The Mahdï’s humble origins thus enable him, in Sanüa’s construction, to be even more the embodiment of a divine miracle that revolutionizes the con- fining social constructions resulting from British imperialism. … Sanüa, unlike the more skeptical al- Afghänï, accepts Muhammad Ahmad’s efforts to change the Sudan spiritu- ally. He refers to him as the Mahdï, which al-Afghänï never did, and he himself cloaks all descriptions of Muhammad Ahmad in religious terms, often in classical Arabic.

Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Coloni…, loc. 477