Chronologies: The Turkiyya and the Mahdiyya
Description: Collage based on the photographs used in this blog post
Location: NA
Source: Jamal Mutasim 2025
This ‘Chronologies’ series will aim to provide a framework for understanding the history of the Sudanese-Armenians and, in turn, also reflect on the different eras in recent Sudanese history.
The first major chronology to explore is Turco-Egyptian Sudan or the ‘Turkiyya’ period. This began in 1820 when Muhammed Ali’s Turco-Egyptian forces invaded Sudan. This article will first outline the recorded interactions between Armenians and Sudanese before the Turkiyya, during Sudan’s often overlooked history of kingdoms and sultanates. It will then dive into the Turkiyyah period, leveraging the narrative of Armenian traders and governors to tell the story of this period and understand the background for later Armenian migration. The Turkiyya ended in 1885 with the beginning of the ‘Mahdiyya’ period when the Mahdi and his successor ruled Sudan until being defeated by the British which marked the beginning of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in 1899.
It is worth noting that ‘Sudan’ as a name (from the Arabic term Bilad al-Sudan (بلاد السودان), meaning "Land of the Blacks") started to be used during the Turkiyya before being institutionalized during Anglo-Egyptian rule. In this article, Sudan is used anachronistically to refer to people or the areas that now constitute Sudan and South Sudan.
Pre-Turkiyya Armenian interactions with Sudan
Description: (Left) Old Cairo fortifications, (top right) Al Juyushi Mosque and (bottom right) Kufic inscription of Badr al-Jamali 1084-1085
Location: Cairo, Egypt and London, UK
Source: Wikipedia, photo by Vahe Boghosian 2025 and The British Museum
The first recorded interaction between Armenians and Sudanese was in the 11th century when Badr al-Jamali, a Muslim Armenian mamluk (military slave) and military commander, was called upon by the Fatimid Caliph Al-Muntasir to save his crumbling rule over Syria and Egypt. Having arrived in Egypt in 1073, Armenian soldiers constituted the majority of Badr’s army, and in his maneuverings to maintain control of Egypt, he disbanded all factions except the Sudanese, whom he integrated into his ‘juyushiyya’ forces. Through his joint Armenian and Sudanese army, this Armenian vizier restored the Fatimid order to Egypt, Palestine, and the Hejaz. He cemented his legacy by marrying one of his daughters to the Caliph, initiating a wave of Armenian migration to Egypt following the fall of the Bagratuni capital of Ani, and beginning a series of constructions that remain to this day, including Old Cairo’s famous fortifications and the Al-Juyushi Mosque.
Following the migration encouraged by Badr Al-Jamali, an active Armenian religious life started to flourish. Abu Salih Al-Armani was an Armenian priest in Alexandria who wrote a book, ‘History of the Churches and Monasteries of Egypt and Nubia,’ in the 12th century. Though it is unclear whether he traveled to Nubia himself or received information from other sources, he details the churches built by the Nubian kingdoms in present-day northern Sudan.
Armenians were recorded to have formed part of the foreign trader community in the Sultanate of Sennar (also known as the Funj Sultanate). The Sultanate of Sennar ruled most of what is now central Sudan from the 16th to the 19th century. Vedik Baghdasarian, an Armenian traveler from Tigranakert (present-day Diyarbakir), recorded his travels through Ethiopia and Nubia on his way to the Straits of Gibraltar via the west coast of Africa in the 17th century. Yeghia Yenovkian and Bishop Hovhaness were Armenians involved in diplomatic activities in the Sultanate of Sennar in the 18th century. By the 19th century, the Sultanate of Sennar was under pressure from the Ethiopian Empire in the south and the Sultanate of Darfur to the west. Its final blow in 1820 by the Turco-Egyptian forces under the command of Ismail bin Muhamed Ali, a son of Mehmet Ali, the Khedive of Egypt.
