First and only Dutch edition of Niebuhr's famous account of the Royal Danish Expedition (1761-67) to the Middle East, Egypt, Persia and India. This edition was translated from the original German - Reisebeschreibung nach Arabien und anderen umliegenden Ländern (Copenhagen, 1774-78) - and includes Niebuhr's map of Yemen in volume 1, which is the first exact map of the area, which remained the standard for the next 200 years.
Carsten Niebuhr (1733-1815) was a Danish-German traveller and surveyor. He studied mathematics and became an engineer and as such joined a scientific expedition to the Middle East, sent out by King Frederick V of Denmark in 1760-1761. "The expedition had been proposed by the Hebrew scholar Johann David Michaëlis of Göttingen for the purpose of illustrating certain passages of the Old Testament ..." (Howgego). The expedition took Niebuhr and five others from Copenhagen to Constantinople and on to Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula and even India.
Immediately after his return, he started writing: first an official report of the expedition and then descriptions of Arabia and his travels, which were published and later translated into several languages during the 1770's, 1780's and beyond. The present work contains a detailed and extensively illustrated description, in diary form, of Niebuhr's travels. Along with his 1772 Beschreibung von Arabien ... it is the first European attempt at a complete account of Arabia, its people and their way of life.
With a bookplate on the front paste-down of both vols. "uit de bibliotheek van de doopsgezinde gemeente bij het lam en den toren te Amsterdam". Some water staining to the first few leaves of vol. 2 and very slight, occasional foxing throughout the 2 volumes. Untrimmed, leaving generous margins and causing slight fraying of the edges. The bindings show signs of wear. Otherwise in very good condition. Howgego I, N24; Hünersdorff, Coffee 2, p. 1080; Nyon, Cat. Bibl. le duc de la Valliere, 21018; STCN 168747987; Tiele, Bibl. 796. cf. Atabey 2, 874; Cox I, pp. 237-238; Eutiner Landesbibliothek 2, 1011; Gay, 3589; Hage Chahine, 3442 & 3444; Hamilton, Europe and the Arab world, 48; Macro, Bibl. of the Arabian Peninsula, 1700; NYPL, Arabia and the Arabs, p. 171; Slot, The Arabs of the Gulf, pp. 6-7 etc.; Van Hulthem 15024-15025. Not in Blackmer.