period of Mahdist rule drew its authority from Sudanese sufi traditions, from a governmental machinery inherited from the Turkiya, and the remarkable personalities of Muhammad Ahmad al-Mahdi and the Khalifa 'Abdullahi. The time between 1881 when the Mahdi set up the Mahdist state at Jabal Qadir and his death in 1885 was the period of maximum support for the Mahdist state.
