By Samia Sidhom – Watani-
Ahmes Labib Pahor (1942 -2026)
He was named Ahmes… after one of the greatest men in Egypt’s history.
Ahmes was the name of the Egyptian hero whose great love for Egypt some 2400 years ago drove him to lead a mass revolution that prised the country out of the hands of the Hyksos, foreign invaders who had ruled over Egypt for some 150 years. He went on to be King Ahmes I, founder of Egypt’s mighty 18th Dynasty and New Kingdom (16th – 11th centuries), the most prosperous time for ancient Egypt and the peak of its power.
Like his namesake, Ahmes Labib Pahor (1942 – 2026) possessed a love for Egypt that was legendary. As was his love of his Coptic Church, his faithfulness to his medical career, and to every endeavour he took up.
Ahmes was born to prominent Egyptologist Labib Pahor (1906-1994), the man who coined the term “Egyptology”, who was a famous archaeologist, director of the Coptic Museum from 1951 to 1965 during which time he did remarkable work on the Nag Hammadi Codices, and member of the specialised national councils. He won international decorations from Ethiopia, Denmark, and Germany.
His grandfather was the scholar Cladius Bey Labib (1868 – 1918), archaeologist, newspaperman, owner of Ain Shams printing press, and author of an extensive Coptic Arabic dictionary that was published in five sizeable volumes. He published a monthly magazine produced in a multi-lingual form of Coptic, Hieroglyphs, Arabic, English, and other languages.
Ahmes was one of four brothers. He never married. He grew up in Cairo where he went to school then to university where he studied medicine, graduating in 1964. He did higher studies in the UK, then decided to reside and practise in Birmingham. He became Consultant ENT Surgeon at the UK National Health Service (NHS) with a long list of degrees to his name: FRCS, DHMSA(UK), FICS(USA), Dip.ICS (Egypt), PhD.Hist.Med. (Netherlands). He retired from his last medical post at City Teaching Hospital (CTH) in Birmingham in 2002 to, as he told his friend Refki Latief, a Cairo ENT specialist, “explore other interesting aspects of life, away from medicine.” During his years at CTH, he founded a training centre to teach and train junior doctors the intricacies of highly critical ear surgery procedures.
Ahmes Pahor was a meticulous researcher, diligent scientist, and capable surgeon. He researched the history of medicine, the history of Pharaonic and Coptic Egypt, and the origins of Coptic language; in addition to diverse branches of knowledge and human creativity in painting, music and literature.
He wrote and published extensively on the history of medicine especially ancient Egyptian medicine, also on Coptic history and language. He gave lectures on Coptic Language at TEACH (The European Academy for Coptic Heritage).
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