The Formation of the Sudanese Mahdist State

Ceremony and Symbols of Authority: 1882-1898

Bibliographic Data

ID19922271
AuthorsKim Searcy (corresponding author)
Year2011
Pages165
Publication date2011-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueThe formation of the Sudanese Mahdist state (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherBrill (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1163/ej.9789004185999.i-166
OpenAlexW646421254
Open LibraryOL52045072M
ISBN9789004185999
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited8

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

Ceremony · Charisma · Charismatic authority · Islam · Legitimacy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Theology · African history and culture analysis · History · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Sociopolitical Dynamics in Nigeria · 1862-1899 · Islam and politics · Islamic renewal · Sudan