Sayyid Ali al-Mirghani

Sayyid Ali al-Mirghani (1873–1968) was a Sudanese religious and political leader, head of the Maraghna family, which led the Khatmiyya Sufi order in Egypt, Sudan and Eritrea; on his brother Ahmed's death in 1928 he became the family's religious and political leader, and remained so until his own death forty years later. ^{1 2}

His leadership rested first on a long alliance with the Anglo-Egyptian government against the Mahdist state, then on his headship of the "Unity of the Nile Valley" camp that favoured union with Egypt against the Ansar camp of Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi; when he broke with Ismail al-Azhari he founded the People's Democratic Party in 1956 and brought al-Azhari's government down. ^{2 3}

Ali al-Mirghani was born in 1873, according to the English article and Wikidata — the Arabic article doubts the year itself, mentioning 1870 and 1880 and preferring about 1879, because an intelligence report estimated his age at eleven in 1890 — into the Maraghna family founded by his ancestor Muhammad Uthman al-Mirghani al-Khatim, founder of the Khatmiyya, whose family had settled at Kassala and Suakin; his mother, of the Anqariab tribe of Berber, died when he was seven. ^{2 1 4}

In 1881 he moved with his father Muhammad Uthman to Kassala, where he attended primary school until the battle of Kassala between the Mahdist Ansar and Italian troops; he then left for Massawa and Suakin with his father, and at Suakin studied fiqh under his uncle, Muhammad Uthman Taj al-Sir al-Mirghani. ²

Meanwhile his father travelled to Egypt seeking support against the Mahdist state, but died there on 15 January 1886, and his grave in Cairo became a Sufi shrine. ^{2 1}

The family enjoyed the attention of the intelligence services and the Anglo-Egyptian government: Holder Smith, Director of the Red Sea Directorate, wrote to the Sirdar that "the Khatmiyya order still has a strong presence in Sudan, and this boy is expected to be of use to the government". ^{2 1}

The government arranged financial allocations for the family, to spend on followers, successors and family members; the head of the family, Muhammad Uthman Taj al-Sir, received the largest share, which passed after him to Ali al-Mirghani. ^{2 1}

His uncle was encouraged to send him to Cairo, where he stayed five years, visiting al-Azhar and widening his reading and learning, though he took no official degree from it. ^{2 1}

The historian Abu Salim, as the Arabic article reports, holds that the rumours of al-Mirghani having been an intelligence officer, and of his return with the conquering army, are mere rumours. ¹

As Mahdism declined in eastern Sudan after the fall of Tokar in 1891 and then of Kassala, Ali returned to Suakin, moved to Kassala, and then to Khartoum in 1901 — three years after the Anglo-Egyptian occupation — making his headquarters at Khartoum Bahri. ²

He and the rest of the Maraghna cooperated with the British and were rewarded with the facilitation of his requests, continued subsidies, a prominent social and political position, and the recovery and expansion of their lands and of the Khatmiyya's reach; the family divided Sudan's regions among themselves, and the regions under Ali's leadership were Berber, Dongola, Wadi Halfa, Khartoum and Kordofan, while the government also granted lands, including the family's lands on the Gash at Kassala. ^{2 1}

He was decorated: Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1900, Knight Commander of the same order in 1916, and Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1919. ²

On his brother Sayyid Ahmed al-Mirghani's death in 1928 — the government having backed Ali in their succession dispute — he became the religious and political leader of the family, in rivalry with the Ansar sect led by Sayyid Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi; the hostility between Mahdists and Khatmiyya remained fierce. ^{2 1}

Al-Mirghani stood by the government on all occasions: he supported it in the First World War and fought the Turkish propaganda that traded on Turkey's standing as an Islamic caliphate; he helped marginalise Ali Dinar, Sultan of Darfur, signing a letter drafted by the intelligence services in his name calling on Dinar to withdraw his forces, which enabled the British invasion of Darfur in 1916; he contacted Hussein bin Ali, King of Hejaz, and reconciled him with Muhammad ibn Ali al-Idrisi, and took part in coordinating the Arab Revolt with Reginald Wingate. ^{2 1}

He opposed the 1919 revolution in Egypt in a memorandum issued with several Sudanese political leaders, and condemned the Sudanese White Flag revolution of 1924. ²

After the Graduates' Club was created in 1918 he drew close to its members and promoted the idea of "Unity of the Nile Valley" — union with Egypt under the Egyptian crown, emphasising the two nations' cultural and geographical ties and fearing rule by the Ansar; this led to the Ashiqqa (Brothers) party in 1943, which became the National Unionist Party in 1952, while Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi promoted "Sudan for the Sudanese" and founded the Umma Party in 1945. ²

The pro-Egyptian NUP boycotted the 1948 Legislative Assembly elections, then won the 1953 parliamentary elections, but its leader Ismail al-Azhari shifted to support Sudanese independence, which was declared on 1 January 1956. ²

Internal divisions between the al-Azhari faction and the Khatmiyya — primarily around al-Azhari's secular policies — produced a split in June 1956, the Khatmiyya founding the People's Democratic Party under Ali al-Mirghani's leadership; the PDP and Umma together removed al-Azhari, whose successor Abdallah Khalil handed power to General Ibrahim Abboud on 17 November 1958, and Abboud outlawed all parties. ^{2 3}

In 1967 the PDP was reunified with the National Unionist Party as the Democratic Unionist Party, in a decision taken at al-Mirghani's own house, according to the Catalan article. ³

The museum records the value sufi for him, on the documented basis of his headship of the Khatmiyya order itself: the English article's lead names him "the late leader of the Khatmiyya, a sufi order"; the Arabic article's lead names his family's leadership of "the Sufi Khatmiyya tariqa" and makes him its head; the Catalan article calls him head of the Khatmiyya tariqa of Sudan. These are independent attestations of the affiliation itself — his headship of the order — and not an inference from his descent from its founder, which is family background and is not the basis. ^{2 1 3}

No source names a madhhab for him, so no sunni value is recorded; Wikidata carries no religion statement for him at all. ⁴

The long Husayni genealogy the Arabic article sets out for the family, ascribed to al-Zabidi and al-Jabarti, together with the doubts raised against it, is a lineage claim reported by the sources; it is not an attestation of a school and nothing in his record rests on it. ¹

Al-Mirghani was afflicted with kidney disease and died after surgery on 21 February 1968 at Hillat Khojali, Khartoum Bahri, where he had lived, and was buried in his mosque at Khartoum Bahri; he was succeeded by his son Mohamed Osman al-Mirghani as leader of the Khatmiyya and of the People's Democratic Party. ^{2 1}

• English Wikipedia article on Ali al-Mirghani (revision 1360431323); Arabic Wikipedia article «علي الميرغني» (revision 76674234); Catalan Wikipedia article (revision 38700046); Wikidata item Q11279401.
• Recorded conflicts: birth year (1873 in the English article and Wikidata; the Arabic article prefers about 1879 on an intelligence report's age estimate); birthplace (Massawa in Wikidata and "Masawa" in the English article; Masawi island in the Arabic); the year Kassala fell to the government (1894 in the English article; 1896 in the Arabic).