The 100 Greatest Muslims (2022): 92: Suhrawardi, The 12th Century Iranian "Master of Illumination" Who Wrote "The Philosophy of Illumination"

92

Suhrawardi

Suhrawardi, in full Shihab ad-Din Yaḥya ibn Ḥabash ibn Amirak as-Suhrawardi, also called al-Maqtul or Shaykh al-Ishraq, (b. c. 1154, Suhraward, Seljuk Empire [near Zanjan, Iran] — d. 1191, Halab, Ayyubid Sultanate [today Aleppo, Syria]), mystic theologian and philosopher who was a leading figure of the illuminationist school of Islamic philosophy, attempting to create a synthesis between philosophy and mysticism. 

As-Suhrawardi was the founder of the Iranian school of Illuminationism,  an important school in Islamic philosophy. The "light" in as-Suhrawardi's The Philosophy of Illumination is the source of knowledge. He is referred to by the honorific title Shaikh al-ʿIshraq -- "Master of Illumination" -- and Shaikh al-Maqtul -- "the Murdered Master" -- in reference to his execution for heresy.  Mulla Sadra,  the Persian sage of the Safavid era described as-Suhrawardi as the "Reviver of the Traces of the Pahlavi (Iranian) Sages", and as- Suhrawardi, in his magnum opus The Philosophy of Illumination, thought of himself as a reviver or resuscitator of the ancient tradition of Persian wisdom.

Suhraward is a village located between the present-day towns of Zanjan and Bijar Garrus in Iran.  As-Suhrawardi was born in Suhraward around 1154. He learned wisdom and jurisprudence in Maragheh (located today in the East Azerbaijan Province of Iran). His teacher was Majd al-Dīn Jīlī who was also Fakhr al-Din al-Razi's teacher. 

After studying at Eṣfahan, a leading center of Islamic scholarship, as-Suhrawardi traveled through Iran, Anatolia, and Syria.  Influenced by mystical teachings, as-Suhrawardi spent much time in meditation and retreat and, in Ḥalab (modern Aleppo), he favorably impressed its ruler, Malik az-Zahir, the son of Saladin.  However, the teachings of as-Suhrawardi, particularly the pantheistic overtones of his mystical doctrines, aroused the opposition of the established and orthodox ʿulamaʾ (“men of learning”), who persuaded Malik aẓ-Ẓāhir to have as-Suhrawardi put to death. The appellation al-Maqtūl (“the Killed”) meant that he was not to be considered a shahīd (“martyr”).

As-Suhrawardi's life spanned a period of less than forty years during which he produced a series of works that established him as the founder of a new school of philosophy, called "Illuminism" (hikmat al-Ishraq). As-Suhrawardi came later to be called the Master of Illumination (Shaikh-i-Ishraq) because his great aim was the renaissance of ancient Persian wisdom. 

In 1186, at the age of thirty-two, as-Suhrawardi completed his magnum opus, The Philosophy of Illumination.

As-Suhrawardī wrote voluminously. The more than 50 separate works that were attributed to him were classified into two categories: doctrinal and philosophical accounts containing commentaries on the works of Aristotle and Plato, as well as his own contribution to the illuminationist school; and shorter treatises, generally written in Persian and of an esoteric nature, meant to illustrate the paths and journeys of a mystic before he could achieve ma ʿrifah (“gnosis,” or esoteric knowledge).

Influenced by Aristotelian philosophy and Zoroastrian doctrines, as-Suhrawardi attempted to reconcile traditional philosophy and mysticism. In his best-known work, Ḥikmat al-ishrāq (“The Wisdom of Illumination” -- The Philosophy of Illumination), he proposes that essences are creations of the intellect, having no objective reality or existence. Concentrating on the concepts of being and non-being, he held that existence is a single continuum that culminates in a pure light that he called God. Other stages of being along this continuum are a mixture of light and dark.

Arising out of peripatetic philosophy as developed by Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Suhrawardi's illuminationist philosophy is critical of several of Ibn Sina's positions and radically departs from him in creating a symbolic language (mainly derived from ancient Persian culture or Farhang-e Khosravani) to give expression to his wisdom (hikma).

