Ibrahim Effendi and two of his sons, from Collection Anthropologique Du Prince Roland Bonaparte: Types Du Soudan
I have recently been doing a study on the modern history of the Copts in Sudan and came across a rare photo of one Copt by the name of Ibrahim Effendi Khalil. In the picture he is depicted with two sons, the first, about ten years old, sitting next to his father and laying his right arm on his father’s shoulder, and a younger one, who is probably four or five years old, sitting on his father’s lap.
The photo is dated 1882 and was taken in Khartoum. I found this interesting photo in a rare French book which has been electronically published by Gallica Bibliotheque Numberique, France’s digital library. The book is called Collection Anthropologique Du Prince Roland Bonaparte: Types Du Soudan. It includes some 135 photographs in total that were taken by the French photographer Louis Vossion[1] in 1882 when he was in a visit to Khartoum. In his photos, which included several Copts, he captured the looks and characters of so many individuals ranging from rulers and notables, of all races and backgrounds, to ordinary men, women and slaves. These perhaps represent some of the earliest photos ever taken of Turks, Egyptians, Copts, Syrians, Greeks, Europeans, Moroccans, Arab Sudanese, Ethiopian girls and black slaves, certainly in Sudan. They are not important only from the anthropological point of view, but they are invaluable for anyone who is interested in the study of history.
Sudan came under the rule of the Turco-Egyptians when Muhammad Ali (1805-1848), founder of the modern Egyptian state, invaded it in 1820, and established what is called Al-Turkiyya (or the Turkish State: 1820-1885). Khartoum was founded a few years after that and became the capital of Sudan.[2] Since then many Copts moved to Sudan, either voluntarily or forced by the Egyptian government, first in their capacity as scribes and financial experts in taxation, but later became involved in trade also. In 1885 the Turco-Egyptian rule was terminated by Muhammad Ahmad Al-Mahdi, who inaugurated a fourteen years rule of Islamic fanaticism and mismanagement called Al-Mahdiyya (or the Mahdist State: 1885-1898), before Kitchner managed in 1898 to defeat the Mahdi’s successor, Al-Khalifa Abdellahi Al-Ta’ishi,[3] thereby inaugurating the Condominium (1898-1956), which is also known as the Anglo-Egyptian Rule.
In 1882, when the photos were taken, the Mahdist revolution had already begun. A year earlier, Muhammed Ahmad declared himself Al-Mahdi, the awaited guide, and commenced the conquest of Sudan. His early successes were remarkable, and there is no doubt that everyone in Sudan, particularly in the capital Khartoum was soon aware of his advance by 1882. The series of his successes led to changes in the governors of Sudan who were deemed ineffective, and in 1884, when almost all of the Northern Sudan was under the sway of Al-Mahdi, General Charles Gordon Pasha was dispatched to Khartoum with a single mission of evacuating the Egyptian garrisons in Sudan, and safely bringing back to Egypt the Egyptian soldiers and civilians.[4] As it happened, Gordon did not do that, and instead he was killed by the Dervishes[5] on January 26, 1885, when they stormed his palace on the Nile. Few Egyptians managed to escape before that to Egypt – the majority, however, including so many Copts, were massacred or imprisoned, and their wives taken as concubines; many were forced to adopt Islam to save their lives or retain their properties, and these became known as Al-Masalma (the converted to Islam). [6]
The pictures taken by Louis Vossion in 1882, which include several Copts, are all of national interest, but one particular photo drew my attention – the picture of Ibrahim Effendi Khalil. His picture depicts a family man, who was in his thirties.[7] His features were noble, strong and handsome. No one will look at his photo without being impressed by his smile and good-natured countenance. He was wearing a fez (tarboush) and a dark coat over a striped galabiya. Both his sons are also smiling, and the elder son bears a striking similarity to his father. What was that venerable Copt?
