The Land of Midian Book

Sir Richard Francis Burton KCMG FRGS (1821-1890) was a British explorer, geographer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, cartographer, ethnologist, spy, linguist, poet, fencer, and diplomat. He was famed for his travels and explorations in Asia, Africa and America, as well as for his extraordinary knowledge of languages (purportedly he spoke 29 European, Asian and African languages) and cultures. His 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); the publication of the Kama Sutra in English; a translation of The Perfumed Garden (the Arab Kama Sutra); and his journey with John Hanning Speke as the first Europeans to visit the Great Lakes of Africa in search of the source of the Nile. The Land of Midian (Revisited), published in two volumes in 1879, describes Burton's second expedition to the region of 1877-78, his earlier expedition having been the subject of The Gold Mines of Midian (1878).