It bears (surprisingly) on Sitchin’s claim that there was a witness to the (alleged) forgery.

According to Sitchin’s informant (independently verified), the witness in question was recruited by the British Medical Service (Army Medical Service?), to build an eye hospital for Vyse’s workers.

Establishing the truth about this hospital is therefore of some importance.

We see that (a) the other sources corroborate (in part) what Vyse says, while (b) what Vyse says supplements the other sources.

The sequence would appear to be this: Charles Nayler, an oculist, visited Alexandria in 1836. While there he treated some people. Word spread quickly and reached Mehemet Ali, the Pasha.

Mehemet Ali offered him a salary of £1200 per annum (commensurate with the rank of Bey) to set up a permanent practice in Egypt (where ophthalmia was endemic).

It would seem from what Vyse says (going beyond the other sources) that Nayler accepted the offer and set up a hospital or clinic near Cairo, in an existing building, provided by Mehemet Ali: “a house called Ater El Nebbi, near Fostat”. There was (retaining Vyse’s spelling) a village called Ater El Nebbi, now I suppose a suburb of Cairo: it takes its name from the mosque Ater El Nebbi (Relics of the Prophet). Was Nayler allowed to practise in a mosque? It seems unlikely, but perhaps the building was some kind of annex to the mosque.

Picking out what is relevant in what MacFarlane says, it would seem that Nayler went on to practise elsewhere in the Ottoman empire, but kept the rank of Bey, granted originally by Mehemet Ali (and thereby corroborating another point in Vyse’s account).

MacFarlane’s topic was the persecution of Albanian (Catholic) Christians in 1845-6. I’m not sure which Mohalich he meant: I don’t know the modern name (or spelling). It seems to have been reached via (modern) Gemlik and Bursa.

M.