Travels In Arabia

Travels In Arabia

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Burckhardt #3 in our series by John Lewis Burckhardt
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Title: Travels In Arabia An Account Of Those Territories In Hedjaz
Which The Mohammedans Regard As Sacred
Author: John Lewis Burckhardt
Release Date: December, 2005 [EBook #9457] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on October 2,
2003]

Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRAVELS
IN ARABIA ***

Produced by William Thierens

[p.iii] TRAVELS IN ARABIA
COMPREHENDING
AN ACCOUNT OF THOSE TERRITORIES IN HEDJAZ WHICH
THE MOHAMMEDANS REGARD AS SACRED.
BY THE LATE
JOHN LEWIS BURCKHARDT
PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR
PROMOTING THE DISCOVERY OF THE INTERIOR OF AFRICA
LONDON : HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
1829.

[p.v] PREFACE OF THE EDITOR.
SOME years have now elapsed since two distinct portions of
Burckhardt’s works (his Travels in Nubia and Syria) were offered to
the public, and most favourably received; their success being insured
not only by instrinsic merit, but by the celebrity of their editor as a
scholar and antiquary, a traveller and a geographer. It must not however
be inferred, from any delay in publishing the present volume, that its
contents are less worthy of notice than those parts which have already
proved so interesting and instructive to a multitude of readers. It was
always intended that this Journal, and other writings of the same
lamented author, should issue successively from the press: “There still
remain,” says Colonel Leake, in his Preface to the Syrian Journal (p. ii.)
“manuscripts sufficient to fill two volumes: one of these will consist of
his Travels in Arabia, which were confined to the Hedjaz or Holy Land

of the Muselmans, the part least accessible to Christians; the fourth
volume will contain very copious remarks on the Arabs of the Desert,
and particularly the Wahabys.”
[p.vi] Respecting the portion now before the reader, Colonel Leake, in
another place, expresses a highly flattering opinion. “Burckhardt,” says
he, “transmitted to the Association the most accurate and complete
account of the Hedjaz, including the cities of Mekka and Medina,
which has ever been received in Europe. His knowledge of the Arabic
language, and of Mohammedan manners, had enabled him to assume
the Muselman character with such success, that he resided at Mekka
during the whole time of the pilgrimage, and passed through the
various ceremonies of the occasion, without the smallest suspicion
having arisen as to his real character.” (See the Life of Burckhardt
prefixed to his Travels in Nubia, p. lvii. 4to. edition, 1819).
Recommended so strongly, the work of a less eminent traveller would
be entitled to our notice: this presents itself with another claim; for the
manuscript Journal was partly corrected and prepared for publication
by the learned editor of Burckhardt’s former writings. But some
important literary occupations prevented Colonel Leake from
superintending the progress of this volume through the press. His plan,
however, has been almost invariably adopted by the actual editor;
particularly in expressing with scrupulous fidelity the author’s
sentiments on all occasions, and in retaining, without any regard to
mere elegance of style or selection of terms, his original language,
wherever an alteration was not absolutely necessary to reconcile with
our system of phraseology and grammatical construction certain
foreign idioms which had crept into his English writings. [It was
thought expedient, from circumstances of typographical convenience
tending to facilitate and expedite the publication of this volume, that
the Arabic characters which in the original manuscript follow
immediately certain words, or appear between the lines or in the margin,
should here be placed together at the end, as an Index, with references
to the pages wherein they occur.]
[p.vii] The map prefixed to this volume might almost appear
superfluous, since the positions of Djidda, Mekka, Medina, Tayf, and
Yembo, the chief places of Hedjaz visited