3-082-529 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Slatin Bey, who escaped from Darfur, in the Soudan, 1895. 'Slatin Bey (who is now more correctly described as Slatin Pasha) must be an object of great interest to publishers, and we are rather surprised not to learn that he is beset by representatives of every publishing firm in Europe. His account of his eleven years' captivity in the Soudan ought to make a far more interesting book even than Mr. [Henry Morton] Stanley's story of the celebrated march to the relief of Emin Pasha. One of Slatin Bey's stories is that he was in high favour with the Khalifa, owing to his capacity for praying. He showed more vigour and tenacity in this exercise than any of the natives, and was, accordingly, esteemed as quite a portent of sanctity. In Egypt he causes even more surprise by the readiness with which he handles a knife and fork after so long a disuse of those implements. Decidedly, Slatin Bey must give us a book, or civilisation will think itself cheated of its due'. Rudolf Carl von Slatin (1857-1932) posing in Mahdist clothing. Believing his troops attributed their failure in battle to the fact that he was a Christian, Slatin publicly adopted Islam in 1883 and took the Islamic name, Abd al Qadir. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.