The Sahara (41 page)
Authors: Eamonn Gearon
Tags: #Travel, #Sahara, #Desert, #North Africa, #Colonialism, #Art, #Culture, #Literature, #History, #Tunisia, #Berber, #Tuareg
Encounters
Among the most important classic accounts of Saharan journeys and expeditions are W G. Browne
, Travels in Africa, Egypt, and Syria, from the Year 1792 to 1798
; Heinrich Barth,
Travels and Discoveries in North and Central and Africa
; Friedrich Hornemann
, Missions to the Niger
(1797-1798); Gustav Nachtigal,
Sahara and Sudan
(Hurst, 1975), an epic among epics. The journal of Hugh Clapperton,
Difficult and Dangerous Roads
(Sickle Moon Books, 2000), offer a new and welcome perspective on the Denham, Oudney, Clapperton expedition.
The Lost Oases
by Hassanein Bey (American University in Cairo Press, 2006) is a joy to read, while
Libyan Sands
(Hippocrene Books, 1987) by Ralph Bagnold was the first book that made me love the desert.
Post-independence volumes would have to include Michael Asher’s
Impossible Journey
(Viking, 1988), a gripping account of his nine-month walk with camels, and his wife, across the Sahara. Geoffrey Moorehouse’s account of an earlier, unsuccessful attempt to do the same is equally readable:
The Fearful Void
(Hodder & Stoughton, 1974). Justin Marozzi’s
South from Barbary: Along the Slave Routes of the Libyan Sahara
(Harper Collins, 2001) is a great modern take on the joys of non-motor-powered Saharan journeying.
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Cover
Front Matter
Title Page
Publisher Information
Dedication
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction - A Quick Tour of The Sahara
Flora and Fauna
Part One – Landscapes
Whales in the Desert
The Green Sahara
Rock Art
Iconography and Graffiti
Saharan Urban
Oasis-Towns
Part Two – History: Conquests and Empires
From Ancient Egypt to the Arab Invasion
Land Of The Dead
The Phoenicians
Persian and Ptolemaic Dynasties
The Romans
The Garamantes
Camels
Christian North Africa
The Vandals
The Armies of Islam
Travellers, Chroniclers, Geographers
Gilded Empires
Timbuktu
Part Three – History: Exploration, Imperialism and Independence
European Forays - The African Association and Napoleon
Hornemann
Egyptomania
Further Horizons - Exploration and the European Land Grab
Caillie, Barth and Rohlfs
Algeria And Abd Al-Qadir
The Scramble For Africa
War and Peace and War
Motors, Mars and Planes
The Second World War
Desert Warfare
Heaven and Hell - Independence and Since
The French Legacy
Part Four - Imagination
Classical Inspiration
Riddle of the Sphinx
Poetic Muse
“The Brutish Desert”: War Poets
A Brilliant Palette
Fromentin and the Orientalists: “Dangerous Novelties”
Oriental Delights, Strange Worlds and Spy Stories
Tales of the Legion
Desert Espionage
Silver Screen Sahara
Beau Geste
Desert Epics
Part Five – Encounters: Indigenes and Visitors
Men With a Mission
Professionals
Missionaries
Literary Travellers and Tourists
Early Observers
Wilfred Thesiger
Adventure Tourism
People of the Sahara
The Tuareg
Toubou and Sahrawi
Two Incomers: Isabelle Eberhardt and Paul Bowles
End Matter
Further Reading
Travel Guides
Landscapes
History
Imagination
Encounters
Also Available