Kara Ben Nemsi

Kara Ben Nemsi on Rih

Kara Ben Nemsi (in Arabic: كارة بن نمسي Karl The [Son of] Austrian, meant was Karl the son of Germans) is a fictional character in the works of Karl May, best-selling 19th century German writer. An alter ego of the author, everything is written from the first person perspective. He travels throughout the Ottoman empire, alongside his friend and servant Hadschi Halef Omar.

His character, being identical to that of Old Shatterhand, owns two famous rifles, the Bärentöter (Bear Killer) and the Henrystutzen (Henry Carbine). Without ever leaving the saddle of his fabulous black horse Rih (it means “wind” in Arabic), Kara Ben Nemsi single-handedly fights off droves of thieves and crooks left and right. On nightlong rides through bleak and barren lands, he never wavered in sharing his long-winded religious musings with unenlightened natives and readers alike.

Original German stories

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.

English translations of Karl May's works

See also

References

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