Karam Allāh Muḥammad Kurkusāwī[a] (died 1903) was aDongolāwīMahdistemir (amīr).[1] Born on the island of Kurkus, nearShendi, Karam Allāh worked with slave traders in theBaḥr al-Ghazāl in his youth. In 1882 he went toal-Ubaiyaḍ to enlist with the Mahdists.[1]
In 1884Muḥammad Aḥmad al-Mahdī sent Karam Allāh back to the Baḥr al-Ghazāl as emir and gave him an army. He captured theEgyptian governor,Frank Lupton (Lupton Bey),[2] and the garrison.[1] In 1885, when theRizaiqāt of southernDār Fūr rebelled by accepting as refugess some mutinous Mahdists from al-Ubaiyaḍ, Karam Allāh and his brother, Muḥammad Shaikh, led a large army against him.[3] When the Rizaiqāt chiefMadībbū Bey ʿAlī refused a summons, his forces were attacked nearShaqqa. They lost the ensuing battle and Madībbū fled north. He was eventually captured by Yūsuf Ibrāhīm and turned over to Karam Allāh, who sent him on toOmdurman.[3]
In 1896 he was wounded in theBattle of Ferkeh. In 1898, when the Mahdists were defeated, he fled to the court ofʿAlī Dīnār, sultan of Dār Fūr. He was eventually executed atal-Fāṣhar on suspicion of intriguing against the sultan.[1]