Hermann Burchardt

Hermann Burchardt (November 18, 1857 – December 19, 1909) was a German explorer and photographer of Jewish descent, who is renowned for his black and white pictorial essays of scenes in Arabia in the early 20th century.

Burchardt, born in Berlin in 1857, gave up his unwanted merchant profession at the age of 30, following the death of his father who left him with a large inheritance. Around this time, Burchardt who had a developed a keen interest in photography, chose to become a privateer - that is, a man who travelled for pleasure. Before disembarking on his journeys to Africa and the Middle East, he learnt systematically, both, Arabic and Turkish, while studying in Berlin’s Department of Oriental Languages (Seminar für Orientalische Sprachen) between the years 1890–1892, as also learnt the rudiments of Swahili and Persian (Farsi). His inherited wealth enabled him to rent an apartment in Damascus, Syria, where he lived for several years, using the city as his base for disembarking on his more extended travels. In his travels throughout the Muslim world, he was usually accompanied by his Syrian Arab guide and confidant, Abu Ibrahim. The beginning of his journeys took him to Tangier, in Morocco, and from there to Samarkand in Central Asia. Eventually, his tours would lead him to East Africa and, particularly, to the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula. On these trips he was furnished with his own complete, state-of-the-art photographic equipment, enabling him to take photographs of peoples and the places he visited. He had also taken along with him the necessary tools for developing the plates and for the production of prints.

On the third of these extensive travels, in December 1909 he made arrangements to join-up with the Italian vice-consul Marquis Benzoni in Mocha, and to escort him on his journey to Sana'a via Taiz and al-ʻUdayn. In Burchardt’s last missive sent by postcard from Mocha and dated 8 December 1909, he wrote: “This card will reach you from one of the most godforsaken little places in Asia. It exceeds all my expectations, with regard to the destruction. It looks like a city entirely destroyed by earthquakes. The path from Taiz to here, which takes 3 days, was or should have been insecure. There were the usual disorders with the tax collectors, with whom there were deaths on both sides. Here lives the Italian consulate, and the consul will go back with me to Sanaa. Photos from here will be very interesting. The last stage in the plain is terribly hot; bad water; quinine is given to all my people (11 people in number, including 8 Gendarmerie). Will be glad to once again reach the high plateau of Arabia Felix.” While their small caravan was en route to Sana'a, when they had come within three to four days' walking distance from Sana'a, and had just crossed the riverine gulch, Wādī ad-Door (Arabic: وادي الدور‎‎), to the west of Ibb, they were ambushed and killed by gunmen, in what some say was a case of mistaken identity. Others say it was a case of wanton robbery.

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