62 Facts About Isabelle Eberhardt

Isabelle Wilhelmine Marie Eberhardt was a Swiss explorer and author.

Isabelle Eberhardt became interested in North Africa, and was considered a proficient writer on the subject despite learning about the region only through correspondence.

Isabelle Eberhardt dressed as a man and converted to Islam, eventually adopting the name Si Mahmoud Saadi.

Isabelle Eberhardt's acceptance by the Qadiriyya, an Islamic order, convinced the French administration that she was a spy or an agitator.

Isabelle Eberhardt was seen posthumously as an advocate of decolonisation, and streets were named after her in Bechar and Algiers.

Isabelle Eberhardt was born in Geneva, Switzerland, to Alexandre Trophimowsky and Nathalie Moerder.

Isabelle Eberhardt married widower Pavel deMoerder, a Russian general forty years her senior, who hired Trophimowsky to tutor their children Nicolas, Nathalie, and Vladimir.

Four years later Isabelle Eberhardt was born, and was registered as Nathalie's illegitimate daughter.

Biographer Cecily Mackworth speculated that Isabelle Eberhardt's illegitimacy was due to Trophimowsky's nihilist beliefs, which rejected traditional concepts of family.

Isabelle Eberhardt was well educated; along with the other children in the family, she was home-schooled by Trophimowsky.

Isabelle Eberhardt was fluent in French, spoke Russian, German and Italian, and was taught Latin, Greek, and classical Arabic.

Isabelle Eberhardt studied philosophy, metaphysics, chemistry, history, and geography, though she was most passionate about literature, reading the works of authors including Pierre Loti, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Leo Tolstoy, Voltaire and Emile Zola while she was a teenager, and was an admirer of the poets Semyon Nadson and Charles Baudelaire.

Sometime prior to 1894, Isabelle Eberhardt began corresponding with Eugene Letord, a French officer stationed in the Sahara who had placed a newspaper advertisement for a pen pal.

Isabelle Eberhardt probably assisted him initially but was unable to keep track of his whereabouts despite making constant inquiries.

In November 1894 Isabelle Eberhardt was informed by a letter that Augustin had joined the French Foreign Legion and was assigned to Algeria.

In 1895, Isabelle Eberhardt published short stories in the journal La Nouvelle Revue Moderne under the pseudonym of Nicolas Podolinsky; "Infernalia" is about a medical student's physical attraction to a dead woman.

Isabelle Eberhardt had "remarkable insight and knowledge" of North Africa for someone acquainted with the region only through correspondence, and her writing had a strong anti-colonial theme.

In 1895, he took a photograph of Isabelle Eberhardt wearing a sailor's uniform, which would become widely associated with her in later years.

Isabelle Eberhardt relocated to Bone with her mother in May 1897.

Isabelle Eberhardt expanded on her previous studies of Arabic, and became fluent within a few months.

Mackworth writes that while Isabelle Eberhardt was a "natural mystic", her conversion appeared to be largely for practical reasons, as it gave her greater acceptance among the Arabs.

Isabelle Eberhardt found it easy to accept Islam; Trophimowsky had brought her up as a fatalist and Islam gave her fatalism a meaning.

Isabelle Eberhardt embraced the Islamic concept that everything is predestined and the will of God.

Isabelle Eberhardt's behaviour made her an outcast with the French settlers and the colonial administration, who watched her closely.

Isabelle Eberhardt began to write stories, including the first draft of her novel Trimardeur.

Isabelle Eberhardt spent her money recklessly in Algiers, and quickly exhausted the funds left to her by her mother; she would often spend several days at a time in kief dens.

Isabelle Eberhardt commenced a relationship and became engaged to Riza Bey, an Armenian diplomat with whom she had been friends and possibly lovers when she was seventeen.

Isabelle Eberhardt intended to sell the villa, although Trophimowsky's legitimate wife opposed the execution of the will.

