Sudan 1898 , What Happened To This Cover?

I have 3 main questions about this 2 covers:
1) Both have the same size and address, so why one has a 2 pi. stamp and the other a 5 pi. stamp.
2) They are both originally addressed to Switzerland by registered mail, but no sign of registration and do not believe they ever reached Switzerland.
3) What is written in Arabic at the top? anyone able to translate this?

Codex, this is much more of a puzzle than the previous document you posted. Let me do some.digging amongst my Arabic-speaking colleagues and get some translation of the script. My Arabic isn't good enough to do this.

Before I go to work, the first script at the top is "via Egypt" hence the Cairo back stamps.

I don't know but there was quite a bit going on between Sudan and Egypt at the time and perhaps that may have something to do with this??

"In 1898, in the context of the scramble for Africa, the British decided to reassert Egypt's claim on Sudan. An expedition, commanded by Kitchener, was organised in Egypt. It was composed of 8,200 British soldiers and 17,600 Egyptian and Sudanese soldiers commanded by British officers. The Mahdist forces (sometimes called the Dervishes) were more numerous, numbering more than 60,000 warriors, but lacked modern weapons.

After defeating a Mahdist force in the Battle of Atbara in April 1898, the Anglo-Egyptians reached Omdurman, the Mahdist capital in September. The bulk of the Mahdist army attacked, but was cut down by British machine-guns and rifle fire.

The remnant, with the Khalifa Abdullah, fled to southern Sudan. During the pursuit, Kitchener's forces met a French force under Major Jean-Baptiste Marchand at Fashoda, resulting in the Fashoda Incident. They finally caught up with Abdullah at Umm Diwaykarat, where he was killed, effectively ending the Mahdist regime."

OK. Let's go for the translation first, which opens up the proverbial can of worms. At the top is says "to Egypt", which is logical. Below this, in different hand-writing, the letter is addressed to the supervisor Anwar for reading, from Suleyman Daoud from the ?Italian? ("tooatalia") Consulate in Egypt. The note is written by Najlaa Suleyman Boudouh, 164 something (this latter character is unclear).

Not too helpful you may think, but it raises some questions about the mail. Was the mail intercepted, and were the contents deemed unsuitable? Kino's comment puts the letters in historical context. I imagine mail for Switzerland may have been handled by the Italian consulate.

I don't know the postal rates for overseas postage from Sudan in the late 1890s, but 2P and 5P seems excessive for a simple letter. These are near to the highest values, so maybe the philatelic nature of these covers raised suspicion. The red excising on the covers may suggest that they were never never intended to leave Cairo.

This is another lovely cover from you, once again with really interesting history. Can anyone else help to put some more pieces together? Is my translation correct?

Thank you Tim for shed some light on these covers, and Kimo for the info.
The postage does seem excessive (philatelic), but the covers appear so messed up, that something must have happened to them.
As you said, they may have raised concerns and got intercepted (if they could only talk).

I'll have to research all this much further, but I wonder if these were created for a collector. The Camel Postman stamp had just been issued at Berber a month or two earlier and it makes sense that a collector would want as many denominations as possible. (Hence, the two values for similar letters.)

The postmarks are interesting. Wadi Halfa is marked simply Halfa elsewhere and it's not too surprising, I suppose, that Cairo is marked with the French Caire.

I'm not suggesting in the least that these covers are fabrications, but we do know that there were forgeries being created at the time of the "reconquest" and with contemporary stamps.

It's all fascinating history, with conflict between the status quo, the rebels, the British, and the French.

As you say KGB, is very possible that these were created for a collector, but for some reason never went registered (I am sure there was more than enough with the high values) and never reached the destination.

I've just read that a soldier's rate for postage from Egyptian-Sudan for 1989 was three piastres if pre-paid. The unpaid rate was six, paid by the recipient, but this was lowered to three for soldiers in the boonies, so to speak. The man's superior would sign the envelope apparently. Nothing yet on a civilian rate, if there was such a thing. I found some nice images of covers with one 2-piastre postage due stamp along with another that was bisected.

EDIT: Just to be thorough, I should add that subalterns paid the soldier's rate.

EDIT 2: If a piastre was worth about 2 and a half shillings, as I think I have read, then the postal rate would be quite high, right?! I'll have to double check all this in the morning!

Perhaps Registration wasn't available at the time?
The Postal Service was run by the Military, until 1903 (with civilian cancellations)
Exist HALFA, Wadi Halfa Camp and Wadi halfa Bridge Hammers.
Service was utilised by Camel and Nile Steamer .
Messy covers of this era, appear common.
They look genuine to me.

2 covers of the same date, with differing stamps would suggest philatelically inspired.

Thanks all for your input.
I contacted the Sudan study Group to see if they can have more info about it.