NIEBUHR, CARSTEN.

Carsten Niebuhr (1733-1815) was a member of King Frederick V of Denmark’s scientific exploration of Egypt, Arabia and Syria, 1763-67. A six-man team left from Copenhagen: a cartographer - Neibuhr - a Danish philologist, a Swedish botanist, a Danish physician and zoologist, a German artist and a Swedish dragoon. They landed in Alexandria and proceeded up the Nile to Suez, Mount Sinai, Jeddah, Mocha, Sana. By the time they reached Bombay all but Neibuhr had succumbed to disease and death. Neibuhr returned home after a year in Bombay, via Muscat, Bushire, Shiraz, Persepolis, Baghdad, Mosul and Aleppo. He also visited the Behistun Inscription, Cyprus, Palestine, crossed the Taurus Mountaions to Brussa, Constantinople and finally arriving back in Copenhagen in 1767. A few of the members of the expedition were pupils of Johann Michaelis (1717-91), the most celebrated Orientalist of his day and passionate proponent of the study of Hebrew antiquities. It was to him that Niebuhr turned for a list of subjects to be investigated and questions to be answered. The second volume bound in here is a collection of these scholars’ questions and discussions.