Anṣār banner · The Making African Connections Digital Archive

Title

Anṣār banner

tablecloth

Creator

Creator Unrecorded

Subject

Sudan; religion; campaign mementoes; relics, personal; ethnography

Crafts

Description

Banner carried by military or civilian followers of the Mahdī (anṣār (الأنصار).

A rare example of a banner that includes an invocation of the important historical Sufi figure, sheikh ʿAbd-al-Qādir al-Jīlānī, along with the honorific walī allah, literally ‘friend of Allah’. The banner is described in current interpretation as a "tablecloth reputed to have been used by General Gordon". The original fabric, in a strong woven square, may indeed have been a tablecloth, throw or even carpet, made of material imported to Sudan during the Ottoman/Egyptian occupation and “recycled” for use as a banner. The central area features a pattern of a dark blue stylized floral shapes, which the series of decorative borders have mirrored stylized floral shapes and geometric forms in blue, red, green and yellow. The appliqued script is made from local Sudanese cotton, folded into lengths and stitched in rough fashion. The opening line appears to have been added at a later date and differs slightly in style. The central declaration features a misspelling of al-Jīlānī’s name. The Arabic script reads:

bismillah al-raḥman al-raḥīm
yā allah yā raḥmān yā raḥīm
lā illah ill’allah muḥammad rasūl allah muḥammad al-mahdī khalīfat rasūl allah | al-jīlī walī allah

In the name of Allah the compassionate the merciful
Oh Allah, O the compassionate, O the merciful
There is no god but Allah [and] Muḥammad is the Prophet of Allah Muḥammad the Mahdī is the successor of the Prophet
of Allah | al-Jīl[ān]ī is a friend of Allah [FHM 25/09/2019]