Chapter I: Introduction

MY friend Ahmed Hassanein has asked me to write a few words of introduction to his record of a remarkable voyage of exploration. It was the more remarkable because the expedition, the results of which have enabled him to fill up an important gap in our knowledge of Africa and to determine with precision positions only approximately ascertained by that great pioneer in African research, Gerhardt Rohlfs, was conceived and led by him single-handed without other assistance or companionship than that of his guides and personal attendants.

A traveler whose work has been recognized by the award of the Founder’s Medal of the Royal Geographical Society should need no introduction to the British public. But I welcome the opportunity of drawing attention to his achievement in another field, in the production of a book which will, I feel sure, be acknowledged by all who read it to have exceptional interest, written in a language of which he has made himself a master, although it is not his own.

But first, disregarding any protests from his characteristic modesty, I have to present the author himself, who is only known to the majority of my countrymen as an intrepid traveler. I have had the pleasure of his acquaintance for a number of years, since he was the contemporary and friend of my son at Balliol. After considerable experience I have come to the conclusion that the experiment of sending students from the East to reside at a Western university is one which should only be tried in exceptional cases and with young men of exceptional character. In the case of Ahmed Hassanein I think all who know him will agree that it has been an unqualified success. He has retained all that is best of his own national and spiritual inheritance, while he has acquired a sympathetic understanding and appreciation of the mentality and feelings of men with very different social antecedents and training. It is possible that the blood of his Bedouin forefathers made intimacy with them easier for him, since the Briton and the Bedouin not infrequently find in one another a certain kinship of instinct which compels their mutual regard. Incidentally it may be mentioned that Ahmed Hassanein represented the University of Oxford as a fencer. In any case it is possible for him to be a sincere Egyptian patriot and none the less to entertain equally sincere friendship with members of the nation to which justice is not always done by the Younger Egypt.

He began his career at home in the Ministry of the Interior at Cairo. During the war when martial law was in force in Egypt he was attached to General Sir John Maxwell, a very old friend of his country. Now he has entered the diplomatic service, for which a wide experience of life, rare in so young a man, as well as his linguistic gifts, eminently qualifies him. He has occasionally consulted me as an elder friend and as the father of my son on certain matters of personal interest to himself. I may therefore claim to know him intimately, and I cannot refrain from recording my testimony that in all such questions, and especially in a very delicate matter which he submitted to me, I have always found him generous in his judgments and, for I know no other way of expressing what I mean, a great gentleman.

The story of his exploration of desert tracts unknown to geography and his discovery of two oases whose existence was only a vague tradition is the record of a great adventure of endurance. It is told so modestly and with such sober avoidance of overstatement that readers who have no experience of the vicissitudes of desert travel may perhaps hardly realize what courage and perseverance its successful accomplishment demanded. There is also another virtue besides these which is indispensable for penetration into regions where the isolated inhabitants regard every intrusion with profound suspicion, and that is one which Hassanein appears to possess instinctively, the virtue of tact.

English readers are perhaps rather disposed to think of the desert in the terms with which romance has made them familiar, for which the grim reality offers little justification. There is indeed a romance of the desert, the romance of loyalties and sacrifices under the shadow of the inevitable, which is an element in the true romance. And that will not be found lacking in a book which bears upon it the impress of truth, interpreting the beauty which the desert can assume, the spiritual influence and inspiration of the great solitudes, the perpetual consciousness prevailing there of the narrowness of the border line between life and death.

Apart from its intrinsic interest as a record of discovery and the light which it throws on the origin, teaching, and influence of the Senussi fraternity, this volume will be welcome to many because its pages carry the reader away into the atmosphere of a great peace. He will be aware for a while of an ambience where the coarse and the trivial and the competitive do not exist. He will find himself in touch with men who, unconscious of the urge and tumult of a world for which they would have no use, lead strenuous but dignified contemplative lives. And as he perceives how for them privation and danger and even routine are illuminated by the conviction of unalterable faith in the guiding hand of Providence, he will probably formulate the silent hope that these dwellers in the lonely places may be left untouched by the invasion of the modern spirit. Their pleasures are as touchingly simple as their thoughts. These thoughts and these simple pleasures we may for a passing hour share as they are presented to us by a hand which seems to me to have an unerring touch in conveying fidelity of outline and color.

In conclusion it is a grateful duty to add that Hassanein Bey has more than once confirmed to me in conversation what is suggested in the dedication of his book, namely that he could not have undertaken his adventurous journey without the assistance and support which he received from his sovereign. The promotion of enterprise is no doubt an inherited impulse in King Fouad, and it is gratifying to feel that his encouragement may confidently be anticipated for that scientific and historical research for which Egypt still offers such an ample field.

The achievement of Hassanein Bey and the spirit in which his book is written cannot fail to appeal to the sympathies of my countrymen, and he has added another to his services by thus promoting the spirit of good feeling between the country of his education and the land of his birth which all are anxious to see restored.

