• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

“I love the Bedouin and his desert, and what one does with love one does not fear, whatever end one’s love may take.” Georg August Wallin, 1846 In the 1840s the Finnish Orientalist Ge org niente far dolce August Wallin travelled in the Middle East, where he collected material on Arabic dialects. In order to make contact with the local inhabitants he as- sumed a Muslim identity and disguised himself as the physician ʽAbd al-Wali from Central Asia. As an observer he was both inquisitive and sharp-eyed, and therefore well able to document daily life among the urban dwellers of Cairo and the Bedouin of the northern Arabian Peninsula. His unique material is preserved in diaries and letters which he wrote in his native language, Swedish – sometimes, however, with Arabic script to evade detection. By his con- temporaries he was considered an emi nent scholar, but he died shortly after his se ven-year journey, and was therefore able to pub- lish only a fraction of his material, which was subsequently obscured from the in Arabia international research community by the language barrier. Wallin’s life and travels in Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula and Persia are described here by four scholars of Middle Eastern culture and history. They also highlight Wallin’s importance as an ethnographic observer and linguistic researcher. Society of Swedish Literature in Finland www.sls.fi olce farin nienteArabia Society of Georg August Wallin and his travels in the 1840 s Swedish DLiterature ISBN 978-951-583-290-0 in Finland Dolce far Niente_omslag_ENG.indd All Pages 23.9.2014 15:46:57 Dolce far niente in Arabia Dolce far niente in Arabia Far niente is an opportunity for a unique, discriminating form of asceticism. Georg August Wallin and his Pierre Saint-Amand travels in the 1840s Society of Swedish Literature in Finland Helsinki 2014 Dolce far niente in Arabia Georg August Wallin and his travels in the 1840s Society of Swedish Literature in Finland Helsinki 2014 © The authors and the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland 2014 www.sls.fi Cover illustrations: Paul Klee, With Two Dromedaries and 1 Donkey, 1919 (Indiana University Art Museum, Bernhard and Cola Heiden Collection, 2000.141. © Photo: Kevin Montague); R. W. Ekman, portrait of Georg August Wallin, 1854 (Helsinki University Museum, © Photo: Matti Ruotsalainen) Editor: Nina Edgren-Henrichson Translations (all except Hämeen-Anttila’s article): David McDuff Picture editor and indexing: Kira Pihlflyckt Maps (pp. 18, 49, 74, 96): Hannu Linkola Cover and graphic design: Antti Pokela Typeset: Margita Lindgren/Ekenäs TypoGrafi UDK 910.4, 929 ISBN 978-951-583-290-0 (print) ISBN 978-951-583-428-7 (pdf) This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Sales and distribution in Scandinavia: Museum Tusculanum Press University of Copenhagen Birketinget 6 DK-2300 Copenhagen S Denmark www.mtp.dk The Society of Swedish Literature in Finland Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland PB 158 FI-00171 Helsingfors Finland www.sls.fi Sales and distribution outside Scandinavia: Museum Tusculanum Press University of Copenhagen Birketinget 6 DK-2300 Copenhagen S Denmark www.mtp.dk Artikelns titel Contents Heikki Palva Foreword ...................................................... 7 Patricia Berg Georg August Wallin – A Finnish sailor stranded on the Arabian Peninsula ........................................... 13 Finland and Helsinki during the early decades of the nineteenth century ........................................ 15 Family and youth ......................................... 17 Student years in Helsinki in the 1830s ................... 21 Further study of Oriental languages and dissertation for the docentship ......................................... 27 The ravelt scholarship application and the research journey ..................................................... 32 After the research journey ................................ 37 G. A. Wallin, Letter ........................................... 40 Sofia Häggman Wallin’s Egypt – Quite like home ........................... 41 Alexandria – the encounter with the Orient ........... 45 Cairo – an Oriental home ................................ 47 To Barraniya and Tanta – a summer in the country ... 48 The Nile journey – the encounter with the Pharaonic .. 52 The last winter in Cairo .................................. 58 Retrospective and lessons ................................. 59 G. A. Wallin, Diary ........................................... 64 5 Förnamn Efternamn Kaj Öhrnberg The terra incognita of Arabia ............................... 65 Philology – the Queen of the nineteenth-century sciences .................................................... 68 The Romantic traveller ................................... 