The Turkiyya
Description: ‘A painting of the Egyptian campaign to liberate Sudan’
Location: National Army Museum - Cairo Citadel 2025
Source: Photo taken by Vahe Boghosian
The Turco-Egyptian invasion of Sudan marked the beginning of the ‘Turkiyya’ period of Sudanese history. In Egypt, a dynasty of ‘Khedives’ or viceroys of Ottoman Egypt ruled from 1805 when the Ottoman Sultan dispatched the ethnically Albanian Muhammed Ali to recover Egypt from the French following Napoleon’s retreat. Through shrewd political maneuvering and military prowess, he seized Egypt as his own autonomous region within the Ottoman Empire. He was only prevented from conquering Constantinople in 1831 and 1842 due to the intervention of the European powers. The Europeans preferred a weak Ottoman Empire they could exercise influence over rather than a power vacuum in the Middle East that they would scramble over, or more troublingly, a resurgent Ottoman Empire under a capable Muhammed Ali. Muhammed Ali’s dynasty lasted until King Farouk was deposed by Gamal Abdel Nasser’s Free Officers Movement in 1952.
Description: Photograph of 'Abd al-Rahman Musa - A Sudanese slave who became a veteran of the Turco-Egyptian army fighting on behalf of the French in Mexico
Location: Paris, France 1867
Source: Paris Musée de l'Armée
Territorial ambitions in Africa and the desire for a supply of slaves from Sudan led them to consolidate their rule further into Sudan in Kordofan, Kassala, Fashoda, Suakin, Equatoria, and finally Darfur province. In the Turkiyya period, Armenian traders and craftsmen from places like Arabkir (see previous blog post) and Agn settled in Khartoum. Khartoum was originally a military outpost for the Turco-Egyptian army as a strategic location where the blue and white Niles meet, later becoming the seat of their colonial government from 1823. The Turco-Egyptians encouraged northern merchants (jalaba) to go south by providing protections such as shaaria courts and a market for trading goods and slaves from Sennar. A notable example of the Turco-Egyptian practice of taking slaves is ‘Abd al-Rahman Musa, a slave from Sudan in the Egyptian army sent to fight with the French, who wanted ‘black’ soldiers that were resistant to tropical diseases, in Mexico by Khedive Sa’id as part of his efforts to maintain good relations with France.
The Armenian presence in the Turkiyya was limited to a small trading community, though some Armenians purchased land and engaged in agriculture, such as Artin Arakelian, who introduced the growing of tobacco in Gedaref in 1859 before shipping the tobacco to be cured and packaged by Armenian associates in Khartoum. He married a Coptic woman and expanded his farming to include fruits and spices, amassing significant wealth in the process.
An Armenian Governor in Khartoum: Arakel Bey Al-Armani
Nubar Nubarian, also known as Nubar Pasha, is famous in Egypt as a statesman who held significant positions across five decades of the 19th century, including being Egypt’s first prime minister and an advisor for Muhammed Ali’s descendants. However, his brother, Arakel, is seldom mentioned in these accounts. Arakel Noubarian was born in 1826 in Smyrna (modern-day Izmir) to an Armenian merchant who had married a relative of Boghos Bey Yousoufian. Boghos Bey Yousafian had worked his way up the ranks to be a chief dragoman (interpreter) and minister to Muhammed Ali. Boghos had his young relatives, Nubar and Arakel (and a third brother Garabed who died young in 1839), educated in Europe before inviting them to Egypt and taking them under his wing as advisors to the Khedive. In 1854, Mohamed Sa’id Pasha, a son of Muhammed Ali came to power with Nubar Pasha in his entourage.