Suhrawardi taught a complex and profound emanationist cosmology, in which all creation is a successive outflow from the original Supreme Light of Lights (Nur al-Anwar). The fundamental of his philosophy is pure immaterial light, where nothing is manifest, and which unfolds from the Light of Lights in a descending order of ever-diminishing intensity and, through complex interaction, gives rise to a "horizontal" array of lights, similar in conception to Platonic forms, that governs mundane reality. In other words, the universe and all levels of existence are but varying degrees of Light—light and darkness. In his division of bodies, he categorizes objects in terms of their reception or non-reception of light.

Suhrawardi considers a previous existence for every soul in the angelic realm before its descent to the realm of the body. The soul is divided into two parts, one remains in heaven and the other descends into the dungeon of the body. The human soul is always sad because it has been divorced from its other half. Therefore, it aspires to become reunited with it. The soul can only reach happiness again when it is united with its celestial part, which has remained in heaven. Suhrawardi holds that the soul should seek happiness by detaching itself from its earthly body and worldly matters and accessing the world of immaterial lights. The souls of the gnostics and saints, after leaving the body, ascend even above the angelic world to enjoy proximity to the Supreme Light, which is the only absolute Reality.

Suhrawardi elaborated the neoplatonic idea of an independent intermediary world, the imaginal world (ʿalam-i mithal). His views have exerted a powerful influence down to this day, particularly through Mulla Sadra's combined peripatetic and illuminationist description of reality.

As-Suhrawardī also founded a mystical order known as the Ishraqiyah.  The Nurbakhshiyah order of dervishes (itinerant holy men) also traces its origins to him.

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Bloch, Ernst (2019). Avicenna and the Aristotelian Left, New York City, New York: Columbia University Press.

Corbin, Henry (1993).  History of Islamic Philosophy, London, England: Routledge.

Esposito, John L. (1998). The Oxford History of Islam;  Oxford University Press.

Ha'iri Yazdi, M. (1992) The Principles of Epistemology in Islamic Philosophy: Knowledge by Presence, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Jenkins, Everett, Jr. (1999). The Muslim Diaspora: A Comprehensive Reference to the Spread of Islam in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, Volume 1, 570-1500; Jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland & Company, Inc.

Jenkins, Everett, Jr. (2000). The Muslim Diaspora: A Comprehensive Reference to the Spread of Islam in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, Volume 2, 1500-1799; Jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland & Company, Inc.

Khan, Muhammad Mojlum (2008).  The Muslim 100: The Lives, Thoughts and Achievements of the Most Influential Muslims in History, Leicestershire, United Kingdom: Kube Publishing Ltd.

Leaman, Oliver (2013).  Islamic Philosophy, John Wiley and Sons.

McGreal, Ian P. (ed.) (1995). Great Thinkers of the Eastern World, New York City, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Miles, Jack (general ed.) (2015).  The Norton Anthology of World Religions, New York City, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Nasr, S. H. and O. Leaman (eds.) (1996). History of Islamic Philosophy; London: Routledge,

Nasr, S.H. (1983) Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi Maqtul, in M.M. Sharif (ed.) A History of Muslim Philosophy, vol. I; Wiesbaden.

Razavi, Mehdi Amin (1997).  Suhrawardi and the School of Illumination, London, England: Routledge.

Walbridge, John (1999).  The Leaven of the Ancients: Suhrawardi and the Heritage of the Greeks; Albany, New York: State University of New York Press.

Ziai, H. (1990) Knowledge and Illumination: A Study of Suhrawardi's Hikmat al-ishraq, Atlanta, Georgia: Scholars Press. 

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shihab_al-Din_Yahya_ibn_Habash_Suhrawardi

https://www.britannica.com/biography/as-Suhrawardi

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The 100 Greatest Muslims (2022): 93 - Saadi Shirazi, The 13th Century "Master" of Persian Poetry Who Wrote "The Rose Garden"

93

Saadi Shirazi

Saadi Shirazi, better known by his pen name Saadi but also known as Sadi of Shiraz (b. 1209 or 1210, Shiraz, Atabegs of Fars [Iran] ; d.  December 9, 1291 or 1292, Shiraz, Ilkhanate [Iran]), was a Persian poet and prose writer of the medieval period. He is recognized for the quality of his writings and for the depth of his social and moral thoughts.

Saadi is widely recognized as one of the greatest poets of the classical literary tradition, earning him the nickname "The Master of Speech" or "The Wordsmith" or simply "The Master" among Persian  scholars. He has been quoted in the Western traditions as well.  Saadi's master opus, Bustan (The Orchard), has been ranked as one of the 100 greatest books of all time by The Guardian. 