72 The first journey into the desert ......................... 73 The second journey into the desert ...................... 76 The third journey into the desert ........................ 77 Back to Europe and plans for a new journey to Arabia ..................................................... 80 Epilogue: Empire and geography intertwined .......... 85 G. A. Wallin, Letter ........................................... 90 Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila Georg August Wallin and Persia ........................... 93 A country in turmoil ..................................... 98 Wallin and the Persian language ........................ 100 Constantly comparing Persians with Arabs ............ 104 Wallin and Persian literature ............................ 112 Results from the visit to Persia .......................... 117 G. A. Wallin, Letter ........................................... 121 Notes.......................................................... 123 Bibliography ................................................ 132 Picture sources ............................................ 138 Contributors ............................................... 139 Index .......................................................... 140 6 Artikelns titel Foreword eorg August Wallin (1811–1852) is famous in his native Finland as the daring explorer of the Arabian Peninsula, a Gtravelling researcher who did not hesitate to throw himself into adventures. At the University of Helsinki his exotic portrait aroused well-deserved attention in the ranks of the prominent men of his time. The sunburned face in the portrait speaks of long journeys under Arabia’s blazing sun, while the white turban and the scroll define the subject as a learned scholar of the Middle East. Wallin’s international star reached its zenith in 1850, after his return from his seven-year journey in the Middle East. He had been the first European to cross the northern Arabian Penin- sula and immerse himself in the local conditions of previously unexplored areas, including al-Jauf and Ha’il. His travel report was read out to the Royal Geographical Society in London, at a meeting he himself attended, and the society presented him with its major award. The Société Géographique de Paris gave him its prestigious silver medal, The East India Trading Company rewarded him for valuable new information that complemented the Company’s atlas, and the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesell- schaft made him an honorary member. During the decades that followed Wallin’s international fame gradually declined – not so much because he died young and his ambitious plans for further research thus came to nothing, than because his fame was based on only one part of his work: mainly two reports published in the Journal of the Royal Geo- 7 Heikki Palva graphical Society (1850 and 1854) on the journeys he undertook on the Arabian Peninsula in 1845 and 1848. The framework of the reports is a rectilinear and impersonal description of the topography and natural conditions along the route. While it is true that Wallin also shares his knowledge of the Bedouin tribes, their living conditions and their mutual relationships, he strives for a compressed and objective description, omitting his own experiences almost entirely. A completely different Wallin, the inquisitive researcher and colourful storyteller who takes an active part in the diversity of local life, emerges in his letters and diaries written in Swedish. * * * When Wallin began his research career in the 1830s, Europe was experiencing its Romantic period, and the dawning National Romantic movement in Finland sought sustenance in the Finnish folk poetry tradition, and its most significant creation the Kalevala, which was published in 1835. Finno-Ugric philology and folklore became the leading disciplines in the field of the humanities. In the competition for research funding, scholars specializing in Finno-Ugric languages had ​​an advantage in that the subject was perceived to be of national importance, involving the study of the Finnish ethnos. Wallin applied for a travel scholarship to study Arabic dialects and also the geography, history and religious life of the Arabian Peninsula. His plans gained support from the fact that his subject was likely to attract interest abroad – and thereby give prominence among international scholars to small, autonomous Finland, which was a Grand Duchy of Russia. It should be noted, however, that Wallin’s research plan lacked any link to the political and economic rivalry that existed between Europe’s great powers, as Russia had no interests in the Arabian Peninsula. Wallin’s uniqueness among other Arabian travellers is of- ten overlooked, because scholarly linguistic publications rarely percolate beyond

Load more

  145

Copy Link