Editing Richard Francis Burton (section)

===First explorations and journey to Mecca===
[[File:Richardburtonarabicdress.JPG|thumb|Burton disguised as "Haji Abdullah" in 1853 (illustration from Burton's ''Personal Narrative'')]]

Motivated by his love for adventure, Burton gained the approval of the [[Royal Geographical Society]] (RGS) for an exploration of the [[Middle East]], and, now at the rank of captain, received permission from the [[List of East India Company directors|directors]] of the [[East India Company]] (EIC) to take leave from the Bombay Army. The seven years he spent in India gave Burton a familiarity with the customs and behaviour of [[Muslims]] and prepared him to attempt a [[Hajj]] to [[Mecca]] and [[Medina]]. He planned it whilst travelling disguised among Muslims in [[Sindh]], and had laboriously prepared it by studying and practising Muslim culture, including undergoing [[circumcision]] to further lower the risk of being discovered.<ref>{{cite book |author=Seigel, Jerrold |date=2015 |title = Between Cultures: Europe and Its Others in Five Exemplary Lives Intellectual History of the Modern Age | location = Philadelphia, PA | publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fOflCgAAQBAJ | access-date = 15 May 2025 |isbn=9780812247619 | pages = 1-12, 13-264, 247-264, esp. 250 | quote = }}{{Page range too broad|date=May 2025}} Note, the indicated page number, p. 250, and the broad array of possible page numbers for Burton material are not available at this linked source.</ref>{{Page range too broad|date=May 2025}}{{failed verification|date=May 2025}}

Burton's undertaking of the Hajj in 1853 was his realisation of "the plans and hopes of many and many a year... to study thoroughly the inner life of the Moslem."{{cite quote|date=May 2025}} He donned the guise of a Persian [[Mirza (name)|mirza]], and then a [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]] [[sheikh]], doctor, magician and [[dervish]], accompanied by an enslaved Indian boy named Nūr. In April, he travelled through [[Alexandria]] before reaching [[Cairo]] by May, where Burton stayed during [[Ramadan]] in June. He further equipped himself with a case for carrying the Quran, but which instead had three compartments for his watch, compass, money, penknife, pencils and numbered pieces of paper for taking notes.<ref name=:0/>{{verification needed|date=May 2025}} 

Burton travelled onwards with a group of nomads to [[Suez]] before sailing to [[Yambu]] and joining a caravan to Medina, where he arrived on 27 July.  Departing Medina with a caravan on 31 August, Burton entered Mecca on 11 September, where he participated in the [[Kaaba#Tawaf|Tawaf]]. He travelled to [[Mount Arafat]] and participated in the [[stoning of the Devil]], all the while taking notes on the [[Kaaba]], its [[Black Stone]] and the [[Zamzam Well]]. Departing Mecca, he journeyed to [[Jeddah]] and then back to Cairo, returning to Army duty in [[Mumbai|Bombay]]. In India, Burton wrote his ''Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Medinah and Meccah'', writing that "at Mecca there is nothing theatrical, nothing that suggests the opera, but all is simple and impressive... tending, I believe, after its fashion, to good."<ref name=er/>{{rp|179–225}}{{Page range too broad|date=May 2025}}

Although Burton was not the first non-Muslim European to undertake the Hajj, with [[Ludovico di Varthema]] first to do so in 1503,<ref>{{cite web |title=Ludovico di Varthema |author=Leigh, R. |work=Discoverers Web |url=http://www.win.tue.nl/~engels/discovery/varthema.html |access-date=16 June 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120617222339/http://www.win.tue.nl/~engels/discovery/varthema.html|archive-date=17 June 2012}}</ref> and [[Johann Ludwig Burckhardt]] doing so in 1815,{{cn|date=May 2025}} Burton's entry into Mecca is the most famous and the best documented of the period.{{cn|date=May 2025}} He adopted various disguises, including that of a [[Pashtuns|Pashtun]], to account for any oddities in speech,{{cn|date=May 2025}} but he still had to demonstrate an understanding of intricate Islamic traditions and a familiarity with the minutiae of Eastern manners and etiquette.{{cn|date=May 2025}} Burton's trek to Mecca was dangerous, and his caravan was attacked by bandits (a common experience at the time).{{third party inline|date=May 2025}} As he put it, although "...&nbsp;neither [[Quran|Koran]] or [[Sultan]] enjoin the death of Jew or Christian intruding within the columns that note the sanctuary limits, nothing could save a European detected by the populace, or one who after pilgrimage declared himself an unbeliever".<ref>{{cite book |author=Burton, R. |title=Selected Papers on Anthropology, Travel, and Exploration |editor=Penzer, N. M. |place=London |publisher=A. M. Philpot |year=1924}}{{third party inline|date=May 2025}}</ref>{{third party inline|date=May 2025}} The pilgrimage entitled him to the title of [[Hajji]] and to wear the green [[turban]].<ref name=er/>{{rp|179–225}}{{Page range too broad|date=May 2025}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Burton |first=R. F. |year=1855 |title=A Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah |publisher=Tylston and Edwards |location=London |url=https://archive.org/stream/personalnarrati01burt | access-date =  }}{{third party inline|date=May 2025}}</ref>{{third party inline|date=May 2025}}

While back in India, Burton sat for the examination as an Arab linguist for the EIC. The examiner was [[Robert Lambert Playfair]], who mistrusted Burton. As academic [[George Percy Badger]] knew Arabic well, Playfair asked Badger to oversee the exam. Having been told that Burton could be vindictive, and wishing to avoid any animosity should he fail, Badger declined. Eventually, Playfair conducted the tests; despite Burton's success in living like an Arab, Playfair recommended to the committee that Burton be failed. Badger later told Burton that "After looking [Burton's test] over, I sent them back to [Playfair] with a note eulogising your attainments and... remarking on the absurdity of the Bombay Committee being made to judge your proficiency inasmuch as I did not believe that any of them possessed a tithe of the knowledge of Arabic you did."<ref>[[#Lovell|Lovell]], pp. 156–157.</ref>{{verification needed|date=May 2025}}