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 describes Burton's preparations in Egypt, Volume 2 his journey to Medina, and Volume 3 his eventual arrival in Mecca and the culminating rituals of the hajj. The book vividly evokes the heat, crowds, noise, excitement and dangers of the pilgrimage."