Isabelle Eberhardt relinquished her mother's name, and called herself Si Mahmoud Saadi.

Isabelle Eberhardt began wearing male clothing exclusively and developed a masculine personality, speaking and writing as a man.

Isabelle Eberhardt behaved like an Arab man, challenging gender and racial norms.

When his widow learned that Isabelle Eberhardt was familiar with the area where deMores died, she hired her to investigate his murder.

The job benefited Isabelle Eberhardt, who was destitute and longed to return to the Sahara.

Isabelle Eberhardt returned to Algeria in July 1900, settling in El Oued.

Isabelle Eberhardt made friends in the area and met Slimane Ehnni, a non-commissioned officer in the spahis.

Too poor to accompany him to Batna, Isabelle Eberhardt traveled to a Qadiriyya meeting in Behima in late January 1901 where she hoped to ask SiLachmi, a marabout, for financial assistance.

Isabelle Eberhardt was brought to the military hospital at ElOued the following day.

Isabelle Eberhardt traveled to France in early May 1901, staying with Augustin and his wife and daughter in Marseille.

Isabelle Eberhardt said that she bore no grudge against Abdallah, forgave him, and hoped that he would not be punished.

Isabelle Eberhardt attempted suicide while in Marseille, one of several attempts she would make over the course of her life.

Isabelle Eberhardt continued to write during this time, working on several projects including her novel Trimardeur.

Isabelle Eberhardt sent her a several-hundred-franc advance and tried to have her stories published, but could not find anyone willing to publish pro-Arab writing.

Isabelle Eberhardt did not require permission from his military superiors to marry in France, and he and Eberhardt were married in October 1901.

Isabelle Eberhardt became disappointed with Ehnni, whose only ambition after leaving the army appeared to be finding an unskilled job that would allow him to live relatively comfortably.

Isabelle Eberhardt increased her own efforts as a writer, and several of her short stories were printed in the local press.

Isabelle Eberhardt accepted a job offer from Al-Akhbar newspaper publisher Victor Barrucand in March 1902.

Isabelle Eberhardt became a regular contributor to the newspaper; Trimardeur began appearing as a serial in August 1903.

Barrucand and Isabelle Eberhardt formed a friendship, though Barrucand was frequently frustrated with his new employee's work ethic.

Isabelle Eberhardt's articles arrived irregularly, as she would only write when she felt like doing so.

Isabelle Eberhardt spoke highly of her time with Zaynab, though never disclosed what the two discussed; their meeting caused concern among the French authorities.

Isabelle Eberhardt was incorrigibly bad with her money, spending anything she received immediately on tobacco, books, and gifts for friends, and pawning her meagre possessions or asking for loans when she realised there was no money left for food.

Isabelle Eberhardt was given a regular column in his newspaper, where she wrote about the life and customs of Bedouin tribes.

Isabelle Eberhardt stayed with French Foreign Legion soldiers and met Hubert Lyautey, the French general in charge of Oran, at their headquarters.

Isabelle Eberhardt returned to Ain Sefra, and was treated at the military hospital.

Isabelle Eberhardt left the hospital against medical advice and asked Ehnni, from whom she had been separated for several months, to join her.

Ehnni was discovered almost immediately, saying that Isabelle Eberhardt had been swept away by the water.

Isabelle Eberhardt's body was crushed under one of the house's supporting beams.

Mackworth speculated that after initially trying to run from the floodwaters, Isabelle Eberhardt instead turned back to face them.

At the time of her death, Isabelle Eberhardt's possessions included several of her unpublished manuscripts.

The book's success drew great attention to Isabelle Eberhardt's writing and established her as among the best writers of literature inspired by Africa.

In 1954, author and explorer Cecily Mackworth published the biography The Destiny of Isabelle Eberhardt after following Eberhardt's routes in Algeria and the Sahara.

Ian Pringle directed Isabelle Eberhardt, starring Mathilda May, in 1991.