THE MOHAMMEDAN MESSIAH.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1046, 21 December 1882, Page 1

THE MOHAMMEDAN MESSIAH.

Concerning the liaise Prophet of the Soudan the Argus writes 1 “ He is being generally accepted as the Mahdy, the promised Redeemer foretold by by Mohammed. He threatens to conquer Egypt, and afterwards to advance ou Mecca, the sacred city of Islam, and to fight the Turks. Grave fears are expressed that the Egyptians composing the expedition now being organised byBaker Pasha would desert it led against the Prophet, and (hat Khartoum, the principal city of the Soudan, will be left undefended. An interesting article in the September number of Blackwood on the *' Coming of (he Mahdy ’ states that the expectation is very widely spread among the Moslems. According to tradition, the Prophet predicted that a deliverer should be born from his descendants, and many Moslems believe that the present year (1300 of the era of the Hegira') is the appointed time. A prophecy concerning one of the impostors who has assumed this title is as follows: ‘On the first month of Moharrera, in the year 130 i (12th November. 1882) will appear C

Medhi. or Messiah. He will be exactly 40 years of age, and of noble bearing-. One arm will bs longer than the other. His father’s name will be Mahommed, and his mother’s Fatima, and he will he hidden for a time prior to his manifestation. ” The writer in Blackwood states that the prophetic fore-warning declares that‘he. coming will he preceded by a time of great and general trouble. Gog and Magog, in whom the faithful recognise the .Russian power, must first hurst the b uid.s set for them by Alexander the Great ; the loss of tlie Khalifa dominions, swallowed up by the infidels, is expected to. , follow ; and in the vicinity of Homs, or, according to others, of Aleppo, the great battle—the Moslem Armageddon

—is to he fought between the faithful and the combined powers of heathendom. 'l'hc final result of the battle, is to be decided Dy the appearance of El Mabdy, who will rally the dispersed Moslems, and put the infidels to flight.