Six months after the capture of Khartoum, the Mahdi died of typhus.
The task of establishing and maintaining a government fell to
his deputies--three caliphs chosen by the Mahdi in emulation of
the Prophet Muhammad. Rivalry among the three, each supported
by people of his native region, continued until 1891, when Abdallahi
ibn Muhammad, with the help primarily of the Baqqara Arabs, overcame
the opposition of the others and emerged as unchallenged leader
of the Mahdiyah. Abdallahi--called the Khalifa (successor)--purged
the Mahdiyah of members of the Mahdi's family and many of his
early religious disciples.
Originally the Mahdiyah was a jihad state, run like a military
camp. Sharia courts enforced Islamic law and the Mahdi's precepts,
which had the force of law. After consolidating his power, the
Khalifa instituted an administration and appointed Ansar (who
were usually Baqqara) as amirs over each of the several provinces.
The Khalifa also ruled over rich Al Jazirah. Although he failed
to restore this region's commercial wellbeing , the Khalifa organized
workshops to manufacture ammunition and to maintain river steamboats.
Regional relations remained tense throughout much of the Mahdiyah
period, largely because of the Khalifa's commitment to using the
jihad to extend his version of Islam throughout the world. For
example, the Khalifa rejected an offer of an alliance against
the Europeans by Ethiopia's negus (king), Yohannes IV. In 1887
a 60,000-man Ansar army invaded Ethiopia, penetrated as far as
Gonder, and captured prisoners and booty. The Khalifa then refused
to conclude peace with Ethiopia. In March 1889, an Ethiopian force,
commanded by the king, marched on Qallabat; however, after Yohannes
IV fell in battle, the Ethiopians withdrew. Abd ar Rahman an Nujumi,
the Khalifa's best general, invaded Egypt in 1889, but British-led
Egyptian troops defeated the Ansar at Tushkah. The failure of
the Egyptian invasion ended the Ansar' invincibility. The Belgians
prevented the Mahdi's men from conquering Equatoria, and in 1893
the Italians repulsed an Ansar attack at Akordat (in Eritrea)
and forced the Ansar to withdraw from Ethiopia.
Data as of June 1991