Saadi (Shaykh Muslih al-Din Sa‘di) (Musharrif al-Din bin Muslih Sa‘di) (Abu Muhammad Musharrif al-Din Muslih ibn Abd Allah Shirazi) (Sa'di) (Abu-Muḥammad Muṣliḥ al-Din bin Abdallah Shirazi) (Musharrif al-Din ibn Muṣlih al-Din) was born in 1209 or 1210 in Shiraz, which is today in Iran.  He lost his father, Muṣliḥ al-Din, in early childhood.  Later he was sent to study in Baghdad at the renowned Neẓamiyeh College (Nizamiyya University), where he acquired the traditional learning of Islam. 

The unsettled conditions following the Mongol invasion of Khwarezm and Persia (Iran) led Saadi to wander for thirty years abroad through Anatolia (where he visited the Port of Adana and near Konya where he met with ghazi landlords), Syria (where Saadi observed the famine in Damascus), Egypt (where Saadi described Egypt's music, bazaars, clerics and elites), and Iraq (where Saadi visitsed the port of Basra and the Tigris river). In his writings, Saadi mentioned the qadis, muftis of Al-Azhar, the grand bazaar, music and art. At Halab, Saadi joins a group of Sufis who had fought arduous battles against the Crusaders. Saadi was captured by Crusaders at Acre where he spent seven years as a slave digging trenches outside the Crusaders' fortress. He was later released after the Mamluks paid ransom for Muslim prisoners being held in Crusader dungeons.

Saadi visited Jerusalem and then set out on a pilgrimage -- a hajj -- to Mecca and Medina. It is believed that he may have also visited Oman and other lands in the south of the Arabian Peninsula. 

Because of the Mongol invasions, Saadi was forced to live in desolate areas and met caravans fearing for their lives on the once-lively silk trade routes. Saadi lived in isolated refugee camps where he met bandits, Imams, men who formerly owned great wealth or commanded armies, intellectuals, and ordinary people. While Mongol and European sources (such as Marco Polo) gravitated to the potentates and courtly life of Ilkhanate rule, Saadi mingled with the ordinary survivors of the war-torn region. He sat in remote tea houses late into the night and exchanged views with merchants, farmers, preachers, wayfarers, thieves, and Sufi mendicants. For twenty years or more, he continued the same schedule of preaching, advising, and learning, honing his sermons to reflect the wisdom and foibles of his people. Saadi's works reflect upon the lives of ordinary Iranians suffering displacement, agony and conflict during the turbulent times of the Mongol invasion.

After three decades of wandering, when Saadi returned to his native Shiraz, he was middle-aged. He appears to have spent the rest of his life in Shiraz.

Saadi took his nom de plume from the name of a local atabeg (prince), Saʿd ibn Zangi. Saʿdi’s best-known works are the Bustan (The Orchard), dated 1257, and the Gulistan (The Rose Garden), dated 1258. The Bustan is entirely in verse (epic meter) and consists of stories aptly illustrating the standard virtues recommended to Muslims (justice, liberality, modesty, contentment) as well as of reflections on the behavior of dervishes and their ecstatic practices. The Gulistan is mainly in prose and contains stories and personal anecdotes. The text is interspersed with a variety of short poems, containing aphorisms, advice, and humorous reflections. The morals preached in the Gulistān border on expediency—e.g., a well-intended lie is admitted to be preferable to a seditious truth. Saadi demonstrates a profound awareness of the absurdity of human existence. The fate of those who depend on the changeable moods of kings is contrasted with the freedom of the dervishes.

For Western students the Bustan and Gulistan have a special attraction.  However, Saadi is also remembered as a great panegyrist and lyricist and as the author of a number of masterly general odes portraying human experience and also of particular odes such as the lament on the fall of Baghdad after the Mongol invasion in 1258. His lyrics are to be found in Ghazaliyat (“Lyrics”) and his odes in Qaṣaʿid (“Odes”). Six prose treatises on various subjects are attributed to him; he is also known for a number of works in Arabic. The peculiar blend of human kindness and cynicism, humor, and resignation displayed in Saadi’s works, together with a tendency to avoid the hard dilemma, make him, to many, the most widely admired writer in the world of Iranian culture. 

