About

The Abdallah Bey Hamza Project

The aim of the project was to digitise the Abdallah Bey Hamza Collection, a private archive of documents belonging to the northern Sudanese merchant, creditor and landowner, Abdallah Bey Hamza. Abdallah was an influential figure, granted the honorific title of “Bey” by the Ottoman-Egyptian administration of nineteenth century Sudan. He traded in the major commodities of nineteenth and early twentieth century Sudan, including gum Arabic, cotton and ostrich feathers. This collection contains his commercial transactions, including lands bought, sold, and rented; commercial receipts; partnership contracts; marriage and divorce contracts; legal cases; and personal letters (including from the renowned trader al-Zubayr Pasha). His transactions relate to his time in Sudan and Upper Egypt, specifically in Aswan and Ramadi. They span several important periods in the history of Sudan, namely the Ottoman-Egyptian period (1821-1884), the Mahdist period (1884-1898) during which time Abdallah Bey Hamza fled to Egypt, and the British Condominium period (1898-1956). The collection also contains miscellaneous documents such a poems, genealogies, and parts of historical manuscripts, such as the Ṭabaqạ t Wad Ḍayf Allah. Finally, it contains some of the documents relating to his father and his brothers.

To view these documents, click below.