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G(eorg) A(ugust) Wallin (1811-1852) - Yrjö Aukusti Wallin - alias Abd al-Wali | |
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Finnish explorer,
orientalist,
teacher and professor at the University of Helsinki, best-known for his
journeys in Arabia in the 1840s. G. A. Wallin's adventurous life in the East
inspired the playwright and poet J. J. Wecksell (1838-1907) to wrote a poem about him: På öknens slätter i natten Georg
August Wallin was born in the parish of Sund in Åland,
the son of Johanna and Israel Wallin, a chief accountant and court
scribe. Growing up in the archipelago, Wallin got involved with boats
and sailing since a young age, and developed a love for the sea. When
his father was appointed district accounting officer in Turku and
Pori, the family moved to Turku, and then to Helsinki. Wallin was more
close to his mother and younger sister Natalia than his father. During his years
at the Turku Cathedral School in Wallin was taught several languages
and he also studied languages on his own, acquiring knowledge of Latin,
Greek, French, German, Russian, English, Arabic, Persian and Turkish. Wallin entered the University of Helsinki
in 1829, where he studied oriental languages, and received his M.A. in
1836. He then worked as a librarian at Helsinki University Library and
continued his studies of Arabic and Persian. His teacher was Gabriel
Geitlin, who was seven years his senior and had been appointed in 1835
professor of oriental languages. After making his dissertation about Arabic in 1839, Wallin
spent two years in St. Petersburg. There his teacher was Sheikh
Muhammad Sayyad al-Tantawi (1810-61), whose tales of Egypt and the
Arabs inspired the young scholar. Noteworthy, Wallin was a trained linguist before he started his
journeys. This made him unique among all the explorers in the Arabian
Peninsula during the early decades of the nineteenth century. Moreover,
he carried a doctor's bag, and played the rababa, a one-stringed Bedouin instrument. Getting himself beaten and robbed in Paris in 1842, and
spending several weeks in a hospital, was a secret that Wallin never
told anyone. Between 1843 and 1849 he conducted
expeditions in Egypt, Arabia, Mesopotamia, Palestine, and Persia. It is
believed that Wallin adopted the Islamic faith, although his
writings often reveal more or less skeptic view of religious practices.
"Kairossa, johon hän Aleksandriasta muutti ja jossa vietti koko
seuraavan vuoden 1844 ja talven 1845, erosi hän kokonaan kaikkein
Eurooppalaisten seurasta ja eli yksistänsä Arabialaisten kanssa. Nämät
kaupunkein Arabialaiset eivät kuitenkaan ollenkaan olleet Wallin'in
mieleen. Tosin ihmetytti häntä heidän arvaamattoman suuri oppinsa ja
ulkonainen sivistyksensä, mutta toiselta puolen oli tämän kuoren alla
piilevä tapain turmelus ja halpa mielenlaatu hänelle suurimmaksi
inhoksi." (Yrjö Aukusti Wallin ja hänen matkansa Arabiassa by Julius Krohn, Porvoo: Werner Söderström, 1880) In Cairo Wallin learned to play the Arab flute, spent a lot of time at
coffee houses, ate with bare hands, and wrote to Gabriel Geitlin: "What becomes
of my appearance, and because of my real Arab beard, I am considered
Oriental and Moslem . . ." He often referred to Edward William Lane, the writer of Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, in his diary. Wallin did not live in celibate. Cairo and Paris offered him more opportunities for erotic adventures than Helsinki, which he fully utilized. He also recorded his affairs with Egyptian teenage girls in his writings. In Finland Wallin was labelled more as adventurer than a scholar and his scientific achievements were first ignored. On
his journeys Wallin, who was exceptionally dark for a Finn,
presented himself as Abd al-Wali from Central Asia. He was the first
European to reach al-Jauf and Ha'il. While in Medina, he visited the
tombs of the Prophet Muhammad, the Prophet's daughter Fatima and the
first Caliph, Abu Bakr. With the help of his disguise and
knowledge of Arabic language and culture, Wallin entered on 7 December 1845 Mecca – a forbidden city
for non-Moslems. One of the first Christians to visit the holy place
was Ludovico de Varthema, who published an account of his travels, Itinerario de Ludouico de Varthema Bolognese, in 1510. Wallin did not describe his stay very
thoroughly in his journal; Mecca was dirty, beggars were everywhere. Like any other pilgrim, Wallin performed the rituals of Hajj. "I accomplished without fuss all that was required of me, so that now I am fully entitled to the designation of Hāgg. Apart from the vanity of being able to say that I am one of the three or four Europeans who ventured it, for future trips I dare say I shall have a real advantage from my pilgrimage." ('The terra incognita of Arabia' by Kaj Öhrnberg, in Dolce far niente in Arabia: Georg August Wallin and His Travels in the 1840s, Helsinki (Helsingfors): Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland, 2014, p. 75) Originally Wallin did not plan to see the town but had to go there by force of circumstances. In December 1846 Wallin started his second journey to the pilgrimage sites in the Holy Land. On his last expedition Wallin travelled via Taima and Tabuk to Bagdad and Persia. He did not visit the ruins of Persepolis on his way from Isfahan to Shiraz. Wallin
