This article is devoted to study the mission undertaken by ethnologist Leo Frobenius (1873–1938), who, in 1914–1915 and as a member of a German research expedition, attempted to reach Abyssinia (modern-day Ethiopia) through Anatolia, Syria, Palestine, Arabia and Eritrea, in order to liaise with the isolated German Legation in Addis Ababa and to spread revolution among the Muslim subjects of the British Empire in Arabia and in North Africa. The expedition, officially called “Fourth German Inner African Research Expedition”, was in truth a somewhat poorly organised political mission supported by the German and Turkish secret services, and in the end failed to achieve any of its strategic objectives.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.