He was armed with rifles and given a mountain rifle and its ammunition. Abu Anja had barely marched ten camels from Omdurman when he was met by Al-Mahdi. So Al-Ta'ayshi wrote to him asking whether to continue the march or return, and he advised him to proceed to his destination. He continued his march and raided the mountains, capturing a lot of livestock and people. He used to send some of the spoils to Al-Ta'ayshi and some to his brother Ya'qub, until what happened with Ahmad Khalid, which will be mentioned later.

The death of Al-Mahdi. On the night of Thursday, the fifth of Ramadan, in the year 1308 AH, Al-Mahdi fell ill. In the evening, the news of his illness spread among the people, but they did not care, confident in what he had promised them, that death would not overtake him before he conquered Egypt, Syria, Kufa, and the Hijaz. On the fifth day of Ramadan, his illness worsened, and Egyptian doctors were brought to him. They diagnosed it as typhoid fever and declared his condition critical. They prescribed medicine for him, and when they left, I visited him and was told that there was no hope for him. On the morning of Tuesday, the Khalifa Abd Allah Al-Ta'ayshi appointed his deputy to lead the prayer, contrary to his usual practice, as he usually appointed a senior Khalifa to lead the prayer. He had appointed a man from the people of Berber named Ahmad Al-Jamali. He was told that Khalifa Abd Allah did not know how to read or write, so how could he give a sermon to the people? He said, "Bring him a paper for the sermon and a pen, and he can read a word or two from it." They brought him the paper and he gave the sermon.