Mehmed Emin | |
|---|---|
 in 1875 | |
| Born | Isaak Eduard Schnitzer (1840-03-28)March 28, 1840 |
| Died | October 23, 1892(1892-10-23) (aged 52) Kinena Station,Nyangwe,Congo Free State |
| Awards | Vega Medal(1890) |
Mehmed Emin Pasha (bornIsaak Eduard Schnitzer, baptizedEduard Carl Oscar Theodor Schnitzer; March 28, 1840 – October 23, 1892) was anOttomanphysician ofGerman Jewish origin,naturalist, and governor of theEgyptian province ofEquatoria on the upperNile. TheOttoman Empire conferred the title "Pasha" on him in 1886, and thereafter he was referred to as "Emin Pasha".
Emin was born inOppeln (in present-dayPoland),Silesia, into a middle-classGerman Jewish family, who moved toNeisse when he was two years old. After the death of his father in 1845, his mother married aChristian; she and her children were baptizedLutherans. He was a student at the Kolegium Carolinum Neisse inNysa, Poland, at the universities atBreslau,Königsberg, andBerlin, qualifying as a physician in 1864. However, he was disqualified from practice, and left Germany forConstantinople, with the intention of enteringOttoman service.
Travelling viaVienna andTrieste, he stopped atAntivari inMontenegro, found himself welcomed by the local community, and was soon practicing medicine.[citation needed] He put his linguistic talent to good use, as well, addingTurkish,Albanian, andGreek to his repertoire of languages. He became thequarantine officer of the port, leaving only in 1870 to join the staff of Ismail Hakki Pasha, governor ofnorthern Albania;[1] in the service, he travelled throughout theOttoman Empire, although the details are little-known.
When Hakki Pasha died in 1873, Emin went back to Neisse with the pasha's widow and children, where he passed them off as his own family, but left suddenly in September 1875, reappearing inCairo and then departing forKhartoum, where he arrived in December. At this point he took the name "Mehemet Emin" (ArabicMuhammad al-Amin), started a medical practice, and began collecting specimens ofplants,animals, andbirds, many of which he sent tomuseums inEurope. Although some regarded him as aMuslim, it is not clear if he ever actually converted.[citation needed]
Charles George Gordon (‘Gordon of Khartoum’), then governor ofEquatoria, heard of Emin's presence and invited him to be the chief medical officer of the province; Emin assented and arrived there in May 1876. Gordon immediately sent Emin on diplomatic missions toBunyoro and toMuteesa I of Buganda to the south, where Emin's modest style and fluency inLuganda were quite popular.
After 1876, Emin madeLado his base for collecting expeditions throughout the region. In 1878, theKhedive of Egypt appointed Emin as Gordon's successor to govern the province, giving him the title ofBey. Despite the grand title, there was little for Emin to do; his military force consisted of a few thousand soldiers who controlled no more than a mile's radius around each of their outposts, and the government in Khartoum was indifferent to his proposals for development. He showed himself to be a bitter foe ofslavery.[2] In 1879 General Gordon gaveFrank Lupton command of a flotilla of river steamers to relieve Emin. When Lupton reached Lado almost two years later he found that Emin did not want to be relieved. He became Emin's deputy, in charge of theLatuka district based at Tarangole.[3]
The revolt ofMuhammad Ahmad that began in 1881 had cut Equatoria off from the outside world by 1883, and the following year,Karam Allah marched south to capture Equatoria and Emin. In 1885, Emin and most of his forces withdrew further south, toWadelai nearLake Albert.[1] Cut off from communications to the north, he was still able to exchange mail withZanzibar throughBuganda. Determined to remain in Equatoria, his communiques, carried by his friendWilhelm Junker, aroused considerable sentiment in Europe in 1886, particularly acute after the death of Gordon the previous year.
TheEmin Pasha Relief Expedition, led byHenry Morton Stanley, undertook to rescue Emin by going up theCongo River and then through theIturi Forest, an extraordinarily difficult route that resulted in the loss of two-thirds of the expedition. Precise details of this trek are recorded in the published diaries of the expedition's non-African "officers" (e.g., MajorEdmund Musgrave Barttelot, CaptainWilliam Grant Stairs, Mr.Arthur Jephson, andThomas Heazle Parke, surgeon of the expedition). Stanley met Emin in April 1888, and after a year spent in argument and indecision, during which Emin and Jephson were imprisoned atDufile by troops who mutinied from August to November 1888, Emin was convinced to leave for the coast. The bulk of his forces remained nearLake Albert until 1890, whenFrederick Lugard took them with him to Kampala Hill, where they participated in theBattle of Kampala Hill. Stanley and Emin arrived inBagamoyo in 1890. During celebrations, Emin was injured when he stepped through a window he mistook for an opening to a balcony. Emin spent two months in a hospital recovering, while Stanley left without being able to bring him back in triumph.[1]
The introduction ofsleeping sickness in Uganda was attributed to the movement of Emin and his followers. Prior to the 1890s, sleeping sickness was unknown in Uganda, but thetsetse fly was probably brought by Emin from the Congo territory.[4]
Emin then entered the service of theGerman East Africa Company and accompaniedDr. Franz Stuhlmann on an expedition to the lakes in the interior, but was killed by twoArab slave traders at Kinena Station in theCongo Free State,[2] nearNyangwe,[5] on 23 or 24 October 1892.[1]
He added greatly to theanthropological knowledge ofcentral Africa and published valuablegeographical papers.[2] In 1890 he was awarded theFounder's Medal of theRoyal Geographical Society.[6]
Emin Pasha is commemorated in the scientific name of an East African species ofleptotyphlopid snake, Emin Pasha's worm snakeLeptotyphlops emini,[7] and an East African species ofPasser sparrow, thechestnut sparrowPasser eminibey.[8] He is also honoured in both thespecific name and common name ofEmin's shrike (Lanius gubernator), the specific name means governor.[9]