In the Bustan, Saadi writes of a man who relates his time in battle with the Mongols:

In Isfahan I had a friend who was warlike, spirited, and shrewd....after long I met him: "O tiger-seizer!" I exclaimed, "what has made thee decrepit like an old fox?"

He laughed and said: "Since the days of war against the Mongols, I have expelled the thoughts of fighting from my head. Then did I see the earth arrayed with spears like a forest of reeds. I raised like smoke the dust of conflict; but when Fortune does not favor, of what avail is fury? I am one who, in combat, could take with a spear a ring from the palm of the hand; but, as my star did not befriend me, they encircled me as with a ring. I seized the opportunity of flight, for only a fool strives with Fate. How could my helmet and cuirass aid me when my bright star favored me not? When the key of victory is not in the hand, no one can break open the door of conquest with his arms.

The enemy were a pack of leopards, and as strong as elephants. The heads of the heroes were encased in iron, as were also the hoofs of the horses. We urged on our Arab steeds like a cloud, and when the two armies encountered each other thou wouldst have said they had struck the sky down to the earth. From the raining of arrows, that descended like hail, the storm of death arose in every corner. Not one of our troops came out of the battle but his cuirass was soaked with blood. Not that our swords were blunt—it was the vengeance of stars of ill fortune. Overpowered, we surrendered, like a fish which, though protected by scales, is caught by the hook in the bait. Since Fortune averted her face, useless was our shield against the arrows of Fate.

One enduring tribute to Saadi resides in the United Nations building in New York City. In the building the largest carpet to adorn the wall of the United Nations is a gift from the people of Iran. The carpet, installed in 2005, hangs in a meeting room inside the United Nations building Alongside it are the wonderful words of the great Persian poet, Saadi:

All human beings are members of one frame,
Since all, at first, from the same essence came.
When time afflicts a limb with pain
The other limbs at rest cannot remain.
If thou feel not for others misery
A human being is no name for thee. 

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Browne, E.G. (1906, reprinted 1956). Literary History of Persia; Cambridge University Press. 

Chopra, R.M. (2014). "Great Poets of Classical Persian"; Sparrow Publication, Kolkata, 

Esposito, John L. (1998). The Oxford History of Islam;  Oxford University Press.

Ingenito, Domenico (2020). Beholding Beauty: Sa'di of Shiraz and the Aesthetics of Desire in Medieval Persian Poetry; Brill.

Jenkins, Everett, Jr. (1999). The Muslim Diaspora: A Comprehensive Reference to the Spread of Islam in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, Volume 1, 570-1500; Jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland & Company, Inc.

Khan, Muhammad Mojlum (2008).  The Muslim 100: The Lives, Thoughts and Achievements of the Most Influential Muslims in History; Leicestershire, United Kingdom: Kube Publishing Ltd.

Lapidus, Ira M. (2014).  A History of Islamic Societies; New York City, New York, Cambridge University Press. 

Miles, Jack (general ed.) (2015).  The Norton Anthology of World Religions, New York City, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Rypka, Jan (1968). History of Iranian Literature; Reidel Publishing Company. 

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_invasion_of_the_Khwarazmian_Empire

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saadi_Shirazi

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sadi

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/may/08/books.booksnews

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The 100 Greatest Muslims (2022): 94 - Sayyid Ahmad Khan, The 19th Century Educator Who Was the Founder of the First Muslim University in Southern Asia and Father of the Two-Nation Theory for the Indian Sub-Continent

94

Sayyid Ahmad Khan

Sayyid Ahmad Khan, Sayyid also spelled Syad or Syed, Ahmad also spelled Ahmed, (b. October 17, 1817, Delhi — d. March 27, 1898, Aligarh, India), was a Muslim educator, jurist, and author.  He was also the founder of the Anglo-Mohammedan Oriental College at Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, and the principal motivating force behind the revival of Indian Islam in the late 19th century. His works, in Urdu, included Essays on the Life of Mohammed (1870) and commentaries on the Bible and on the Qur'an.  In 1888, he was made a Knight Commander of the Star of India. 

Sayyid’s family, though progressive, was highly regarded by the dying Mughal dynasty. His father, who received an allowance from the Mughal administration, became something of a religious recluse.  His maternal grandfather had twice served as prime minister of the Mughal Empire of his time and had also held positions of trust under the East India Company.  Sayyid’s brother established one of the first printing presses at Delhi and started one of the earliest newspapers in Urdu, the principal language of the Muslims of northern India.

