The powerful call (daʿwa) of Muḥammad Aḥmad, the self-styled Mahdī, and his ensuing jihad against Ottoman-Egyptian rule in Sudan provoked a variety of responses within the larger Muslim community. The ʿulamāʾ, al-Azhar-trained orthodox legal and religious scholars in Khartoum and Cairo, responded with outrage and detailed legal arguments, challenging the credentials of an individual they insisted was an impostor, and rehearsing instead the legitimacy of the Ottoman Sultan as the bona fide leader of the faithful. Beyond the establishment hierarchy, politically- and religiously-motivated activists and propagandists, in Sudan, Egypt and beyond, joined the debate over Muḥammad Aḥmad’s credibility: at stake was a substantial body of susceptible Muslim opinion, in the Ottoman provinces of the Hejaz and Syria and as far away as British-ruled India. This article describes in detail the spiritual and legal arguments over a personality whose claimed mandate had implications for two of the world’s largest empires.

中文翻译：

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法特瓦和宣传：当代穆斯林对苏丹 Mahdiyya 的回应

Muḥammad Aḥmad、自封为 Mahdī 的强有力的呼唤 (daʿwa) 以及他随后发起的反对奥斯曼-埃及统治的圣战在更大的穆斯林社区中引起了各种反应。在喀土穆和开罗受过爱资哈尔训练的正统法律和宗教学者 ʿulamāʾ 以愤怒和详细的法律论据作为回应，质疑他们坚称是冒名顶替者的个人的资格，并排练了奥斯曼帝国苏丹作为善意的合法性忠实的领袖。除了建立等级制度之外，在苏丹、埃及及其他地方，出于政治和宗教动机的活动家和宣传者也加入了关于穆罕默德·艾哈迈德的可信度的辩论：在汉志和叙利亚的奥斯曼帝国，大量易受影响的穆斯林意见处于危险之中远至英国统治的印度。