Author

photo credits: Wikimedia Commons
Sir Richard Francis Burton
British explorer, geographer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, cartographer, ethnologist, spy, linguist, poet, fencer, and diplomat
wd:Q125057
1821
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1890
genre: travel literature
country of citizenship: India, United Kingdom
native language: English
languages spoken, written or signed: English
educated at: Trinity College, Oxford
occupation: translator, explorer, writer, poet, diplomat, soldier, ethnologist, linguist, cartographer, historian, naturalist, zoologist, military personnel, spy, anthropologist, traveler
award received: Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, Founder’s Medal, Grande Médaille d'Or des Explorations, Crimea Medal, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society
Sir Richard Francis Burton (; 19 March 1821 – 20 October 1890) was a British explorer, writer, scholar, and soldier. He was famed for his travels and explorations in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, as well as his extraordinary knowledge of languages and cultures. According to one count, he spoke twenty-nine European, Asian, and African languages.Burton's best-known achievements include: a well-documented journey to Mecca in disguise, at a time when Europeans were forbidden access on pain of death; an unexpurgated translation of One Thousand and One Nights (commonly called The Arabian Nights in English after early translations of Antoine Galland's French version); the publication of the Kama Sutra in English; a translation of The Perfumed Garden, the "Arab Kama Sutra"; and a journey with John Hanning Speke as the first Europeans to visit the Great Lakes of Africa in search of the source of the Nile.
His works and letters extensively criticised colonial policies of the British Empire, even to the detriment of his career. Although he aborted his university studies, he became a prolific and erudite author and wrote numerous books and scholarly articles about subjects including human behaviour, travel, falconry, fencing, sexual practices, and ethnography. A characteristic feature of his books is the copious footnotes and appendices containing remarkable observations and information. William Henry Wilkins wrote: "So far as I can gather from all I have learned, the chief value of Burton’s version of The Scented Garden lay not so much in his translation of the text, though that of course was admirably done, as in the copious notes and explanations which he had gathered together for the purpose of annotating the book. He had made this subject a study of years. For the notes of the book alone he had been collecting material for thirty years, though his actual translation of it only took him eighteen months."Burton was a captain in the army of the East India Company, serving in India, and later briefly in the Crimean War. Following this, he was engaged by the Royal Geographical Society to explore the east coast of Africa, where he led an expedition guided by locals and was the first European known to have seen Lake Tanganyika. In later life, he served as British consul in Fernando Pó (now Bioko, Equatorial Guinea), Santos in Brazil, Damascus (now Syria), and finally in Trieste (now Italy). He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and was awarded a knighthood in 1886.
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Series
0Works
8The Kasidah
long English-language poem by Sir Richard Francis Burton
wd:Q7744002author: Sir Richard Francis Burton
1880
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The City of the Saints
1862 book by Richard Francis Burton
wd:Q19082339author: Sir Richard Francis Burton
1862
Unexplored Syria: Visits to the Libanus, the Tulúl El Safá, the Anti-Libanus, the Northern Libanus, and the 'Aláh
book published in 1872
wd:Q106720878author: Sir Richard Francis Burton, Charles Drake
1872
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The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana
inv:66f0e8b81fc32fdd58f058216d2944c7author: Sir Richard Francis Burton, W.G Archer
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A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome
inv:d61c15616a62648f86464718ba5b04c2author: Sir Richard Francis Burton
Articles
1Ideographic Inscription Found at Aleppo, akin to those of Hamath ( 1873 )
journal article from 'Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement' published in 1873
author: Charles Clermont-Ganneau, Sir Richard Francis Burton