Outstanding Coptic doctors, who excelled in their academic life and loved their Church.

Professor Gorgi Sobhi

He was born in Cairo where he lived with his father, who was a manager in an arsenal factory. His mother died a week after he was born. Dr Harper, the manager of Harmel Hospital in Cairo fostered Gorgi and the family brought him up as a twin brother to their own son who was almost the same age. He lived with the Harpers till the age of 9 and being brought up in an English family, spoke fluent English,. He achieved first place in the 11+ exam in Egypt and later joined Medical School, qualifying from Qasr el Eini in 1904. Dr Sobhi became an anatomist and wrote several papers in this field.

In 1909 he came to London, but returned to Cairo two years later to look after his family following the sudden death of his father.

Between 1940 and 1952 he was Professor of General Medicine in Qasr el Eini. He qualified MRCP and later FRCP. He was also Prof. of Egyptology at the faculty of art at Fouad Ist university.

He pioneered asthma treatment treating it with gold injections, a breakthrough in his day. He loved the history of medicine and wrote extensively on the subject and later became Professor of the History of Medicine.

He learned the Coptic language almost by accident. El Mahdi revolution in Sudan obliged the Coptic Bishop there to flee to Egypt where he met Dr Sobhi and taught him Coptic.

He became a scholar in the language, so much so that Saad Zaghloul, the national Egyptian leader, asked him to write a manuscript on the language and it was printed at the governments expense in Arabic and in English. Dr Sobhi came across a rare old Coptic on proverbs .

He transcribed the book in one night and returned it to his owner. He was able to translate and publish the book later.

He studied Hieroglyphics, and became fluent in it. He taught Demotic language in the school of Egyptian Antiquities.. He wrote the only book of its kind , Arabic words of Coptic and Greek origin.

He was fluent in seven languages: English, French, Italian, Arabic, Greek , Latin and Coptic; he could also read hieroglyphics. He learnt Italian while looking after the Italian prisoners of war during the First World War.

He was married to a French lady, but he had no children, but was survived by a wealth of scientific and humanistic studies.

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Professor Naguib Mahfouz

Professor Mahfouz is looked upon as the father of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Egypt. He was the first professor of the speciality in Egypt and the Middle East. He established the first midwifery school in Egypt. His book on obstetrics "The Art of Midwifery and Obstetrics" remains a classic until this day. He established the first clinic for the neonates in Cairo in 1927 and the government adopted the scheme nationwide after the success of the first clinic.

Naguib Mahfouz qualified in 1902. He volunteered to work in a town in Asyiut, where an epidemic of cholera had just broken out. He traced the source

of infection to a polluted water well that supplied most of the town with water. After condemning the well, the epidemic came to an end.

He set his heart on specialising in obstetrics and gynaecology. He had his personal reasons because his own delivery was a complex one as his mother

was in obstructed labour for three days. He was recommended by the British General Health Manager of Egypt to join Qasr el Eini Medical School where he was appointed assistant surgeon. He then established the first outpatient gynaecological clinic in Egypt. It proved to be very popular. The medical school appointed him as the first professor of obstetrics and gynaecology in the country.

He pioneered surgery of gynaecologic fistulae, his work on fistulae remains a standard operative technique until this day. A copy of his book, "Mahfouz Atlas Of Gynaecology and Obstetrics" is kept in the library of The Royal of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in London.

He established the first pathology museum in gynaecology which was highly commended by the President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of the day.

The Nobel prize winner Nagib Mahfouz the writer was named after Professor Mahfouz.

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