Editing Richard Francis Burton (section)

===Diplomatic service and scholarship (1861–1890)===
[[File:Edwards Richard Burton 1864 slnsw.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Captain Richard Burton, 1864]]
[[File:Richard-Francis-Burton-by-Lock-&-Whitfield,-1876.png|thumb|Burton in 1876]]

On 22 January 1861, Burton and Isabel Arundel married in a quiet Catholic ceremony, although he did not adopt the Catholic faith at this time. Shortly after this, the couple were forced to spend some time apart when he formally entered the [[Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service|Diplomatic Service]] as [[consul (representative)|consul]] on the island of Fernando Po, now [[Bioko]] in Equatorial Guinea. This was not a prestigious appointment; because the climate was considered extremely unhealthy for Europeans, Isabel could not accompany him. Burton spent much of this time exploring the coast of West Africa, documenting his findings in ''Abeokuta and The [[Cameroon mountains|Cameroons Mountains]]: An Exploration'' (1863), and ''A Mission to [[Gelele]], King of [[Dahomey|Dahome]]'' (1864). He described some of his experiences, including a trip up the [[Congo River]] to the [[Yellala Falls]] and beyond, in his 1876 book ''Two trips to gorilla land and the cataracts of the Congo''.<ref>Richard Francis Burton, ''Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo'', 2 vols. (London: Sampson Low, Marston, Low & Searle, 1876).</ref><ref name=er/>{{rp|349–381,492–493}}

The couple were reunited in 1865 when Burton was transferred to [[Santos (São Paulo)|Santos]] in Brazil. Once there, Burton travelled through Brazil's central highlands, canoeing down the [[São Francisco River]] from its source to the falls of [[Paulo Afonso]].<ref>Wright (1906), [https://web.archive.org/web/20080820044340/http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/b/burton/richard/b97zw/chapter13.html#section54 vol. 1, p. 200] .</ref> He documented his experiences in ''The Highlands of Brazil'' (1869).<ref name=er/>{{rp|387=395,492}} In 1868 and 1869, he made two visits to the war zone of the [[Paraguayan War]], which he described in his [[Siege of Humaitá#Further reading: open access links|''Letters from the Battlefields of Paraguay'']] (1870).<ref>''Letters from the Battlefields of Paraguay'', the Preface.</ref> In 1868, he was appointed as the British consul in [[Damascus]], an ideal post for someone with Burton's knowledge of the region and customs.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=23447 |date=4 December 1868 |page=6460}}</ref> According to [[Ed Rice]], "England wanted to know what was going on in the [[Levant]]," another chapter in [[The Great Game]]. Yet, the Turkish governor Mohammed Rashid 'Ali Pasha feared anti-Turkish activities, and was opposed to Burton's assignment.<ref name=er/>{{rp|395–399,402,409}}

In Damascus, Burton made friends with [[Abdelkader al-Jazairi]], while Isabel befriended [[Jane Digby]], calling her "my most intimate friend." Burton also met [[Charles F. Tyrwhitt-Drake]] and [[Edward Henry Palmer]], collaborating with Drake in writing ''Unexplored Syria'' (1872).<ref name=er/>{{rp|402–410,492}} However, the area was in some turmoil at the time, with considerable tensions between the Christian, Jewish and Muslim populations. Burton did his best to keep the peace and resolve the situation, but this sometimes led him into trouble. On one occasion, he claims to have escaped an attack by hundreds of armed horsemen and camel riders sent by Mohammed Rashid Pasha, the Governor of Syria. He wrote, "I have never been so flattered in my life than to think it would take three hundred men to kill me."<ref>[[#Burton1893|Burton (1893)]], Vol. 1, p. 517.</ref> Burton eventually suffered the enmity of the Greek Christian and Jewish communities.  Then, his involvement with the [[Shadhilis|Sházlis]], a Sufi Muslim order among whom was a group that Burton called "Secret Christians longing for baptism", which Isabel called "his ruin."  He was recalled in August 1871, prompting him to send a telegram to Isabel: "I am recalled. Pay, pack, and follow at convenience."<ref name=er/>{{rp|412–415}}

