The accursed Egyptian would be
driven from the land. Let the faithful take heart and make ready.
How soon might not the long-predestined hour strike, when the
twelfth Imam, the guide, the Mahdi, would reveal himself to the
world?' In that hour, the righteous 'Would triumph and the guilty
be laid low forever.' Such was the teaching of Mohammed Ahmed. A
band of enthusiastic disciples gathered round him, eagerly
waiting for the revelation which would crown their hopes. At
last, the moment came. One evening, at Abba Island, taking aside
the foremost of his followers, the Master whispered the
portentous news. He was the Mahdi.
The Egyptian Governor-General at Khartoum, hearing that a
religious movement was afoot, grew disquieted, and dispatched
an emissary to Abba Island to summon the impostor to his
presence. The emissary was courteously received. Mohammed Ahmed,
he said, must come at once to Khartoum. 'Must!' exclaimed the
Mahdi, starting to his feet, with a strange look in his eyes. The
look was so strange that the emissary thought it advisable to cut
short the interview and to return to Khartoum empty-handed.
Thereupon, the Governor-General sent 200 soldiers to seize the
audacious rebel by force. With his handful of friends, the Mahdi
fell upon the soldiers and cut them to pieces.
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