B.G.Niebuhr’s (1776-1831) book about Carsten Niebuhr’s expedition to Arabia is full of lively & lovely information about the personal life of his father (1733-1815), the obstacles he met under his expedition that left him the only survival, after the rest died.
Niebuhrs’ admiration to the region, the Arabic language, which his son could not follow the wished of his father to learn-as Barthold wrote is his book, his admiration to Islam & more precisely Kalifs Omar (written wrongly Oman-p.64) & Ali. The 1216 pages of the two volumes published in Danish by Vandkunsten’s publishing house was and will remain a monumental proof of the scientific and extraordinary heritage left by Carsten Niebuhr & his magnificent & detailed description of a region, that until nowadays, unfortunately, did not produce so high estimated objective description of Arabia & its cultural heritage, without prejudice & Islamophobic narrow minded views we meet nowadays, both in academia & media. The man who called himself Abdulla, wore their clothes, tried hard to speak their language, understand their customs and behave properly to understand their cultural heritage, needs more appreciation and admiration nowadays, even after 208 years of his death in 1815.
