Translated by Lionel Strachey. A picture of the education and life of an Arabian woman, which is most interesting and unusual. The author's career during her younger days in the royal harem at Zanzibar, the subsequent escape from her country, and later marriage to a German merchant, makes a wonderful story and a real romance.
THE work of which a translation is here offered originally came out as " Memoiren einer arabischen Prinzessin." Published by a Berlin firm in 1886, it was immediately followed by an English edition, which seems to have attracted little interest, both the Gennan and the English versions soon falling into obscurity and going out of print. When these memoirs appeared, however, Gennany's colonial ambitions were newly fledged; the British East Africa Protectorate (which includes Zanzibar) was still forming; the French had only recently withdrawn from the joint control of Egypt and Lord Cromer's sway was but beginning; Zululand was an independent monarchy; the Transvaal and the Orange Free State were recognised as republics; Italian troops were yet to be severely defeated by Abyssinian blackamoors; nobody imagined that Great Britain must one day put forth all her strength to subdue fifty thousand Dutch peasants; a "Cape·to-Cairo" railway was unthought of.
Table of Contents
CONTENTS; AUTHENTICITY OF THESE MEMOIRS; PREFACE; CHAPTER r FAMILY HISTORY; The Palace of Bet it Mtoni-The Bathhouses-Eques·; trian and Other Amusements-Princess Salamah's Father; -Purchase of her Mother~Seyyid Said's Principal and; Secondary Wives-His Children-The Benjile-A Ques··; tion of Discipline-Brother Majid Reaches his Majority; PAGB; v; lX; -The Authoress's First Change of Residence 3; CHAPTER II BET IL W ATORO; Mahometan Belief in Foreordination-Parting GiftsA; Little Journey by State Cutter-Bet il Watoro-Ar
THE work of which a translation is here offered originally came out as " Memoiren einer arabischen Prinzessin." Published by a Berlin firm in 1886, it was immediately followed by an English edition, which seems to have attracted little interest, both the Gennan and the English versions soon falling into obscurity and going out of print. When these memoirs appeared, however, Gennany's colonial ambitions were newly fledged; the British East Africa Protectorate (which includes Zanzibar) was still forming; the French had only recently withdrawn from the joint control of Egypt and Lord Cromer's sway was but beginning; Zululand was an independent monarchy; the Transvaal and the Orange Free State were recognised as republics; Italian troops were yet to be severely defeated by Abyssinian blackamoors; nobody imagined that Great Britain must one day put forth all her strength to subdue fifty thousand Dutch peasants; a "Cape·to-Cairo" railway was unthought of.
Table of Contents
CONTENTS; AUTHENTICITY OF THESE MEMOIRS; PREFACE; CHAPTER r FAMILY HISTORY; The Palace of Bet it Mtoni-The Bathhouses-Eques·; trian and Other Amusements-Princess Salamah's Father; -Purchase of her Mother~Seyyid Said's Principal and; Secondary Wives-His Children-The Benjile-A Ques··; tion of Discipline-Brother Majid Reaches his Majority; PAGB; v; lX; -The Authoress's First Change of Residence 3; CHAPTER II BET IL W ATORO; Mahometan Belief in Foreordination-Parting GiftsA; Little Journey by State Cutter-Bet il Watoro-Ar
