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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 January 2009
This article focuses on two major aspects of the Mahdist political economy, i.e., its fiscal and monetary systems. It attempts to integrate an analysis of their structure with that of the political behavior of the Mahdist rulers in order to show how the Mahdist rulers' political power and personal aspirations affected the development of both systems. In doing so, the article will be primarily concerned with the struggle of the successors of the Mahdi for resource control; it will examine the efforts of the ruling group to control and manipulate the fiscal and monetary systems in order to turn these—and indeed the economy as a whole—into a power base so as to preserve the established political order.
Author's note: This article is part of a more comprehensive study of the Mahdist economy. The study in its original form was submitted to the University of Haifa in September 1984 as an M.A. thesis entitled “Changes in the Economy of the Sudan During the Mahdiyya, 1881–1898.” My gratitude goes to my supervisors Professors Gabriel Warburg and Gad Gilbar for their encouragement. The responsibility for the contents of this article falls, needless to say, on the author only.Google Scholar
1 Tachau, F., ed., Political Elites and Political Development in the Middle East (New York, 1976), p. 16.Google Scholar
2 Ibn Khaldūn's following observation on bedouins who are attracted to city life is most relevant to the Mahdist case since it helps to explain 'Abdallah's desire to augment his wealth. There are only few bedouins, according to Ibn Khaldun, who can compete with the urban population and acquire the necessary wealth that is the basis for city life. Since most of them are unable to obtain this wealth, they cannot compete and are disgraced. See: Khaldūn, Ibn, Muqaddimat Ibn Khaldūn, Vol. 3 (Cairo, 1967), pp. 1000–1001.Google Scholar
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7 Specialized elites or general elites are terms used to describe those groups in society who mediate between the core elite and the masses. These groups assume different institutional forms (e.g., religious functionaries, government officials or top bureaucrats) and translate the policies of the core elite into action. In the process they can make decisions that reflect their own wishes, but only to the extent that those are not in direct contradiction to the interests of the core elite. See: Zartman, Political Elites, p. 1;Google ScholarZonis, M., The Political Elite of Iran (Princeton, N.J., 1971), p. 196;Google ScholarWaterbury, J., The Commander of the Faithful: The Morocan Political Elite—A Study in Segmented Politics (London, 1970), pp. 152, 275 and 318;Google ScholarFleron, F. J. Jr, “Toward a Reconceptualization of Political Change in the Soviet Union: The Political Leadership System,” in Fleron, F. J. Jr, Communist Studies and Social Sciences: Essays on Methodology and Empirical Theory (Chicago, 1969), p. 232.Google Scholar
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9 Hill, R., Egypt in the Sudan 1820–1881 (London, 1959), pp. 38–39.Google Scholar
10 For details on the Egyptian tax system and methods of taxation see: Stewart, D. H., Report on the Sudan, C. 3670, 1883, pp. 4, 13–14, 26;Google ScholarSlatin, R. C., Fire and Sword in the Sudan (London,1922), p. 4;Google ScholarShuqayr, N., Jughräfiyyat wa-ta'rikh al-Sūdān (Beirut, 1967), pp. 632–33;Google ScholarNeufeld, C., A Prisoner of the Khalifa (London, 1899), p. 350.Google Scholar
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12 It is beyond the scope of this article to compare the Mahdist fiscal system with the system that had developed during the first Muslim state of the Prophet Muhammad. For details on bayt al-māl, ghanīma, fay', sadaqa and zakāh, zakāt al-für, and ‘cushr see: El1+2. On khums see: Sachedina, Abdulaziz, “Al-Khums: The Fifth in the lmāmī Shī'ī System,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 39 (1980), 275–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13 Holt, P. M., The Mahdist State in the Sudan 1881–1898 (London, 1970), p. 125.Google Scholar