spent on his expedition over five year. He always slept well under the desert stars. In a letter to his friend,
Professor Gabriel Geitlin he said: "It is rather remarkable that I, an
Insularian, born and raised beside the sea and always devoted to that
element with predilection, here in the Orient have never felt a longing
or a love for it. It is as if here the desert had replaced the sea." (Dolce far niente in Arabia: Georg August Wallin and His Travels in the 1840s, p. 25) On his return journey through Europe Wallin stayed a short time in Cologne. In the evening he went to hear Beethoven's Fidelio; the performance brought tears to his eyes. Wallin came to Helsinki via London, where he published some of his studies. He was awarded with the gold medal of Royal Geographical Society in 1850. His study, Notes Taken During a Journey Through Part of Northern Arabia in 1848, was published next year by the Royal Geographical Society. Wallin was the first scholar to collect Bedouin poetry, his views on Arabic phonetics were highly valued by other researchers. Because Wallin wrote most of his notes and letters in Swedish, his observations were not spread widely in the English speaking world. In 1851 Wallin presented his doctoral thesis, Carmen elegiacum Ibnu-l-Faridi cum commentario Abdu-l-Ghanyi,
and he was appointed
professor of oriental literature. Wallin continued to arrange his
research material. Nevertheless, his voyages to the Arabic lands were over. When
the British and Russian geographical societies asked him to start a two
years' expedition, Wallin rejected the offer because according to his
plans, a new journey would take at least six years. Then there was the fact, that the Royal
Geographical Society offered only £200; Wallin needed £400 at least.
(Eventually the Society financed Sir Richard Francis Burton's
expedition. His account of the journey, Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah, came out in 1855.) Wallin did not like
the idea that he should return through the Central Asia, which the
Russians considered an obligatory part of the project. G. A. Wallin died on October 23, 1852, three years after his return to Finland. Zacharias Topelius wrote in his epitaph: "Gå, vandrare på lifvets väg, / din bana fram med fasta steg / och mät ditt mål — ej dina fjät, / Ej dina faror mät!" ('Georg August Wallin. † 23 October,' inSånger. Första bandet, 1833-1852 af Zacharias Topelius, Stockholm: Albert Bonniers förlag, 1904, p. 254) According to some speculations, Wallin died of syphilis, which was not the official cause of death – it was of heart failure. It is possible, that Wallin contracted syphilis in Paris, or most likely in Cairo. During his journeys Wallin bought 34 books and 19 manuscripts for Helsinki University Library, but they were not catalogued for over a hundred years. Wallin's portrait was painted by R.W. Ekman in 1853. Wallin was among the first Westerners to enter the holy Islamic places and his adventures created similar legend around him as T. E. Lawrence's (Lawrence of Arabia) acquired through activities in Near East. However, Wallin's interest in Arabia was more influenced by 'Drang nach Osten' movement, which romanticized the Bedouin culture, than curiosity about the forbidden towns. He considered European culture oppressive, and this feeling only strengthened during the years he spent in Arabia as an romantic, nomadic adventurer, fulfilling the dreams of exotic escapism. On his return he wrote: "I felt, that couldn't adapt myself to Europe any more" – he was ready to turn back and spend the rest of his life in the Orient. Wallin enjoys great esteem in the Middle East. Many believe that he truly embraced Islam instead of just disguising himself as a Muslim. Wallin's Arabic name "Abdul Wali" is engraved on his tombstone. For further reading: Georg August Wallins resetecknoingar från Orienten åren 1843-1849 by S. G. Elmgren (4 vols., 1864-66); Yrjö Aukusti Wallin ja hänen matkansa Arabiassa by Julius Krohn (1880); Yrjö Aukusti Wallin by Knut Tallqvist (1903); Bref och dagsboksanteckningar af Georg August Wallin, edited by Knut Tallqvist (1905); 'A Forgotten Explorer of Arabia: G. A. Wallin' by M. Trautz, in Journal of the Royal Central Asiatic Society, Vol. 19 (1932); 'G.A. Wallin and the Royal Geographical Society' by W. R. Mead, in Studia Orientalia, Vol. 23 (1958); G.A. Wallin's Notes on Arabia in the 1840s, edited by Kaj Öhrnberg (1981); Anti-Xenophobia, Fighting Discursive Xenophobia with G. A. Wallin's Travel Discourse by Mikko Vehkavaara (1997); Arabian salaperäinen vaeltaja: tutkimusmatkaaja G.A.Wallin by Markku Löytönen & Miisa Waismaa (2000, note: for children); Aavikoiden seikkailija by Raili Mikkanen (2001); Alldeles hemlikt. Georg August Wallins Egypten 1843–1845 by Sofia Häggman (2011); Dolce far niente in Arabia: Georg August Wallin and His Travels in the 1840s by Patricia Berg, Sofia Häggman, Kaj Öhrnberg, Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila (2014) Selected works:
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