The Arabian Journey 1761-67

In the 17th century and well into the 18th century, the increased European knowledge of foreign countries and cultures was essentially a by-product of the seafaring nations' efforts to find new trade routes and trading places. In the middle of the 18th century, this changed. Now the exploration of foreign countries was more systematised. It became scientific.

In the middle of the 18th century, Frederik the 5th and his ministers had a reputation for supporting the sciences, and it was under the influence of this that the Göttingen professor Johann David Michaëlis proposed in 1756 that the king should send an expedition to southern Arabia, then also called: "Happy Arabia".

The original proposal was to send a single man to Yemen from Trankebar in India; but over the course of four years the project grew into a 5-man scientific expedition that attracted the attention of the entire European scholarly world. Questions to be answered and suggestions for observations to be made poured in. Michaëlis drew up a list of scientific questions to be answered by the expedition and published them in Fragen an eine Gesellschaft gelehrter Männer, die auf Befehl Ihro Majestät des Königs von Dännemark nach Arabien reisen, Frankfurt a.M. 1762.

This index covered a wide range of very diverse questions in history, natural history and philology (and is thereby an excellent catalogue of what was not known at the time).

Six people participated in the expedition:

• The natural scientist Peter Forsskål: The Swedish natural scientist who was a student of Carl von Linné; a main purpose of Forsskål's studies was to supplement Linné's descriptions on a number of points.
• The philologist Frederik Christian von Haven: Von Haven had the task of purchasing oriental manuscripts for Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen and copy what he could find of inscriptions along the way, as well as make observations of Arabic language usage. The overall purpose was to better understand the Bible
• The cartographer Carsten Niebuhr: Niebuhr's task was to make observations and carry out surveys for the mapping of the little explored or completely unexplored areas.
• The doctor Christian Carl Kramer: Kramer was assigned a number of medical tasks, both scientific and in the field of practical medicine - also towards the population of Arabia.
• The draftsman and painter Georg Wilhelm Baurenfeind: Baurenfeind had the task of drawing the findings of the others, especially those of Forsskål's botanica and zoologica, which could easily perish.

Finally, the Swedish dragon Lars Berggren participated as a caretaker.

In Copenhagen, professors at the university prepared presentations for the instructions of 15.12.1760 with which Frederik the 5th sent the expedition off.

In its 43 paragraphs, the instructions contain detailed regulations for the expedition's tasks. Sections 2-9 determine the expedition's route, organisation (the participants were, as something new, mutually equal) and reporting in the form of diaries.

§ 10 gives a clear message about how the expedition participants must relate to Islam:
"All travellers must exercise the greatest civility towards the inhabitants of Arabia. They must not object to their religion, much less must they - even indirectly - show their contempt for it; they must refrain from that, which is an abomination to the inhabitants of Arabia.”

§§ 11 and 12 deal with the purchase of manuscripts and copying of inscriptions at Sinai, § 13 orders the expedition to remain united, § 14 emphasises the duty of the expedition participants to particularly try to answer the accompanying and forwarded questions from J. D. Michaëlis and other scholars, and § 15 emphasises that all material provided must be sent directly to the court marshal: answers to be forwarded to other European destinations must first be copied in Copenhagen.

§§ 16-22 lay out the framework for the natural science investigations and have as a basis, among other things, probably the first known plan for systematic marine biological studies (set up by the Copenhagen professor C. G. Kratzenstein).

Sections 23-26 prescribe the doctor's duties in both research and practical medicine; the latter must be exercised against distinguished Arabs as well as members of the expedition.

§§ 27-34 determine the mathematician's tasks within geographical location determination and mapping, as well as climate and population conditions (including polygamy and its possible connection with a numerical imbalance between the sexes).

§§ 35-42 describe the philological-historical tasks, while the concluding § 43 deals with the painter's duties: first and foremost to assist the natural historian in drawing the animals and plants that will not survive the transport home, then to assist the others. Finally, it is incumbent upon the expedition's scientists to draw on the painter's labour in agreement and tolerability.

The expedition left on 4 January 1761. The route went via Constantinople and Alexandria to Cairo and further along the Red Sea to Yemen, where the expedition stayed from December 1762 to the end of August 1763. Two of the participants (von Haven and Forsskål) died in Yemen, presumably of malaria. The other four embarked for Bombay, but two more of them died during the crossing (Baurenfeind and Berggren) - and in Bombay the fifth (Kramer) died, leaving Niebuhr as the sole survivor. He travelled on via Oman to Persia and through Iraq and Syria to Palestine, with a detour to Cyprus. From Jerusalem his route went to Constantinople and on through Eastern Europe to Copenhagen, which he reached on 20 November 1767.

The instructions required the participants of the expedition to keep a diary, and Forsskål, von Haven and Niebuhr all fully fulfilled this obligation, whereby we have a good knowledge of them - best of all Niebuhr, who, as a survivor, could process his material.

P. Forsskål
There were plans to publish Forsskål's diary in the 1770s, but they were not implemented until 1950. The diary is quite short, but illustrative.

F. C. von Haven
F. C. von Haven's diary is kept at Royal Danish Library and consists of two large folios. In one volume there is the actual travel journal, and in the other there are extracts from the relevant documents and works for use on the journey; cataloguing of the acquired manuscripts, markings of inscriptions and several Arabic-Danish and especially Arabic-Italian glossaries (von Haven had spent a few years with the Arab Maronites in Rome at the King's expense prior to the expedition). The diary was first published in 2005.

C. Niebuhr
Niebuhr often had to act in the role of mediator, which was made difficult by the fact that both Forsskål and von Haven had claimed to be the leader of the expedition, without being so. Precisely because of the disputes between them, no leader was appointed, but Niebuhr became the treasurer of the expedition.

The expedition had a dramatic course, but it still managed to provide us with significant collections.

They include plants and animals, observations and maps, drawings and oriental manuscripts. Large parts of the collections still exist and are kept in particular in the Botanical Museum, the Zoological Museum, the National Museum and the Royal Danish Library. The collections are still used - and they can be found in the Botanical Museum (Forsskål herbarium with approx. 1800 specimens), in the Zoological Museum (99 fish in "Forsskål's fish herbarium", at the National Museum (Antique Collection, Ethnographic Collection, Coin and Medal Collection) and at Royal Danish Library.

Several of the expedition's results turned out to be epoch-making.

Niebuhr's efforts in cartography, which include enabling European ships to sail the Red Sea all the way to Suez; the copying of cuneiform inscriptions that became the basis for their decipherment in 1802; and the publication of two of the 18th century's most significant Orientalist works.

Forsskål's efforts in zoology, where he made pioneering contributions in marine biology and migratory bird studies; and botany, where he - in addition to providing a herbarium of approx. 1800 plants that still exist and are used - was a pioneer in plant biology and plant geography. However, the descriptions and notes he left behind were processed for publication by a less competent (anonymous) botanist, whereby Forsskål's originality and wealth of ideas in botany did not get their due, and several of his discoveries had to be redone by the following generation.

Baurenfeind's drawings faithfully reproduced previously unknown plants and animals, published in the illustration volume for Forsskål's zoological and botanical descriptions; his drawings of medusae are among the most beautiful of the genre. In Niebuhr's works, his drawings illustrate all aspects of life in Egypt and Yemen.

Von Haven's acquisitions formed a new foundation in the library's collection of Near Eastern manuscripts, as the stock so far consisted of quite random gifts and individual purchases.