Before there was Osama bin Laden, Abu al-Zarqawi or Ayatollah Khomeini, there was the Mahdi-the "Expected One"-who raised the Arabs in pan-tribal revolt against infidels and apostates in the late 19th-century Sudan.

Born on the Nile in 1844, Muhammed Ahmed grew into a devout, charismatic young man, whose visage was said to have always featured the placid hint of a smile. He developed a... (read more)