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he Ansar (Arabic: أنصار), or followers of the Mahdi, is a Sufi religious movement in the Sudan whose followers are disciples of Muhammad Ahmad (12 August 1844 -- 22 June 1885), the self-proclaimed Mahdi. Northern Sudan has long been inhabited by Arabic-speaking people who farm the Nile valley and follow a nomadic pastoral way of life elsewhere. Sudan came under Egyptian suzerainty when an Ottoman force conquered and occupied the region in 1820--21. Muhammed Ahmad, a Sudanese religious leader based on Aba Island, proclaimed himself Mahdi on 29 June 1881. His followers won a series of victories against the Egyptians culminating in the capture of Kartoum in January 1885. Muhammed Ahmad died a few months later, but his successor the Khalifa 'Abd Allah ibn Muhammad maintained the independence of the Mahdist state until 1898, when an Anglo-Egyptian force regained control. The Mahdi's eldest surviving son Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi was the religious and political leader of the An
