THE SOUDAN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 199, 11 January 1913, Page 7

THE SOUDAN.

j DEATH OF A NOTED CHARACTER. The death was recently announced, at the age of 83, of Zobeir Rahama Pasha, who played a notable part in connectitfn , with General Gordon's mission. Zobeir Pasha was a member of a family which claims descent from Abbas, the uncle of Mahomet. He became prominent as one of the most energetic Arab ivory and slave traders who abont 1860 established themselves on the White Nile. Nominally a subject ol Egypt, he raised an army of severalthousand well-armed blacks, and became ) a dangerous rival to the Egyptian auth- { orities. In 18C9 an expedition sent from Khar-. ! touni into the Bahr-e'i-Ghazal was attacked by Zobeir, and completely defeated, its commander being clain. Zobeir represented that he was blameless in the matter, receiving a "pardon," and was himself appointed Governor of Bahr- } el-Ghazal, where he was practically independent. In 1873 he attacked the Sultan of Darfur, and the Khedive Ismail gave him the rank of Bey, and sent troops to co-operate. After lie had conquered Darfur (1874), Zobeir was made a Pasha, but he claimed the more substantial reward of being made Governor-General of the new province, and went to. Cairo in the spring of 1870 to press his title. He was now in the power of the'.Egyp-i tian authorities, who prevented his return, though he was allowed to go to Constantinople at the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese war. In 1878, however, his sou Suleiman, having got possession j of the Bahr-e'i-Ghazal, and acting on instructions from his father, defied the authority of General Gordon,'the ,aewj Governor-General of the Soudan. Gordon sent Romolo Gessi against Suleiman,, who was subdued after an arduous cam-'' paign, and executed. During the campaign Zobeir offered if he were allowed to return to the Sotulan to restore order, and to pay a revenue of £25,000 a vear to the Khedive.

Gordon declined this help, and subsc L . quent'ly. for his instigation of the revolt, Zobeir was condemned to death, but the trial was a farce, the sentence was remitted, and he remained in Cairo, now in high favor with the Khedive's Court. In March, 1884, Gordon, who had been sent to Khartoum to effect, if possible, the relief of the Egyptian garrisons in the Soudan, astonished Europe by requesting that Zobeir, whose son he had overthrown, and whose character he had described by Sir Reginald Wingate, who knew him well, as "a quiet, far-seeing thoughtful man, of iron will, a born ru'icr of men," might have been able to stem the Mahdist movement. But to" reinstate the notorious slave-dealer was regarded,in London as too perilous an expedient, even in the extreme circumstances then existing ,although Colonel Stewart (Gordon's companion in Khartoum), Sir Evelyn Baring ,and Nuhar Pasha, in Cairo, anl Queen Victoria, and; Mr. Gladstone all favored such a course. 1 In March, 1885, Zobeir was arrested in Cairo by order of the British Government for treasonable correspondence with the Mahdi and other enemies of Egypt, and was interned at Gibraltar. In August. 1887, he was allowed to return to Cairo, and after the reconquest 1 of the Soudan was permitted (in 1899) to settle in his native country. He established himself on his estate at Geihi, near Khartoum.