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BURTON, Richard F.
Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah.
Publisher: London, Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1855–6
Stock code: 45936
Price: £9,750 Currency Conversion
First Edition. Forbidden to non-Muslims, less than half a dozen Europeans were known to have made the hajj, or pilgrimage, to the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina and lived, and of those only the Swiss explorer J. L. Burckhardt had left a detailed account. Burton made the pilgrimage in complete disguise as a Muslim native of the Middle East, an exploit of linguistic and cultural virtuosity which carried considerable risk. During the several days that Burton spent in Mecca, he performed the associated rites of the pilgrimage such as circumambulating the Kaaba, drinking the Zemzem water and stoning the devil at Mount Arafat. His resulting book surpassed all preceding Western accounts of the holy cities, made him famous and became a classic of travel literature, described by T. E. Lawrence as "a most remarkable work of the highest value."
3 volumes, octavo, original dark blue cloth, title gilt to spines, decoration to the spines and decorative panels to the boards in black, terracotta endpapers. With 15 plates in all, 5 of which are in chromolithographs, including the famous portrait of Burton as "The Pilgrim" mounted as frontispiece to Volume II, 8 single-tint lithographs, an engraved plate of "Bedouin and Wahhabi Heads..." and an engraved plan, together with 2 folding maps and a folding plan. Slight rubbing, spines a little darkened, Volume III slightly mottled on the boards, some discolouration of the endpapers, light marginal browning, occasional foxing to the fore-edge, very slight erosion at the tail edge of the last few leaves of Volume II, but overall a very good set.