The death of Sayyid’s father left the family with financial difficulties, and, after a limited education, Sayyid had to work for his livelihood.  Starting as a clerk with the East India Company in 1838, Sayyid qualified, three years later, to become a judge and served in the judicial department at various places.

Sayyid Ahmad had many interests, and his position in the judicial department left him time to be active in many fields. His career as an author (in Urdu) started at the age of 23 with religious tracts. In 1847 he brought out a noteworthy book, Athar assanadid (“Monuments of the Great”), on the antiquities of Delhi. Even more important was his pamphlet, “The Causes of the Indian Revolt.” During the Indian Mutiny of 1857 he had taken the side of the British, but in this booklet he ably and fearlessly laid bare the weaknesses and errors of the British administration that had led to dissatisfaction and a countrywide explosion. Widely read by British officials, it had considerable influence on British policy.

Sayyid's interest in religion was also active and lifelong. He began a sympathetic interpretation of the Bible, wrote Essays on the Life of Mohammed (translated into English by his son), and found time to write several volumes of a modernist commentary on the Qurʾan. In these works he sought to harmonize the Islamic faith with the scientific and politically progressive ideas of his time.

The supreme interest of Sayyid’s life was, however, education — in its widest sense. He began by establishing schools, at Muradabad (1858) and Ghazipur (1863). A more ambitious undertaking was the foundation of the Scientific Society, which published translations of many educational texts and issued a bilingual journal—in Urdu and English.

These institutions were for the use of all citizens and were jointly operated by Hindus and Muslims. In the late 1860s there occurred developments that were to alter the course of his activities. In 1867 he was transferred to Benares, a city on the Ganges with great religious significance for the Hindus. At about the same time, a movement started at Benares to replace Urdu, the language cultivated by the Muslims, with Hindi. This movement and the attempts to substitute Hindi for Urdu in the publications of the Scientific Society convinced Sayyid that the paths of the Hindus and the Muslims must diverge. 

During a visit to England (1869–70), Sayyid prepared plans for a great educational institution. The plans called for the creation of “a Muslim Cambridge.” On his return to India, Sayyid set up a committee for the purpose of founding the educational institution and also started an influential journal, Tahdhib al-Akhlaq (“Social Reform”), for the “uplift and reform of the Muslim.” A Muslim school was established at Aligarh in May 1875, and, after his retirement in 1876, Sayyid devoted himself to enlarging it into a college. 

In January 1877, the foundation stone of the college was laid by the viceroy. In spite of conservative opposition to Sayyid’s projects, the college made rapid progress. In 1886, Sayyid organized the All-India Muhammadan Educational Conference, which met annually at different places to promote education and to provide the Muslims with a common platform. Until the founding of the Muslim League in 1906, the All-India Muhammadan Educational Conference was the principal national center of Indian Islam.

Sayyid advised the Muslims against joining active politics and to concentrate instead on education. Later, when some Muslims joined the Indian National Congress, Sayyid came out strongly against that organization and its objectives, -- objectives which included the establishment of parliamentary democracy in India. 

Sayyid argued that in a country where communal divisions were all-important, and where education and political organization were confined to a few classes, parliamentary democracy would work only inequitably. Muslims, generally, followed his advice and abstained from politics until several years later, when they had established their own political organization.

Though initially espousing Hindu-Muslim unity, Sayyid Ahmad Khan became the pioneer of Muslim nationalism in India and is widely credited as the father of the two-nation theory for the Indian sub-continent, which formed the basis of the Pakistan movement. Born into a family with strong debts to the Mughal court, Sayyid studied the Qur'an and Sciences within the court. 

In 1838, Sayyid Ahmad Khan entered the service of East India Company and went on to become a judge at a Small Causes Court in 1867, retiring in 1876. 

During the Indian Mutiny of 1857, Sayyid remained loyal to the British Raj and was noted for his actions in saving European lives. After the rebellion, he penned the booklet The Causes of the Indian Mutiny – a daring critique, at the time, of various British policies that he blamed for causing the revolt. Believing that the future of Muslims was threatened by the rigidity of their orthodox outlook, Sayyid began promoting Western-style scientific education by founding modern schools and journals and organizing Islamic entrepreneurs.

