Carsten Niebuhr - Biography

Biography

Niebuhr was born the son of a small farmer in Lüdingworth (now a part of Cuxhaven, Lower Saxony) in what was then Bremen-Verden. He had little education, and for several years had to do the work of a peasant. He was interested in mathematics, however, and managed to obtain some training in surveying.

In 1760 one of his instructors suggested that Niebuhr join a scientific expedition being mounted by Frederick V of Denmark to Egypt, Arabia and Syria. Niebuhr studied mathematics for a year and a half before the expedition set out, and also managed to acquire some knowledge of Arabic. The expedition sailed in January 1761, and, landing at Alexandria, ascended the Nile. Proceeding to Suez, from where Niebuhr made a visit to Mount Sinai, in October 1762 the expedition sailed to Jeddah, and then journeyed overland to Mocha. Here, in May 1763, the expedition's philologist, von Haven, died, and shortly afterwards its naturalist Peter Forsskål also died. The remaining members of the expedition visited Sana, the capital of Yemen, but suffered from the climate and returned to Mocha. Niebuhr seems to have preserved his own life and restored his health by adopting native dress and eating native food. From Mocha the expedition continued to Bombay, the expedition's artist dying en route and the surgeon soon after landing. Niebuhr was now the only surviving member. He stayed in Bombay for fourteen months and then returned home by way of Muscat, Bushire, Shiraz and Persepolis. His copies of the cuneiform inscriptions at Persepolis proved to be a key turning point in the decipherment of cuneiform, and the birth of Assyriology. He also visited the ruins of Babylon (making many important sketches), Baghdad, Mosul and Aleppo. He seems also to have visited the Behistun Inscription in around 1764. After a visit to Cyprus he made a tour through Palestine, crossed the Taurus Mountains to Brussa, reached Constantinople in February 1767 and finally arrived in Copenhagen in the following November.

Niebuhr married in 1773, and for some years held a post in the Danish military service, which enabled him to remain in Copenhagen. In 1776 he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. In 1778 he accepted a position in the civil service of Danish Holstein, and went to reside at Meldorf (Ditmarsh), where he died in 1815. He was the father of the historian Barthold Georg Niebuhr, who published an account of his father's life in 1817.