#13 in a series on the life of William Borden, the millionaire missionary who died en route to China's Gansu Province, adapted from his biography (BordenofYale.com, January 1, 2024).
Native dress was the norm for missionaries of Hudson Taylor's China Inland Mission, with whom he planned to work in Gansu Province. In Cairo, it seems Borden got a head start in this practice.
From a letter dated February 17, 1913:
I have bought a “tarboush,” as they call the red fez here, to wear when we go to investigate Islam in some form or other, that I may not be so liable to be the one investigated.
It is really remarkable how effective such a slight change proves as a disguise. A great many of the natives wear European dress, you see, save for just this hat. So when we put it on they do not know whether we are “Christians” or not, and can be quite sure that we are not tourists. All of which is valuable.
I bought mine as we were going to a zikr the other night with Mr. Swan of the Egypt General Mission, but it rained so that we called it off. . . . I have not yet explained what a zikr is: briefly, a repetition of the Muslim creed by Dervishes, until they are exhausted. Tomorrow is the Prophet’s birthday, so we expect to see plenty of them (zikrs), as they go on all night.
We are still distributing khutbas, and it is going all right. Dr. Zwemer seems to think that as they are read more and more by Muslims all over the city there may be some kind of an outburst that would hinder our distributing them freely. We shall soon have the Sermon on the Mount, however, ready for distribution in the same form, and that no one can take exception to.
Borden's “disguise” evidently worked so well that he continued this practice, even growing out his beard and mustache to imitate the Arab style.
How do we know?
His mother wrote the following about her son's appearance on the day he died, as she looked at his body from across the room at the hospital:
I wanted to tell you just one thing that you may not hear from anyone else: and that is that, when we saw him. . . I would never have known him, his beard and mustache had grown and the contour of his face was changed.
Indeed, no pictures survive to show Borden with full facial hair (or wearing the red fez), but we have on his (and his mom's) word that both were his custom as a young missionary.
*The images in this post are AI renderings (based on his actual portrait) of what Borden may have looked like during the final few months of his life, with a red fez and facial hair.