In 1859, Sayyid established Gulshan School at Muradabad; Victoria School at Ghazipur in 1863; and a scientific society for Muslims in 1864. In 1875, founded the Anglo-Mohammedan Oriental College, the first Muslim university in Southern Asia. During his career, Sayyid repeatedly called upon Muslims to loyally serve the British Raj and promoted the adoption of Urdu as the lingua franca of all Indian Muslims. 

Sayyid Ahmad Khan maintains a strong legacy in Pakistan and among Indian Muslims. He strongly influenced other Muslim leaders including Allama Iqbal and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the "Father of Pakistan".  Sayyid Ahmad Khan's advocacy of Islam's rationalist tradition and of a broader, radical re-interpretation of the Qur'an to make it compatible with science and modernity continues to influence the global Islamic reformation. Many universities and public buildings in Pakistan bear the name of Sayyid Ahmad Khan.

Aligarh Muslim University celebrated Sayyid Ahmad Khan's 200th birth centenary with much enthusiasm on October 17, 2017.  As the first person to theorize the idea of a separate nationhood for Muslims on the Indian subcontinent, the celebration of Sayyid Ahmad Khan would appear to have been quite appropriate. 

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Abdullah, S. M. (1940). The spirit and substance of Urdu prose under the influence of Sir Sayyid Ahamad Khan; Muhammad Ashraf, Lahore.

Baljon, J.M.S. (1964). The Reforms and Religious Ideas of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan; Lahore: S.M. Ashraf.

Engineer, Ashgar Ali (2001). Rational Approach to Islam;  Gyan Publishing House. 

Esposito, John L. (1998). The Oxford History of Islam;  Oxford University Press.

Graham, George Farquhar (1885). The Life and Work of Syed Ahmed Khan; Black wood.

Guha, Ramachandra (2010). Makers of Modern India; Penguin Books India. 

Hali, Altaf Husain (1994) [1901]. Hayat-i-Javed (A Biography of Sir Sayyid); New Delhi: Rupa and Company. 

Hasan, Tariq (2006). The Aligarh Movement and the Making of the Indian Mind, 1857-2002; Rupa & Company. 

Khan, Muhammad Mojlum (2008).  The Muslim 100: The Lives, Thoughts and Achievements of the Most Influential Muslims in History; Leicestershire, United Kingdom: Kube Publishing Ltd.

Khan, Sir Sayyid Aḥmad; Muhammad, Shan (1973). Writings and Speeches of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan; Nachiketa Publications.

Kidwai, Shafey (2010). Cementing Ethics with Modernism: An Appraisal of Sir Sayyed Ahmed Khan's Writings; Gyan Publishing House. 

Kidwai, Shafey (2020). Sir Syed Ahmad Khan: Reason, Religion and Nation; Taylor & Francis. 

Lapidus, Ira M. (2014).  A History of Islamic Societies; New York City, New York, Cambridge University Press. 

Malik, Hafeez (1980). Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan and Muslim Modernization in India and Pakistan; Internet Archive. New York : Columbia University Press.

Muhammad, Shan (1969). Sir Syed Ahmad Khan; a political biography; Internet Archive. Meerut, Meenaksi Parkashan.

Troll, Christian W. (1978). Sayyid Ahmad Khan: A Reinterpretation of Muslim Theology; Vikas Publishing House. 

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syed_Ahmad_Khan

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sayyid-Ahmad-Khan

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The 100 Greatest Muslims (2022): 95 - Muhammad Ahmad, The Mahdi of Sudan Who Created a Vast Islamic African State in the 19th Century

95

Muhammad Ahmad

Al-Mahdi, (Arabic for “The Right-Guided One” or "The One Who is Guided by God") original name Muhammad Ahmad ibn al-Sayyid ʿAbd Allah, (b. August 12, 1844, Labab Island, Turkish Sudan, Egypt Eyalet — d. June 22, 1885, Omdurman [near the ruins of Khartoum], Mahdist Sudan), was the creator of a vast Islamic state extending from the Red Sea to Central Africa and the founder of a movement that remained influential in Sudan a century later. As a youth he moved from orthodox religious study to a mystical interpretation of Islam. In 1881, he proclaimed his divine mission to purify Islam and the governments that defiled it. His extensive campaign culminated in the capture of Khartoum (January 26, 1885). He then established a theocratic state in Sudan, with its capital at Omdurman. 

