Draft:Ali al-Mirghani

Sayyid Ali al-Mirghani ( 1873-1968 AD )  was a Sudanese religious and political leader . The late leader of the Mirghani family, known in Egypt, Sudan and Eritrea, which was known for leading the Khatmiyya Sufi order. His family settled in Kassala and Suakin. They were hostile to the Mahdist state and allied with the Egyptian government  and attracted a number of people from the East to the Khatmiyya order .

His life

Mr. Ali Al-Mirghani was born on Masawi Island in northern Sudan at an unknown date. He mentioned 1870 or 1880, which is more likely, because an intelligence report estimated his age at eleven years in 1890  , which is a date that coincides with his father’s presence in the Shaigiya lands .

He moved from there with his father to the city of Kassala , where he remained until the Ansar attacked it. After the battle, he left it to Massawa and then Suakin with his father, Muhammad Uthman.  He studied primary school in the city of Kassala, then studied some Islamic sciences at the hands of his uncle, Muhammad Uthman Taj al-Sir al-Mirghani. During this time, his father visited Egypt seeking support in confronting the Mahdist state, but he died there and his grave in Cairo became a Sufi shrine.

Egyptian and English care

The family enjoyed the attention of the intelligence and colonial government, as stated in a letter from Holder Smith, Director of the Red Sea Directorate, to the Sirdar :

“The Khatmiyya order still has a strong presence in Sudan and this boy is expected to be of use to the government.”

The government arranged financial allocations for the family to spend on followers and successors in addition to family members. The head of the family, Muhammad Uthman Taj al-Sir, received the largest share of it, and his share was transferred to Ali al-Mirghani after him.  His uncle was encouraged to send him to Cairo, where he stayed for five years, during which he visited al-Azhar and expanded his reading and learning, but he did not obtain an official degree from it.  Despite his cooperation and apparent loyalty to the government, the historian Abu Salim believes that what was rumored about him being an intelligence officer and his return in the Army of Conquest are mere rumors.

His return to Sudan

Mahdism began to decline in eastern Sudan after the fall of Tokar in 1891 and then Kassala in 1896, so Ali al-Mirghani returned to Suakin, then moved to Kassala and then to Khartoum in 1901 (three years after the Anglo-Egyptian occupation of Sudan in 1898).  His alliance with the government continued after his return, as the government encouraged the expansion and dissemination of Khatmiyya  to ensure that the Sudanese would join a “loyal” order that would limit the influence of other orders and reduce the chances of reviving the Mahdist revolution . This was facilitated by the numerous intermarriages of the Maraghna with many influential families in northern Sudan, which were harmed by Mahdism as the Maraghna were.

Government support appeared in many ways. In addition to material support in the form of continuous financial aid, the government granted the Maragha a number of lands, such as their lands on the Gash in Kassala and the lands north of Old Kassala. It also granted him six acres on the Nile in the middle of the government offices as compensation for lands it had seized in Bahri. It supported him to consolidate his leadership over the family and the tariqa, as it stood by his side in his dispute with his brother Ahmed, a dispute that continued until the latter’s death in 1928.  The government also honored him by responding to his demands and mediations and appointed him as head of the congratulatory delegation in 1919.

Al-Mirghani responded by standing by the government on all occasions, supporting it in World War I and fighting Turkish propaganda that tried to exploit Turkey's status as an Islamic caliphate (as did his rival Al-Mahdi ). He helped it to marginalize Ali Dinar and signed a letter drafted by the intelligence services in Al-Mirghani's name calling on him to withdraw his forces from the border and securing his government's side. This enabled the British to prepare for the invasion of Darfur .  Then, also by intelligence, he contacted Sharif Hussein bin Ali and reconciled him with the Idrisids and participated in the Arab Revolt in coordination with Wingate Pasha, the British High Commissioner in Egypt.

Ali al-Mirghani opposed the 1919 revolution in Egypt and sided with the British, issuing a memorandum to that effect with a number of Sudanese political leaders. He then condemned the White Flag Revolution in 1924 in Sudan  , and with al-Mahdi and al-Hindi issued the Al-Hadara newspaper with government financial support that continued until 1938.

Hilla Khojali is the area where Mr. Ali lived when he came to Khartoum and died there. He was a supporter of the Unionists and President Ismail Al-Azhari worked with him and was buried in his mosque in Khartoum Bahri .

He had sons, Muhammad Uthman al-Mirghani and Ahmad al-Mirghani, who was succeeded by his son Muhammad Uthman al-Mirghani bin Ali al-Mirghani, the closest grandson of Muhammad Uthman al-Mirghani, and the grandson of the founder of the Khatmiyya order, which spread from the Borno region in the west to the Red Sea coast, and from Alexandria in the north to Somalia in the south.

The second faction promoted the idea of "Unity of the Nile Valley" which was supported unity with Egypt under the Egyptian crown, emphasising cultural and geographical ties between the two nations. Led by Ahmed al-Feel, they rejected alliances with religious sects, despite many members being from families traditionally loyal to the Khatmiyyah sect, and its leader Sayyid Ali al-Mirghani.

Conversely, during the Turco-Egyptian rule in Sudan, the "Khatmiyya," established by Muhammad Othman al-Mirghani al-Khitmi in 1817, received support and annual endowment from the Turco-Egyptian and British-Egyptian governments. Khatmiyya were based in Kassala, and were popular in the eastern part of Sudan with close ties to Egypt.

Mohammed Uthman al-Mirghani, known as Al-Khatim (Arabic: محمد عثمان الميرغني الختم) was the founder of the Khatmiyya sufi tariqa, a sect of Islam, that has a following in Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia.

Mohamed Osman al-Mirghani became Khatmiyyat and he People's Democratic Party (PDP) leader after the death of his father Ali al-Mirghani in 1968.

References

Sources

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