author

Ignaz Pallme

1806–1877

An Austrian merchant-traveler and explorer, he is best remembered for his journey through Kordofan in the late 1830s and for turning that experience into a vivid firsthand account of trade, daily life, and power in the region. His writing offers modern listeners a rare 19th-century window into Sudan and its neighboring lands.

1 Audiobook

Travels in Kordofan : Embracing a description of that province of Egypt, and of some of the bordering countries, with a review of the present state of the commerce in those countries, of the habits and customs of the inhabitants, as also an account of the slave hunts taking place under the government of Mehemed Ali

Travels in Kordofan : Embracing a description of that province of Egypt, and of some of the bordering countries, with a review of the present state of the commerce in those countries, of the habits and customs of the inhabitants, as also an account of the slave hunts taking place under the government of Mehemed Ali

by Ignaz Pallme

About the author

Born on February 1, 1806, in Steinschönau in Bohemia, Ignaz Samuel Pallme became known as a merchant and explorer with a strong interest in northeast and central African trade routes. He traveled to Cairo in 1837 on behalf of a mercantile firm and then continued into Kordofan, in what is now Sudan, hoping to identify new commercial connections.

Pallme spent about two years in the region, gathering observations not just on commerce, but also on local society, customs, and politics. That experience led to his best-known book, Travels in Kordofan, which combines travel narrative with detailed reporting on the province, neighboring countries, and the slave hunts taking place under the rule of Mehmed Ali.

He died on June 11, 1877, in Hainburg an der Donau. Today, his work remains of interest to readers who want an on-the-ground 19th-century account of Sudanese and Egyptian borderlands, even as it is also read in the context of the era and its colonial ways of seeing the world.