“[The Armenians] great acquirement in languages fits them peculiarly for the important offices of secretaries and dragomen”
Description: Arakel Bey Nubar’s grave. The plaque reads: “Arakel Bey Nubar - Governor Khartoum and Sennar, Born Smyrna 27 December 1826, Died Khartoum 13 September 1858, pray for him”
Location: Alexandria, Egypt 2025
Source: Photo taken by Vahe Boghosian
On a visit to Sudan, Sa’id Pasha was considering scaling back his dominion over Sudan following a cholera epidemic and in light of the threat of Ethiopian attacks from the south. Sudan was primarily of importance to him for its supply of slaves for his army and estates, and this could continue without costly direct control. Sa’id Pasha decided to maintain his rule over Sudan when he learned (or perhaps was convinced) that Nubar Pasha’s brother, Arakel Bey Al-Armani, was willing to take on governorship in Sudan, a role Sa’id Pasha was struggling to fill. Sa’id Pasha split Sudan into five provinces, and in 1857, the 30-year-old Arakel went south to take on his role as governor of Khartoum and Sennar provinces.
The problems started almost immediately. The local tribes, spearheaded by Ahmed Bey Abu Sinn of the Shukriya tribe, were vocal opponents of Arakel as an inexperienced governor and a Christian. Here, the sources diverge. One suggests that Arakel, against advice, rode out unarmed to confront Ahmed Bey and managed to win him over through humility and noble non-confrontation. Another source, however, claims that the meeting brought no resolution and that Ahmed Bey and the other sheikhs continued to undermine his authority—a version that seems more realistic. Nonetheless, the sources agree that Arakel embarked on programmes to limit corruption, alleviate the burden of taxation on the poor, establish a merchants' council to settle disputes, abolish torture, and improve public health in Khartoum. These efforts reportedly earned him the title ‘the just’. His brother urged him to leave his post and return to Egypt. His reply eludes to the dire conditions of life in the Turkiyya which would later on lead to the Mahdi’s rebellion: "My wish is to leave Khartoum, but to whom shall I abandon these unfortunate people?". After two years as governor, he died in 1858 of dysentery and was buried in Alexandria.
An Armenian Governor in Eastern Sudan: Arakel Bey Abroian
The second Armenian governor in Sudan was, confusingly, also named Arakel - Arakel Bey Abroian was a nephew of Nubar Pasha. M.G Duin’s account describes Arakel as one of the ‘clever Armenians’ who circulated around the Khedive. He was an individual who could talk about the latest European musical compositions and caricatures, but could also speak about Islam ‘with a fervour that would have seen him burned in Spain during the time of Isabella [the Spanish Inquisition]’. He was well educated in Europe and a source notes that he seemed destined for a successful career though he had no achievements to his name as a young man.
“One could almost say Arakel had become German, even to the detriment of those particular qualities that usually bring success to his people; he lost that flexibility and adaptability of character that enable Armenians to fit into all situations and to command while constantly bowing their heads”
Description: Student artwork commemorating Nubar Pasha’s 200th birthday
Location: Exhibition for Nubar Pasha’s 200th birthday, Giza Public Library, Egypt - February 2025
Source: Photo taken by Vahe Boghosian
Khedive Ismail appointed him as governor of the Eastern Sudan General Governorate in 1873. His governorship saw him tighten control over the Red Sea coastline in an attempt to demonstrate to the Europeans, who were now clamping down on the slave trade rather than engaging in it, that the Egyptian authorities were actively suppressing it.
Most significantly, he worked to strengthen Egyptian influence in his crucial border region with Ethiopia. He believed that preparing to counter the Ethiopian threat was a costly burden on his region. He advocated for a well planned aggressive move in conjunction with supporting internal forces who opposed the Emperor. Reacting to the developments in the Massawa region, Emperor Yohannes IV began attacking caravans and engaging in skirmishes. In the words of Dr Muhammed Refaat Al-Imam, Abroian was ‘ambitious and eager to gain status, [he] was one of the most ardent supporters of the Ethiopian invasion’. Abroian requested reinforcements from Egypt for what was later called the Egyptian-Ethiopian War, and joined the army led by Danish Colonel Adolph Arendrup as a political advisor.
