"Yes, the same Ishmael Ameer that married the Coptic woman who lies
buried on the edge of the desert."
And meantime the British Inspectors, suspecting some hidden quackery and
fatuity, some fanatical intrigue masquerading as religious liberalism,
were whispering among themselves--
"This is a new kind of religious game--what the deuce does it mean, I
wonder?"
*CHAPTER II*
Within a month an immense concourse of people had gathered about Ishmael
at Khartoum. They came first from Omdurman and the little shipbuilding
village of Khogali, on the other side of the Blue Nile, which sent daily
through the desert air a ceaseless noise of the hammering of rivets;
then they came from Kordofan and still farther south, and from Berber
and yet farther north.
A few who had means lodged in the houses of the native quarter, but the
larger number encamped in tents on the desert side of old Mahmud's
house. Men, women, and children, they flocked in thousands to see the
holy man of Khartoum and to drink of the river of his words. They began
to see in him a man sent from God, to call him "Master," and to speak of
him as the "White Prophet."
At that the Governor of the city, a British Colonel, began to be
alarmed, and with certain of his Inspectors he went over to see Ishmael.
"What can these people want here?" he asked. "What bread is there for
them in this wilderness?"
"The bread of life," Ishmael answered, and the Christian Governor went
away silenced though unsatisfied.
During Ishmael's first weeks in Khartoum his house was open, and anybody
might come and go in it; but somewhat later it was observed that he was
daily receiving messengers, agents, emissaries, and missionaries of some
sort in secret. They came and went by camel, by boat, and by train, and
rumour had it that they communicated with every quarter of Egypt and the
Soudan. Ishmael appeared to spend the morning of every day in his house
receiving and dispatching these people. What did it mean? The British
Inspectors suspected the existence of a vast network of fanatical
conspiracy, but only the members of Ishmael's own household knew what
was going on.
Meantime at noon every day Ishmael, exercising his right as an Alim,
lectured in the mosque. What he said in that sealed chamber no
Christian might know, and never an echo of his message there was
permitted to escape from its hushed and guarded vaults. But still after
sunset he sat on the angerib in front of his uncle's house and taught
the excited crowds that were eager to catch a word of his inspired
doctrine.
His lectures took a new subject. They denounced the spirit of the age.
It was irreligious, for it put a premium on selfishness. It was
idolatrous, for it provoked to the worship of wealth.
"O my brothers," cried Ishmael, "when Mohammed (to him be prayer and
peace) arose in Mecca, men worshipped the black wooden idols of the
Koreish. To his earnest soul this was a darkness, a mockery, an
abomination. There was only one god, and that was God. God was great,
and there was nothing else great. Therefore he went out from Mecca that
he might gather strength to assail the black wooden idols of the
Koreish, and when he returned he broke them in pieces.
"That was thirteen centuries ago, O my brothers, and behold, darkness
covers the earth again. Men are now worshipping the yellow idols of a
corrupt civilisation. Moslems and Christians alike are bending the knee
to the golden calf. It is idolatry as rank as the Prophet destroyed,
and tenfold more damnable because it is done in the name of God."
With that, he called on his people to renounce the things of this world.
Its prizes were not the prizes that could enrich them. Time and its
shows rested on eternity. The things of the other world were the only
true realities. Why struggle for the semblance and form of things and
neglect the substance and essence? This poor earth of ours was the
threshold of heaven--let them forget the affairs of this life and fix
their minds on the life to come.
The people listened to Ishmael with bated breath. Ignorant, unlettered,
wild creatures as they were, sons and daughters of the desert, they knew
what application of his words they were intended to make.
But the authorities were perplexed. Just as sure as ever of the
presence of a far-reaching fanatical conspiracy, and that Ishmael's
teaching meant opposition to the Government, some of them said--
"This is the doctrine of the Mahdi, and it will end as it ended before,
in destruction and desolation--let us put it down before the storm
breaks."