14 Wingate, F. R., Ten Years Captivity in the Mahdi's Camp 1882–1892 (London, 1893), p. 62;Google ScholarShibeika, M., Mukhtasar ta'rīkh al-Sūdān al-hadīth (Cairo, 1963), p. 93;Google ScholarHolt, Mahdist State, p. 125.Google Scholar
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18 Muwallad was the description of sons born in the Sudan to immigrant Copts from Egypt.Google Scholar
19 Nur, S. M., “A Critical Edition of the Memoirs of Yūsuf Mikhā'īl,” unpublished Ph.D. thesis, SOAS, London, 1963, pp. 75–76.Google Scholar
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22 There were twelve Northerners and ten Egyptians, ther Copts or muwallads. Only four others were of different origin. Members of the Ja'aliyīn tribe also played a decisive role in the treasuries. Holt, Mahdist State, pp. 252–54;Google ScholarShibeika, M., al-Sūdān fī qarn 1819–1919 (Cairo, 1947), p. 258.Google Scholar
23 Until the Anglo-Egyptian occupation in 1898 seven men occupied this office: (1) Ahmad Sulaymān 1300–1303 H/ 1883–1885. (2) lbrāhīm 'Adlān 1303–1307 H/1885–1889. (3) Muhammad al-Zākī 'Uthmān and 'Awad al-Mardi (jointly) 1307 H/ 1889–1890 for few weeks only. (4) Al-Nūr Ibrāhīm al-Jirayfāwī 1307–1310 H/ 1890–1892. (5) Al-'Awah al-Marhi (second term) 1310–1314 H/ 1892– 1896. (6) lbrāhīm Ramahān al-Aswānī 1314–1315 H/ 1896–1897. (7) Al-'Awah al-Marhī (third term) 1315 H/ 1897 for three months only. (8) Al-Hājj Ahmad Yasīn al-Nīla 1315 H/ 1897 until the occupation.Google Scholar
24 Nur, “Memoirs,” p. 93;Google ScholarNeufeld, Prisoner, pp. 145–46.Google Scholar
25 Wingate, Ten Years, pp. 323, 379.Google Scholar
26 Neufeld, Prisoner, p. 147.Google Scholar
27 Nur, “Memoirs,” pp. 93–94.Google Scholar
28 For details regarding this dispute see Shuqayr, Ta'rīkh, pp. 1141–42;Google ScholarSlatin, Fire, p. 276;Google ScholarNeufeld, Prisoner, pp. 147–51;Google ScholarWingate, Ten Years, pp. 324–27.Google Scholar
29 Holt, Mahdist State, pp. 194–95.Google Scholar
30 Shuqayr, Ta'rīkh, p. 1259;Google ScholarGeneral Report on the Egyptian Sudan 1895, p. 8. Abū Salīm asserts that there were seven treasuries. He distinguishes between bayt māl warshat al-harbiyya and bayt māl al-tirsāna, and between bayt māl al-khums and bayt māl al-fay', Salīm, M. I. Abū, al-Ard fī 'l-Mahdiyya (Khartoum, 1970), p. 40.Google Scholar
31 Farewell, B., Prisoners of the Mahdi (London, 1967), p. 25;Google ScholarHolt, Mahdisr Stare, p. 125;Google ScholarSalīm, Abū, al-Arh, p. 40.Google Scholar
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37 Shuqayr, Ta'rīkh, p. 931.Google Scholar
38 See, for example, a dispatch from the Mahdi to Ahmad Sulaymān, 10 February 1885, in which he indicates that the army is growing while the revenues in the treasury arc falling: Salīm, M. I. Abū, al-Murshid ilā wathā'iq al-Mahdī (Khartoum, 1969), p. 279.Google Scholar
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43 Wingate, Ten Years, p. 313;Google ScholarBedri, Y. and Scott, G., The Memoirs of Babikr Bedri (London, 1969), p. 146.Google Scholar On the collection of taxes during the Mahdiyya see: Nakash, Y., “Changes in the Economy of the Sudan During the Mahdiyya, 1881–1898,” unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Haifa, 1984, pp. 66–68.Google Scholar
44 General Military Report on the Egyptian Sudan 1891, p. 14.Google Scholar
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46 In the absence of data on the total income of the Mahdist state from taxes, one may get an idea of the significance of these figures by comparing them with the data available on the state's foreign trade. Shuqayr (1261) indicates that the value of goods imported to the Sudan between 1892–1898 via Aswan and Suakin reached 477, 869 Egyptian pounds, while exports reached 397, 451 Egyptian pounds. Collins cites only the export figures for those years, which, based on his data, reached a total of £317,080 (one Egyptian or English pound was equal to between five and six rials). Cf. Collins, R. O., The Southern Sudan: A Struggle for Control (New Haven and London, 1964), p. 57.Google Scholar See also: Nakash, Y., “Reflections on a Subsistence Economy: Production and Trade of the Mahdist Sudan, 1881–1898,” in Kedourie, Elie and Haim, Sylvia, eds., Essays on the Economic History of the Middle East (London, 1988), pp. 51–69.Google Scholar
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55 Ibid.