Archpriest Fr. Philotheus Faraj in his book about Anba Danial, A Spiritual Man on Mounts of Gold, tells us that Ibrahim Bey khalil (bey was a later title given to Ibrahim after the reconquest of Sudan by Kitchner in 1898; prior to that, and before the Mahdist Revolution in 1885, he was effendi)[8] was a descendent of the great family of al-Gawhari. If true, this alone is sufficient to secure an honourable place for Ibrahim Bey Khalil in the Coptic mind. Ibrahim and Jirjis al-Jawhari were two brothers and archons of the Coptic community in Egypt during the period preceding the French Expedition in Egypt, during it (1798-1801), and then after when Muhammad Ali became seized power in 1805. Ibrahim died in 1795 but Jirjis survived until 1810. Their good works for the Coptic nation, and to all, were legion, recorded in many Egyptian and Coptic historical books.[9]
Ibrahim’s father was Khalil Pakhom, who was originally from the village of Ibnub al-Hamam, near Asyut in Upper Egypt, which had a strong presence of Copts. He came to Khartoum in the late 1830s or early 1840s during the reign of Muhammad Ali. We do not know in what capacity he came to Sudan, but we know that Muhammad Ali sent in 1838 several Copts to work as clerks in Sudan’s various garrison towns. Fr. Philotheus Faraj tells us that Khalil was responsible for administering the Diwan (government administration offices), and that, for a reason unspecified, he submitted his resignation to the authorities, but his resignation was not accepted.
We do not know who was Khalil Pakhom’s wife, but we know that they were blessed with the birth of our man, Ibrahim Bey Khalil, in Khartoum, in 1854, or there about. Khalil Pakhom also had a daughter, Maria, who got married to her cousin, Baulis Jirjis Nakhla.[10] Nakhla, who was Bakhom’s brother, was another man from the Jawhari family who probably migrated to Sudan, most probably at the same time Bakhom did; and he was most probably too to have been a clerk sent by Muhammad Ali to Sudan.
When Ibrahim grew up, he got involved in his youth in trade, trading between Sudan and Egypt, which kept his connections with his home town Asyut. It seems that Ibrahim collected a good fortune from his trade. We know that he owned several properties and a garden, which was located on the site now occupied by the zoological gardens (Zoo Park or Hadeeqat Al-Haywan) in Khartoum. Before the Mahdists took Khartoum by storm in January 1885, Ibrahim was a trusted friend of General Gordon during his first governor-general-ship (1877-1880), and then during his second governor-general-ship (1884-1885). Richard Hill tells us that Ibrahim lent Gordon money on zero-interest rate when the treasury was exhausted, in order for Gordon to pay his troops in the late 1970s. He also tells us that during the siege of Khartoum in the fateful year of 1884, Gordon used to spend some of his leisure time at Ibrahim’s garden.[11]
General Gordon Pasha, Muhmmad Ahmad Al-Mahdi and General Kitchener of Khartoum
When Khartoum fell to the Mahdists on 26 January 1885, Hill tells us that the fanatics robbed Ibrahim Khalil of all his possessions and he lived quietly in Omdurman. The fate of the Copts in Khartoum, and Sudan in general, at the time of the fall of Khartoum was horrible. Many Christian men were massacred; the rest were forced to adopt Islam; and the women were taken as concubines by the Mahdist Dervishes.
Before I go further, I would like to bring to the attention of the readers the horrors of the 26th January 1885, when Khartoum fell. Joseph Ohrwalder, a Roman Catholic priest, who was taken captive by the Mahdists on the day, and remained so for ten years until he made his escape in 1892, describes those terrible moments:
The ruthless bloodshed and cruelty exercised by the Dervishes in Khartum is beyond description. I will briefly describe the deaths of the best-known people. Nicola Leontides, the Greek consul, who, on account of his amiable character, was much respected in Khartum, had his hands cut off first, and was then beheaded. Martin Hansal, the Austrian consul, who was the oldest member of the European colony, was alive up till 2 p.m., when some Arabs from Buri, led by his chief kavass, who was on bad terms with him, entered the courtyard of the house, and, on Hansal being summoned to come down, he was at once beheaded. At the same time Mulatte Skander, a carpenter who lived with him, was killed in the same way. His body, together with that of his dog and parrot, were then taken out, alcohol poured over them, and set fire to. After a time, when the body had become like a red-hot coal, it was thrown into the river.
