Old comrades joined the Mahdi movement after defeat. [fact]
Ironically, into this realm of traditional and unquestioning adherence to religious authority stepped a number of Sanüa’s old colleagues and fellow Urabists, many of whom, he and other sources claim, joined the Mahdïya after their defeat at Tel al-Kabïr in 1883.
Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Coloni…, loc. 483