'I’liE Healing Art as Practised by the Dervishes 
IN THE Sudan during the Rule of the JIahdi and of the Khalifa 
BY 
Ki. I’.iMBAsni Hassan Effendi Zeki 
Sudan Medical Department 
iiredicjil Officer, Grordou Memorial College 
(Translated from the Arabic) 
The Surgical Facilities bossessed by the Army of the Mahdi surgical 
measures 
AND THE Khalifa 
Surgical measures were at first wholly carried out by men termed El Bnsara, this being 
the plural of JJansir. To no other physicians were surgical operations entrusted until about The /iiwir 
the period when the Mahdi died. I was the Medical Officer at Khartoum, and several others 
were associated with me under the old Government in medical and surgical work during the 
siege. There were also certain dispensers, some Greek merchants, who possessed drugs, as 
well as certain Austrian priests—Father Ohrwalder for instance, and a few nurses. 
In addition to the Bassir, or medicine man of the Dervishes, there existed the JTallarj, The Ha/Mf 
or barber-surgeon, and the Data, or midwife, a more or less trained woman who attended to The 
obstetric and gyn»cological cases. 
The Bassir was considered the wise physician, and was entrusted with the compounding 
of medicines. Very often he possessed considerable knowledge, but he took care to secure 
his fee before prescribing, and too often his “cures” were a mixture of savage quackery 
and charlatan tricks. The Hallag, who did not possess any special technical knowledge, 
was nevertheless regarded as a practical workman and was a familiar figure with his razor, 
bleeding-horn and circumcision clamp. It was the fashion to be bled once every six weeks, 
so that the barber-surgeon was kept busily employed. 
General Surgical Technique 
When a person was wounded by Imllet or sword he came under the care of the Bassir, Womnis 
who, if the wound was a simple one, washed it with water and applied ground coffee to 
arrest haemorrhage. In cases where there was no bleeding native butter or boiling tallow 
was employed, with or without the subsequent application of gunpowder. The wounded 
part was then bandaged with calico and dressed daily. Before complete healing took place 
the wound was exposed to the air to dry without the application of any medicament. 
In cases of wounds complicated by fracture of bone it was the custom to set the Fractures 
fracture, to wash the wound, and to dress it with butter. In inflammatory cases a butter 
bath was in vogue. “ Jareed,” the ribs of the compound palm leaf, were used as splints. 
A simple fracture of the limb used to be kept tied up for forty days. It was then examined, 
and if healing had not taken place the splints and rags were again applied. If healed, the 
part was massaged with ostrich fat. Gangrene, from over-tight bandaging, was by no 
means rare. The Bassir usually preferred to allow a foreign body to work its way out. 
Indeed, most of the natives objected to the operative attentions of the Busara, preferring 
death to bungling. 