Human blood and ruthless cruelty alone seemed to satisfy the Dervishes. The Austrian tailor, Klein, on making the sign of the cross, had his throat cut from ear to ear with a knife which was used to slaughter animals, and his life-blood was poured out before the eyes of his horror-stricken wife and children. Not satisfied with the death of the father, they seized his son, a youth of eighteen, and, burying their lances in his body, they stretched him out at his mother’s feet, a corpse! They then took counsel as to how they should kill the next son, a lad of fifteen. But by this time the mother, a daughter of Cattarina Nobili, of Venice, was worked up into a state of mad despair. Seizing her son of five years old with her right hand, while she held her suckling babe to her breast with her left, she fought against these murderers like a tigress being robbed of her young, and they could not wrest her children from her; but they seized her daughter, a girl of eighteen, who became the wife of an Arab.
The son-in-law of Doctor Georges Bey (who had been killed in the Hicks’s expedition) was roused from sleep by the noise of the Arabs breaking in. He rose from his bed, and, making the sign of the cross, rushed to the window, where he shouted “Aman” (“Security of life”); but a bullet struck him in the forehead, and he fell dead at the feet of his young wife. The Dervishes forced their way into the house, broke in the door of the room where the dead man lay stretched out on the bed, killed another Greek, and clove open the head of the little son, a boy of twelve years of age, with an axe, scattering his brains over his unfortunate mother, who was sitting beside him. She saved her little son of six months old by saying he was a girl. The mother herself was not killed, as she was with child, but she was reserved to become the wife of Abderrahman Wad en Nejumi.
Aser [a Copt][12], the American consul,[13] fell down dead on seeing his brother beheaded before his eyes. The males of most of the Coptic families were massacred, but the women were spared. I know several of these poor women who, from continuously weeping over the cruelties of that terrible 26th of January, have become quite blind.”[14]
Fr. Philotheus Faraj says that during Mahdism, Ibrahim was made responsible for the finances of the state (amin mal), and that he was famous amongst the Sudanese for his honesty; Joseph Ohrwalder tells us that the Khalifa Abdellahi al-Ta’ishi[15] “discharged all the Copts employed in the beit el mal (the treasury), and replaced them by blacks.”[16] There is no contradiction in that since we know that the Khalifa reappointed the Copts later as there was no one who could administer the state financially. Unfortunately, as I have said in previous articles, the Copts of Sudan were forced to convert to Islam; and it seems Ibrahim Effendi Khalil unfortunately did the same.[17] Even the Coptic bishop of Nuba and Khartoum, Bishop Macarius (1878 – 1897) converted to save his life.[18] This is lamentable. It seems that they took a cavalier view on the matter, and saw themselves as converting to Islam only as an outside gesture, while remaining Christian at heart. After the reconquest of Khartoum by Kitchener in 1898 most of them returned to Christianity.
After the Mahdists were overthrown by Kitchener, and the Condominium was established in 1898, Ibrahim Khalil was given the title of bey in recognition of his services. He took part in the reconstruction of Khartoum, and he was a member of the board which re-allotted properties in Khartoum that had been destroyed by the Mahdists. Later, he was appointed member of the Khartoum municipal council. In 1899 he built what was called Sarayat Al-Bek (the Palace of the Bey), opposite the Khartoum Post Office building, and which is still extant, though dilapidated. This building was used as governmental offices.
The connections of Ibrahim to the Church were strong, revealing his Christian zeal. Fr. Philotheus Faraj tells us that the first liturgy after the defeat of the Mahdists was served at his residence. There, he also hosted Patriarch Cyril V (1874-1927), who visited Sudan in 1904 and 1909.
Ibrahim died in 1917 at the age of 63. He left three sons and one daughter. His sons we know were called Khalil, Ghobrial and Antonius. Hill tells us that his three sons were wounded in the siege of Khartoum, but he does not provide any details.
Anba Danial, Bishop of Khartoum and South of Sudan (1968-2000)
His son, Antonius, who was possibly born in the late 1870, had two children, a daughter called Aziza,[19] and a son called Demian, who was born in 1922, and later became Bishop Daniel of Khartoum and the South of Sudan (1968 – 2000).
When the photograph above was taken in 1882 Ibrahim Effendi Khalil was 28. The two children who appear in the photo with him are probably his elder son, Khalil, who was probably only 10 years old then, and his younger son, Antonius, who was four of five. We do not know where was the second son Gabrial then. Ibrahim’s daughter does not appear in the photo.