The army was defeated at the Battle of Gundet in 1875 with Arendrup and Arakel both dying. Around five years later a French traveller in the area, Mr Gabriel Simon, said this of Abroian: "This day, disastrous for the Khedive’s army, was not without glory, and Arakel Bey’s name has become legendary in Sudan. Surrounded by a few warriors, the last remnants of his battalion, backed against enormous rocks, thinking neither of flight nor surrender, he seized a rifle fallen from one of his braves and coldly sowed death in the enemy ranks. At last, he fell himself upon the corpses of fifteen Abyssinians he had just slain, thus erecting the most brilliant mausoleum a soldier’s tomb could desire."
This scene could be from a film like ‘Zulu’ or ‘Khartoum’, as the all too common colonial last stand scene against hordes of natives. M.G Duin summed up the reliability of this account perfectly: ‘Perhaps this account of Arakel’s death is not entirely accurate, but after all, legend is still a part of history—and we are pleased to welcome it, for without its bright colors, history would be too sad.’ And yet it is those bright colours with which history can be painted that can push narratives and agendas - in this case portraying a European educated Armenian at the service of the Turco-Egyptians fighting against natives resisting colonisation, as a noble cause.
The Mahdiyya
By the 1880s, it was quite common for Europeans to be in the employ of the Turco-Egyptians. In addition to Adolph Arendrup, figures such as Werner Munzinger, Mehmed Emin Pasha, and Charles Gordon played prominent roles in Sudan's administration - reflecting Europe’s growing influence in Egypt. In his memoirs, Nubar Pasha lamented the failure of Muhammed Ali’s dream to become a significant regional power, with one son Khedive Ismail being obsessed with emulating European architecture via grand projects, and the other son, Khedive Said, overly focusing on military affairs. These drove the state into economic mismanagement and huge foreign debts causing an expansion of European control. This culminated in 1882 when Britain landed an expeditionary force, defeated the Egyptian army, and cemented its de facto authority in Egypt.
Description: Armenian and Sudanese children with the Mahdi’s Tomb
Location: Omdurman, Sudan 1977
Source: sudanahye archive via private collection
In 1881, Muhammad Ahmad, a religious leader from Dongola and the Samaniyya Sufi Order, proclaimed himself the Mahdi ("the guided one") and united those in Sudan opposed to the corrupt and oppressive Turco-Egyptian administration. Winston Churchill later summed up the reasons for the rebellion as: ‘Their country was being ruined; their property was plundered; their women were ravished; their liberties were curtailed; even their lives were threatened’. Britain, which now controlled Egypt's finances, deemed the effort to maintain Sudan too costly and planned to evacuate the remaining Egyptian garrisons. Charles Gordon, the swashbuckling British soldier, was sent to oversee the evacuation but became trapped in Khartoum, where he was killed when the Mahdi's forces destroyed the city and moved their capital to Omdurman on the other side of the Nile. As a famed hero of the British Empire, his death and the entire religious rebellion of the ‘Mad Mahdi’ captured the British public’s imagination which was later used to justify retribution.
“I dwell on the joy of never seeing Britain again, with its horrid dinner parties—we all wear masks, saying what we do not believe, eating and drinking things we do not want, and then abusing one another. I would rather live like a Dervish with the Mahdi than go out to dinner every evening in London”
Like the Copts and Jews in Sudan, many Armenians were either killed, fled the Mahdi’s rule, or converted to Islam. Those Armenians who converted formed the Masalma community which survived in Omdurman under strict Mahdiyya laws, primarily working as jewelers and watchmakers. The aforementioned tobacconist, Artin Arakelian, had his property looted and later died in Gedaref in 1889. Some in this community reverted back to their original faith after the Mahdiyya, and an Al-Masalma district of Omdurman remains to this day as a historic district of Omdurman with a significant Christian representation (approximate location on the map).
