Endorsements: ""A number of recent books have underlined the importance
of Carsten Niebuhr's travels in the Near East, but no one has brought
Niebuhr, and his scholarship, to life as successfully as does Roger
Guichard in this highly readable book. Guichard accomplishes this by
describing in detail how Niebuhr spent his year (1761-62) in Egypt,
negotiating the suspicions of many Egyptians and ignoring the almost
exclusively biblical interests of his European patrons. Guichard
introduces us to a man who read extensively, measured carefully, and did
not hesitate to seek out local informants and assistants--and who, as a
result, produced travel narratives that enormously enriched his
contemporaries' knowledge of both modern and ancient Egypt. Guichard's
detailed knowledge of Arabic sources, Egyptian geography, and Ottoman
history make it possible for him to offer a convincing assessment of
Niebuhr's perspicacity, accuracy, and antipathy toward Eurocentric
prejudices."" --Suzanne Marchand author of German Orientalism in the Age
of Empire: Religion, Race, and Scholarship