{{Nobold|{{lang|ar|قره بن نمسي}}}}"},"series":{"wt":""},"image":{"wt":"Karl May as Kara Ben Nemsi 2 - Digital Restoration.jpg"},"caption":{"wt":""},"first":{"wt":"Giölgeda padiśhanün (1881)"},"last":{"wt":"Ardistan und Dschinnistan II (1909)"},"creator":{"wt":"[[Karl May]]"},"portrayer":{"wt":""},"gender":{"wt":"Male"},"occupation":{"wt":""},"nationality":{"wt":"German"}},"i":0}}]}" id="mwAg">Fictional character
Kara Ben Nemsi قره بن نمسي | |
---|---|
First appearance | Giölgeda padiśhanün (1881) |
Last appearance | Ardistan und Dschinnistan II (1909) |
Created by | Karl May |
In-universe information | |
Gender | Male |
Nationality | German |
Kara Ben Nemsi is a fictional main character from the works of Karl May, best-selling 19th century German author. An alter ego of May, the stories about Nemsi are written as first-person narratives. He travels across North Africa, Sudan, and the Ottoman Empire including various parts of the Middle East and the Balkans with his friend and servant Hadschi Halef Omar.
Nemsi shares his two famous rifles with Old Shatterhand, another fictional alter ego of May, the Bärentöter (Bear Killer) and the Henrystutzen (Henry Carbine). He rides the famed black horse Rih (from Arabic رِيحrīḥ meaning "wind").
Kara Ben Nemsi and Old Shatterhand, who undertakes similar adventures in North America, are one and the same person, created through Karl May's first person narration and autobiographical influences. This becomes obvious in the novel Im Reiche des silbernen Löwen I (In the Realm of the Silver Lion, Volume I) where the narrator going by Old Shatterhand is located in the US and meets an acquaintance of his from the Orient to whom he reveals himself as "Kara Ben Nemsi". In another novel Satan und Ischariot II (Satan and Iscariot, Volume II), wherein Old Shatterhand travels to Tunis he also reveals himself to be Kara Ben Nemsi.
May first introduces the terms "Nemsi“ and "Nemsistan“ in his third story set in the Orient Die Rose von Sokna (The Rose of Sokna) published in 1878. There he translates the terms used by a caravanner or rather by the Arab servant of the yet unnamed first-person narrator as "German" and "Germany" respectively. The name Kara Ben Nemsi first occurs in „Reise-Erinnerungen aus dem Türkenreiche von Karl May“ Giölgeda padiśhanün ("Travel-Memoirs from the Empire of Turks by Karl May" in the Shadow of the Padishah) later called Durch die Wüste (Through the desert) published in 1880/81 where it is spontaneously made up by servant Hadschi Halef Omar during an introduction:
"This steadfast fellow had once asked my name and had truly remembered the word Karl, but being unable to pronounce it, he has quickly converted it to Kara and added Ben Nemsi, ‘offspring of the Germans’." –GIÖLGEDA PADIŚHANÜN, 1880/81 [1]
In a later part of the story where May uses "Nemtsche-schimakler" ("Northern Germans, Prussia") and Nemtsche-memleketler ("Austrians") it becomes evident that May associates the terms "Nemsi" and "German" with a German state in the sense of the German Confederation instead of with the young German Empire in which he publishes these stories.
