Emin Pasha languages spoken, written or signed German
Life and career
Emin was born in Oppeln (in present day Poland), Silesia,  into a middle-class German Jewish family, which moved to Neisse when he was two years old. After the death of his father in 1845, his mother married a Christian; she and her offspring were baptized Lutherans.  He was a student at Carolinum in Nysa, at the universities at Breslau, Königsberg, and Berlin, qualifying as a physician in 1864. However, he was disqualified from practice, and left Germany for Constantinople, with the intention of entering Ottoman service.
Travelling via Vienna and Trieste, he stopped at Antivari in Montenegro, found himself welcomed by the local community, and was soon in medical practice. He put his linguistic talent to good use, as well, adding Turkish, Albanian, and Greek to his repertoire of languages. He became the quarantine officer of the port, leaving only in 1870 to join the staff of Ismail Hakki Pasha, governor of northern Albania; in the service, he travelled throughout the Ottoman Empire, although the details are little-known.
When Hakki Pasha died in 1873, Emin went back to Neisse with the pasha's widow and children, where he passed them off as his own family, but left suddenly in September 1875, reappearing in Cairo and then departing for Khartoum, where he arrived in December. At this point he took the name "Mehemet Emin" (Arabic Muhammad al-Amin), started a medical practice, and began collecting plants, animals, and birds, many of which he sent to museums in Europe. Although some regarded him as a Muslim, it is not clear if he ever actually converted.Charles George Gordon, then governor of Equatoria, heard of Emin's presence and invited him to be the chief medical officer of the province; Emin assented and arrived there in May 1876. Gordon immediately sent Emin on diplomatic missions to Bunyoro and to Muteesa I of Buganda to the south, where Emin's modest style and fluency in Luganda were quite popular.
linguistic abilities language proficiency language command