Map of the Mahdist State, showing the location of the principal towns where Copts were to be found (taken from P. M. Holt, A Modern History of Sudan, 2nd impression, 1972, p. 216)
Following the conquest of Sudan in 1821 by Muhammad Ali Pasha, ruler of Egypt (1805 – 1848), many Copts came to Sudan from Egypt, first as clerks, accountants and tax assessment staff in the new Ottoman-Egyptian administration, and then other Copts joined such as traders. Gradually a Coptic community built up, and like wherever Copts went, they built churches and asked the Patriarchate in Cairo to send them a bishop and priests to serve them, and then kept a low profile in order to survive within people with different religion and culture, making their main occupation to look after their children and families. Copts were to be found in the different towns of Sudan, such as Halfa, Dongola, Berber, Kassala, Qadarif, Khartoum, Sennar, Al-Obeid, Fashoda, etc. There were three bishops for Khartoum and Nuba who were appointed in succession before the start of the Mahdist revolution in 1881. Not much is known about the first two bishops (the first is Damianus who was consecrated by Patriarch Peter VII, and the second who was consecrated by the same patriarch we don’t know even his name), but the third, Bishop Macarius (1978 – 1897), was ordained by Patriarch Cyril V, and remained in Khartoum until just before the fall of Khartoum to the Mahdists on 26 January 1885. Together with seven of his priests he was forced to convert to Islam,[1] but somehow it seems that he managed to escape and arrived in Egypt where he died in Cairo in 1897.
How many Copts were in Sudan in the eve of the Mahdist revolution? What happened to them as towns across surrendered or captured by the Mahdi troops one by one? What happened to them after the Anglo-Egyptian campaign ended the Mahdist state in 1898? No other source seems to provide adequate answers to these questions but one book by one Englishman, Frederic Walter Fuller, Egypt and the Hinterland (1901). Fuller knew Egypt very well as he visited it several times and was keen follower of its news before and after the occupation of Egypt by the British in 1882. He showed special interest in his book to the Copts, in Egypt and in Sudan. On the Copts of Sudan, he benefited in his statistical data, from a manuscript written by “the president of the Coptic community during the Khalifa’s rule”. This is Yousif Mikhail Melaika,[2] a Copt who was forced to convert to Islam on the fall of al-Obeid, who later became close to Khalifa (Caliph) Abdellahi al-Ta’aishi (1885 – 1899) who succeeded the Mahdi after his death a few months after the fall of Khartoum. After the reconquest of Sudan in 1898 he handed the manuscript, which included a list of Coptic families in the Sudan during the Khalifa’s rule, to Fuller.
What do we learn from Fuller’s book? We learn the following:
- The Coptic community in Sudan previous to the rise of the Mahdi amounted to about 200-300 families residing in the principal towns of Sudan. It had a bishop and certain number of clergy.
- The greater part of those Copts emigrated northward to Egypt after or immediately before the withdrawal or submission of the Egyptian garrisons.
- The fate of those who remained in Sudan is divided into four groups:
- Some of these Copts were killed in and during the Mahdist rebellion.
- Some were exiled by the Khalifa to Gebel al-Ragaf, in the Equatoria Province, south of Fashoda, and near Juba.
- Many Copts converted to Islam to save their lives, or as Fuller says “accepted the outward garb of Mahdiism”.
- The fate of other Copts who did not accept Islam, Fuller says they were considered missing.
- Those who accepted Islam, according to the manuscript by Yousif Mikhail Melaika, constituted 77 Coptic families, amounting to roughly about 400 individuals. These Coptic families were distributed in the following towns:
- Omdurman and Khartoum: 69 families (about 350 persons)
- Kassala and Qadaref: 3 families (about 20 persons)
- Berber: 4 families (about 25 persons)
- Kordofan: 1 family
The writer recognises that there are other families not counted in the total number of 77 Coptic families, as some were residing in Dongola, Sennar, Halfa, Suakin, etc. But I think their numbers were not great.
After the end of the Mahdi State in 1898 at the hands of Kitchner,[3] and until Fuller wrote his book (he finished it in December 1900 though it was not published until next year, 70 of the Coptic families returned to Christianity while 7 families stayed Muslim. Some of the latter may have followed the majority of their brothers in the following years, but some continued in Islam. It seems that the return of the Copts to Christianity was quick once the Islamic sword was lifted off their necks and found freedom anew: Fuller says that shortly after the Battle of Omdurman (2 September 1898) more than 200 individuals converted back, and “the number increased considerably since then”.
The history of the Copts in Sudan during the rule of the Mahdists makes a sad reading. Cowardice prevailed, and no Copt – even one Copt – behaved in an honourable way and was brave enough to meet death rather than to deny his religion. None was fit to be called a descendant of our great heroic saints and martyrs. But if Bishop Macarius himself with his seven priests, as the historian Menassa Youhanna tells us,[4] absconded and left his flock without a shepherd, and then converted to Islam for fear of death, what would we expect from the simple flock. He said a bad example to his congregation – and his congregation set a bad example to us.
Below I reproduce what Fuller had to say about the Copts of Sudan. I add notes to clarify some points.
