Georg August Wallin

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
G. A. Wallin
)

Georg August Wallin

Georg August Wallin (Yrjö Aukusti Wallin, a.k.a. Abd al-Wali; 24 October 1811 – 23 October 1852)[1] was a Finnish orientalist, explorer and professor remembered for his journeys in the South-west Asia during the 1840s.

The Finnish translators of Wallin's letters state that Wallin has become a kind of "patron saint of Finnish oriental research". Among other things, the

J. L. Burckhardt, because he has been characterized as an Arabian scholar as the first modern explorer to prepare carefully for his mission, with no intention of leaving anything new to be said to his future. Wallin's notes were detailed, but he did not carry other research tools with him.[3]

Kaj Öhrnberg notes in his book that Wallin's international reputation was at its highest right after his research trips. He was the first to collect Bedouin poetry and make observations of Bedouin dialects; his observations of Arabic phonetics remained important until the 20th century; he was the first to delve into the study of spoken Arabic. Today, however, Wallin has become a footnote to textbooks after research has gone past him.[4]

Biography

Wallin was born in the municipality of

Arabic and Persian
, while working as a librarian in the university library.

In 1839 he travelled to St. Petersburg, where he met Sheikh Muhammad 'Ayyad al-Tantawi and learned more about the Middle East. He made his first expedition to the area in 1843.

When Wallin went for his expeditions he portrayed himself as a Muslim and took the name Abd al-Wali in order to get closer to his subjects. Many people believe Wallin converted to

Hietaniemi cemetery
in Helsinki has his Arabic name engraved in Arabic letters. He is buried in a Christian cemetery.

He visited

Jiddah
.

On his second expedition between 1846 and 1848, he visited

Persia
. During this time he may have adopted Islam, although his writings indicate scepticism toward religion.

By 1850 Wallin had returned to Europe, where the Royal Geographical Society published his Notes taken during a Journey through part of Northern Arabia and awarded him a 25 guinea prize in recognition of his ground-breaking research. Wallin completed his doctoral thesis in 1851 and was subsequently appointed Professor of Oriental Literature at the University of Helsinki. He was asked by both the Royal and Russian Geographical Societies to mount another expedition to the Middle East, but he declined, perhaps in part due to failing health.

He wrote that he found European culture oppressive and that he "couldn't adapt [him]self to Europe any more". Wallin died unexpectedly on 23 October 1852,[1] only three years after his return to Finland and a day before his forty-first birthday.

Wallin's collected journey writings were published posthumously in the 1860s, edited by S. G. Elmgren. A complete edition of his writings was published in Swedish (partially in translations) during 2010–2017. An English-language and an Arabic-language translation of this edition are being planned.[6]

Bibliography

Literature

References

  1. ^ a b c Georg August Wallin var vår första wallraffare – Hufvudstadsbladet (in Swedish)
  2. ^ Jussi Aro & Armas Salonen (2000). Georg August Wallin. Teoksessa: G.Å. Wallin. Tutkimusmatkoilla arabien parissa. Otteita matkapäiväkirjasta ja kirjeistä (in Finnish). WSOY. p. 15.
  3. Cambridge University
    Press. p. 11.
  4. ISBN 978-951-1-17124-9
    .
  5. ^ WALLIN, Georg August (1811–1852) – Biografiskt lexikon för Finland (in Swedish)
  6. ^ Hällsten, Annika (15 October 2017). "Georg August Wallin var vår första wallraffare". Hufvudstadsbladet (in Swedish). pp. 36–37.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Georg_August_Wallin&oldid=1219556259"