Peter Forsskal was born on 11th January 1732 in Helsinki, Finland, and he died on 11th July 1763 (aged 31 years) in Yemen. A naturalist and an orientalist, Peter studied theology and was a disciple of Linnaeus, who was a renowned botanist. Peter published a political paper on Civil Liberty and advocated the complete freedom of print which was controversial for those times. He was appointed to join an expedition to Arabia where they stayed in Egypt for a year. He studied Arabic dialect and arrived in the present day Yemen where he worked hard in collecting numerous botanical and zoological specimens.
Do you know: One of the plant species Peter Forsskal had sent home was named after him because the plant was as stubborn and persistent as the young Forsskal had been.
