Peter Forsskål

Peter Forsskål, sometimes spelled Pehr Forsskål, Peter Forskaol, Petrus Forskål or Pehr Forsskåhl, (11 January, 1732 - 11 July 1763) was a Swedish explorer, orientalist and naturalist.

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Early life

Forsskål was born in Helsinki in Finland (then a part of Sweden) where his father, Johannes Forsskål, served as a clergyman at the time, but came to mainland Sweden in 1741 when the father received the parish of Tegelsmora in Uppland (and the archdiocese of Uppsala). As was not uncommon at the time, he enrolled at Uppsala University at a young age in 1742, but returned home for some time and, after studies on his own, rematriculated in Uppsala there in 1751, where he completed a theological degree the same year.

Linnaeus's Disciple

In Uppsala he was one of the students of Linnaeus, but apparently also studied with the orientalist Carl Aurivillius, whose contacts with the Göttingen orientalist Johann David Michaelis are likely to be seen as the reason Forsskål travelled to the University of Göttingen in 1753; he studied Oriental languages and Philosophy and completed a doctorate there with a dissertation entitled Dubia de principiis philosophiae recentioris (1756). Returning to Uppsala in 1756, he wanted to pursue studies in Economics, but his 1759 dissertation De libertate civili ("On civil freedom"), advocating complete freedom of print, was censored by the "Hat" government and caused him to be warned by the Royal Chancellery.

Journey to Yemen and Death

On Michaelis' recommendation, and with Linnaeus's approval, Forsskål the next year (1760) was appointed by king Frederick V of Denmark to join, amongst others, the orientalist and mathematician Carsten Niebuhr on an expedition to Arabia. The journey first went to Egypt where they stayed for about a year, with Forsskål pursuing studies in Arabic dialects, and arrived in South Arabia (Yemen or "Arabia Felix") at the end of December 1762. Forsskål worked hard on collecting botanical and zoological specimens, but fell ill with malaria and died in July 1763.

Legacy

His companion Niebuhr, who was the only one of the participants to survive the expedition, was entrusted with the care of editing his manuscripts, and published in 1775 Descriptiones Animalium - Avium, amphiborum, insectorum, vermium quæ in itinere orientali observavit Petrus Forskål. In the same year appeared also his account of the plants of Yemen and of lower Egypt, under the title of Flora Ægyptiaco-Arabica sive descriptiones plantarum quas per Ægyptum Inferiorem et Arabiam felicem detexit, illustravit Petrus Forskål. Most of his specimens were lost in transport or deteriorated due to bad storage in Copenhagen; his herbarium was reconstructed some 150 years after his death by the botanist Carl Christensen.

• Biography of Forsskål with links to other web sites on him, and includes how he used Arabic names for species names.
• Royal Library in Copenhagen, Dep. of Manuscripts, mainly on Forsskål's contributions to the knowledge of Arabian pharmacognosy

References

• Bengt Hildebrand & Eero Mattinolli, "Peter Forsskål", Svenskt biografiskt lexikon, Vol. 16, pp. 359–362.