Most students of Yemen's history are awareof the famous Danish expedition sent to Egypt and Yemen in 1761 andpopularly described in Thorkild Hansen's Arabia Felix (1962).The man we usually associate with this ill-fated expedition isCarsten Niebuhr, since he had the good fortune to be the onlysurvivor of the expedition. However, the scientific work of PehrForsskål (1732-1762), a Swedish botanist, was one of the chieflegacies of this trip. Well, at the time he was considered Swedish,though he was actually born in Helsinki, now the capital of Finland.He must have been a rather precocious kid, because he entered theuniversity in Uppsala in 1742 at the ripe young age of 10. Here helearned philosophy, theology and even a smattering of orientallanguages. Fortunately for the history of botany, Forsskålattended the lectures of Linnaeus, the venerable founder of botanicalclassification, at Uppsala. Forsskål was more than a botanistin his youth. He submitted two theses, one of which was socontroversial it was rejected out of hand in the political climate.The subject was civil liberty, which was clearly denied in the caseof this thesis even after it was published as a book. The book wasconfiscated (by none other than Linnaeus, oddly enough) and condemnedfrom Swedish pulpits. When offered the prospect of a trip to Arabiaon a royal Danish expedition, it is not surprising Forsskåljumped at it.
The Danish ship "Groenland" set sail fromCopenhagen on January 4, 1761 reaching Constantinople on July 30. Theexpedition reached Cairo in November and stayed in Egypt for aboutnine months. It was not until December 29, 1762 that Forsskålreached Luhayya in Yemen. By late March both Forsskål andNiebuhr made an excursion to Ta'izz. In May the expedition Arabist,von Haven, died in Mocha. Forsskål himself died in Yarim onJuly 11, 1763. The only expedition member to survive was Niebuhr, whoeventually returned to Copenhagen in 1767 and set to work for tenyears publishing the results, including Forsskål's botanicalwork.
Until now botanists have had to rely on theoriginal 1775 publication of Forsskal's work and a few subsequentuses of the data. Now F. Nigel Hepper and I. Friis have produced ThePlants of Pehr Forsskål's Flora Aegyptiaco-Arabica (Kew, RoyalBotanical Gardens, 1994, xii, 400 pp). This valuable andauthoritative edition contains an informative introduction onForsskål and the Danish expedition and a systematic catalogueof Forsskål's botanical specimens. A taxonomic index is alsoprovided
"It is certainly wonderful to penetrate acountry worth seeing for its different plant growth; but it is morepraiseworthy to change from a prejudiced idea of a barbaric nation toa friendly relationship with a simple, but well mannered people, whomay disagree between themselves, but nevertheless are amicable tostrangers, who are uneducated in sciences, but not restricted inintellect, who are poor, but yet hospitable. This tradition has notgrown from a void, but is due to a general convention which preventsthe violation of stragners. This is how the Arab Yemen is differentfrom the Arab Egypt; here the noble live far from the centres, ...and the life of the common people is even more parochial. Theinhabitants of Arabia Felix are satisfied with durable alliances, anddo not want unjust conquests. To this can both Forsskål and Ibear testimony, saluted as we have been among unknown people; we havealways achieved complete protection. He came to places hardly touchedby a European foot, and certainly not by that of a botanist. Herecame a man, unknown and apparently eccentric, one for whom not tradebut the names and uses of plants was the singular purpose. Encouragedby these principles of the nation, he lived a shepherd's life amongthe Arabs. Admirably were both the older Arab, the younger one, andthe girl equally eager to provide information about the flora oftheir country. When young people each day gather fodder plants, theyinvoluntarily carefully investigate the botany of their field; andwhat they have in youth counted as play, they still remember whenold. This is the reason why flora in her idiom has named very fewplants that the Arab has not given a name to in his own language."(from Niebuhr's Introduction to Forsskål's FloraAegyptiaco-Arabica)
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