Stephen Lakeman

Born in 1823, Stephen Bartlett Lakeman was an English-born soldier, adventurer, and later an Ottoman administrator who became widely known as Mazar (or Mazhar) Pasha. He is remembered today both for his unusually international career and for the memoir-like writing he left behind, including What I Saw in Kaffir-Land.

Lakeman first came to notice through his military ventures abroad, and over time his career took him far beyond Britain. He became closely associated with the Ottoman world, where he rose to prominence and earned the title by which he is often better known. That mix of British background and Ottoman service gives his life a distinctive edge: he was one of those 19th-century figures who moved between empires rather than staying inside one.

As a writer, Lakeman is most interesting when he is describing events he saw for himself. What I Saw in Kaffir-Land draws on his experiences during conflict in South Africa and has the direct, personal feel of a participant's account rather than a detached history. For listeners interested in travel, warfare, and larger-than-life Victorian-era characters, his work offers both historical detail and the voice of someone who seems always to have been in the middle of events.