“The most courageous man was the ‘Sultan el Kebihr’, but still he was vanquished by the Nemtshe-shimakler (Northern Germans, Prussia), the Nemtshe-memleketler (Austrians) and the Moskowler (Russians). Why do you look at me so intently?” –GIÖLGEDA PADIŚHANÜN, 1880/81 [2]
When not taking about the name and in his later works May likes to use "Almani" and "Belad el Alman/Almanja" in his stories set in the Orient to mean 'German' and 'Germany' respectively:
"The land is called Belad el Alman; therefore I am an Almani or, in case you have heard of that term, a Nemsi and am called Kara Ben Nemsi. My fatherland is located far across the sea." – KRÜGERBEI, 1894/95
Belad el Alman ("Land of Germans“) is also directly associated with Kaiser Wilhelm I and therefore the German Empire:
"I have heard of the Belad el Alman. It is ruled by a great sultan, who is called Wi-hel (Wilhelm) and has defeated the French. They are our enemies; therefore every Almani is a friend of ours and my people will be delighted to see you. Of course you're also a warrior?" – EINEBEFREIUNG (A Liberation), 1894
The Ottoman Turkish نمچهnemçe [3] (rendered nemçe or nemse in modern Turkish) meant Austrian, the German language, or the Habsburg monarchy from it derives the modern Arabic اَلنَّمْسَاAn-Namsā meaning Austria and نِمْسَاوِيّNimsāwiyy meaning Austrian. The term likely originates from the Proto-Slavic word for Germans, němьcь němĭcĭ [4] meaning literally "someone who is mute" referring to foreigners in general and Germans specifically. Modern Arabic refers to a German man as أَلْمَانِيّʾAlmāniyy and to Germany as أَلْمَانِيَاʾAlmāniyā.
In Ottoman Turkish قره (Modern Turkish Kara, Azerbaijani Turkish Qara) [5] means black. It can be found used as first name in Turkish (see for example Kara Osman). The Ottoman Turkish spelling of this first name matches that of an Arabic name held by for example the Sabian Mathematician Thābit ibn Qurra this name however is of semitic origin and has no relation to the Turkish name.
A possible Ottoman Turkish rendition of the name Kara Ben Nemsi would therefore be قره بن نمچیKara ben Nemçe. As most current Arabic dialects do not have a letter directly corresponding to çīm in Ottoman Turkish and because Persian yeh corresponds to Arabic yāʾ a rendition of the name in modern Arabic would be قره بن نمسيQara bin Namsī.
In his later work May seems to prefer deriving Kara directly from the color of his beard instead of his first name:
"Concerning my name, I was not called by my actual name but instead as during my previous travels, I was called Kara Ben Nemsi. Kara means "black" and Ben Nemsi "son of Germans". I sported a dark beard and was a German; therefore this name." – EINEBEFREIUNG (A Liberation), 1894
In the story An der Tigerbrücke (within Am Stillen Ocean, 1894) the first-person narrator mentions, that he is identical to Kara Ben Nemsi and Old Shatterhand.
Within the book series Karl May’s Gesammelte Werke there is a sequel of Am Jenseits: „In Mekka“ (1923) by Franz Kandolf.
Karl Friedrich May was a German author. He is best known for his novels of travels and adventures, set in the American Old West, the Orient, the Middle East, Latin America, China and Germany. He also wrote poetry, a play, and composed music. He was a proficient player of several musical instruments. Many of his works were adapted for film, theatre, audio dramas and comics. Later in his career, May turned to philosophical and spiritual genres. He is one of the best-selling German writers of all time, with about 200,000,000 copies sold worldwide.
Winnetou is a fictional Native American hero of several novels written in German by Karl May (1842–1912), one of the best-selling German writers of all time with about 200 million copies worldwide, including the Winnetou trilogy. The character made his debut in the novel Old Firehand (1875).
Old Shatterhand is a fictional character in Western novels by German writer Karl May (1842–1912). He is the German friend and blood brother of Winnetou, the fictional chief of the Mescalero tribe of the Apache. He is the main character in the Eurowestern by the same name from 1964, starring Lex Barker, as well as in six more films of the Winnetou film series.
Hadschi Halef Omar Ben Hadschi Abul Abbas Ibn Hadschi Dawud al Gossarah, literally hajji Halef Omar, son of hajji father-of-Abbas, son of hajji David al Gossarah, is one of Karl May's literary characters. Hajji means "one who has performed the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca".
Karl May film adaptations are films based on stories and characters by German author Karl May (1842–1912). The characters Old Shatterhand, Winnetou, and Kara Ben Nemsi are very famous in Central Europe.
Deutsche Schule Istanbul, with formal Turkish name Özel Alman Lisesi or İstanbul Alman Lisesi or simply Alman Lisesi is a private international high school in the Beyoğlu district of Istanbul, Turkey. It is responsible to both the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany and the Ministry of National Education of Turkey.
