{"product_id":"pilgrimage-to-al-madinah-and-meccah-easton-press-deluxe-limited-edition","title":"Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah (Easton Press Deluxe Limited Edition)","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBURTON, Sir Richard Francis.\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003ePilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah.\u003c\/em\u003e Norwalk, Connecticut: The Easton Press, 2014. 2 vols.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eLarge 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. [Pagination to be confirmed per volume.] Illustrated throughout. \u003cstrong\u003eDeluxe limited edition. Limited to 400 numbered sets, this being number 57.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eIn 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eBurton 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. \u003cem\u003ePersonal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah\u003c\/em\u003e, published in 1855, made him famous almost immediately. It is travel writing of the highest order — precise, analytical, linguistically exuberant, and entirely without the condescension that disfigured most Victorian writing about the Islamic world. Burton's sympathy for the people and the faith he encountered was genuine, and the portrait he drew of the Hajj in the mid-nineteenth century — its physical hardships, its social complexity, the extraordinary range of humanity converging on the same holy city from across the Muslim world — remains one of the indispensable documents of Victorian exploration.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eBurton went on to attempt the sources of the Nile with John Hanning Speke, translate the unexpurgated \u003cem\u003eArabian Nights\u003c\/em\u003e and the \u003cem\u003eKama Sutra\u003c\/em\u003e, and produce some forty volumes of travel, scholarship, and verse. He was knighted in 1886. His wife Isabel burned many of his unpublished manuscripts after his death in 1890, an act of devotion he had not requested and would not have welcomed. The \u003cem\u003ePilgrimage\u003c\/em\u003e survived intact, and it stands as the work that defined his legend.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe Easton Press Deluxe Limited Edition, produced in 2014 in a strictly limited run of just 400 numbered sets and sold out within fifteen months of announcement, presents the complete text in two folio volumes housed in an illustrated cloth slipcase. It is among the more tightly limited productions in the Easton Press catalogue.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFine.\u003c\/strong\u003e Both volumes present as new, free from imperfections. Slipcase shows very minor signs of shelf wear only.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePlease note: This item is large and heavy. Within Australia it may require additional postage costs. For international shipping please contact us for a quote.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThis book is currently not on display in store. If you would like more information or to arrange a viewing, please contact: \u003ca href=\"mailto:rarebooks@harryhartog.com.au\" title=\"Harry Hartog Rare Book Department\"\u003erarebooks@harryhartog.com.au\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCatalogue Number: HH000573\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sir Richard Francis Burton","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48926432755955,"sku":"1110002990984","price":1000.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0634\/4284\/5939\/files\/1.Cover_f0b589eb-4105-4061-bec0-386954b11667.png?v=1778222533","url":"https:\/\/www.harryhartog.com.au\/products\/pilgrimage-to-al-madinah-and-meccah-easton-press-deluxe-limited-edition","provider":"Harry Hartog Bookseller","version":"1.0","type":"link"}