The Mahdi died soon after his military successes, though his successor Khalifa Abdallah, was later challenged by an Anglo-Egyptian army. By 1897, British reforms of Egypt's finances and military enabled their campaign into Sudan. This coincided with the Scramble for Africa, as European powers rushed to colonize the remaining parts of the continent. In the Sudanese context this manifested in the British objective to control the Upper Nile Valley and secure a contiguous domain from Egypt to the Cape (South Africa). The importance of this aim was later evident during the Fashoda Incident in 1898, when British and French forces nearly triggered a major war in their face off near present-day Kodok in South Sudan. In this incident, France backed down and Britain secured its prize of controlling the Nile, thereby guaranteeing its position in Egypt and control of the Suez Canal.
Description: Photo of Michael Movsesian
Location: Dufile (border with Sudan) Protectorate of Uganda, 1898
Source: Europeans in East Africa
Amidst these events, Michael Movsesian was an Armenian born in Baghdad in 1876. He arrived in Kampala in Uganda (then the British East Africa Protectorate) in 1896. Having worked for the British in India, he was immediately dispatched as an ‘unlikely representative’ to Hoima district near Sudan with instructions to keep the peace at all costs during the campaign in Sudan against the Mahdiyya or what the British called the ‘Sudanese Mutiny’. In 1898, Lord Kitchener led an army to Sudan that included Winston Churchill as a junior cavalry officer. They decisively defeated Khalifa Abdallah at the Battle of Omdurman, paving the way for Anglo-Egyptian rule over Sudan. During this campaign, Moses was in charge of a garrison near Sudan, with orders to maintain order while the British completed their campaign. He was later assigned transport duties during the Fashoda Incident in addition to other roles serving the British in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Moses spent approximately 60 years in Uganda, amassing wealth and status. He gained a reputation for hospitality and generosity, an OBE and the nickname ‘the white king of Buganda’ according to Norden.
“Whilst he could be lavish in his hospitality, he himself led a very simple life, and much of the money he made was used to help people of all races and creeds in their times of distress and adversity. The extent of this generosity will never be fully known because Michael Moses always believed in doing good by stealth”
Untangling the early history of Armenians in Sudan
Description: Armour used in the Mahdi’s rebellion in the Beit Al-Khalifa Museum. The Museum was reopened in January 2023 but was looted during the war in Sudan.
Location: Omdurman, Sudan 2023
Source: Mahmoud Hjaj/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
A governor leading Sudanese soldiers in Fatimid Cairo, a priest from Egypt perhaps journeying to Nubia to document its churches, travelers and traders in the Sennar Sultanate, a farmer introducing tobacco from the Ottoman Empire to Gedaref, a governor struggling to govern in Turco-Egyptian-ruled Khartoum, another governor dying in battle against Ethiopia, and a bureaucrat securing Sudan's southern flank as Kitchener invaded Sudan.
What do we make of this confusing array of Armenian lives in Sudan? Firstly its clear, these were not Sudanese-Armenians, but rather Armenians who engaged with Sudan and Sudanese in various contexts. The later cohort’s stories fit neatly into classical colonial story-telling of socialising in grand palaces, dramatic last stands or succeeding in far flung corners of Empires. Their lives might make for compelling cosmopolitan diaspora bedtime stories; the success factor of these Armenians was perhaps summed up well in Du Hussoy’s description of Arakel Bey Abroian - a special adaptability and ability to command while remaining loyal.
In reality, the Nubarian and Abroian families represented Armenian merchants who climbed the social ladder to become foreign elites brought in to replace Egypt’s traditional ruling class as a new cadre loyal to Muhammed Ali’s family, and by extension to maintain imperial hegemony over Sudan. Nonetheless, this entrenchment in the upper classes of Egyptian society in the 19th century would be pivotal to the Armenian cause via individuals like Boghos Nubar, Nubar Pasha’s son who was one of the founders of the Armenian General Benevolent Union and chairman of the Armenian National Delegation during and after World War 1. The financial position of these Armenians would be vital in refugee relief efforts following the Armenian Genocide and link to the significant growth of Armenian communties in Egypt and Sudan.
