Emin Pasha Mehmed Emin Pasha ( March 28 , 1840 – October 23 , 1892 ) — he was born Isaak Eduard Schnitzer and baptized ( " circa " 1847 ) Eduard Carl Oscar Theodor Schnitzer — was a physician , naturalist , and governor of the Egypt ian province of Equatoria on the upper Nile . " Pasha " was a title conferred on him in 1886 and thereafter he was referred to as " Emin Pasha " . Life and career . Pasha was born in Oppeln , Silesia , into a middle - class German Jewish family , which moved to Neisse when he was two years of age . After the death of his father in 1845 , his mother married a Christian ; she and her offspring were baptized Lutherans . He studied at the universities at Breslau , Königsberg , and Berlin , qualifying as a physician in 1864 . However , he was disqualified from practice , and left Germany for Istanbul , 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 European 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 Buganda and Bunyoro to the south , where Emin ' s modest style and fluency in Luganda were quite popular . After 1876 , Emin made Lado his base for collecting expeditions throughout the region . In 1878 , the Khedive of Egypt appointed Emin as Gordon ' s successor to govern the province , giving him the title of Bey . Despite the grand title , there was little for Emin to do ; his military force consisted of a few thousand soldiers who controlled no more than a mile ' s radius around each of their outposts , and the government in Khartoum was indifferent to his proposals for development . He showed himself a bitter foe of slavery . The revolt of Muhammad Ahmad that began in 1881 had cut Equatoria off from the outside world by 1883 , and the following year , Karam Allah marched south to capture Equatoria and Emin . In 1885 , Emin and most of his forces withdrew further south , to Wadelai near Lake Albert . Cut off from communications to the north , he was still able to exchange mail with Zanzibar through Buganda . Determined to remain in Equatoria , his communiques , carried by his friend Wilhelm Junker , aroused considerable sentiment in Europe in 1886 , particularly acute after the death of Gordon the previous year . The Emin Pasha Relief Expedition , led by Henry Morton Stanley , undertook to rescue Emin by going up the Congo River and then through the Ituri Forest , an extraordinarily difficult route that resulted in the loss of two - thirds of the expedition . Precise details of this trek are recorded in the published diaries of the expedition ' s non - African " officers " ( e . g . Major Edmund Musgrave Barttelot , Captain William Grant Stairs , Mr . A . J . Mounteney Jephson , or Thomas Heazle Parke , surgeon of the expedition ) . Stanley met Emin in April 1888 , and after a year spent in argument and indecision , during which Emin and Jephson were imprisoned at Dufile by troops who mutinied from August to November 1888 , Emin was convinced to leave for the coast . The bulk of his forces remained near Lake Albert until 1890 , when Frederick Lugard took them with him to Kampala Hill , where they participated in the Battle of Kampala Hill . Stanley and Emin arrived in Bagamoyo in 1890 . During celebrations , Emin was injured when he stepped through a window he mistook for an opening to a balcony . Emin spent two months in a hospital recovering , while Stanley left without being able to bring him back in triumph . The introduction of sleeping sickness in Uganda was attributed to the movement of Emin and his followers . Prior to the 1890s , sleeping sickness was unknown in Uganda , but the tsetse fly was probably brought by Emin from the Congo territory . Emin then entered the service of the German East Africa Company and accompanied Dr . Stuhlmann on an expedition to the lakes in the interior , but was killed by two Arab slave trader s at Kinena Station in the Congo Free State , near Nyangwe . He added greatly to the anthropological knowledge of central Africa and published valuable geographical papers .