Sayyid Ali al-Mirghani

Sir Sayyid Ali al-Mirghani (, 1873 – 21 February 1968) was a Sudanese religious and political leader. The late leader of the Khatmiyya, a sufi order known in Egypt, Sudan and Eritrea. His family, settled in Kassala and Suakin, were hostile to the Mahdist state and allied with the Egyptian government, and the hostility between the Mahdist and Khatmiyya was fierce until the 1989 coup d'état.

Biography

Early life Ali al-Mirghani was born on Masawa 1875, and 1884 are also mentioned into the Maraghna family, founded by his grandfather Mohammed Uthman al-Mirghani al-Khatim. His mother is from the and she died when he was 7.

IN 1881, Ali moved with his father to Kassala, where he remained, studied primary school until the Battle of Kassala between the Ansar of the Mahdist state and the Italian troops. After the battle, he left it to Masawa and then Suakin with his father, where he studied fiqh at the hands of his uncle, Muhammad Uthman Taj al-Sir al-Mirghani. During this time, his father visited Egypt seeking support in confronting the Mahdist state, but he died on 15 January 1886, and his grave in Cairo became a Sufi shrine. and then Kassala in 1894, so Ali al-Mirghani returned to Suakin, then moved to Kassala and then to Khartoum in 1901, three years after the Anglo-Egyptian occupation of Sudan in 1899 and. and the Maraghna family regained and expanded their lands and religious sect, the Khatmiyya. The Maraghna divided the regions in Sudan among themselves. The regions under the leadership of Ali al-Mirghani were: Berber, Dongola, Wadi Halfa, Khartoum, and Kordofan, with his headquarters in Khartoum Bahri. Following his brother Sayyid Ahmed al-Mirghani's death in 1928, Ali al-Mirghani became the religious and political leader of the family, which rivalled the Ansar sect led by Sayyid Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi. Ali became close to members of the club emphasising cultural and geographical ties between the two nations, also fearing being under the rule of the Ansar. which later became the National Unionist Party (NUP) in 1952. On the other hand, Abdul Rahman al-Mahdi of the Ansar sect, promoted the idea of "Sudan for Sudanese". This group dominated the club's leadership from 1920 to 1933. For this faction, the Mahdi was portrayed as the first Sudanese nationalist and Abd al-Rahman was to many an attractive leader of the independence movement. This faction formed the National Umma Party in February 1945.

The pro-Egyptian NUP boycotted the 1948 Legislative Assembly elections. As a result, pro-independence groups dominated the Legislative Assembly. On 19 October 1952, an agreement was reached between Britain and the Umma-dominated legislature and their allies in a coalition known as the Sudanese Independence Front. In 1953 parliamentary elections, the pro-Egyptian NUP won the election and his leader Ismail al-Azhari's recognised growing public opposition to union with Egypt. In response, al-Azhari shifted the party's stance to support Sudanese independence, which was declared on 1 January 1956. Abboud outlawed all political parties. on 21 February 1968 in , Khartoum Bhari.

Awards and honours Ali was awarded the Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1900, Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1916, and Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1919.