The Sahara (41 page)

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
    
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