Muḥammad Aḥmad was the son of a shipbuilder from the Dongola District of Nubia. Shortly after his birth, the family moved south to Karari, a river village near Khartoum. As a boy, Muḥammad developed a love of religious study. Instead of seeking an orthodox education, such as that offered at al-Azhar University in Cairo, and passing into the official hierarchy as a salaried judge or interpreter of Islamic law, he remained in the Sudan. Increasingly, he tended to a more mystic interpretation of Islam, in the Ṣufi tradition, through study of the Qurʾan—the sacred Muslim scripture—and the practice of self-denial under the discipline of a religious brotherhood.

Muhammad joined the Sammaniyyah order and grew to manhood in a wholly Sudanese religious setting, purposely separating himself from the official ruling class. By now, the young man had begun to attract his own disciples and, in 1870, moved with them to a hermitage on Aba Island in the White Nile, 175 miles south of Khartoum. His highly emotional and intransigent religious observance brought him into conflict with his shaykh (teacher), whom he reproved for worldliness. 

The exasperated shaykh expelled him from the circle of his disciples, whereupon Muḥammad Aḥmad, having vainly asked his teacher’s pardon, joined the brotherhood of a rival shaykh within the same order.

Sudan, at this time, was a dependency of Egypt, which was itself a province of the Ottoman Empire, and governed by the same multiracial, Turkish-speaking ruling class that governed Egypt. In appearance, education, and way of life, the rulers contrasted starkly with their Sudanese subjects, and, although the more assimilated higher officials and some of the chiefs of territories along the Nile who profited from their government connections were reconciled to the regime, the less privileged Sudanese were not. The situation was politically dangerous.  The discontented came from many different walks of life: taxpayers oppressed by fiscal injustices and enraged by the frequent floggings to which they were subject when tardy in their payments; slave traders angered by the clumsy efforts of the government, which was hectored by the European powers, particularly Britain, to abolish the slave trade without delay;  devout worshippers scandalized by the presence of non-Muslim Europeans as provincial governors and by said governors addiction to alcohol; peasants living by the Nile forced to tow government ships; warlike tribesmen, weary of the long years of enforced peace, spoiling for a fight.  All of these elements were potential enemies of the established order.

It was Muḥammad Aḥmad who converted this diversified discontent into a unified movement that for a time would transcend tribalism and weld the faithful into an effective military machine. Gradually, during 1880 and the first weeks of 1881, he became convinced that the entire ruling class had deserted the Islamic faith and that the khedive -- the viceroy of Egypt -- was a puppet in the hands of unbelievers and thus unfit to rule over Muslims. In March 1881 he revealed to his closest followers what he considered his divine mission—that God had appointed him to purify Islam and to destroy all governments that defiled it. On June 29, he publicly assumed the title of al-Mahdi, a rightly guided leader who, according to a tradition cherished by the oppressed throughout Islamic history, would appear to restore Islam. 

The events that followed this announcement were among the most dramatic in the history of the Nile Valley. Within less than four years, Muhammad Ahmad -- al-Mahdi --, who set out from Aba Island with a few followers armed with sticks and spears, ended by making himself master of almost all the territory formerly occupied by the Egyptian government, capturing an enormous booty of money, bullion, jewels, and military supplies—including Krupp artillery and Remington rifles.

By the end of 1883, al-Mahdī’s ansar (“helpers,” a name first given to those people in the city of Medina who helped the Prophet Muḥammad) had annihilated three Egyptian armies sent against them; the last, a force of 8,000 men with a huge camel train, commanded by General William Hicks, was butchered almost to a man. El Obeid, the present-day Al-Ubayyid, provincial capital of Kordofan, and Bara, a chief town of that province, fell after being besieged by al-Mahdi. He now committed his first acts as the head of an armed theocracy on the march: taxes were collected, not as demanded by the Egyptians but as laid down by the Qur'an. Already his fame had reached responsive ears in Arabia to the north and as far west as Bornu, now a province of northern Nigeria. A master of the art of putting his enemies always in the wrong, he supported his military operations by intelligent and subtle propaganda. Counter-propaganda by the governor-general, ʿAbd al-Qadir Pasha Ḥilmi, a man of great resource, and by the ulama, the learned men, of Khartoum who mocked al-Mahdi’s divine claims, failed miserably.

