Gorgi Sobhi
Professor Gorgi Sobhi(1884–1964) جورجى صبحى Professor ofGeneral Medicine,Professor of theHistory of Medicineand Professor ofEgyptology.
Early life
[edit]He was born in Mimon ofBeni Suef,Egypt,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.
Academic career
[edit]He achieved first place in the 11+ exam inEgyptand later joined Medical School, qualifying fromQasr el Einiin 1904. Dr Sobhi became anAnatomistand wrote several papers in this field. In 1909 he came toLondon,but returned toCairotwo years later to look after his family following the sudden death of his father.
Between 1940 and 1952 he was Professor ofGeneral Medicinein 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 pioneeredasthmatreatment treating it with gold injections, a breakthrough in his day. He loved thehistory of medicineand wrote extensively on the subject and later became Professor of the History of Medicine. He learned theCoptic languagealmost by accident.Mahdist WarinSudanobliged theCopticBishop there to flee to Egypt where he met Dr Sobhi and taught himCoptic.
He became a scholar in the language, so much so thatSaad Zaghloul,the national Egyptian leader, asked him to write a manuscript on the language and it was printed at the government's expense inArabicand in English. Dr Sobhi came across a rare old Coptic text 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 studiedhieroglyphics,and became fluent in it. He taughtdemoticin 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,LatinandCoptic;he could also read hieroglyphics. He learnt Italian while looking after the Italian prisoners of war during theFirst World War.
He was married to a French lady, and had no children; he was survived by a wealth of scientific and humanistic studies.
See also
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