From Khartoum to Jerusalem Also available from Bloomsbury Archaeologists, Tourists, Interpreters: Exploring Egypt and the Near East in the Late 19th–Early 20th Centuries, Rachel Mairs and Maya Muratov Hidden Hands: Egyptian Workforces in Petrie Excavation Archives, 1880–1924, Stephen Quirke From Khartoum to Jerusalem The Dragoman Solomon Negima and his Clients (1885–1933) Rachel Mairs Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc LONDON • OXFORD • NEW YORK • NEW DELHI • SYDNEY Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway London New York WC 1B 3 DP NY 10018 UK U SA www.bloomsbury.com BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published 2016 Paperback edition first published 2017 © Rachel Mairs, 2016 Rachel Mairs has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author. British Library Cataloguing- in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN : HB : 978-1-47425-500-4 PB : 978-1-35005-412-7 e PDF : 978-1-47425-502-8 ePub: 978-1-47425-501-1 Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Typeset by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk For Ted and Jack Contents Acknowledgements viii Figures ix Timeline xii 1 Introduction 1 2 The Sudan, 1885 16 3 Tourists and Pilgrims 36 4 Alone Through Syria 57 5 Rev. Charles T. Walker 88 6 Floyd House 117 7 The Letters 135 Notes 247 Bibliography 250 Index 258 Acknowledgements Without the internet, none of this would have been possible. I bought Solomon Negima’s testimonial book on eBay. I dug through nineteenth- century articles on Newspapers.com. I traced genealogical connections on Ancestry.com. I accessed archival documents online from the collections of the National Archives in the UK, National Archives and Records Administration in the United States, and many others. And I used email to badger a succession of very kind people all over the world with my queries. All of this is now taken for granted, but even ten years ago what has in any case been a very difficult and time- consuming task would have been impossible. So, thank you to the internet. People who helped me in person, with books and expertise, include Arezou Azad, Hannah Friedman, Katherine Harloe, Dorothea McEwan, Arietta Papaconstantinou, Sophie Spencer and Alexandre Waquet. Nineteenth- century handwriting styles can be difficult to read and transcribe. Some of the German examples were, for want of a better word, nightmarish. I was fortunate to have a second (third, fourth, fifth . . .) pair of eyes. Those who have helped with my archival and genealogical research online are thanked individually in the footnotes. At Bloomsbury, Alice Wright, Anna MacDiarmid, and others, have been terrific to work with. A special thank- you is due to Maya Muratov, for collaboration and friendship, on a project (‘Let’s write an article!’) that I don’t think either of us envisaged getting so wildly out of control. Maya and Cyrill have been generous with their hospitality in New York. I will let my dedication speak for itself.