Dates

• Existence: 28 March 1840 - 23 October 1892

Biography

Mehemet Emin Pasha was born Isaak Eduard Schnitzer on 28 March 1840 in Silesia, into a middle-class German Jewish family . He qualifying as a physician in 1864, but was disqualified from practice in Germany and moved to Constantinople.

In 1875 he adopted the name ‘Mehemet Emin’ and as well as practicing as a doctor, he became a naturalist and explorer. Emin collected natural history specimens of flora and fauna around the region many of which he sent to museums in Europe and wrote numerous papers on geography.

In 1876 Emin moved to Equatoria to serve as Chief Medical Officer of the province under the governance of Charles George Gordon, who also sent him to nearing regions on diplomatic missions. Two years later upon Gordon’s death, Emin was appointed Governor of Equatoria.

In 1881, the revolt of Muhammad Ahmad against the Ottoman-Egyptian military rule of the area reached Equatoria and Emin was forced to retrieve. Henry Morton Stanley led the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition to rescue him but Emin refused to leave. He was bestowed the title ‘Pasha’ by the Ottoman Empire in 1886.

In 1890 Emin was awarded the Founder's Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society. Around this time he entered the service of the German East Africa Company and accompanied Dr. Stuhlmann on an expedition, where he was killed by two Arab slave traders in Congo on 23 October 1892.

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