Egyptian exiles framed the Mahdi’s Sudanese victory as divine retribution against imperialism

Evidence

Who would have thought that al-Sayyid Ahmad Muhammad [sic], a poor man from Dongola, would achieve the rescue of the Sudan from the clutches [bi thamamihi min aydï al-zhulma] of oppression, in spite of the British tyrants defeating armies and scattering populations. … Who would have imagined him resisting, with his little dagger, the powerful cannon; cutting down with his knife British stallions with all their excellent weapons and their military training? … Yes, this is the work of God, who supports His will with victory. … God saw a violation of his will; the result is the miracle of worship. … Isn’t God He who created the rifts between Russia and England while the British prepared their troops, and made them come here to oppose the black leader of the blacks [qa´id aliswid al-sud], who claimed he was not of this humble world, and who then defeated someone like Gordon, in Khartoum? … The Mahdï’s humble origins thus enable him, in Sanü`a’s construction, to be even more the embodiment of a divine miracle that revolutionizes the confining social constructions resulting from British imperialism. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 477

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to Egypt-vs-Sudan comparative coloniality: exile distance let Egyptians reframe a Sudanese religious anti-colonial movement as a pan-Islamic miracle.
• QUESTION: How did actual Sudanese supporters of the Mahdi relate to this Egyptian romanticization, which erased Mahdist hostility toward Egyptians?