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Originally Posted by Michael Blalock
Carsten Niebuhr documented the jambiya in the 1760's. He evidently brought one back. I have searched the net but have not found a leads to it. That is the earliest I have heard of one though I would assume they are much older.
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Salaams Michael Blalock. It is a long time since you sent a post Michael and I hope all is well. I picked up your letter as I was thumbing back through Forum history and by chance I just happenend to be reading Heart Beguiling Araby by Kathryn Tidrick and was on page 14 showing Carsten Niebuhr as in your post...I know of him from his famous sea charts which have his signature silhouettes of the various landmarks as viewed by navigators from their ships.
I note from the book~ He was the first European traveller to penetrate the interior of the Arabian peninsula and produce an articulate account of it...The only survivor of the infamous Danish expedition of 1761, though, not the leader he ought to have been (that was Christian von Haven described as arrogant, indolent and fearful) Niebuhr was not considered because of his background and upbringing being merely a poor surveyor from the Friesland marshes ~ However he was a superb map maker and his map of Yemen was favoured for over 100 years. Of the team that set off only he survived as Malaria killed the others though he caught it and survived. Niebuhr often dressed in the Arabian style shown in the lithograph and became famous for his maps and documentary "Travels in Arabia".
In the book I have just read he is one of the stepping stone characters cleverly used by the author to illustrate the English romance with Arabia along with Laurent d ' Arvieux, Jean Louis Burckhardt, Punch in the form of Thackeray climbing the pyramids, Richard Burton, William Gifford Palgrove, Wilfred Blunt, Faris Sheikh of the Shammar, Charles M. Doughty, Lawrence of Arabia and finally Gertrude Bell.
I assume the dagger he is wearing in the lithograph (A Yemeni Thouma) was the one he brought home.
Ah!! I wrote this before I saw your other post called
this is interesting where you have identified the actual museum piece ... very nice...
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.