The Dome of the Mahdi .. It was bombed by the British and embraced the shrines of the imams and witnessed decisive milestones in the history of Sudan

The Dome of the Imam al-Mahdi in Omdurman, the historical capital of Sudan, stands out as an ancient monument that narrates an important period in the history of this country, which won its independence in the year 1956 after the Mahdist state that fought the colonialist won the loudest mug in the contest by force of arms.

Although the dome represents one of the prominent landmarks in the city of Omdurman and is not mistaken by the eye of the intruder in its ancient neighborhoods, the death and burial of the leader of the Umma Party and Imam of the Ansar Sadiq al-Mahdi in it brought back to it that old glory as a place where the leader of the Mahdist revolution and its spiritual father, Imam Muhammad Ahmad Al Mahdi The great-grandfather of Sadiq al-Mahdi.

History books say that after the liberation of Khartoum in 1885, Imam Al-Mahdi went out in a group of his companions on the back of a camel that he walked until he reached this site in Omdurman, and built a small room for his residence and a place of worship after the noble Prophet Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace.

When the imam died in late 1885, he was buried in the same room, after which the dome was constructed by Ansar al-Mahdi in the style of domes known in Sudan.

Professor Al-Mu'tasim Ahmad al-Hajj, director of the Muhammad Omar Bashir Center for Sudanese Studies at Omdurman National University, said that after the Caliph Abdullah Al-Mahdi built the Dome of the Mahdi about 14 years ago, the British campaign against Sudan began in the year 1897 under the leadership of Lord Herbert Kitchener until it reached the outskirts of Omdurman. The major battle was fought on September 2, 1898, by bombing the dome from the river side, to destroy the symbolism of the Mahdist state.

The Mahdi Dome embraces the shrines of the Imams of Mahdia in Sudan (Al-Jazeera)

The dome remained destroyed from the top for many years until Sayyid Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi rebuilt it in 1948 according to the current style, and a coffin was placed for Imam al-Mahdi, and a large courtyard was built around it, becoming a destination for visitors and worshipers.

The shrines of the imams

Professor Al-Mu'tasim Ahmad al-Hajj points out that the dome includes, next to the great Mahdi, the shrine of Imam Siddiq al-Mahdi (the father of al-Sadiq) who died in 1961, Imam Abdul Rahman al-Mahdi who died in 1957, and Imam al-Hadi al-Mahdi who transferred his remains to the dome in 1986 after His assassination in the Kurmuk region while on his way to Ethiopia by the forces of former President Jaafar Nimeiri in the context of the events of Al-Jazeera Aba.

The researcher says that after the rule of Nimeiri was overthrown in the April 1986 uprising, he brought his remains, held a formal funeral and was buried in the dome.

As for the outer courtyard of the dome, the family agreed to be a shrine for the leaders of the Umma Party, so Salah al-Siddiq al-Mahdi, who died in March 1986, Omar Nour al-Daem in October 2003, and Salah Abd al-Salam al-Khalifa, who died in July 2006, were buried there.

And when the former Secretary General of the Umma Party, Abd al-Nabi Ali Ahmed, died several years ago, a widespread controversy arose within the family when some of them opposed burying him in the courtyard, as he was not a member of the Mahdi family despite the high position he held, and Fatima al-Mahdi emerged as the most prominent voice opposing that.

The refuge in adversity and

Al-Jamil Al-Fadhel, a journalist and political analyst close to the Umma Party, confirms to Al-Jazeera Net that the symbolism of the place is divided between 3 parts, which are the mosque, the imams shrines, and the outer courtyard of the dome.

The courtyard of the dome - as he says - witnessed the signing of the Intifada Charter in the year 1986, and in April of the same year signed the Charter of the Syndical Assembly, and many preparatory meetings were held for the uprising that overthrew the rule of President Jaafar Nimeiri on April 6, 1986.

And he concludes that this square was like "the place where people resort to when matters of politics intensify and take hold of their circles."

Al-Fadhel tells how the Dome Square hosted a public event with great symbolism a while ago when the late Imam Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi returned to the country on December 19, 2018, and this coincided with the spark of the revolution against the regime of the ousted president Omar Al-Bashir in Atbara, and for the wisdom of what the committee saw The organization to receive him was to hold the public meeting in the Dome Square, where he was subjected to great public pressure and was asked to give the signal for the start of the revolution from that place, but the Mahdi did not.

The Dome Square also hosted meetings with foreign leaders. When the late Colonel Muammar Gaddafi visited Sudan for the first time in conjunction with Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi assuming the premiership, the meeting between them took place in the Dome Square.

Visitors to the dome recite the Qur’an at the shrine of Saq al-Mahdi (Al-Jazeera)

The Dome Mosque has endless stories, as it was used as a place to settle rivalries between the Al-Mahdi family, the most prominent of which was the decision of the former Governor of Khartoum, Majzoub Al-Khalifa, who prevented the Ansar Affairs Authority from using it as a platform and allocated it to the other current of the family that was fighting Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi in the leadership of the Ansar led by Ahmed Al-Mahdi, which is What prompted the Commission to convert prayers to a mosque and a dunboui.

Generations

interconnection Al-Mu'tasim Ahmad al-Haj believes that the shrines of the four imams in the dome represent a continuum of generations that reinforces the symbolism of the place as a national monument in the first place, but the family - as he says - also sees in it a right due to the existence of its religious leadership, and they are also national leaders with contributions that cannot be surpassed. Which gives the place a clear symbolism in both national and historical terms.

Ahmed al-Hajj does not seem inclined to believe what is being said about the absence of al-Mahdi al-Akbar in the current shrine, as he says, "The Sudanese do not exhume the graves" to know if he really exists, but he indicates that the British raised the matter in 1898 when some newspapers spoke against the British campaign against Sudan reports that the head of Imam al-Mahdi was carried to Britain, but this has not been conclusively proven.