How did Muhammad Ahmad al-Mahdi govern daily life in the Mahdist state?

Muhammad Ahmad al-Mahdi governed the daily life of the Mahdist state by establishing a theocracy centered in Omdurman, where he sought to return society to the pristine form of Islam practiced by the Prophet Muhammad.1

His approach to governance included the following key elements:

• Directives and Communication: He directed community and personal life through a series of proclamations, sermons, warnings, and letters. He utilized the captured government press and stationery to disseminate these instructions.1
• Delegation: While he established the guiding principles of the state, he generally left the routine administrative tasks to his chief officers.1
• Legal and Fiscal Reform: He implemented a system of taxation based on the Qur'an rather than the previous Egyptian mandates.1
• Political Structure: He organized his government based on the model of primitive Islam, appointing four caliphs (deputies) to serve as successors, including his trusted counselor Abd Allah ibn Muhammad.1

By governing from Omdurman, an exclusively Sudanese town, he aimed to distance his administration from the associations of the former capital, Khartoum.1