Marah Durimeh is a fictional character from Karl May's novels around Kara Ben Nemsi. Her real identity is Ruh'i Kulyan. She is known as Es Sahira to Kurds. Durimeh is a Kurdish princess and widow of a famous king. She is said to have written several books.
Friedrich Siegmund Georg Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein was a German general from Nuremberg. He was a member of the group of German officers who assisted in the direction of the Ottoman Army during World War I. Kress von Kressenstein was part of the military mission of Otto Liman von Sanders to the Ottoman Empire, which arrived shortly before World War I broke out. He was also the main leader for the Ottoman Desert Command Force (DCF).
Carl de Vogt was a German film actor who starred in four of Fritz Lang's early films. He attended the acting school in Cologne, Germany. Together with acting he was also active as a singer and recorded several discs. His greatest hit was "Der Fremdenlegionär". An extremely successful actor in his early career, he died in relative obscurity in 1970.
Judy Winter is a German actress. She resides in Berlin.
Johannes Avetaranian, born Mehmet Şükri was originally a mullah in Turkey who converted from Islam to Christianity, and later became a missionary for the Swedish Mission Covenant Church in Southern Xinjiang (1892–1938). He translated the New Testament into the Uyghur language. He preached Christianity in Xinjiang and at a Swedish Protestant mission. He died in 1919, aged 58, in Wiesbaden.
Friedrich Schrader was a German philologist of oriental languages, orientalist, art historian, writer, social democrat, translator and journalist. He also used the pseudonym Ischtiraki. He lived from 1891 until 1918 in Istanbul.
The White Bridge was a Roman bridge across the river Granicus in Mysia in the north west of modern-day Turkey. Presumably constructed in the 4th century AD, it belonged in Ottoman times to the important road to Gallipoli on the Dardanelles. The structure was praised by early European travellers for its fine construction and marble facing, but was plundered for building material during the 19th century.
Kara is both a given name and a surname with various, unrelated origins in various cultures. As an English name, it is a spelling variant of the Italian endearment cara, meaning beloved, or the Irish word cara, meaning friend, or a hypocorism for the name Caroline. It was popularized in the 20th century by the DC Comics superheroine Kara Zor-El.
Viktor Staal was an Austrian film actor.
Mit Karl May im Orient is a six-part West German television series based on the Orient cycle of adventure novels by Karl May.
Across the Desert is a 1936 German adventure film directed by Johann Alexander Hübler-Kahla and starring Fred Raupach, Heinz Evelt and Aruth Wartan. It was based on a novel by Karl May. It was the first sound adaptation of a May novel, and the only one to be produced during the Nazi era. Set in the Ottoman Empire during the nineteenth century, it portrays a series of oriental adventures of travellers Kara Ben Nemsi and Hadschi Halef Omar.
İsmet Ergün is a Berlin artist and stage designer of Turkish provenance. Alongside her theatre work she has worked in the world of cinema as an art director and as a production designer. The short film "Bende Sıra" which she directed, and for which she herself wrote the screenplay, was singled out for commendation at the 2007 Locarno Film Festival: it also won the "Best German Film 2007" at the Berlin "Interfilm" festival later the same year.
The Shoot is a 1964 adventure film directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Lex Barker, Marie Versini and Ralf Wolter. It was made as a co-production between West Germany, France, Italy and Yugoslavia. It is based on the 1892 novel of the same title by Karl May, and was part of a string of adaptations of his work started by Rialto Film's series of western films. It was a commercial success, benefiting from the presence of Barker and Versini who were stars of Rialto's series.
Karl Neufeld, also known as Charles Neufeld was a German merchant, active in 19th-century Sudan, who was kept as a prisoner by the Mahdist state for twelve years and set free after the British victory over the Mahdist forces. He published his autobiography about this experience under the title A Prisoner of the Khaleefa. Twelve Years Captivity at Omdurman in 1899. During the first half of World War I, Neufeld also acted as translator and undercover agent for the German Empire, trying to incite Arabs against the British Empire.