Le voyage dans la lune (operetta) but due to the need to raise the necessary money he did not take up the project. Eventually Albert Vizentini, the new directeur of the Gaîté, took up the idea, and Offenbach's contribution was limited to that of composer. Albert Vanloo and Eugène Leterrier, in association with Arnold Mortier (columnist at Figaro), wrote the libretto. They were hoping for a repeat of the success of the novels of Jules Verne (another, the novel "Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingt jours", had been adapted for the stage at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin by Verne himself in 1874) and the
Alfred Le Chatelier embraced the mysticism of Sufi brotherhoods. The "Revue du monde musulman" did not oppose colonialism. Le Chatelier tried to put to rest the fears of colonial officials that some huge pan-Islamic movement would sweep aside their authority, and to assure them that if a realistic, fact-based and sympathetic policy were adopted toward the Muslim subjects of French colonies there need be no unrest. In 1911 Le Chatelier published "La conquête du monde Musulman", a survey of Protestant missions in Islamic societies, in the "Revue du monde musulman". The article was quickly translated into Arabic and published in many Egyptian newspapers.