Bibliographic Detail
Forsskål, P., 1775
Reference:
Forsskål, P. (1775). Flora Aegyptiaca-Arabica sive descriptiones plantarum, quas per Aegyptum inferiorem et Arabium delicem detexit illustravit Petrus Forskål. Prof. Haun. Post mortem auctoris edidit Carsten Niebuhr. pp. [1]-32, [i]- xxxvi, ... [1]-219, [220, err.], map. Hauniæ [Copenhagen]: ex officina Mölleri.
Location:
Hauniæ [Copenhagen]
Notes:
Florula littoris Galliæ ad Estac prope Massilliam. Accedit florula insulæ Maltæ. p. [i]-xiv.--Flora constantinopolitana, littoris ad Dardenellos et insularum Tenedos, Imros, Rhodi. p. [xv]-xxxvi.--Flora ægyptiaca: sive Catalogus plantarum systematicus Ægypti inferioris: Alexandriæ, Rosettæ, Kahiræ, Sues. p. [xxxvii]-lxxviii.--Flora arabicoyemen. Sive Catalogus plantarum Arabiæ felicis systematicus. p. [lxxix]-cxxvi.--Descriptiones plantarum floræ ægyptiaco-arabicæ. p. 1-219.
Carsten Niebuhr was born on March 17, 1733 in Lüdingworth, Lower Saxony. His family had a small farm, but he had little education, and for several years during his youth, had to do the work of a farmer. However, he had a talent for mathematics, and managed to obtain some lessons in surveying. It was while he was working on this subject that one of his teachers suggested he join the expedition being sent out by King Frederick V of Denmark for the scientific exploration of Egypt, Arabia, and Syria. To qualify himself for the work of surveyor and geographer, he studied mathematics at the University of Göttingen for a year and a half before the expedition set out, and also managed to acquire some knowledge of Arabic. The expedition sailed in January 1761, landing at Alexandria, Egypt, after which they ascended up the Nile. Proceeding to Suez, Niebuhr made a visit to Mount Sinai, and in October 1762 the expedition sailed from Suez to Jeddah, journeying thence overland to Mocha, in Yemen. It was there, in May 1763, that the philologist of the expedition, von Haven, died, followed shortly after by Per Forsskål, the natturalist. Sana, the capital of Yemen, was visited, but the remaining members of the expedition suffered so much from the climate and from the mode of life that they returned to Mocha. Niebuhr seems to have learned to protect his health by adopting native habits as to dress and food. From Mocha the ship sailed to Bombay. The artist of the expedition, Baurenfeind, dying on the passage, and the physician, Kramer, soon after landing, left Niebuhr as the only surviving member of the expedition. Niebuhr stayed 14 months in Bombay, and then returned home by Muscat in Oman, Bushire, Shiraz in Iran, and Persepolis, visited the ruins of Babylon, and thence went to Baghdad, Mosul, and Aleppo. He seems to have visited the Behistun Inscription around 1764. After a visit to Cyprus, he made a tour through Palestine, crossing the Taurus Mountains to Brussa, reaching Constantinople in February 1767. Niebuhr returned to Copenhagen in November, 1767.
Niebuhr married in 1773, and for some years held a post in the Danish military service which enabled him to reside at Copenhagen. In 1778, however, he accepted a position in the civil service of Holstein. He went to reside at Meldorf, where he died in 1815.
