Administrative reports claimed that Sheikh Muhammad had now assumed the title of 'Mahdi'. But although widespread public awareness of earlier events in the Sudan, and sympathy for their co-religionists there, was certainly a contributory factor in the rise of Sheikh Muhammad's campaign, there is no independent evidence that he ever in fact claimed this title. Indeed, according to all reliable Somali sources, and the evidence of his letters and poems, he called himself 'Sayyid' by which title, or more simply as Ina 'Abdille Hassan (the Somali equivalent of the Arabic ibn 'Abdille) he is universally remembered throughout Somaliland today.

I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Som…, loc. 211