The lecture will concentrate on two Scandinavians in Egypt between 1750 and 1850, the Swedish botanist Fredrik Hasselqvist and the Finnish Orientalist Georg August Wallin, and their experiences in Cairo. They proved particularly perceptive in their observations of the procession of the mahmal, the huge litter carried by a camel, which marked the beginning of the hajj and the pilgrimage to Mecca. How did they interpret it? What were their sources of information? How valid were their assessments?  And what were their other experiences of the Islamic world?

Alastair Hamilton, Fellow of the British Academy and former Professor of the History  of  the Radical Reformation at the University of Amsterdam and the Dr C.Louise Thijssen-Schoute Professor of the History of Ideas at the University of Leiden, has been connected with the Warburg Institute, University of London, since 2003, first as the  Arcadian Visiting Resarch Professor, then as Senior Research Fellow and now as Honorary Fellow. He has held the chair of Coptic Studies at the American University in Cairo and has published extensively on relations between Europe and the Arab world.