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WERNER MUNZINGER (1832-1875)

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Originally appearing in Volume V19, Page 14 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WERNER MUNZINGER (1832-1875)  , Swiss linguist and traveller, was born at Olten in
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Switzerland, on the 21st of
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April 1832 . After studying natural science,
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Oriental
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languages and
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history, at Bern, Munich and Paris, he went to
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Egypt in 1852 and spent a
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year in Cairo perfecting himself in Arabic . Entering a French mercantile house, he went as leader of a trading expedition to various parts of the Red Sea, fixing his quarters at Massawa, where he acted as French consul . In 1855 he removed to Keren, the chief
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town of the Bogos, in the north of Abyssinia, which country he explored during the next six years . In 1861 he joined the expedition under T. von Heuglin to Central Africa, but separated from him in November in
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northern Abyssinia, proceeding along the Gash and Atbara to
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Khartum . Thence, having meantime succeeded Heuglin as leader of the expedition, he travelled in 1862 to
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Kordofan, failing, however, in his attempt to reach
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Darfur and
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Wadai . After a short stay in
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Europe in 1863, Munzinger returned to the north and north-east border-lands of Abyssinia, and in 1865, the year of the annexation of Massawa by Egypt, was appointed
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British consul at that town . He rendered valuable aid to the Abyssinian expedition of 1867-68, among other things exploring the almost unknown Afar country . In acknowledgment of his services he received the C.B . In 1868 he was appointed French consul at Massawa, and in 1871 was named by the
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khedive Ismail governor of that town with the title of bey . In 187o, with Captain S . B .

Miles, Munzinger visited
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southern
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Arabia . As governor of Massawa he annexed to Egypt the Bogos and Hamasen provinces of northern Abyssinia, and in 1872 was made
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pasha and governor-general of the eastern Sudan . It is believed that it was on his advice that Ismail sanctioned the Abyssinian enterprise, but on the war assuming larger proportions in 1875 the command of the
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Egyptian troops in northern Abyssinia was taken from Munzinger, who was selected to command a small expedition intended to open up communication with Menelek, king of
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Shoa, then at enmity with the
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negus Johannes (King John) and a potential ally of Egypt . Leaving Tajura
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Bay on the 27th of
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October 1875 Munzinger started for
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Ankober with a force of 350 men, being accompanied by an envoy from Menelek . The
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desert country to be traversed was in the hands of hostile tribes, and on reaching Lake Aussa the expedition was attacked during the
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night by Gallas—Munzinger, with his wife and nearly all his companions, being killed . Munzinger's contributions to the knowledge of the country,
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people and languages of north-eastern Africa are of solid value . See Proc . R.G.S., vol. xiii.; Journ . R.G.S., vols. xxxix., xli. and xlvi . (obituary
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notice) ; Petermanns Mitteilungen for 1858, 1867, 1872, et seq . ; Dietschi and \Veber, Werner Munzinger, ein Lebensbild (1875); J. v . Keller-Zschokke, Werner Munzinger Pasha (1890) .

Munzinger published the following

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works: Uber die Sitten and das Becht der Bogos (1859); Ostafrikanische Studien (1864; 2nd ed., 1883; his most valuable
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book) ; Die deutsche Expedition in Ostafrika (1865) ; Vocabulaire de la langue de
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Tigre (1865), besides papers in the
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geographical serials referred to, and a memoir on the northern
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borders of Abyssinia in the Zeitschrift fur allgemeine Erdkunde, new series, vol. iii .

End of Article: WERNER MUNZINGER (1832-1875)
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