“Armenians played a significant role in governing the Egyptian-administered regions of Sudan and Ethiopia.”
Description: Tomb of the Mahdi
Location: Omdurman, Sudan 1983
Source: sudanahye archive via private collection
What does this tell us about Sudanese history? When the British colonised Sudan, many called them ‘Turks’ - perceiving continuity in the shifting colonial authority from the Turco-Egyptians to the British. The stories in this post also intertwine to form a broader narrative of continuity in colonisation and imperialism, which sowed the seeds of divisions that Sudan continues to grapple with today. Ultimately the Muhammad Ali dynasty ruled Sudan with oppression, extracting slaves, gold and generally treating Sudan, in the words of Jamal Mahjoub, as its ‘private estate’ which they didn’t seek to improve beyond extracting resources. The initiatives attempted by Arakel to alleviate suffering were an exception to the standard rule of governors in this period. This oppression culminated in the Mahdist rebellion, which captured popular anger before being crushed by the British. Initially dismissing Sudan as a burden on their grip on Egypt, Britain changed its stance when it realized that a power vacuum would be filled by rival empires during the Scramble for Africa, thereby threatening British control over Egypt. In a way, Sudan was an apprehensive addition to the British Empire and in the next chronology article we will look at Britain’s colony from the perspective of Sudanese-Armenian life and explore the foundations for the post-independence divisions.
Documenting the history of Armenians before and during the Turkiyya, gives us a sense of the character of Armenians outside the Armenian highlands, seeking ways to survive and thrive in the era of shifting empires and colonialism. More importantly this history establishes the precedent for Armenians to travel to Sudan in various contexts - that being mostly an extension to the Armenian presence in Egypt, politically or commercially. These interactions laid the groundwork for Armenians to migrate to Anglo-Egyptian Sudan later to escape massacres and Genocide and settle as a community who began to identify as Sudanese-Armenians.
Notes:
For more on Badr al-Jamali, see Seta Dadoyan’s The Fatimid Armenians: Cultural and Political Interactions of the Near East or HyeTert’s article on Armenian Mamluks. Walle and Hedrk have also written a paper on Badr al-Jamali’s role in restoring the Fatimid state.
Read Abu Salih al-Armani’s The Churches and Monasteries of Egypt and Some Neighbouring Countries to see this Armenian priest's account of churches in Nubia.
Artsvi Bakchinyan’s Hayere Afrikayoom (Armenians in Africa) includes a chapter on Sudanese Armenians. He studied archival and newspaper sources to document early Armenian travelers and settlers in Sudan, including Vedic Baghdassarian. He also explored the journey of Varga, a traveler from Russia with Tatar or Armenian heritage. The Historical Dictionary of Sudan refers to Armenians in the Sennar Sultanate and mentions Artin Arakelian, who introduced tobacco cultivation to Gedaref. A previous blog post referenced Sarkis Hakobian, an Armenian trader who moved to Aswan to escape the Mahdiyya.
For more on medieval Sudan and the Sennar Sultanate, see Jay Spaulding’s The Heroic Age of Sennar or Yusuf Fadl Hassan’s The Arabs and Sudan: From the Seventh to the Early 16th Century.
For more on Muhammad Ali and his dynasty, see Khaled Fahmy’s Mehmed Ali: From Ottoman Governor to Ruler of Egypt.
For more on the ‘Abd Al Rahman’s story and how a Sudanese was photographed in Paris, having served a French campaign in Mexico on behalf of the Egyptian army read Heather J. Sharkey’s article The Photograph of 'Abd al-Rahman Musa in Paris (1867): A Sudanese Veteran of the Egyptian Army in Mexico.
