About 45 kms east of
Morocco is Ain Sefra, Algeria, the gateway to the Sahara Desert. It was once a 19th
century French Garrison Town that was destroyed by a flash flood in 1904 – the
very same flood that killed the young Swiss explorer and writer Isabella
Eberhardt, who had made Algeria her home.
Isabella was a law unto
herself. One seldom sees such rare courage in a young woman of twenty, who
threw conventional morality to the winds and insisted on her right to be a
vagrant with the freedom to wander and to live life according to the dictates
of her own conscience.
Isabella Eberhardt was
born in Geneva on February 17th 1877, to a German Russian mother
Natalie Eberhardt and an Armenian anarchist father Alexandre Trophimowsky. She
was registered as an illegitimate child and therefore never needed to recognize
Trophimowsky’s paternity. Perhaps her mixed genetic pool contributed to her
erratic behaviour which shocked the world.
Isabella was well
educated and fluent in several languages like French, German, Russian and
Italian. She even learnt Latin and Greek and was specially tutored by her
father in Arabic Classics and the Koran. The Koran so influenced her faith that
she called Islam her true calling.
In 1897 she moved with her mother from Geneva to
North Africa where they both embraced Islam.
Isabella was always
dressed like a man to enjoy freedom of movement in Arab Society. She
re-christened herself Si Mahamoud Essadi and joined a secret Sufi sect called
Qadiriya, to help the poor and needy. She also encouraged Muslim locals to
fight against French Colonial rule.
Isabella traveled
extensively as a Muslim man. She rubbed shoulders with vagrants and vagabonds
and squandered her meager resources on drugs and drinks, and bedded with any
man who pleased her. Her endless wanderings gave her intimate knowledge of the
lives of the poor and powerless. She believed that vagrancy was deliverance
from conformity and freedom from the burdensome shackles of society. It was the
route to self-purification.
She said,“Such men can reach the magic horizon where they are
free to build their dream palaces of delight.”
Perhaps the Hippie Movement drew its inspiration
from her.
As
a creative person, she was a keen observer of people and practices around her. Her experience of low life made her a sensitive human being. Her short
stories are so compelling. Her diaries are packed with fascinating information
of her life and times. Not for her the beaten track. Derision and ridicule by
society left her unfazed.
“As a nomad who has no country besides Islam and
neither family nor close friends, I shall wind my way through life until it is
time for everlasting sleep beyond the grave,” she wrote.
It is difficult to understand how she reconciled her
faith in Islam to her depraved life style.
Isabella
was not the darling of Algerian Society and must have earned the ire of many
holy men. In 1901, she was attacked by a man who severed her arm. But this
magnanimous lady not only forgave him but pleaded for his life.
Later
that year in October 1901, Isabella married an Algerian soldier called Slimane
Ehnni, in Marseilles. But they were seldom together because of his duties and
her wanderings.
However in 1904, her husband joined her for a long
break and they rented a house for the duration of his leave. Unfortunately on
October 21st 1904, tragedy struck in the form of a flash flood and
their clay house collapsed, killing Isabella. Her husband was washed away but
he survived.
Isabella
Eberhardt was buried in the Muslim cemetery in Ain Sefra, according to Muslim
rites. A trip to the cemetery can be made by car or by foot. Here, her restless
spirit lies in peace, framed in by Mount Atlas on one side and the golden sands
of the Sahara on the other.
Isabella’s “Algerian Short Stories” was published
posthumously in 1905 and “In the warm shadows of Islam,” in 1906. A novella was
made into a film.
Isabella
reached that “sun-drenched Somewhere” which she was always seeking for,
sadly at a very young age. She was only 27 years old when she died.