Thus, the study in this rare photo has allowed us to delve into the history of the Copts of Sudan in the nineteenth century, a history which is extraordinary.
[1] Louis Vossion has a book called: Khartoum et le Soudan d’Égypte : catalogue général des différents objects composant la collection rapportée du Soudan égyptien et exposée a la socieété de géographie de Paris, du 16 juillet au ler aout 1882. Another book by the same author is: Le commerce de l’ivoire à Khartoum et au Soudan égyptien, Challamel aîné, 1892.
[2] For a detailed history of Khartoum, read: Tarikh Madinat Al Khartoum by Ahmad Ahmad Seed Ahmad; Cairo, 2000.
[3] Muhammad Ahmad Al-Mahdi died shortly after the capture of Khartoum.
[4] Read Abdel Rahman Al-Ra’fi: Masr Wal Sudan Fi Awa’il A’ahd Al Ihtilal; Cairo, 1948 (2nd ed.).
[5] These were the followers of al-Mahdi, who were also called al-Ansar. They were called Dervishes because they pretended to be poor and wearing rags as token of religiosity.
[6] There are many references – the following are only some: Slatin Pasha, Fire and sword in the Sudan : a personal narrative of fighting and serving the Dervishes, 1879-1895 (1914); Major Wingate: Mahdiism and the Egyptian Sudan (1891); Ohrwalder, Joseph; Wingate, Sir Francis Reginald: Ten years’ captivity in the Mahdi’s camp, 1882-1892 (1892). Wingate in Mahdiism and the Egyptian Sudan documents the names of two Coptic clerkswho were forced in 1884 to convert to Islam, together with Frank Lupton, the governor of Bahr al-Ghazal. The two wretched were Gabrail Effendi and Saleh Effendi Shenouda (pp. 176-8).
[7] You will know later that he was actually 28, as he was born c. 1854.
[8] The Collection Anthropologique Du Prince Roland Bonaparte: Types Du Soudan mentions his name as Ibrahim Effendi Khalil. Effendi is the title given to government employees. It is one degree below the title of Bey, and two below Pasha. It is clear that at the time the photo was taken in 1882, Ibrahim was Effendi – later on, perhaps after the defeat of the Mahdists in 1898, he became Bey.
[9] For more on these two Gawharis, the best book is Kamil Saleh Nakhla: Silsilat Tarikh al-Batariqa (2001; 2nd ed.).
[10] The great grandfather of Professor Paul Boulos, a colorectal and anorectal disorders surgeons at the University College London Hospitals, and Robert Bernard Baulis, a known businessman in Khartoum.
[11] Richard Hill, A Biographical Dictionary of the Sudan (1967).
[12] Inserted by me.
[13] Aser, or most probably more accurately Azer, was a Copt, and working as a Consul for the U.S. in Sudan. See Michael Asher: Khartoum, The Ultimate Imperial Adventure (Viking; London; 2005); p. 262.
[14] Ten Years’ Captivity in the Mahdi’s Camp, 1882-1892 by Fr. Ohrwalder, translated by Wingate (1893); p. 141.
[15] Successor of al-Mahdi who died a few months after the fall of Khartoum, in 1885, and ruled with despotism until Khartoum was retaken in 1898. He was killed in the following year.
[16] Joseph Ohrwalder: Ten years’ captivity in the Mahdi’s camp (p. 327).
[17] See: Youuf Mikhail’s book in Arabic, مذكرات يوسف ميخائيل؛ التركيّة والمهديّة والحُكم الثنائي في السودان.
[18] See: Dioscorus Boles, Was the Coptic Bishop of Sudan At the Time of The Mahdist Revolution Forced to Convert to Islam? (July 17, 2020); The Shahada Forced on Two Copts, Alongside the English Lupton Bey, Governor of Bahr al-Ghazal in 1880s, By the Fanatic Mahdists of Sudan (July 20, 2020).
[19] She died when she was 20 years old. She had been married to Khalil Abdel Mesih Tadrus, a Copt who was born in the Mahdist period, in 1897; and she died shortly after she had given birth to her only child, a daughter by the name of Hikmat.