RENNELL RODD.

October 19, 1924.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I AM deeply indebted to Dr. John Ball, O.B.E., Director of Desert Surveys of Egypt, who has been good enough to summarize the scientific results of my expedition in the First Appendix to this volume. His advice and the instruction which he gave me in the use of scientific instruments were invaluable. I was indeed fortunate in being able to draw upon his great knowledge.

The maps of my journey, one of which accompanies this volume, were kindly prepared by Dr. Ball and Mr. Browne and other members of the Survey Department of Egypt.

Dr. Hume and Mr. Moon of the Geological Survey of Egypt classified the geological specimens which I brought back and prepared a report which is contained in the Second Appendix to this book. By this willing assistance they added much to the results of my expedition.

Lewa Spinks Pasha, D.S.O., and Meshalani Bey of the Ordnance Department of the Egyptian War Office were responsible for the cases and containers and other camp equipment which I used. These proved to be satisfactory in every way, and I am grateful for the care and thought which were expended in their preparation.

My old friends Sayed El Sherif El Idrissi and his son Sayed Marghanny El Idrissi again gave me that good counsel and ready help which I had received from them in the course of my trip to Kufra in 1921.

Throughout my expedition I received the most friendly and effective assistance from Colonel Commandant Hunter Pasha, C.B., D.S.O., late Administrator of the Frontier Districts Administration; Colonel M. Macdonnell, late Governor of the Western Desert; Major de Halpert of the F.D.A.; Captain Hutton, O.C., Sollum; Captain Harrison, O.C. Armored Cars at Sollum; Abdel Aziz Fahmy Effendi and A. Kmel Effendi, Mamurs of Sollum and Siwa; Lieutenant Lawler, O.C., Siwa.

When I reached the Sudan my way was made easy and pleasant by the kindness of his Excellency Ferik Sir Lee Stack Pasha, G.B.E., C.M.G., Sirdar and Governor-General of the Sudan, and I cannot let this opportunity pass of expressing my cordial thanks to all the officials of the Sudan Government along my route, and especially to Lewa Midwinter Pasha, C.B., C.M.G., C.B.E., D.S.O., Acting Governor-General of the Sudan; Lewa Huddleston Pasha, C.M.G., D.S.O., M.C., Acting Sirdar; Kaimakam M. Hafiz Bey, O.C. Troops at Khartum; H. A. MacMichael, D.S.O., Assistant Civil Secretary; Captain J. E. Philips, M.C. Samuel Atiyah Bey, M.V.O., and Ahmed El Sayed Pifai of the Sudan Civil Service; Charles Dupuis, Acting Governor of Darfur; Sagh A. Hilym, S.O., El Fasher; J. D. Craig, O.B.E., Governor of Kordofan; Bimbashi A. Khalil, S.O., El Obeid; and the officers, officials, and notables of El Fasher and El Obeid.

To Bimbashi G. F. Foley, M.C., O.C. Artillery at El Fasher, I am grateful for the verse which adorns the last chapter of the book.

I am particularly indebted to Harold Howland and to W. H. L. Watson, an old Balliol friend, for their invaluable help and advice in the preparation of this book.

