Sir Richard Francis Burton

1821-1890

British Explorer and Scholar

An adventurer with a gift for languages, Sir Richard Francis Burton was the first European to reach many of the once forbidden areas of the world, including many ancient Muslim cities, as well as Lake Tanganyika during his quest for the source of the Nile River. He wrote extensively of his travels, publishing 43 volumes and providing invaluable insight into the religion, lives, and customs of the people with whom he came in contact. In addition, he translated many texts of the East for Westerners, including the Kama Sutra and the definitive translation of Arabian Nights.

Born to a retired officer of the British army and his wealthy British wife, Burton was the oldest of three children. He and his brother and sister grew up in England, France, and Italy. By all accounts an unruly child, Burton nevertheless showed promise in his studies, including a great gift for languages. When he arrived at Trinity College, Oxford, in 1840, he was already fluent in Greek, Latin, Italian, and French. (He would eventually master 40 languages and dialects.)

He was expelled only two years later, however, due to disciplinary problems. He decided to join the English army, and Burton became an officer during Britain's campaigns in Afghanistan and what is now Pakistan. Having now mastered the Arabic and Hindi languages, he became an accomplished and valuable spy.

After his army service, Burton began his exploration of ancient Muslim cities. In 1853, disguised as an Afghanistani Muslim, he visited Cairo, Egypt, and the holy cities of Islam, Mecca, and Medina in Saudi Arabia. Though not the first non-Muslim to visit Mecca, the birthplace of the prophet Mohammed, Burton provided the most insightful and comprehensive information to date about the place and its people in his book, Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Mecca. In 1854, he led an expedition to Harar in what is now Ethiopia, and became the first European to enter that city. He wrote of this adventure in First Footsteps in East Africa.

Harar was Burton's first step toward his journey to find the source of the Nile, specifically the White Nile, which joins the Blue Nile to form the Nile River. British army officers, including John Hanning Speke (1827-1864), accompanied Burton in 1855, but their expedition was cut short by an attack by Somali natives, who seriously injured Burton and Speke. After returning to England to recover, Burton and Speke began a new expedition in East Africa in 1857. Both near death, they saw Lake Tanganyika on the border of what is now Zaire and Tanzania, the first Europeans ever to do so. Burton believed he had found the White Nile's source, but Speke pushed on, discovering Lake Victoria and claiming it as the source. Burton and Speke remained at odds over their discoveries, though Lake Victoria was eventually proven to be the true source of the White Nile.

In 1861, Burton married Isabel Arundell and began his career with the British Foreign Office, which included assignments in Brazil, Syria, and Italy. These posts allowed him time to continue his writing and his translations, including the erotic literature of the East, with which he became increasingly fascinated. He was determined to expose his repressed and conservative Victorian society to the views of these works, and to advocate the sexual liberation of women, as well as men. His controversial work continued with his translation of the Eastern sexual manual, the Kama Sutra, and culminated in the 16-volume translation of Arabian Nights, a collection of Persian-Indian-Arabian stories (including "Sinbad the Sailor"), which he annotated with essays and footnotes regarding customs and sexual practices.

Due to society's view of her husband's scandalous work, Burton's wife burned most of his diaries and journals after he died, attempting to protect her husband's reputation and place in history.

JIM MARION