Theorizing the Sahara/Desert as a Center The Sahara/Desert, a vast stretch of arid land extending from Sudan to Mauritania, is one of the most misunderstood and undertheorized places. Cast as an inherently dangerous, marginal and peripheral space, the Sahara has been mainly defined by what it is not, thus overlooking a lot of what it actually is. Building on the proposition that the Sahara is a place of life and production, where people live, produce artefacts, exchange material and immaterial goods, and form relationships, I argue that the Sahara is a center in and of itself. I analyze a host of pre-colonial and colonial writings that explicitly foreground the centrality of the Sahara as both a destination and a quest for generations of European explorers. From René Caillié (1799 –1838) to Isabelle Eberhardt (1877-1904) and Andre Gide (1869-1951), a motley of explorers, adventurers, divine prophecy followers, geologists, and colonialists gravitated towards this sparsely populated land. Fascinated and mesmerized by the Sahara’s power, these individuals gravitated toward it for decades for various reasons. Moreover, the Sahara’s centrality can also be seen in it becoming the object of scientific conferences and exploratory expeditions underwritten by civilian and military organizations through the 20th century. This centrality of the desert is also manifested in it being a destination for individuals seeking isolation, contemplation, and spiritual introspection. Although the list of Euro-American Saharans—as they referred to themselves—is long, they all share a fascination with the desert and an avid desire to experience it before its discursive production in very successful publications. The discovery of oil and gas in mid-1950s and the relocation of multinational companies to the desert only consolidated the Sahara’s strategic importance as a center for global economic interests. Also, most recently, the flow of sub-Saharan African immigrants has led to the incorporation of the Saharan borders into Europe, thus offering us another way of refiguring the Sahara as a center--in Europe this time. Drawing on a significant number of understudied precolonial and colonial, literary and reconnaissance works that take place in the desert, I offer a rereading of the Sahara as a center. Through my analysis of its role as a space for mobility, connectivity, and multidirectional exchanges, the Sahara emerges as a destination and a final goal for people of different backgrounds and persuasions.