Al-Mahdi’s crowning victory was the capture of Khartoum, on January 26, 1885, after a resolute defense by its commander, Major General Charles George Gordon, who, against al-Mahdi’s express order, was killed in the final assault. After many of the citizens of Khartoum had been massacred, al-Mahdi made a triumphal entry into the stricken city and led the prayers in the principal mosque. Even making allowance for the military weakness of Egypt, which during the crucial years of 1881 and 1882 was torn by the nationalist revolt of Ahmad 'Urabi Pasha, it was an astonishing feat.

The withdrawal of the British expedition, which had failed to relieve Khartoum, left al-Mahdī free to consolidate his religious empire.  He abandoned Khartoum, still heavy with the stench of the dead, and set up his administrative center at Omdurman, an expanded village of mud houses and grass-roofed huts on the left bank of the Nile, opposite Khartoum. The site of the new capital had two advantages: it was higher and better-drained, hence healthier, than Khartoum, and, by governing from the exclusively Sudanese town of Omdurman, al-Mahdī avoided the evil associations of the old capital. He directed every aspect of communal and personal life by proclamations, sermons, warnings, and letters. In this endeavor, he was helped by the capture, intact, of the government press and an abundance of stationery. However, al-Mahdi confined himself to the enunciation of principles while most of the routine matters of govenance he left to his chief officers. The political institutions, as well as the nomenclature of his government, were based insofar as practicable on those of primitive Islam. In the manner of the Prophet Muḥammad, al-Mahdi appointed four caliphs, or deputies, to be the living successors of the four earliest caliphs in Islamic history. Three of those appointed by al-Mahdi were Sudanese, including the caliph 'Abd Allah ibn Muḥammad, al-Mahdi’s most trusted counselor and chief of staff; the fourth, Muḥammad al-Mahdi ibn al-Sanusi, head of the Sanusiyyah order in the western desert, ignored al-Mahdi’s invitation. Al-Mahdi referred to himself as “the successor to the apostle of God”—that is, successor to the Prophet Muḥammad, but only in the sense of continuing his work.

Al-Mahdi’s rule was brief. He became ill, possibly of typhus, and died in June 1885, only 40 years old. Pursuant to his wish, al-Mahdi's temporal functions were assumed by the caliph ʿAbd Allah. Over al-Mahdi's grave, the caliph built a domed tomb similar in architecture to those customarily built over the remains of the more venerated holy men. Partially destroyed by gunfire during the Battle of Omdurman in 1898, it was later rebuilt by al-Mahdi’s son ʿAbd al-Raḥman and the Mahdist community.

Al-Mahdi made a powerful impression on his Sudanese contemporaries, and the doubters were few. Recorded recollections are varied, but most witnesses agreed on his medium-to-tall height; his  austere frame, which, according to some, fattened toward the end of his life; the soft voice that a sudden flare up of indignation could make terrible; the sympathetic, sensitive face; and the large, piercing eyes. The pious were sure that in his person he conformed to all that was traditionally expected of a mahdi. 

Understandably, European captives drew a less-favorable picture.

To the British at the time of the Mahdist wars, al-Mahdi was the enemy whom they associated, though wrongly, with the killing of Gordon. The war correspondents generally reported him as an ogre, cruel when he was not lascivious, and they dubbed him the False Prophet. This caricature of al-Mahdi was reflected in a bulky literature by European authors that distorted al-Mahdi’s image for an entire generation. Ironically, it was General Horatio Herbert Kitchener’s conquest of Sudan in 1896–98 that first brought Mahdists and British officials together and fostered what was to become a growing interest among European and Sudanese scholars in the study of Mahdist documents in the original Arabic. Such studies made possible a clearer view of this modern ascetic who changed the course of African history.

Following Ahmad's death, Abdallahi ruled as Khalifa, but his autocratic rule, as well as directly applied British military force, destroyed the Mahdi state following the Anglo-Egyptian conquest of Sudan. Despite that, the Mahdi remains a respected figure in the history of Sudan. In the late 20th century, one of al-Mahdi's direct descendants, Sadiq al-Mahdi, twice served as prime minister of Sudan (1966–67 and 1986–89), and pursued democratizing policies.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ahmad

https://www.britannica.com/biography/al-Mahdi-Sudanese-religious-leader

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