Eyewitness Accounts Pilgrimage to Meccah

Richard Francis Burton

• Publisher: Amberley Publishing
• Year: 2015
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9781445644349
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

The journey that made Richard Burton famous as a traveller and explorer in the nineteenth century was a pilgrimage to Mecca, which he carried out disguised as a Pashtun tribesman from what is now north-western Pakistan or Afghanistan. Having spent seven years in India with the army of the East India Company, Burton was familiar with the customs and languages but the journey, travelling from Alexandria in Egypt south to the Red Sea and then from the coast of the Arabian Peninsula, was difficult and his caravan was attacked by bandits. After the conclusion of his journey, Burton briefly served in the Crimean War, was hired by the Royal Geographical Society to explore Africa's east coast and was the first European to see Lake Tanganyika. Later in his life, he would join the Diplomatic Service, serving in Fernando Po, Santos and Trieste among others. This famous account describes a journey forbidden to non-Muslims made by one of the great travellers, adventurers, writers and linguists of the Victorian age.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Editor’s Note
• I - To Alexandria: A Few Words Concerning What Compelled Me to Pilgrimage
• II - I leave Alexandria
• III - The Nile Steam Boat
• IV - The Ramazan
• V - The Mosque
• VI - Preparations To Quit Cairo
• VII - From Cairo To Suez
• VIII - Suez
• IX - The Pilgrim Ship
• X - To Yambu
• XI - The Halt At Yambu
• XII - From Yambu To Bir Abbas
• XIII - From Bir Abbas To El Medinah
• XIV - A Visit To The Prophet’s Tomb
• XV - A Ride To The Mosque Of Kuba
• XVI - The Visitation Of Hamzah’s Tomb
• XVII - A Visit To The Saints’ Cemetery
• XVIII - From El Medinah To El Suwayrkiyah
• XIX - From El Suwayrkiyah To Meccah