Editing Isabelle Eberhardt (section)

=={{anchor|Travels between North Africa and Europe}}Travels to Europe==
Eberhardt spent her money recklessly in Algiers, and quickly exhausted the funds left to her by her mother;{{sfn|Mackworth|1977|p=49}} she would often spend several days at a time in kief dens.{{sfn|Mackworth|1977|p=48}} Augustin, ejected from the Foreign Legion due to his health, returned to Geneva alongside Eberhardt in early 1899. They found Trophimowsky in poor health, suffering from [[throat cancer]] and traumatised by the loss of Eberhardt's mother and Vladimir, who had committed suicide the previous year. Eberhardt nursed her father, growing closer to him.{{sfn|Mackworth|1977|p=50}} She also commenced a relationship and became engaged to Riza Bey, an Armenian diplomat with whom she had been friends and possibly lovers when she was seventeen. Though Trophimowsky approved of the engagement, the relationship soon ended.{{sfn|Mackworth|1977|p=52}} Historian [[Lesley Blanch]] attributes the relationship's downfall to Bey being assigned to [[Stockholm]].{{sfn|Blanch|2010|p=253}} Trophimowsky died in May.{{sfn|Chouiten|2012|pp=59–66}} Blanch attributes the death to a [[chloral]] overdose, with which Eberhardt may have intentionally [[euthanasia|euthanised]] him.{{sfn|Blanch|2010|p=253}} Eberhardt intended to sell the villa, although Trophimowsky's legitimate wife opposed the execution of the will. After several weeks of legal contentions, Eberhardt mortgaged the property and returned to Africa on the first available ship.{{sfn|Bodley|1968|p=145}} With both parents dead, she considered herself free of human attachments and able to live as a [[Vagrancy (people)|vagabond]].{{sfn|Belenky|2011|page=97}} Eberhardt relinquished her mother's name, and called herself Si Mahmoud Saadi.{{sfn|Bodley|1968|p=145}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.arabesques-editions.com/revue/article19105.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304234134/http://www.arabesques-editions.com/revue/article19105.html |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=dead |title=Isabelle Eberhardt, sa voie et sa foi en l'Islam |last=Hamouche |first=Nacéra |date=17 May 2006 |work=Arabesques |language=fr |access-date=9 December 2016 }}</ref> She began wearing male clothing exclusively and developed a masculine personality, speaking and writing as a man.{{sfn|Bodley|1968|page=146}} Eberhardt behaved like an Arab man, challenging gender and racial norms.{{sfn|Abdel-Jaouad|1993|page=109}} Asked why she dressed as an Arab man, she invariably replied: "It is impossible for me to do otherwise."{{sfn|Abdel-Jaouad|1993|page=110}} A few months later, Eberhardt's money ran low, and she returned to Geneva to sell the villa; due to the legal troubles there was little to no money available.{{sfn|Bodley|1968|page=148}}{{sfn|Mackworth|1977|p=81}}

Encouraged by a friend, she went to Paris to become a writer but had little success. While in Paris Eberhardt met the widow of [[Marquis de Morès]]. Although de{{nbsp}}Morès had been reportedly murdered by [[Tuareg people|Tuareg]] tribesmen in the Sahara, no one had been arrested. When his widow learned that Eberhardt was familiar with the area where de{{nbsp}}Morès died, she hired her to investigate his murder. The job benefited Eberhardt, who was destitute and longed to return to the Sahara. She returned to Algeria in July 1900, settling in [[El Oued]]. According to Sahara expert [[R. V. C. Bodley]], Eberhardt made little effort to investigate de{{nbsp}}Morès' death; Bodley considered this due to a combination of the unwillingness of the French to co-operate in an investigation and Eberhardt's fatalism rather than deliberate dishonesty.{{sfn|Bodley|1968|page=149}} Word eventually got back to the de{{nbsp}}Morès widow about Eberhardt's lackluster investigation, and she subsequently cut off her funding.{{sfn|Blanch|2010|p=256}}{{sfn|Mackworth|1977|p=90}}

