Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah (Easton Press Deluxe Limited Edition)

A$1,000 · Offered by Harry Hartog Rare Books

Limited edition

BURTON, Sir Richard Francis. Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah. Norwalk, Connecticut: The Easton Press, 2014. 2 vols. Large Octavo. Full brown leather. Spines with raised bands, profusely gilt-decorated. Cloth slipcase with gilt illustrations. All edges gilt. Silk moiré endpapers. Satin ribbon page markers. Illustrated throughout. Deluxe limited edition. Limited to 400 numbered sets, this being number 57. In the spring of 1853, a man presenting himself as Mirza Abdullah — an Afghan Muslim doctor and dervish — joined the pilgrim caravan assembling in Cairo for the Hajj to Mecca and Medina. He was fluent in Arabic, Persian, Hindustani, and half a dozen other languages. He had been circumcised and tattooed. He had spent months learning the precise forms of Islamic prayer, the customs of the road, and the protocols of the holy cities. He carried surgical instruments and used them. He kept meticulous notes, concealed in a hollowed walking staff. He was, in fact, Captain Richard Francis Burton of the East India Company's Bombay Infantry, and the notes he carried were among the most closely observed records of the Islamic world ever compiled by a European. The penalty for discovery, in a city that barred non-Muslims on pain of death, was understood by all parties. Burton not only reached Medina and Mecca; he entered the Kaaba itself and participated in the full rites of the Hajj, becoming one of the very few non-Muslims ever to have done so and returned to record the experience. P

• Binding: Hardcover

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