Hi there!

Can you imagine being on the ”road” for over 2,000 days while being the only survivor of a nationally planned expedition? This is exactly what Carsten Niebuhr experienced as a participant in the extensive “The Royal Danish Expedition to Arabia”, which began in Denmark 1761. It was during this expedition, among other tragedies, that the Linnaeus’ apostle Peter Forsskål died in 1763 of malaria in Yarim, Yemen.

To travel under the protection and security of a caravan was one mode of transport, mentioned at several occasions in Carsten Niebuhr’s very detailed journal, for instance on the journey from; Bushehr, Shiraz, Persepolis, Basra, Bagdad, Mosul, Diyarbakir to Aleppo. Just like on the continuing travel to Constantinople and other cities in this geographical area. Courtesy: National Museum, Sweden.

In recent decades, much has been published about Carsten Niebuhr, not least within the now completed Carsten Niebuhr Library in Denmark and in the first comprehensive study about Niebuhr in the book Undying Curiosity by Lawrence J Baack, an American historian of modern Europe.

In three new essays, Viveka Hansen – the institutor of Textilis, Textile historian and the permanent editorial secretary for all IK's series about the Linnaeus Apostles – writes about Carsten Niebuhr and his textile observations. This is a new and multidisciplinary subject area – in addition to textile history – also giving insight of exploration, natural history, cartography, trade and East India Companies.

Niebuhr’s ethnographic “curiosities” which he brought back included these three striped silk (or linen) qualities from Yemen – woven in plain weave and lozenge twill borders with fringes – which would have been used for the country’s local clothing. Courtesy: National Museum of Denmark.

Carsten Niebuhr’s roaming covered a geographical area that today includes Denmark, France, Malta, Turkey, Egypt, Arabian Peninsula, Yemen, India, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Cyprus, Israel and Germany. So rest assured that there is much new knowledge to be found in these just published and groundbreaking essays!

Two of these essays have already been published and the final one in this trilogy will be published in May 2021.

CARSTEN NIEBUHR’S TEXTILE OBSERVATIONS | iTEXTILIS

iTEXTILIS was founded in 2013 and has since then published more than 130 essays and conducted an extensive number of research projects, book releases and free research resources in the form of picture archives and much more – and like everything within The IK Workshop Society, you are welcome to take part of this!