Abdul Hadi Pasha
Banned
Those of you who are Victorian enthusiasts, especially of the explorers, you'll be familiar with the mission of Franch Colonel Paul Flatters. Otherwise, it's an undeservedly obscure topic, as it's rather important to the history of Africa.
In 1880, Flatters embarked on a mission to open up the Sahara to facilitate a project to link Algeria with France's sub-Saharan possessions by rail (!)
Surprisingly, there's no Wikipedia article for this, because the spectacular failure of the Flatters mission discredited the French military's Saharan ambitions at home and delayed conquest of the Sahara by nearly 30 years. There is a French Wikipedia article:
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Flatters
Essentially, Flatters was a poor choice to lead this mission. He wasn't a natural leader, was indecisive, and sulky. The Tuareg easily infiltrated and undermined his command, and eventually led it into a massacre.
The French tended to see the Senusi Sufi order in evertyhting that went wrong for them, and even more, they suspected the Ottomans. As it turns out, regarding the latter, they may have been right.
The following is from a report filed by an Ottoman agent, Muhammad Bashala, recently uncovered in the Ottoman archives, describing an encounter with the Hoggar Tuaregs in 1882. As it was the Hoggar Tuareg who destoyed Flatters, it is verfy possible these are the very men who did it:
"I found them very devoted to our Master and they proudly told me that they still held an Imperial firman (edict) from Selim Sultan. Bizarrely, they told me that on a few occasions they had encountered French travellers sent by their government, but who did not carry a firman of passage from the Caliph, and therefore killed them and seized their goods and animals… "
Bashala also visited Bornu:
"Because Bornu was the most important place that I visited during my peregrinations, I gave the most important gift that I carried to its sovereign... The sacred standard of the Caliphate (Sancak- ı Şerif)... He accepted this gift with the deepest respect and ordered that it be hoisted on all holy days, and every Friday... "
European travellers reported the Ottoman flag flying over the capital of Bornu in 1890.
All this indicates the Ottomans were more in touch with the rest of the Muslim world than most European scholars have considered - and while in OTL the impact of this was limited, it does open up possibilities for late Ottoman TLs. It certainly is an inspiration for mine.
In 1880, Flatters embarked on a mission to open up the Sahara to facilitate a project to link Algeria with France's sub-Saharan possessions by rail (!)
Surprisingly, there's no Wikipedia article for this, because the spectacular failure of the Flatters mission discredited the French military's Saharan ambitions at home and delayed conquest of the Sahara by nearly 30 years. There is a French Wikipedia article:
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Flatters
Essentially, Flatters was a poor choice to lead this mission. He wasn't a natural leader, was indecisive, and sulky. The Tuareg easily infiltrated and undermined his command, and eventually led it into a massacre.
The French tended to see the Senusi Sufi order in evertyhting that went wrong for them, and even more, they suspected the Ottomans. As it turns out, regarding the latter, they may have been right.
The following is from a report filed by an Ottoman agent, Muhammad Bashala, recently uncovered in the Ottoman archives, describing an encounter with the Hoggar Tuaregs in 1882. As it was the Hoggar Tuareg who destoyed Flatters, it is verfy possible these are the very men who did it:
"I found them very devoted to our Master and they proudly told me that they still held an Imperial firman (edict) from Selim Sultan. Bizarrely, they told me that on a few occasions they had encountered French travellers sent by their government, but who did not carry a firman of passage from the Caliph, and therefore killed them and seized their goods and animals… "
Bashala also visited Bornu:
"Because Bornu was the most important place that I visited during my peregrinations, I gave the most important gift that I carried to its sovereign... The sacred standard of the Caliphate (Sancak- ı Şerif)... He accepted this gift with the deepest respect and ordered that it be hoisted on all holy days, and every Friday... "
European travellers reported the Ottoman flag flying over the capital of Bornu in 1890.
All this indicates the Ottomans were more in touch with the rest of the Muslim world than most European scholars have considered - and while in OTL the impact of this was limited, it does open up possibilities for late Ottoman TLs. It certainly is an inspiration for mine.
