Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Mahdi

Mahdi , noun

[Arabic, guide, leader.]

Among Muslims, the last imam or leader of the faithful. The Sunni, the largest sect of the Muslims, believe that he is yet to appear.

The title has been taken by several persons in countries where Islam prevails, -- notably by Mohammad Ahmed, who overran the Egyptian Sudan, and in 1885 captured Khartum, his soldiers killing General Gordon, an Englishman, who was then the Egyptian governor of the region.