Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Mahdism \Mah"dism\, n.
   Belief in the coming of the Mahdi; fanatical devotion to the
   cause of the Mahdi or a pretender to that title. --
   {Mah"dist}, n.

         Mahdism has proved the most shameful and terrible
         instrument of bloodshed and oppression which the modern
         world has ever witnessed.                --E. N.
                                                  Bennett.