And he said to us, and there is no escape for you except by one of two matters: either you gather the tribes of the western bank to you, the Hamouia, the Ajjeyab, the Surourab, and the Fatihhab, and we besiege Khartoum, or we enter with Gordon in the city and he becomes our master. When I saw the letter, he sent asking for the help of these tribes, so they sent to him and pledged allegiance to him to obey the Mahdi and cast off the yoke of the government. So he marched with them towards Omdurman and settled...

... He was advised to remain quiet, so the siege was at ease, so that he did not encounter any rare attacks, nor did he skirmish except with light skirmishes. And this is a picture of the woodcutter, a translation from the book "Al-Manshuat".

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

To the noble and generous Wali, and prayers be upon our master Muhammad and his family, with salutations. And thereafter, the humble servant of Allah, Al-Mahdi bin Abd Allah, to the noble elders, may Allah grant you honor.

Know that all except Allah is dust, and all in this world is fleeting, and the Mahdi has nothing but the righteous deed that conforms to the Sunnah. And anything other than that leads to regret and remorse. I have met with all the scholars and sheikhs of religion, and I have warned of troubles that will occur, and there will be no escape from them except by our consensus. This is...

...good tidings for us, and great commands. And the Prophet, peace be upon him, pointed to a place where the religion will be established and the affairs of both worlds will be rectified. Moreover, the Mahdi has no salvation except in the true religion that conforms to the Book and the Sunnah. And if the path is not on that, it is rejected. And since this is a time when people have agreed on innovations and love of this world, and it has become a habit, and the sins have followed one another, and it is known that nature...