Zarafa

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Zarafa in the Musée d'Histoire naturelle in La Rochelle

Zarafa (* around 1825 ; † January 12, 1845 ) was a giraffe who was the first to reach Europe after more than 300 years after the so-called Medici giraffe . After a journey of more than two years and over 7000 kilometers, she set foot on European soil in 1827 . Two more giraffes then reached Europe in the same year.

origin

Zarafa came from the area of ​​the Blue Nile in today's Sudan . It was brought to Paris as a gift from Muhammad Ali Pasha , Governor of Egypt , to the French King Charles X. Her name was the Arabic word for "giraffe" (زرافة, DMG zurāfa 'Liebliche'), from which the German name of the animal species is derived.

Life and effect

Théodore Chasseriau: drawing from 1827
J.-L. Agasse : The Nubian Giraffe , 1827

Zarafa was captured by hunters near Sannar in 1825 as a young animal and initially brought to Khartoum by camel . From Khartoum it was transported by ship to Cairo over 2,500 kilometers along the Nile and over the six Nile cataracts . From Alexandria , the animal was shipped across the Mediterranean to Marseille in October 1826 . A large hole had been cut in the upper deck of the ship through which the giraffe could stretch its neck. The arrival of the giraffe in France in April 1827 was a sensation. Crowds of citizens flocked to admire the animal on its 41-day walk from Marseille to Paris. When it arrived in Paris on June 30, 1827, the giraffe was accompanied by 60,000 citizens to the Jardin des Plantes , where it then lived for almost 18 years. It was presented to the king and the entire court on July 9th in the castle park of Saint-Cloud . Zarafa died on January 12, 1845. The carcass was stuffed and the specimen is now in the Musée d'Histoire naturelle in La Rochelle .

Zarafa inspired a giraffe fashion . The women wore their hair pinned up “à la girafe” with high knots. The men preferred high hats, so-called "girafiques", to ties and spotted vests.

More giraffe gifts from Ali Pasha

At the same time, Ali Pascha sent two more giraffes to Europe - one to London to George IV , the other to Franz II in Vienna - which also arrived there a little later than Zarafa in 1827. In both cities, the animals sparked the same fascination as the giraffe in Paris.

The Vienna Giraffe was in the menagerie of Schönbrunn accommodated, but died after one year. From 1828 Viennese “valses à la girafe”, for violin with pianoforte or guitar, are recorded . The English giraffe, also a young animal, arrived in London on August 11, 1827. On the instructions of George IV, the giraffe was fed exclusively with milk. An 1827 painting, The Nubian Giraffe by Jacques-Laurent Agasse, shows a cow in the background. On October 14, 1829, the animal died and was stuffed.

literature

  • Michael Allin: Zarafa - The extraordinary journey of a giraffe from deepest Africa into the heart of Paris . Diana Verlag, Munich and Zurich 2000 ISBN 3-453-17709-6 ( review of the English-language edition; English ).
  • Gabriele Mauthe: “A la giraffe!” The first living giraffe in Vienna. A cultural-historical note on the 250th anniversary of the Schönbrunn Zoo in Vienna . In: Biblos. Contributions to books, libraries and scriptures . Edited by the Austrian National Library, Vienna. 51/1 (Vienna 2002) ISSN  0006-2022 , pp. 111-128.
  • Samuel Schilling: Detailed natural history of the animal, plant and mineral kingdoms [...] . Breslau 1837 (with ill.); P. 270 f. .
  • Christina Sebastian: Karl X. Dame Girafe and her reception in French popular culture around 1827 . In: Hofkultur , July 13, 2016, https://hofkultur.hypotheses.org/422 (with numerous images).

Web links

Commons : Zarafa  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Susanne Greilich, York-Gothart Mix: Popular almanacs in early modern Europe: Der Hinkende Bote / Messager boiteux , page 46. ISBN 978-3-11-018632-1 online , accessed on June 29, 2011
  2. ↑ La girafe de Charles X. et son voyage du Suodan à Paris ( Memento of 14 April 2009 at the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Ludmila Kybalová u. a .: The great image lexicon of fashion. From ancient times to the present . Gütersloh, Berlin 1976; P. 336 f.
  4. ↑ Stéphane Frattini: Copain de Paris . Edition Milan, Toulouse 2006 ISBN 2-7459-1484-7
  5. ^ Josef Zuth : Handbook of the lute and guitar: Vienna 1926-28 . Georg Olms Verlag 2003; P. 167 ; the composer: B. Lackenbacher
  6. ^ Vernon N. Kisling: Zoo and Aquarium History. Ancient Animal Collections to Zoological Gardens . CRC Press 2000; P. 57 f.