In the late 19th century Sudan was ruled by Turkish / Egyptian / Albanian aristocrats. In this period which is usually known as the “Turkiyya” a certain Muhammad Ahmad declared himself Mahdi. A Mahdi is a apocalyptic figure in Islam, who according to certain traditions is supposed to appear before the end of times to create a just kingdom on earth. The Mahdi managed to throw out the Egyptian but dies soon after. His successor Khalifa Abdullahi was defeated by an Anglo-Egyptian army in 1898. During the Anglo-Egyptian condominium one of the sons of the Mahdi –Sayyed Abd Al-Rahman Al-Mahdi (the British used to abbreviate this with SAR in their dcuments)–  was able to reassert his position in his fathers movement and restructure the movemnt along the lines of a politically involved Sufi brotherhood, the Ansar as they exist in Sudan today.

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Kadugli is the capital of the Nuba Mountains, also known as the South Kordofan Province. The Nuba Mountains were the site of massive fighting in the last part of the North South conflict. Since then the Nuba have been strongly supporting the SPLM, the liberation movement from the Southern Sudan. Nevertheless the Nuba Mountains are a distinct region with a different history and different interests. The region administratively belongs to the northern Sudan. Culturally the Nuba stand in the middle and even when it comes to religion, there is large numbers of both, Christians and Muslim.

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