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.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)