This is how Abubakr Effendi, a professor of Islamic theology from Türkiye, began his last letter, which he wrote at the Cape of Good Hope, five months before his death on June 29, 1880.
He said, "If I die here, it is certain that the books, houses, and other belongings that belong to me in this land of exile will be usurped by someone, in accordance with the usual method of the non-Muslim government of this place."
When Abubakr Effendi passed away in Cape Town, newspapers in the land where he served for 17 years wrote: “This wise Turk with his grey hair.” Writing in the Cape Times newspaper on June 30, 1880, a local Muslim expressed his feelings about Abubakr Effendi as follows:
“Since his first visit to South…