A. M. HASSANEIN.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE DESERT 3

II. THE PLANNING OF THE JOURNEY 12

III. THE BLESSING OF THE BAGGAGE 16

IV. SUPPLIES AND EQUIPMENT 19

V. PLOTS AND OMENS 31

VI. THE SENUSSIS 42

VII. THE PEACE OF JAGHBUB 57

VIII. MEALS AND MEDICINE 67

IX. SAND-STORMS AND THE ROAD TO JALO 76

X. AT THE OASIS OF JALO 88

XI. ON THE TREK 110

XII. THE ROAD TO ZIEGHEN WELL 131

XIII. THE CHANGING DESERT AND A CORRECTED MAP 156

XIV. KUFRA: OLD FRIENDS AND A CHANGE OF PLAN 170

XV. KUFRA: ITS PLACE ON THE MAP 185

XVI. THE LOST OASES: ARKENU 203

XVII. THE LOST OASES: OUENAT 219

XVIII. NIGHT MARCHES TO ERDI 235

XIX. ENTERING THE SUDAN 257

XX. TO FURAWIA ON SHORT RATIONS 277

XXI. JOURNEY’S END 293

APPENDICES

I. NOTE ON THE CARTOGRAPHICAL RESULTS OF HASSANEIN BEY’S
JOURNEY 309

II. CONCLUSIONS DERIVED FROM THE GEOLOGICAL DATA COLLECTED
BY HASSANEIN BEY DURING HIS KUFRA-OUENAT EXPEDITION 348

III. NOTES ON THE GEOLOGY OF HASSANEIN BEY’S EXPEDITION,
SOLLUM-DARFUR, 1923 352

ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

HASSANEIN BEY _Frontispiece_

THE OLDEST MAN AT JALO 17

SIDI HUSSEIN WEIKIL 17

DOOR TO THE GRAND SENUSSI’S TOMB 20

THE TOMB OF THE FOUNDER OF THE SENUSSI 20

CAMEL SERENADING THE CAMP AT OUENAT 24

A DYING CAMEL 24

WOMEN OF THE ZAGHAWA TRIBE 29

SAYED IDRIS EL SENUSSI 32

THE JUDGE OF JALO 36

ZERWALI 45

SIWA 48

PANORAMA OF JAGHBUB 52

THE COURTYARD OF THE MOSQUE AT JAGHBUB 61

A CLOISTER AT THE MOSQUE OF JAGHBUB 65

THE DOME OF THE MOSQUE AT JAGHBUB 65

THE EXPLORER’S CARAVAN IN A SAND-STORM 69

DESERT SANDS COVERING DATE-TREES 72

THE ZIEGHEN WELL 76

A HALT IN THE DESERT 76

THE ARMED MEN OF THE CARAVAN 81

HAPPY TEBUS AT KUFRA 84

A BIDIYAT FAMILY 84

HAWARIA, A LANDMARK OF KUFRA 88

CAMELS CROSSING THE SAND-DUNES 93

SAYED MOHAMMED EL ABID 96

THE HOUSE OF SAYED EL ABID 96

TEBU GIRL WEARING BEDOUIN CLOTHES 100

A TEBU WITH HIS CAMEL 100

SLAVE AT KUFRA 104

TEBU GIRL CARRYING BURDEN ON HER HEAD 104

KUFRA 109

THE OASIS OF HAWARI 112

SOUTH OF KUFRA 116

RUINS OF KUFRA 120

A SENUSSI PRINCE AT KUFRA 125

GOVERNOR OF KUFRA 125

ZWAYA CHIEFS AT KUFRA 129

THE LAKE AT KUFRA 132

EL TAJ 136

THE COUNCIL OF KUFRA 136

TUAREGS IN KUFRA 141

TWO TUAREGS IN WARRIOR ATTIRE 141

THE CARAVAN ON THE MOVE IN THE DESERT TO AGAH 144

SONS OF SHEIKH HERRI 148

APPROACHING THE HILLS OF ARKENU 152

IN THE OPEN DESERT 157

THE HILLS OF ARKENU 161

THE EXPLORER’S CAMP AT OUENAT 164

THE CARAVAN APPROACHING THE GRANITE HILLS OF OUENAT 164

VALLEY OF ERDI 168

DESERT BREAKING INTO ROCK COUNTRY SOUTH OF OUENAT 168

THE DESERT FROM THE HILLS OF OUENAT 173

THE KING OF OUENAT 176

THE EXPLORER’S KITCHEN IN A CAVE 181

THE ROCK VALLEY WELLS FOUND AT OUENAT 181

AT ARKENU 188

THE MOST IMPORTANT DISCOVERY MADE AT OUENAT 188

WHITE SAND VALLEY AND EXPLORER’S CAMP 193

THE CARAVAN ARRIVING AT OUENAT 197

THE VALLEY OF ERDI 200

THE FIRST TREE SEEN APPROACHING ERDI 204

THE EXPLORER’S CAMP IN THE VALLEY OF ERDI 208

SOUTH OF ERDI 208

THE CHIEFTAIN OF THE BIDIYAT TRIBE 213

TWO BIDIYAT MEN 213

BIDIYAT BELLES 216

BIDIYAT PRIEST 216

A BIDIYAT GIRL, WITH HER SISTER 220

A BIDIYAT GIRL, WITH HER CHILD 220

A BIDIYAT PARTY 225

GIRLS AT EL FASHER GOING TO MARKET 225

BIDIYAT WOMEN 228

ZAGHAWA GIRL AND HER INFANT 228

MARKET AT UM BURU 232

EXPLORER’S CAMP AT UM BURU 237

ZAGHAWA CHIEFS COMING OUT TO WELCOME THE PARTY AT UM
BURU 241

A ZAGHAWA SHEIKH 244

A ZAGHAWA WOMAN 244

A BELLE OF THE ZAGHAWA TRIBE 253

ZAGHAWA GIRL 253

WELL ON THE FRONTIER OF DARFUR 256

A WATER-CARRIER IN THE DESERT 260

A WOMAN OF THE FALLATA TRIBE 260

A WELL NEAR KUTTUM IN DARFUR. WOMEN WORKING 269

SUDANESE TROOPS AND GIRLS 272

WELL ON THE FRONTIER OF DARFUR 280

A CHIEF OF THE ZAGHAWA TRIBE OF DARFUR 289

THE RECEPTION OF THE EXPLORER AT EL FASHER 296

EL FASHER 304

MAP

THE LIBYAN DESERT SHOWING THE AUTHOR’S ROUTE 8

THE LOST OASES

The Lost Oases