Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah was born in what is modern day Sudan. He became a religious leader and then, after amassing an army of 100,000 followers, waged jihad against the Turco-Egyptian rulers of the region (and the British who were assisting them). He began calling himself the Mahdi and eventually conquered the city of Khartoum where he and his army slaughtered thousands. Author of "First Jihad: Khartoum, and the Dawn of Militant Islam," Daniel Allen Butler, refers to Ahmad as the ideological forefather of terrorists like Osama Bin Laden for what he did after the city fell. To learn more, watch a clip from Friday's Real History segment on Ahmad on 'Real News' below:
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