The Arabic term "mahdi" is best translated with "divinely guided one". Saviour figure in Islam, for which there are several different interpretations in Sunni Islam, and one dominant interpretation in Shi'i Islam. The "mahdi" of Sunni Islam is just one of several important figures, while the "mahdi" of Shi'i Islam has a real eschatological importance, and is in the future the most important figure for Islam as well as the world.
The main principle of the mahdi is that he is a figure that is absolutely guided by God. This guidance is stronger form of guidance than normal guidance, which usually involves than a human being willfully acts according to the guidance of God. The mahdi on the other hand, has nothing of this human element, and acts the will of God directly.
The figure of mahdi, nor his mission, is not mentioned in the Koran, and there are practically nothing to be found among the reliable hadiths on him either. The idea of the mahdi appears to be a development in the first 2-3 centuries of Islam. In the case of the Shi'i mahdi many scholars have suggested that there is a clear inspiration coming from Christianity and its ideas of a judgement day in the hands of a religious renewer.
While there are many similarities between the Mahdi and Messias, there are also many variations over the Mahdi theme, which have differed from time to time and from region to region.
From the library of the US Congress
Some historians can clearly see a similitude between the Spanish conquistadores after the “reconquista” and the Sokoto Horsemen raids after the Islamic Revolution. In exploration and exploitation of the New World, Spain found an outlet for the crusading energies that the war against the Muslims had stimulated.
The years following my arrival at Sokoto City were strange and exceptional years for the growing of the Caliphate.
While more and more slaves came back from America to their former country, bringing ideas of equality, freedom and participation, the elite-soldiers of the caliphate crossed more and more times the entire Africa, reclaiming lands and colonies in the name of a United Africa under the green flag of Sokoto.
But now it’s time to stop and gather again my memories to give you all a detailed report of events.
I think I was responsible of starting the Sokoto expansionism in Africa. After 10 days of permanence in Sokoto city, resting in an indigenous Hut, I saw something strange going on in the square in front of the Palace of the Sultan (maybe “palace” is not the right word for a Big Hut made with clay…): Surrounded by a crowd of people, two western men beaten on the ground, a group of Horsemen guarding them and another man standing in front of them. ‘Nganu told me that the two men on the ground are slavers that have tried to kidnap the inhabitants of a village in the south. And the man in front of them… well… ‘Nganu told me that his name was Muhammad Bello.
When Usman dan Fodio died in 1817, he was succeeded by his son, the man in front of me! A dispute between Bello and his uncle, Abdullahi, resulted in a nominal division of the caliphate into eastern and western divisions, although the supreme authority of Bello as caliph was upheld. The division was institutionalized through the creation of a twin capital at Gwandu, which was responsible for the western emirates as far as Upper Volta and initially as far west as Massina. As events turned out, the eastern emirates were more numerous and larger than the western ones, which reinforced the primacy of the caliph at Sokoto.
I was in front of the Sultan! I was so astonished be the view of this ascetic and charismatic man: dressed in white, with the burning fire of fanatism in his eyes. A really imposing black man! He turned at me at my arrival. I was one of only three civilized men in the city and the other two were beaten and in chain under the feet of the Sultan. Suddenly he spoke to me, in perfect English: “Tell me, Italian man with a Hausa slave, tell me where are the English and the French looking for their next war? Tell me where are their armies moving to? Tell me, where innocent humans will suffer the arrogance of these western bastards?”. I was so scared: the vision of the black savage Sultan speaking in English was so unexpected… And He knew everything about me! Suddenly I replied to the Sultan: “Your majesty (Really! I said your majesty to a savage!), I don’t know a lot about politics and diplomacy, but I bet that the eyes of United Kingdom are looking to Punjab and the French are preparing the occupation of Tunis”. Well… the names of the two nations I told to Muhammad Bello were the first names that blinked in my mind, but it was the first time in my life I foretold the future!
Listening to my words, the Sultan turned to the two men on the ground: “You, arrogant French merchant! You, violent English soldier! Listen to me. Your crimes in my nation are punished with death and torture. Today the Almighty have spared your life, but only to go back to your country and to tell to your governors that I order that if your countries dare to attack Punjab or Tunis you all will taste the fury of Allah. No more slaves will be sent to your corrupted nations. Our people are property of Allah and of his Mahdi, the Sultan. No one will serve in any other country than the Caliphate of Sokoto. My horsemen will escort you to the delta of Niger River. Go away. Go away, back to your country, out of Africa, and never came back. Tell to your people to go away: we will gather our people and kill any western man that dare to stand against us”.
After some silent minutes, He took his scimitar and cut the right ears of the two men with a swift move! “Have you listened carefully my words? I can repeat them, but if you don’t understand again, you will have no more ears to listen at me, and you two will become only garbage to my eyes. HAVE YOU STUPID WESTERNS UNDERSTOOD THE WILL OF THE MAHDI?”
At these last shouted words all the indigenous people on the square, hundreds of people, knelt down in front of Muhammad Bello. A pure feeling of terror filled my heart.
***
But I think someone in France didn’t take so seriously the words of the Sultan of Sokoto when at 8th April 1836 an army of 36000 soldiers started the invasion of Tunis: following what he said, the sultan sent a formal declaration of war to the troops that are leading the assault of the undefended Tunis Emirate.
Maybe someone in the foreign policy office of the United Kingdom waited something to happen: some troops moving to help the overwhelmed Tunis Army. Nothing happened. Nothing. No signs of preparation, no troops moving. Nothing. Finally the United Kingdom, not influenced by the empty threats of a forgotten Caliphate in the heart of Africa, at the 15th September 1836 declared war to Punjab:
Sokoto has a little army: three regiments of Horsemen, each of them reduced to 1900 men after the victorious Islamic Revolution. I didn’t understand the suicidal political move of the Sultan until the declaration of war against the United Kingdom…
At the 1st October 1836 the three armies of the Sultan were ready to start manouvering, but with my great surprise the didn't move to defend the interest of the doomed Tunis Emirate, neither the distant and barely know Punjab. They travelled fast as they can, reaching every French and English colony on the western coast of Africa.
The personal army of the Sultan, on stance at Sokoto City, reached Senegal, taking control of the coaling stations in the provinces of Podor and Bathhurst. The French people controlling on the two outposts were put at work under control of the natives of the two provinces. Two days later they moved to the French catholic camps in the provinces of Dakar and Zinguinchor. The French clergymen were sent to help their people in Podor and Bathhrust improving the infrastructure of the region. The ongoing work for the building of the catholic missions were adapted to the religion of the new Muslim rulers. Two other day of rest and the army moved to Freetown in Guinea, taking control of the English coaling station. Back to Senegal, camped at the border of the province of Maka Kolibentan, waiting. Playing like a cat with a mice, they waited looking at the little group of French missionaries in the province, working to build their new mission…
The army of the Emir of Ilorin arrived to Gold Coast, taking control of the English coaling station of Secondi, moved to Ivory Coast reaching the port of Dida and the infamous slavers trading post of Bigarville. The French communities of the two provinces – mostly former slavers - were slaughtered for crimes against the people of the Caliphate. At the trading post of Bigarville they stopped, waiting for the completion of work for the French mission of Asikaso.
The last of the three armies – The Army of the Emir of Adawama - moved to Gabon, taking control of all the infrastructures of the region: the port of Libreville and the three under-construction Missions in Benito, Saburo and FranceVille.
At the end of 1836 all the French and English colonial buildings, with the exception of the two doomed French missions, are under control of the Caliphate.
