Mudathir Ali Al-Bushi and His Role in Political Life

The family of Ali Al-Bushi and the family of Ismail Al-Wali, which included a marriage of Kamil Muhammad Al-Baqir, the founding director of Omdurman Islamic University and nephew of Nafisa bint Al-Baqir bin Ismail Al-Wali, mother of Mudathir Al-Bushi, to Nafisa bint Mudathir Al-Bushi, and the marriage of Muhammad bin Makki bin Al-Baqir bin Ismail Al-Wali to Amina daughter of Abd Al-Salam bin Ali Al-Bushi, and other marriages that closely united the two families. As for Mr. Ahmed Al-Harami bin Ismail, a companion and friend of Ali Al-Bushi, he is famous in the history of Sudan for returning from Al-Azhar and leading the campaign to stop the Mahdist movement in western Sudan, and he was killed in the Battle of El Obeid by the followers of Muhammad Ahmad Al-Mahdi. At Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, Ali Al-Bushi studied under the greatest scholars of Al-Azhar, and he was also one of the first students of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani. It seems he was one of his most enthusiastic supporters and his reformist approach, which later influenced the directions of change that Mudathir Al-Bushi carried and advocated for (15). A great friendship also existed between Sheikh Ali Al-Bushi and Sheikh Muhammad Abduh (16). After Sheikh Ali Al-Bushi returned to Sudan, he settled in the area of Um Jar on the White Nile, near Duweim. There, he established a khalwa for knowledge and the Quran, and he also founded a zawiya for students. During that period, as some sources mention, Muhammad Ahmad bin Abdullah, before declaring his Mahdism, visited Ali Al-Bushi and read to him the Risala of Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani on the Maliki school of thought, which is a treatise on Maliki jurisprudence (17). The Mahdi and Sheikh Ali were close in age; Ali Al-Bushi was perhaps four years older than the Mahdi. Ali Al-Bushi's fame was great, especially after his return from Al-Azhar, to the extent that it was said that all of Wad Madani came out to receive him upon his return from Al-Azhar. Muhammad Ahmad himself, before declaring his Mahdism, was keen to meet scholars and gain knowledge from them. I believe that some of the famous sheikhs of the Mahdi may have been of a lower scholarly rank than Sheikh Ali Al-Bushi. The man's knowledge, in addition to his reformist biography and his founding of one of the most important mosques and centers of learning in Wad Madani, the Al-Bushi Mosque, was also evident in what was said about his works on inheritance law (18).

African Studies 107