Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah

The talented British linguist, ethnologist and explorer Richard F. Burton (1821–90) was one of the first Europeans to visit Mecca and survive to tell the tale. This lively three-volume account, published 1855–6, vividly describes his experiences in 1853, when he travelled there under the disguise of a pilgrim.

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The British explorer Sir Richard F. Burton (1821–90) was a colourful and often controversial character. A talented linguist and keen ethnologist, he worked in India during the 1840s as an interpreter and intelligence officer for General Sir Charles Napier, and published several books about his experiences in 1851–2. He first gained celebrity, however, for his adventurous 1853 trip to Mecca, under the disguise of a pilgrim, which is described in this lively three-volume publication (1855–6). Few Europeans had ever visited the Muslim holy places; one of them was John Lewis Burckhardt, whose 1829 account is also reissued in this series. Volume 1 of Burton's book describes his arrival in Egypt, the weeks he spent in Alexandria and Cairo polishing his linguistic and cultural skills, and how, at the end of Ramadan, he travelled to Suez by camel, and from there by boat to Yanbu al-Bahr.