“Turn from your evil ways of living. Oppress not the people. I, the Mahdi, have ordered it. I will punish the oppressors of the poor. Prepare for my coming.” Rauf Pasha, the Egyptian governor general of the Soudan, received the message. He sent for Abu Saud, the great Mohammedan theologian, and showed him the message. “What thinkest thou?” asked Rauf Pasha. “The prophet foretold the coming of the Mahdi.” “But would he not come from Mecca?” “_Allah il Allah!_ His ways are not our ways,” answered Abu Saud. “Go thou to Bakara as my special commissioner, and find out whether this is indeed the Mahdi.” No sooner had the theologian started out on his mission than Rauf Pasha said to himself: “Abu Saud will represent the prophet, but my soldiers shall go and bring this so-called Mahdi to Khartoum, and I will make him obey me.” Abu Saud held many theological discussions with Mohammed Ahmed, and embarked on the state steamer fully convinced that the Mahdi had indeed come. No sooner had Abu Saud started on his homeward journey than a company of soldiers arrived and demanded that the Mahdi should go with them to Khartoum. The prophet went to the door and intoned the _Adan_. A hundred Arabs obeyed the call to prayer, and with faces turned toward Mecca, they joined in the prayer offered by the Mahdi. When the prayer was over Mohammed Ahmed said to the soldiers: “Go thou and tell thy master, Rauf Pasha, that it is he who must obey me.” The captain of the Egyptian soldiers made reply: “We have orders to take you to Khartoum, and that we shall do.” The standard bearer unfurled his flag, and the sun shone on the crescent emblazoned on the blood-red banner of Egypt. “Allah is with me,” said the Mahdi, devoutly. “Fight not against your _Imaum_.” The soldiers laughed and called on Mohammed to surrender. “By the great Allah and the illustrious prophet, the Mahdi will never surrender!” That was the signal for an order to fire on the followers of the Mahdi. In less than an hour every Egyptian soldier had been annihilated, and all their arms and ammunition fell into the hands of the Arabs, together with the steamer which had brought them down the Nile from Khartoum. The first blood had been shed, and the alleged Mahdi had been victorious. The followers of Mohammed went on board the steamer, and sailed down the Nile in the direction of Kordofan. Long before Kordofan was reached, the people flocked to the standard of the Mahdi, and Mohammed Ahmed was welcomed as the long-promised leader who was to triumph over the Turks and drive them from the Soudan and Egypt. The Mahdi would raise the crescent above the cross, and the whole world should be subjugated to the faith of Mahomet. Such was the rise of that wonderful man, and still more remarkable enthusiasm, which caused the plains of the Soudan to be dyed crimson with the blood of Egyptian and Turkish and English soldiers.