Ahmed Hassanein

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Ahmed Hassanein

Ahmed Hassanein Pasha, KCVO, MBE (Arabic: أحمد حسنين باشا‎‎) (31 October 1889 – 19 February 1946) or Aḥmad Moḥammad Makhlūf Ḥasanēn al-Būlākī (Arabic: أحمد محمد مخلوف حسنين البولاقى‎‎) was an Oxford-educated Egyptian courtier, diplomat, Olympic athlete in fencing, photographer, writer, politician, legendary geographic explorer, tutor then chamberlain to King Farouk.

Ahmed Hassanein was one of the most influential figures in Egyptian politics as the Chief of the Diwan and Chamberlain to Farouk, the king of Egypt from 1936 to 1952.

Son of an Al Azhar professor, he was a grandson of the last Admiral of the Egyptian fleet before it was dismantled under British occupation in 1882.

Tutor

King Fuad I, father of Farouk, chose Ahmed to tutor the Crown Prince during the Prince's studies as a teenager in London. While Fuad spoke Turkish as his mother-tongue and was not therefore able to eloquently address his own nation, Farouk, under the supervision of Ahmed Pasha Hassanein, learned to speak Arabic well and developed a strong sense of nationalism.

Expeditions

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Map of the expedition as drawn by his accurate measurements in his famous 1924 illustrated article

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his route through the Sahara as it appears on today's satellite images. Points are important landmarks as mentioned in his book. Note how he avoided the Great Sand Sea south to Siwa.

During an expedition through the Libyan Desert in 1923, Ahmed Hassanein (then only Effendi in title) crossed a region defended by the fierce and puritanical Senussis.

Hassanein's first journey was to the Kufra, the Senussi's oasis capital. The journey nearly came to grief owing to the inability of his companion, Rosita Forbes, to read a compass correctly. Forbes claims in her book The Secret of the Sahara: Kufara (1921) that she had been the inspiration and leader of the exhibition, though this claim has been challenged.

In December 1922, Hassanein began a new scientific expedition from Sallum. He recorded bearings and measures of distances, took photos, samples, wrote his journal, and interacted with his men to learn more about their traditions and places and natural phenomena. His success was ensured when he saw Kufra his destination in the horizon to correct its position for the first time on maps, but — even to his own surprise — there was more to be discovered. The climax of his expedition was the discovery of unknown water sources that opened new Sahara routes from Kufra to Sudanic Africa. The water sources or 'The Lost Oases' are Jebel Uweinat and Jebel Arkenu: the former was not even known to the Senussis he visited in Kufra., the latter was known since 1892 through Arab sources. He is still remembered today for the significant rock art he photographed on this journey.

In September 1924, his famous report was published in the National Geographic Magazine with 47 photos and a map. His book The Lost Oases has followed a year later in English and subsequently in Arabic and German.

Ahmed's work includes: an unusually accurate map of a then-unknown region (based on astro-fixing and triangulation techniques), writings on the history and traditions of the isolated and fiercely independent Senussis sect in Libya, a widely published memoir, a geological collection, thousands of photos, hours of footage. He was honoured with the title of Bey and the prestigious Founder's Gold Medal of the British Royal Geographical Society (in 1924).

Hassanein mausoleum

Hassanein was laid to rest in the Mameluke Northern Cemetery across the Salah Salem road from the new seat of the Al-Azhar Imam in a mausoleum built by his brother-in-law, the renowned architect Hassan Fathy.

Olympics

He competed at the 1920 and 1924 Summer Olympics in the foil and Épée competitions.

External links

• Definitive brief biography of Ahmed Hassanein: Introduction by Michael Haag to The Lost Oases by Ahmed Hassanein, The American University in Cairo Press, Cairo and New York, 2006
• The complete text and photos of his National Geographic Magazine article, September 1924
• Ahmed Hassanein biography