Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah, Volume 1Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts, 1857 - 422 pages Richard Francis Burton (1821-90) was a British orientalist, soldier, spy, diplomat, and explorer best known for his travels in Arabia, Africa, and India. He was born in Torquay, on the southern coast of England, and was raised in France and Italy. It was there that he began to show his exceptional talent with languages by learning Latin, Greek, Italian, and French before he was 20. After two years at Oxford, he was dismissed on disciplinary grounds. He went on to join the British Army in India, where he served as an intelligence officer. Disguised as a Pashtun Muslim and supported by the Royal Geographical Society, in 1853 Burton undertook a hajj journey to the two Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina. His two-volume Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to el Medinah and Meccah recounts that journey. Burton spent years in preparation, mostly during his time in India. The journey first took him from England to Alexandria in Egypt, and further to Cairo, Suez, and Yanbu. From there he travelled to Medina and Mecca. Although Burton was not the first non-Muslim to perform the hajj, the accuracy of his well-documented account, including his measurements of the Kaaba in Mecca and his Victorian-era observations on Muslims (especially his copious notes on manners), brought him immediate fame. Burton begins the first volume of his work with a famed line of verse on cavalierism by the Arab poet al-Mutanabbi (915-65 AD): "I am well known to the night, the steeds, and the desert / the sword and [the guest], the paper and the pen." A controversial figure during his lifetime and a prolific writer and translator, Burton left behind 43 volumes of writing on his journeys and 30 volumes of translations, including of sensual books such the Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana, The Perfumed Garden of the Cheikh Nefzaoui, and the Arabian Nights. He died in Trieste, in what was then Austria-Hungary. |
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Common terms and phrases
Afghan Albanian Alexandria Allah amongst appear Arab Arabia Azhar Bedouins believe blessings boy Mohammed building Cairo Caliph called camels caravanserai celebrated civilised coffee companions consul Dervish desert door dragoman drink dromedary East Eastern Effendi Egypt Egyptian El Medinah El-Islam European eyes face Fatihah gate ground Haji Wali Hajj hand Haram Hejaz holy honor hour Hujrah Indian Islam Jeddah Kaabah Koran Kuba land learned look Maghrabis Meccah Medinah Mihrab minaret Mohammed's Moslem Mosque native never night Nile Ohod Oriental Pacha party passed Persian piastres pilgrimage pilgrims pipe pray prayer present Prophet Ramazan recited religious Riwak Saad servant Shaykh Shaykh Hamid Sindh slave smoking stone stranger Suez Sultan thee thou tion tomb town traveller tribe Turkish Turks Umar usual Wahhabis wall whilst word Yambu Ziyarat
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Page 55 - But afterwards let him take bees-honey and cinnamon and album graecum, of each half a part, and of ginger a whole part, which let him pound and mix with the honey, and form boluses, each bolus the weight of a Miskal, and of it let him use every day a Miskal on the saliva.
Page 203 - The wind, reverberated by the glowing hills, is like the blast of a lime-kiln. All colour melts away with the canescence from above. The sky is a dead milk-white, and the mirror-like sea so reflects the tint that you can scarcely distinguish the line of the horizon. After noon the wind sleeps upon the reeking shore ; there is a deep stillness ; the only sound heard is the melancholy flapping of the sail. Men are not so much sleeping as half senseless : they feel as if a few more degrees of heat would...
Page 417 - This preservation photocopy was made at BookLab. Inc. in compliance with copyright law. The paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper) The borrower must return this item on or before the last date stamped below.
Page 9 - Leben ; where niggard earth commands ceaseless sweat of face, and damp chill air demands perpetual excitement, exercise, or change, or adventure, or dissipation, for want of something better. In the East, man wants but rest and shade : upon the banks of a bubbling stream, or under the cool shelter of a perfumed tree, he is perfectly happy, smoking a pipe, or sipping a cup of coffee, or drinking a glass of sherbet, but above all things deranging body and mind as little as possible; the trouble of...
Page 145 - Around lie drifted sand-heaps upon which each puff of wind leaves its trace in solid waves, flayed rocks, the very skeletons of mountains, and hard, unbroken plains, over which he who rides is spurred by the idea that the bursting of a waterskin or the pricking of a camel's hoof would be a certain death of torture — a haggard land, infested with wild beasts and wilder men — a region whose very fountains murmur the warning words, "Drink and away!
Page 298 - Garden" is the most elaborate part of the Mosque. Little can be said in its praise by day, when it bears the same relation to a secondrate church in Rome as an English chapel-of-ease to Westminster Abbey. It is a space of about eighty feet in length, tawdrily decorated so as to resemble a garden. The carpets are flowered, and the pediments of the columns are cased with bright green tiles, and adorned to the height of a man with gaudy and unnatural vegetation in arabesque. It is disfigured by handsome...
Page 14 - No character in the Moslem world is so proper for disguise as that of the Dervish. It is assumed by all ranks, ages, and creeds ; by the nobleman who has been disgraced at court, and by the peasant who is too idle to till tho ground ; by Dives, who is weary of life, and by Lazarus, who begs bread from door to door.
Page 20 - ... the breath of life in an eternal atmosphere of clay, dust, and sun-blaze. The first person I addressed was a Kawwas or police officer, who, coiled comfortably up in a bit of shade fitting his person like a robe, was in full enjoyment of the Asiatic " Kaif. " Having presented the consular certificate and briefly stated the nature of my business, I ventured to inquire what was the right course to pursue for a visa". They have little respect for Dervishes, it appears, at Alexandria! "M'adri" (Don't...
Page 304 - Thee (alone) do we worship, and of Thee (alone) do we ask Aid. "Guide us to the Path that is straight "The Path of those for whom thy Love is great, not those on whom is Hate, nor they that deviate. "Amen!
Page 145 - Above, through a sky terrible in its stainless beauty, and the splendors of a pitiless blinding glare, the Simoom caresses you like a lion with flaming breath. Around lie drifted sand heaps, upon which each puff of wind leaves its...