Burton was reassigned in 1872 to the port city of [[Trieste]] in [[Austria-Hungary]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=23889 |date=20 September 1872 |page=4075}} {{dead link|date=April 2018}}</ref> A "broken man", Burton was never particularly content with this post, but it required little work, was far less dangerous than Damascus (as well as less exciting), and allowed him the freedom to write and travel.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gsT9iVjjPvAC&q=superseded+pay+pack+&pg=PT43|title=The Life of Sir Richard Burton|first=Thomas|last=Wright|date=1 January 1906|publisher=Library of Alexandria|via=Google Books|isbn=9781465550132}}</ref> In 1863, Burton co-founded the [[Anthropological Society of London]] with Dr. [[James Hunt (speech therapist)|James Hunt]]. In Burton's own words, the main aim of the society (through the publication of the periodical ''Anthropologia'') was "to supply travellers with an organ that would rescue their observations from the outer darkness of manuscript and print their curious information on social and sexual matters". On 13 February 1886, Burton was appointed a Knight Commander of the [[Order of St Michael and St George]] (KCMG) by [[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Queen Victoria]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=25559 |date=16 February 1886 |page=743}}</ref>

He wrote a number of travel books in this period that were not particularly well received. His best-known contributions to literature were those considered risqué or even pornographic at the time, which were published under the auspices of the Kama Shastra society. These books include ''The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana'' (1883) (popularly known as the [[Kama Sutra]]), ''[[The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night]]'' (1885) (popularly known as [[The Book of One Thousand and One Nights|The Arabian Nights]]), ''[[The Perfumed Garden]] of the Shaykh Nefzawi'' (1886) and ''The Supplemental Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night'' (seventeen volumes 1886–98). Published in this period but composed on his return journey from Mecca, ''[[The Kasidah]]''<ref name="Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî' 1870"/> has been cited as evidence of Burton's status as a Bektashi [[Sufi]]. Deliberately presented by Burton as a translation, the poem and his notes and commentary on it contain layers of Sufic meaning that seem to have been designed to project Sufi teaching in the West.<ref>''The Sufis'' by [[Idries Shah]] (1964) p. 249ff</ref> ''"Do what thy manhood bids thee do/ from none but self expect applause;/ He noblest lives and noblest dies/ who makes and keeps his self-made laws"'' is ''The Kasidah'''s most-quoted passage. As well as references to many themes from Classical Western myths, the poem contains many laments that are accented with fleeting [[imagery]] such as repeated comparisons to ''"the tinkling of the Camel bell"'' that becomes inaudible as the animal vanishes in the darkness of the desert.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Kasidah of Haji Abdu El-Yezdi |date=1880 |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6036/6036-h/6036-h.htm}}</ref>

Other works of note include a collection of Hindu tales, [[Baital Pachisi|''Vikram and the Vampire'']] (1870); and his uncompleted history of [[swordsmanship]], ''The Book of the Sword'' (1884). He also translated ''[[The Lusiads]]'', the Portuguese national epic by [[Luís de Camões]], in 1880 and, the next year, wrote a sympathetic biography of the poet and adventurer. The book ''The Jew, the Gipsy and el Islam'' was published posthumously in 1898 and was controversial for its criticism of Jews and for its assertion of the existence of [[Blood libel against Jews|Jewish human sacrifices]]. Burton's investigations into this had [[Damascus affair|provoked hostility from the Jews of Damascus]]. The manuscript of the book included an appendix discussing the topic in more detail, but by the decision of his widow, it was not included in the book when published.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Paxman|first=Jeremy|date=2015-05-01|title=Richard Burton, Victorian explorer|url=https://www.ft.com/content/357140e4-eeaf-11e4-a5cd-00144feab7de |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/357140e4-eeaf-11e4-a5cd-00144feab7de |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-access=subscription|access-date=2021-02-12|website=www.ft.com|language=en-GB}}</ref>