JBOC's  Notes on Oriental Rugs

Notes on Edmond O'Donovan

Tufenkian Carpets Area Rug Sale.

  • Expert observer on the Turkmen at a critical time.
  • O'Donovan, Edmond. THE MERV OASIS: Travels and Adventures East of the Caspian During the Years 1879-80-81, Including Five Months' Residence Among the Tekkes of Merv illus. London, 1882
  • O’Donovan, E., THE MERV OASIS TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES EAST OF THE CASPIAN DURING THE YEARS 1878–80–81…. London: 1882. 2 volumes. 8vo. Portrait, maps (missing map in back pocket), and facsimiles.
  • Report of a English spy acting as a journalist mistaken for a Russian spy, and held captive for five months.
  • O'DONOVAN, EDMUND (1844-1883), British war-correspondent, was born at Dublin on the I3th of September 1844, the son of John O'Donovan (1809-1861), a well-known Irish archaeologist and topographer. In 1866 he began to contribute to the Irish Times and other Dublin papers. After the battle of Sedan he joined the Foreign Legion of the French army, and was wounded and taken prisoner by the Germans. In 1873 the Carlist rising attracted him to Spain, and he wrote many newspaper letters on the campaign. In 1876 he represented the London Daily News during the rising of Bosnia and Herzegovina against the Turks, and in 1879, for the same paper, made his adventurous and famous journey to Merv. On his arrival at Merv, the Turcomans, suspecting him to be a Russian spy, detained him. It was only after several months' captivity that O'Donovan managed to get a message to his principals through to Persia, whence it was telegraphed to England. These adventures he described in The Merv Oasis (1882). In 1883 O'Donovan accompanied the ill-fated expedition of Hicks Pasha to the Egyptian Sudan,.and perished with it. O'DONOVAN, EDMUND

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Thanks and best wishes,

J. Barry O'Connell Jr.

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