Sources on Sudan’s Armenian governors are limited. The most comprehensive account is Dr. Mohamed Rifat al-Amam’s Al-Arman fi Al-Sudan wa Ethiobia (The Armenians in Sudan and Ethiopia), which draws from Egyptian national archives. It details how Arakel Bey al-Armani successfully negotiated with Ahmed Bey to defuse a confrontation. John Udal’s An Early History of the Shukriya and the Abu Sinns states that a resolution was not reached, and the Shukkriya continued to antagonize Arakel, along with local merchants opposed to his tax reforms. There are different years listed for Arakil’s governship in Sudan in the different sources between 1856-1859.
An archived document from the Sudan National Records Office via Sudan Memory provides further details on Arakel Bey Abroian - thanks to Fatima Salah for translating and analysing this source. Rouben Adalian’s article on ‘The Armenian Colony of Egypt During the Reign of Muhammed Ali (1805-1848)’ also provided information about Sudan’s Armenian governors. Georges Douin’s detailed account Arakel Bey, Gouverneur de Massawa (Arakel Bey, Governor of Massawa) (1874-1875) provides additional detail on Arakel Bey Abroian.
The Masalma were forced Christian or Jewish converts living in Omdurman during the Mahdiyya. Many reverted to their original religion after the Mahdiyya. Masalma became known as the Jewish neighborhood of Omdurman. A popular Sudanese song, The Deer of Masalma, references a Jewish woman from the area. Al-Merrikh FC, one of Sudan’s oldest football clubs, was originally established as Al-Masalma in 1908. For more on Christians in the Mahdiyya based on primary sources, see Coptic Literature’s articles here and here, as well as E.A. Wallis Budge’s The Egyptian Sudan: Its History and Monuments. Thanks to the followers of sudanahye on Instagram who provided additional information on Masalma.
The history of the Mahdiyya is extensive. Primary sources from Europeans present at the time include Winston Churchill’s The River War (1899) and Slatin Pasha’s Fire and Sword in the Sudan (1896). Later, more critical works looking beyond colonial narratives and Victorian racial hierarchies include Muhammad Sa‘id al-Qaddal’s research on the Mahdiyya. Much of the information for this article comes from P.M. Holt’s A History of Sudan and Jamal Mahjoub’s A Line in the River: Khartoum, a City of Memory. For a contemporary perspective on the Mahdiyya in the context of recent Middle Eastern political developments read Judy Blalaack’s article in New Lines Magazine.
For more on Nubar Pasha, see Mdhkarat: Nubar Basha (Memoirs: Nubar Pasha). Victoria Arsharoni wrote a book recently translated into Arabic by Garo Tabakian titled Nubar Basha: Khadim Msr al-Kabir (Nubar Pasha: Great Servant of Egypt). To see an overview of Boghos Yousef Bey and other prominent Armenians in Egypt, refer to the Armenian Embassy in Egypt’s summary of prominent Armenians in Egypt.
Movses Michael’s extraordinary story is documented in the Europeans in East Africa database. Thanks to Gina Movessian Takai for sharing this resource.
Thanks to Jamal Mutassim for the art work, Fatmh Salah for editing, Hatice Nurlu for assisting with finding Arakel Bey’s resting place in Alexandria and Salma Mohammed for supporting in finding and photographing the Al-Juyushi Mosque.
Sources:
Books:
Seta B. Dadoyan, The Fatimid Armenians: Cultural and Political Interactions of the Near East (Leiden: Brill, 1997).
Abu Salih al-Armani, The Churches and Monasteries of Egypt and Some Neighbouring Countries, trans. B.T.A. Evetts (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1895).
Artsvi Bakchinyan, Hayere Afrikayoom (Yerevan: Badmootyan Institute, 2024)
David H. Shinn, et al., Historical Dictionary of Sudan (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2004).
Jay Spaulding, The Heroic Age of Sennar (Trenton, NJ: Red Sea Press, 1985).
Yusuf Fadl Hassan, The Arabs and Sudan: From the Seventh to the Early 16th Century (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1967).
