Between the Mahdiyya and the Muslim Brotherhood: Continuity and Change in Islamic Radicalism in Sudan

Abstract

This article examines the highly charged and complex confluence of politics and religion in the life of the Sudanese society and state, surveying the period from the late nineteenth century until the early twenty-first century. While tracing the major oscillations of Islamic radicalism in the Sudanese context, both prior to and in the wake of independence, this article focuses on two different developments: the Mahdiyya revolution (1881–98) and the decade-long ‘Turabiyya’ phenomenon in the 1990s. Nevertheless, the impact of these two movements on the moulding of Sudanese society exceeds these specific time periods. Although sharing a number of values, goals and characteristics in common, the Mahdiyya and ‘Turabiyya’ differ profoundly from one another and are clearly asymmetric in their scope, essence and impact. This article places particular emphasis on the ‘Turabiyya’ phenomenon, still a relatively unexplored field of research at the juncture of religion and politics in Sudan.