Born 1733.--Died 1815.
Born in the province of Friesland--Studies music--Intends
practising as a land-surveyor--Celebrated Reiske--Engaged
to accompany a scientific expedition into Arabia--Goes to
Copenhagen--Appointed lieutenant of engineers--Liberality
of the Danish Minister--Proceeds to Marseilles--White
rainbow--Transit of Venus--Malta--Serpents--Maltese
knights--Efforts to convert Niebuhr to Catholicism--Great
Church of St. John--Prodigious wealth--Hospital--Sails
to Smyrna--Tenedos--Attacked by dysentery--Proceeds to
Constantinople--Assumes the oriental costume--Sails for
Egypt--Rhodes--Turkish eating-house--Wine-drinkers--Female
slaves--Amusing story--Plague--Egypt--Pompey’s pillar--Turkish
merchant and the telescope--Laughable anecdote--Mr. Forskaal
stripped of his breeches--Rosetta--Arrives at Cairo--The
river Nile--Pirates--Bruce the traveller--Curious anecdote
of robbers--The Virgin on horseback--Churches strewed
with crutches--Arrives at Damietta--Boats loaded with
beehives--Europeans detested at Damietta--Encountered
by a young sheïkh--Visits the Pyramids--Observations on
them--Sets out for Suez--Advantages of travelling on
dromedaries--Trade of Suez--Rose of Jericho--Mountain of
Inscriptions--Arab women--Is refused admission into the
monastery of St. Catherine--Deserted by his guides--Ascends
a portion of Mount Sinai--Voyage from Suez to Jidda--Black
eunuch--Elim--Is protected by some Janizaries--Emerald
mountains--Forskaal taken for a physician--Laughable
story--Ship in danger of being set on fire--Indiscreet
curiosity--Jidda--Custom-house extortions--Forbidden to approach
the Mecca gate--Curious method of catching wild ducks--Sails
for Loheia--Yemen--Bedouins--Politeness of the emir--Hospitable
treatment--Curiosity of the Arabs--Dr. Cramer requested to
prescribe for the emir’s horse--Amusing anecdote of two young
Arabs--Great coffee emporium of Beit el-Fakih--Description of
the coffee plantations--Danger of travelling by day--Niebuhr
is mistaken for an Arab--Is supposed to be searching for
gold--Balm of Mecca--Is seized with illness--Mokha--Ludicrous
anecdote--Death of Von Haven--Of Forskaal--Difficulty of obtaining
a place of burial--Polite reception at Sana--Obtains an audience
of the imam--Sails for India--Arrives at Bombay--Death of
Baurenfeind--Forwards his manuscripts to Copenhagen--Sails for
the Persian gulf--Phosphoric fires--Troop of dolphins--History
of Nadir Shah--Sir W. Jones--Visits Shiraz--Superstition
respecting manner of killing a fowl--Visits a Turkoman
camp--Anecdote--Arrives at Shiraz--Hospitable reception by
an Englishman--Palace--Persepolis--Arab sheïkh--Dialogue
with the moollah of a mosque respecting marriage--Ruins of
Babylon--Proceeds with a Jewish caravan--Turkish firman--Devil
worshippers--Cowardice of his companions--Adventure with an
Arab sheïkh--Dr. Patrick Russel--Oriental Christians--Visits
Palestine--Mount Taurus--Baber Khan--Returns to Europe--Arrives
at Copenhagen--Publishes his various works--Marries--Quits the
capital--Appointed secretary of the district at Meldorf--Anecdotes
and character of Niebuhr by his son--Illiberality towards
Bruce--Account of Niebuhr’s latter days--Illness--Death 99