Friedrich Hornemann

Who was Friedrich Hornemann?

Friedrich Conrad Hornemann was a German explorer in Africa.

Hornemann was born in Hildesheim, a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, located about 30 km southeast of Hannover. He was a young man when, early in 1796, he offered his services to the African Association of London as an explorer in Africa. The African Association sent him to the University of Göttingen to study Arabic and otherwise prepare for an expedition from the east into the unknown regions of North Africa. In September 1797 he arrived in Egypt, where he continued his studies. When the country was invaded by the French, he was confined in the citadel of Cairo to preserve him from the fanaticism of the populace. Liberated by the French, he received the patronage of Bonaparte. On 5 September 1798 he joined a caravan returning to the Maghreb from Mecca, attaching himself to a party of Fezzan merchants who accompanied the pilgrims. As an avowed Christian would not have been permitted to join the caravan Hornemann assumed the character of a young mamluk trading to Fezzan. He then spoke, but indifferently, both Arabic and Turkish, and he was accompanied as servant and interpreter by Joseph Freudenburg, a German convert to Islam, who had thrice made the pilgrimage to Mecca. Travelling by way of the oases of Siwa and Aujila, a black rocky desert was traversed to Temissa in Fezzan. Murzuk was reached on 17 November 1798.