“It has been mentioned in an earlier part … that Gordon’s Supplementary Instructions,[5] addressed to him by Sir Evelyn Baring (Lord Cromer)[6] on 25th of January 1884, recognised the existence of Native Christians among the 10,000 or 15,000 people at Khartoum, who according to the estimate of local authorities, might probably wish to move northward when the Egyptian garrisons should be withdrawn.[7]
There was a Coptic Christian community existing in the Sudan previous to the rise of the Mahdi, which has been estimated at from 200 to 300 families. Their Church was represented at Khartoum by a bishop[8] and a certain number of clergy[9], who resided in the principal towns of the Sudan. The greater part of these Christians emigrated northward after, or immediately before, the withdrawal of the garrison. Of those who remained in the Sudan some were killed in and during the rebellion, and others were exiled to Gebel el-Ragaf, south of Fashoda, by order of the Khalifa. Many no doubt accepted the outward garb of Mahdiism, and others again who did not do so were “missing.” The late Bishop of Khartoum, and (once Christian) Nubia died in Cairo in 1897. It was not considered prudent before the opening of the Sudan to allow the new Bishop[10] to proceed to his diocese.
A curious and perhaps unique Arabic MS. was placed in the hands of the writer at Omdurman and brought away by him in the early part of this year. It contained a list of 77 Christian families in the Sudan, drawn out by the president of the Coptic community during the Khalifa’s rule. Of these families, 7 which had embraced Mohammadism had decided to retain their adopted faith, while the other 70, whatever may have been the religion which they outwardly professed during the rebellion, openly acknowledge Christianity. The list was no doubt as complete as it could be made in troublous times, but the number of persons who shortly after the battle of Omdurman declared themselves Coptic Christians was at a modest computation not less than 200, and the number has since considerably increased.
Of the 77 families above mentioned about 69 (approximately 350 persons) belonged to Omdurman and Khartoum, 3 families (about 20 persons) to Kassala and Qedaref, 4 (about 25 persons) to Berber, and 1 to Kordofan. Although this attempted allocation would account for the 77 families, it does not exhaust the whole number of Coptic Christians, as some few families residing at Dongola, Senaar, Halfa, Suakin, and perhaps elsewhere, were evidently not taken into account.
The writer of a recent magazine article[11] has taken to task the action of the Anglo-Egyptian Government in not allowing the new Bishop Serapammon[12] to proceed earlier to his diocese, and in not making provision at once for the Native Christians of Omdurman. The answer would probably be that until the Sudan had been declared open it would have been extremely hazardous to give permission in the former case, and in the latter it would have been impossible to provide suddenly for the wants of a Native Christian community which was only just emerging from obscurity. There seems no reason to doubt that when things have settled down, the distinct claims of the Christians of the Sudan will receive ample consideration. Already the allotment made during or before the month of March last[13] of a plot of ground in New Khartoum, for the building of a Coptic church and schools, appears to have given general satisfaction; and no time has been lost in collecting scholars[14], whose numbers in July last amounted to 112.
The Coptic Bishop has collected several hundred pounds towards the church, and the Society for the Furtherance of Christianity in Egypt[15] has given generous aid towards the erection of the schools.”[16]
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[1] This is what the Coptic historian Fr. Menassa Youhanna has said in his History of the Coptic Church (Mahaba Bookshop, 1920s), p. 545. For more on this, read: Dioscorus Boles, Was the Coptic bishop of Sudan at the time of the Mahdist revolution forced to convert to Islam? (July 17, 2020).
[2] Yousif Mikhail Melaika later wrote an important memoire during the times of the Mahdist State which has been published under the title: مذكرات يوسف ميخائيل؛ التركيّة والمهديّة والحُكم الثنائي في السودان (2004).
[3] Lord Kitchener (1850 – 1916). He won the Battle of Omdurman in 1898 and defeated the Mahdist State. He was made in 1911 Consul-General in Egypt (until 1914).
[4] See n. 1.
[5] These were the instructions given to General Gordon of Khartoum (1833 – 1885) when he was dispatched after the eruption of the Mahdist revolution to Khartoum to evacuate the Egyptian garrisons and civilians from Sudan.
[6] Lord Cromer of Egypt (1841 – 1917). He was British Controller-General of Egypt (1878 – 1879) and then 1st. Consul-General of Egypt (1883 – 1907).
[7] This paragraph in the copy of Fuller’s Egypt and the Hinterland in archive.org is mutilated, and I have therefore reconstructed it by resorting to p. 182.
[8] Bishop Macarius, the third Coptic bishop for Nubia and Khartoum after the accession of Sudan by Muhammad Ali Pasha in 1821. Go to n. 1.
[9] Menassa Youhanna mention seven priests. See n.1.
[10] Bishop Serapammon (1860 – 1935). He was the fourth bishop for Nubia and Khartoum, being ordained by Patriarch Cyril V on 12 July 1897.
[11] Christianity in the Sudan by L. M. Butcher (Contemporary Review, June 1899).
[12] See n. 10.
[13] March in 2000, the year Fuller finished his book (December 2000). The book was printed in 1901.
[14] Meaning pupils.
[15] A society established in 1883 with the declared intention to “assist the Coptic Church by improving the education of its clergy.”
[16] Frederic Walter Fuller, Egypt and the Hinterland (London, New York, Bombay, Longmans, Green, and co., 1901), pp. 202-205.