William Francis Ainsworth

William Francis Ainsworth ( born November 5, 1807 in Exeter, † November 27, 1896 in Hammersmith ) was an important explorer of the Middle East.

Life and work

He went to a medical school in Scotland and undertook geological research in the Pyrenees. In 1835 he was a participant in a Euphratexpedition and 1838 a Kleinasien-/Kurdistanexpedition.

Ainsworth earned geographical contributions to the retrieval of several ancient cities. So he found in 1835, for example, the city of Borsippa south of Babylon. On behalf of the London Geographical Society he drew in 1840 for the first time the exact shoreline of the river Halys on. Ainsworth was also one of the first travelers who visited Kurdistan and brought news of the Assyrian Christians ( Nestorians or Chaldeans ) to Europe.

Ainsworth's work was recognized with geographers and anthropologists of his time. By Carl Ritter, Heinrich Kiepert or Hermann Johann Christian Weissenborn he was quoted several times.

Publications

  • An account of the caves of Ballybunian. Dublin 1834
  • Researches in Assyria, Babylonia, and Chaldea. London 1838
  • Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Chaldea, and Armenia. 2 vols, London 1842
  • The Claims Of The Christian Aborigines Of The Turkish Or Osmanli Empire: Upon Civilized Nations. London 1843
  • Travels in the track of the ten thousand Greeks. London 1844
  • A Personal Narrative of the Euphrates Expedition. 2 volumes, 1888

Together with his cousin William Harrison Ainsworth, he edited The New Monthly Magazine.

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