Khaled Fahmy, Mehmed Ali: From Ottoman Governor to Ruler of Egypt (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2009).
Mohamed Rifat Al-Amam, The Armenians in Sudan and Ethiopia (original: Al-Arman fi al-Sudan wa Ethiobia), in Antranik Dakessian (ed.), Armenians of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia: Proceedings of the Conference (12-13 April and 29-30 May 2018), Vols. 1 & 2 (Beirut: Haigazian University Press, 2018).
E.A. Wallis Budge, The Egyptian Sudan: Its History and Monuments (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1907).
Winston Churchill, The River War (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899).
Rudolf Carl Slatin Pasha, Fire and Sword in the Sudan (London: Edward Arnold, 1896).
Muhammad Sa‘id al-Qaddal, The Mahdist State and Abyssinia (original: al-Mahdiyah wa-al-Habashah) (Khartoum: Khartoum University Press, 1973).
Muhammad Sa‘id al-Qaddal, Imam al-Mahdi: A Painting of a Sudanese Rebel (original: al-Imam al-Mahdi: Lawha li-tha`ir Sudani) (Beirut: Dar al-Jil, 1986).
P.M. Holt, A History of the Sudan: From the Coming of Islam to the Present Day (London: Routledge, 2014).
Jamal Mahjoub, A Line in the River: Khartoum, a City of Memory (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018).
Nubar Pasha, Memoirs of Nubar Pasha (original: Mudhakkirāt Nūbār Bāshā), intro. and notes by Merrit Boutros Ghali (Beirut: Librairie du Liban, 1983).
Victoria Arsharoni, Nubar Pasha: Great Servant of Egypt (original: Nubar Basha: Khadim Misr al-Kabir), trans. Garo Tabakian (Cairo: AGBU, 2019) [originally published in French, Paris, 1950].
Articles & Journal Papers:
X. Walle and Y. Hedrk, "Badr Al-Jamali’s Contribution to the Restoration of the Fatimid State," Twejer 2, no. 4 (2019).
John Udal, "An Early History of the Shukriya and the Abu Sinns," Sudan Studies 38 (July 2008).
Rouben Adalian, "The Armenian Colony of Egypt During the Reign of Muhammad Ali (1805–1848)," The Armenian Review, Vol. 33, No. 2 (1980), pp. 115–144
Georges Douin, "Arakel bey, gouverneur de Massawa (1874-1875)," Bulletin de l'Institut d'Égypte, vol. 22, no. 2 (1939): 251–268
Blalack, July. "The Sudanese Mahdiyya: When Doomsday Visions Fortified the Struggle for Independence." New Lines Magazine, May 5, 2023.
Heather J. Sharkey, "The Photograph of ‘Abd al-Rahman Musa in Paris (1867): A Sudanese Veteran of the Egyptian Army in Mexico," Égypte Soudan mondes arabes, no. 24, 2023, pp. 171-191.
Manuscripts & Archives:
Muhammad Salih Dirar, "From Muhammad Salih Dirar to Ibrahim Hasan Al-Mahallawi" (Manuscript, 1969), National Records Office via Sudan Memory.
Online Sources:
Dioscorus Boles, "Numbers and Fate of the Copts in Sudan in the Eve of the Mahdist Revolution in 1881 and After the Anglo-Egyptian Reconquest in 1898," Dioscorus Boles on Coptic Nationalism, 24 July 2020, accessed 31 March 2025.
Dioscorus Boles, "The Fate of the Copts (and Other Christians and the Jews) at the Fall of Khartoum in 1885 to the Mahdists," Dioscorus Boles on Coptic Nationalism, 17 January 2021, accessed 31 March 2025.
Europeans in East Africa Database, "Michael Moses," entry 1474, accessed 31 March 2025.
HyeTert, "Armenian Mamluks," 19 April 2013, accessed 31 March 2025.
Embassy of Armenia in Egypt, “Armenians in Egypt”, accessed 31 March 2025.
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