Travels in Arabia

In 1809, John Lewis Burckhardt was commissioned by the London-based African Association to seek the source of the Niger River. Disguised as an Arab and in constant danger of discovery and betrayal, he traveled to sites forbidden to Westerners and kept a travel diary rich in ethnographic, cultural, geographic, and political observations. Burckhardt's accounts assisted Sir Richard Burton in his subsequent explorations, and they retain their fascinating historic value. AUTHOR: Swiss explorer and scholar John Lewis Burckhardt (1784 1817) devoted himself to the study of Arabic language and culture, and between 1809 and 1817 explored Syria, the Hijaz, the Levant, and Egypt under the assumed name of Shaikh Ibrahim ibn Abdullah. He was preparing to cross the Sahara when he died in Cairo of dysentery at the age of 32.