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57 Salīm, Abū, al-Arh, p. 40;Google ScholarShuqayr, Ta'rīkh, p. 1259.Google Scholar
58 General Military Report, 1881, p. 14;Google ScholarGeneral Report, 1895, p. 9. The economic and political advantages of hoarding will be discussed in the section dealing with the monetary system.Google Scholar
59 See note 46.Google Scholar
60 Spaulding, The Age, pp. 104–11.Google ScholarFor details on means of exchange in the precolonial period see: Kapteijns and Spaulding, “Precolonial Trade,” p. 29;Google ScholarSpaulding, J., “The Management of Exchange in Sinnār,” in Manger, Leif O., ed., Trade and Markets in the Eastern Sudan (Bergen, 1984), pp. 25–48.Google Scholar
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62 Wingate, Mahdiism, p. 593. One may assume that people still attached greater importance to other means of payment made of gold, and that this lowered the real value of coins.Google Scholar
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64 Ibid., pp. 37–38.
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69 Ibid., p. 594.
70 Ibid.
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72 Ibid., p. 166.
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74 Extracts from Father Leon Hanriot's letter to Father Bonomi regarding units of currency in the Mahdist state, in Wingate, Mahdiism, p. 598. The dollar referred to by Hanriot is the rial issued by the Mahdi.Google Scholar
75 Ibid.
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79 Gold coins were not issued in the Khalifa's period.Google Scholar
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83 General Report 1895, p. 15.Google Scholar
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86 Ibid., p. 172; Shuqayr, Ta'rîkh, p. 1261.Google Scholar
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88 Ibid., p. 175.
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90 Salīm, M. I. Abū, Manshūrāt al-mahdiyya (Beirut, 1969), p. 277. I was unable to determine the origin of the Kabbāshī and Jirayqundī.Google Scholar
91 General Report 1895, p. 15.Google Scholar
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97 He issued further proclamations that those who had sufficient means should finance the costs of the jihad themselves as the treasury would finance only the poor. One may take this regulation as another step of absorption aimed at reducing the means of payment in the economy. See for example: From the Mahdi to all the umarā, nu'āb, 'umāl and to all the anhār, fuqarā, 'ulamā and the merchants, 27 February 1884, al-Ahkām, pp. 94–102;Google Scholar from the Mahdi to his followers preparing themselves for the hijra and the jihad, 16 October 1883, al-Ahkām, p. 190;Google Scholar from the Mahdi to Ahmad Sulaymān, 1302 H/2 November 1883 to 20 October 1884;Google ScholarSalīm, Abū, al-Murshid, p. 209.Google Scholar
98 When the real value of a given coin is higher than its nominal value.Google Scholar
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100 Ibid.
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102 At relatively low cost forgers could produce coins identical in form but slightly superior to those issued by the treasury. From the forgers' point of view, the high profit involved in this business was worth the risk of punishment. This practice continued until Ilyas 'Abdallah, the head of the mint in the treasury, was himself accused of counterfeiting, and punished by having his right hand and left foot cut off. Neufeld, Prisoner, p. 211;Google ScholarJob, “Coinage,” p. 169.Google Scholar