Carsten Niebuhr
Oman, 1774
8 x 8 in
20.3 x 20.3 cm
20.3 x 20.3 cm
MEAST4827
Terrae Oman Detailed map of Oman, including Muscat, drawn by the German cartographer Carsten Niebuhr, the only surviving member of the Danish Arabia Expedition (1761-1767). This is the first...
Terrae Oman
Detailed map of Oman, including Muscat, drawn by the German cartographer Carsten Niebuhr, the only surviving member of the Danish Arabia Expedition (1761-1767).
This is the first printed European map to focus on the country of Oman.
The expedition travelled from Copenhagen to Cairo, down the Red Sea to Yemen, through the Persian Gulf from Muscat to Basra, and then across Mesopotamia, Turkey, and Poland back to Copenhagen. The maps that Niebuhr, the expedition's cartographer, produced on the way are some of the best European maps of Arabia produced during the 18th century. He was later credited by William Palgrave, the British Arabist and explorer, as the man "who first opened up Arabia for Europe."
One of the extraordinary features of this map is its accuracy. With it being first hand information, Niebuhr was able to gather the names and location of several settlements not only on the coast but also in the interior of Oman. These are written phonetically on the map but recognisable even today. This include Rostak or modern Rustaq, Samaeil or modern Samail and Sikki or modern Saiq. On the coast, the information is just as ground breaking: Chorsakan, north of Muscat is the modern city of Khor Fakkan, an important deep water port and now part of the Emirate of Sharjah in the U.A.E; Kuriat is the town of Qurayyat and Sohar is still called by that name and is the supposed birthplace of the fictional Sinbad the Sailor. With such an abundance of accurate geographical detail this was not only the first European map of Oman, it remained the best until Wellsted’s survey published in 1837.
[MEAST4827]
Detailed map of Oman, including Muscat, drawn by the German cartographer Carsten Niebuhr, the only surviving member of the Danish Arabia Expedition (1761-1767).
This is the first printed European map to focus on the country of Oman.
The expedition travelled from Copenhagen to Cairo, down the Red Sea to Yemen, through the Persian Gulf from Muscat to Basra, and then across Mesopotamia, Turkey, and Poland back to Copenhagen. The maps that Niebuhr, the expedition's cartographer, produced on the way are some of the best European maps of Arabia produced during the 18th century. He was later credited by William Palgrave, the British Arabist and explorer, as the man "who first opened up Arabia for Europe."
One of the extraordinary features of this map is its accuracy. With it being first hand information, Niebuhr was able to gather the names and location of several settlements not only on the coast but also in the interior of Oman. These are written phonetically on the map but recognisable even today. This include Rostak or modern Rustaq, Samaeil or modern Samail and Sikki or modern Saiq. On the coast, the information is just as ground breaking: Chorsakan, north of Muscat is the modern city of Khor Fakkan, an important deep water port and now part of the Emirate of Sharjah in the U.A.E; Kuriat is the town of Qurayyat and Sohar is still called by that name and is the supposed birthplace of the fictional Sinbad the Sailor. With such an abundance of accurate geographical detail this was not only the first European map of Oman, it remained the best until Wellsted’s survey published in 1837.
[MEAST4827]
