[1][2] This period of Ali Dinar's reign was troublesome, with him ultimately being urged by his followers to enter negotiations with the Mahdists in al-Fāshir, an act which brought about raids upon him by the Masālīt and his being despoiled by Bakhīt Abū Risha of Dār Silā.

[7][8] Ali Dinar's time in Omdurman is obscure, but it is alleged that he was made a mulāzim [attendant] to the Khalīfa or his son, ʿUthmān, and came to be an acquaintance of Rudolf Slatin.

[9][10] Later, Ali Dinar entered the service of amīr Ibrāhīm al-Khalīl, Mahdist commander of jihādiyya, accompanying him in 1896 to fight in the Nuba Mountains.

[12] Rendering hapless the Mahdist garrison at al-Fāshir and rival contenders to the throne, Ali Dinar began to rapidly reassert the authority of the Darfur Sultanate.

[14][15] In 1915 Ali Dinar declared his support to the Ottoman Empire in the First World War, which led the British government to dispatch the invasion of Darfur, in which he was killed in action, after which his sultanate was incorporated into Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.