Sadiq Al-Mahdi (1935-2020) *84

was a Sudanese political and religious figure who was Prime Minister of Sudan from 1966 to 1967 and again from 1986 to 1989. He was head of the National Umma Party and Imam of the Ansar, a sufi order which pledges allegiance to Muhammad Ahmad (1844–1885), who claimed to be the Mahdi, the messianic saviour of Islam. Sadiq al-Mahdi was born on 25 December 1935 in Al-Abasya, Omdurman, Sudan. His father, Al Siddiq Al Mahdi (1911–1961), was a politician, who married his cousin, Rahma Abdullah Jadallah from the Kawahla people.[citation needed]

He was the paternal grandson of Sayyid Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi, founder of the Umma Party, and great-grandson of Muhammad Ahmad, the Sudanese sheikh of the Ansar and Mahdi who led the Mahdist War to reclaim Sudan from Anglo-Egyptian rule. He was also the paternal uncle of Sudanese-British actor Alexander Siddig.

Sadiq al-Mahdi married twice, and had ten children including a daughter named Mariam, born in 1965, who became the deputy leader of the National Umma Party.