Syd. Abd-el-Rahman el-Mahdi, was born in June 1885, died in 1959, was a religious and political leaders in Sudan. He was the son of Mohammed Ahmed el-Mahdi and was born a few days after his father's death. Along with his brother Ali, the two were the only surviving sons of the Mahdi following the Anglo-Egyptian invasion of the Sudan in 1898. He became one of the leading figures in the struggle for the independence of Sudan. He was the founder of the Umma party and started the first Sudanese newspaper . He was the father of Al-Siddig and Al-Hadi. His other sons in order of birth were Yahia (d.1970), Ahmed, Mohammed and Ghazi.