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Abstract

European explorers in the East captured their experiences and memories in important travel accounts. Although some travelers have written their memories down upon their return to their home countries, the decision made by other adventurers to stay permanently in the lands they set out to explore is remarkable. In this sense, the Swiss Isabelle Eberhardt (1877-1904) stands out, whose taste for the Orient led her, still young, to undertake her travels through Algeria, a country where she remained until her died following the uprising of a river in Ain-Sefra. His brother's enlistment in the French Legion and his posting to Algeria increased his eagerness to undertake his journey. When he landed in Algeria in 1897, he toured the country and assumed that European colonization threatened the purity and idiosyncrasy of indigenous life. The objective of this article is to address the theme of travel, the orientalist elements and the anti-colonialist position of Isabelle Eberhardt in her Writings from the Sand. Isabelle Eberhardt undertakes to travel the country disguised as an Arab man, making herself known among the natives under the name of Mahmud Saadi. In this sense, it is important to know if this disguise has its reason to be afraid of the other, or if it is a subterfuge to discover the thought and the soul of the indigenous North African population. ; or rather it is a literary resource typical of nineteenth-century travel literature, championed by authors such as Domingo Badía and Leblich who came to prominence as Ali Bey; Joaquín Gatell y Folch who adopted the pseudonym of Caíd Isamil; José María de Murga y Mugártegui, known as El Hach Mohamed El Baghdadi, to name just a few examples.

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