Despite an earlier tendency to compartmentalize Ottoman history retroactively into national domains, recent historiography on the Middle East, North Africa and South-East Europe has sought to highlight the connecting factors between these regions under Ottoman rule. This reminder of Ottoman unity also contains a useful reminder of its diversity; thus, the history of Arabs and Bulgarians, and not just that of Turks, is being enriched by being examined through an Ottoman prism. With few exceptions, what is less apparent in these histories is the wide diversity of landscapes that could be found within the Empire, from the mountains and valleys of the Balkan Peninsula, to the Anatolian Plateau, to the deserts of Arabia and North Africa. This diversity of environments gave rise both to unique opportunities and constraints on human activity in different parts of the Empire. These environmental factors, when combined with cultural ones, could contribute to the centrality of a location from the point of view of Istanbul or, conversely, could relegate it to the imperial periphery. How did Ottoman officials based in Istanbul view Ottoman subjects who inhabited this kind of double (environmental and cultural) periphery? This paper will attempt to address this question by examining the travel account (first published in 1896) of the Ottoman army officer of Syrian origin, ‘Azmzade Sadiq al-Mu’ayyad, who was dispatched to North Africa by Sultan Abdülhamid II (r. 1876-1909) on two occasions, in 1887 and 1895 and tasked with strengthening the Sultan’s ties with the Sanusi Sufi order, which was a force to be reckoned with in the Cyrenaica (Benghazi) region. How did al-Mu’ayyad perceive the Sahara and its inhabitants? Did he view them primarily as his fellow Ottomans, fellow Muslims or fellow Arabs? Or did he instead focus on differences stemming from the lifestyle pursued by the desert dwellers? The environment of inland portions of Cyrenaica (lying in the Sahara and thus featuring a vast desert along with a string of oases) arguably made a political order quite different from that of the bulk of the Ottoman Empire to arise, with the Sufi lodges of the Sanusis acting as fortresses and with the Sanusis using their control of the trade routes to consolidate their political and military position. As an Ottoman officer, how did al-Mu’ayyad view this proto-state? Is Ottoman Orientalism the best way to understand his views, or is another paradigm called for?