Eberhardt made friends in the area and met Slimane Ehnni, a [[non-commissioned officer]] in the [[spahis]].  They fell in love, and eventually lived together openly. This alienated Eberhardt from the French authorities, who were already outraged by her lifestyle.{{sfn|Bodley|1968|page=150}} During her travels she made contact with the [[Qadiriyya]], a [[Sufism|Sufi]] order. The order was led by Hussein ben{{nbsp}}Brahim, who was so impressed with Eberhardt's knowledge of (and passion for) Islam that he initiated her into his ''[[Zawiya (institution)|zawiya]]'' without the usual formal examination.{{sfn|Bodley|1968|page=151}} This convinced the French authorities that she was a spy or an agitator, and they placed her on a widely circulated [[Blacklisting|blacklist]]. The French transferred Ehnni to the spahi regiment at [[Batna, Algeria|Batna]], possibly to punish Eberhardt (whom they could not harm directly).{{sfn|Bodley|1968|page=152}} Too poor to accompany him to Batna, Eberhardt traveled to a Qadiriyya meeting in Behima in late January 1901 where she hoped to ask Si{{nbsp}}Lachmi, a [[marabout]], for financial assistance. While waiting for the meeting to begin she was attacked by a man with a sabre, receiving a superficial wound to her head and a deep cut to her left arm.{{sfn|Mackworth|1977|p=110}} Her attacker, Abdallah ben Mohammed, was overpowered by others and arrested. When asked why he had tried to kill Eberhardt he only repeated "God wished it; God still wishes it."{{sfn|Mackworth|1977|p=111}} Eberhardt suspected that he was an assassin hired by the French authorities.{{sfn|Chouiten|2012|pp=59–66}} Others attribute the attack to Si{{nbsp}}Lachmi; Eberhardt was his mistress, whom he had grown tired of, and it is speculated he was simultaneously trying to get rid of her and pin the blame for the attack on a rival tribe.{{sfn|Mackworth|1977|p=111}}{{sfn|Blanch|2010|p=258}} She was brought to the military hospital at El{{nbsp}}Oued the following day. After Eberhardt recovered in late February,{{sfn|Mackworth|1977|p=118}} she joined Ehnni with funds from members of the Qadiriyya who regarded her survival as a miracle.{{sfn|Bodley|1968|page=153}}

After spending two months in Batna with Ehnni,{{sfn|Mackworth|1977|p=121}} the French ordered her to leave North Africa without explanation; as an immigrant, she had no choice but to comply. Ehnni requested permission from his military superiors to marry Eberhardt (which would have enabled her to stay), but his request was denied. She traveled to France in early May 1901, staying with Augustin and his wife and daughter in [[Marseille]]. In mid-June she was summoned back to [[Constantine, Algeria|Constantine]] to give evidence at the trial of her attacker, who maintained his statement that God had ordered him to kill Eberhardt, though expressed remorse towards her.{{sfn|Bodley|1968|page=154}}{{sfn|Mackworth|1977|p=129}} Eberhardt said that she bore no grudge against Abdallah, forgave him, and hoped that he would not be punished. Abdallah received life imprisonment although the prosecutor had asked for the death penalty. When the trial ended, Eberhardt was again ordered to leave the country. She returned to live with Augustin, working with him (disguised as a man) as a [[Stevedore|dock labourer]]. Eberhardt and Augustin's family lived in appalling poverty.{{sfn|Chouiten|2012|pp=59–66}} Eberhardt's health deteriorated, and she repeatedly suffered from fevers.{{sfn|Mackworth|1977|p=138}} She attempted suicide while in Marseille, one of several attempts she would make over the course of her life.{{sfn|Blanch|2010|p=259}} Eberhardt continued to write during this time, working on several projects including her novel ''Trimardeur''.{{sfn|Bodley|1968|page=155}}

A friend of Eberhardt's gave her a [[letter of introduction]] to playwright [[Eugène Brieux]],{{sfn|Mackworth|1977|p=143}} who opposed French rule in North Africa and supported Arab emancipation. He sent her a several-hundred-[[French franc|franc]] [[advance against royalties|advance]] and tried to have her stories published, but could not find anyone willing to publish pro-Arab writing. Eberhardt, unfazed, continued writing; her morale lifted when Ehnni was transferred to a ''spahi'' regiment near Marseille in late August to complete his final months of service.{{sfn|Bodley|1968|page=156}}{{sfn|Mackworth|1977|p=145}} He did not require permission from his military superiors to marry in France, and he and Eberhardt were married in October 1901.{{sfn|Chouiten|2012|pp=59–66}} Shortly before the wedding, Eberhardt and Augustin received the news that Trophimowsky's estate had finally been sold, though due to the mounting legal costs there was no money left for them to inherit. With this news, Eberhardt abandoned any hope of having a financially secure future.{{sfn|Mackworth|1977|p=147}} In February 1902 Ehnni was discharged, and the couple returned to Bône to live with his family.{{sfn|Bodley|1968|page=156}}