Georg August Wallin arrived in Cairo in December 1843. His journey had been inspired by the teaching of his Arabic teacher from the Imperial University of St Petersburg, Sheikh Muhammad Sayyad al-Tantawi, and supported by a grant from the Imperial Alexander University of Helsinki. The official purpose of the expedition was to study the various Arabic dialects and learn about Wahhabism, nowadays associated with ultra-conservative Islamic beliefs. But Wallin also had his own reasons for wishing to travel. According to Kaj Öhrnberg, Wallin wished to get away from “European indulgences, vanity and excessively refined manners.” In a spirit of romanticism, he was convinced he would find among the Bedouin tribes of the Arabian peninsula the “noble savage”.

Cairo was the starting point for Wallin’s three desert journeys. To make it easy for him to move freely in Bedouin areas he constructed a new identity for himself - the Egyptian doctor Abd al-Walin. In his guise as Al-Wali he made two journeys to the Arabian and Sinai peninsulas, where he recorded in some detail the languages and cultural practices of the various Bedouin tribes.

Wallin’s first desert journey was to the Bedouin areas of the Arabian peninsula, the Empty Quarter. He was the first European explorer to write down notes recording the details of his experiences. Faced with an acute shortage of money he was forced to return to Cairo ahead of schedule. On the return journey his cover meant he was able to visit Mecca and Medina, holy Islamic cities which at the time were still forbidden to holders of other faiths.

On the second expedition Wallin visited holy sites. His destinations were St Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai peninsula, together with sites in the promised land venerated by the Islamic, Judaic and Christian faiths. The last journey, this time under the assumed name Abd al-Maula, took him once again to the Arab peninsula. But once again he had to change his plans mid-journey: instead of travelling to Oman he made his way to Persia.

Wallin returned to Finland in 1850 and soon after began planning his next expedition. There were setbacks in the arrangements for funding the research trip however. In 1852 he fell ill and after a short interval died. Wallin’s reputation is established first and foremost as an explorer. He was one of the most important western Arabists of his day. In his 1880 account of the explorer’s life and travels, Julius Krohn describes Wallin’s notes and correspondence thus:

“They are the work of a master; in their excellence, these ethnographic observations demonstrate a rare freedom from prejudice, profound reflection and a gift for acute description.”

Sources:

• Kaj Öhrnberg, “Georg August Wallin. An Orientalist Between National and Imperial Orientalism”, in Bertil Tikkanen (ed.), Pūrvāparaprajñābhinandanam. East and West, past and present. Indological and other essays in honour of Klaus Karttunen, Studia Orientalia 110, Helsinki 2011, 309–316.
• Julius Krohn, Yrjö Aukusti Wallin ja hänen matkansa Arabiassa, Porvoo 1880. Gutenberg project. Accessed March 5, 2015. In Finnish.
• Kaj Öhrnberg, ’Wallin, Georg August (1811 - 1852) tutkimusmatkailija, itämaiden kirjallisuuden professori’, National Biography of Finland online. Accessed March 4, 2015. In Finnish.
• Georg August Wallin, Wikipedia. Accessed March 4, 2015. In Finnish.