Richard Francis Burton

Sir Richard Francis Burton KCMG FRGS
Burton in 1864
Diplomatic posts
	British consul in Fernando Pó
	British consul in Santos
	British consul in Damascus
	British consul in Trieste
Personal details
Born	(1821-03-19)19 March 1821 Torquay, Devon, England
Died	20 October 1890(1890-10-20) (aged 69) Trieste, Austria-Hungary
Spouse	Isabel Arundell ​ (m. 1861)​
Alma mater	Trinity College, Oxford (1840–1842)
Signature
Nickname	Ruffian Dick
Military service
Allegiance	British Empire
Branch/service	Bombay Army
Years of service	1842–1861
Rank	Captain
Battles/wars	Crimean War
Awards	Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George and Crimea Medal
Writing career
Pen name	Mirza Abdullah the Bushri Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî Frank Baker
Notable works	Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al Madinah and Meccah The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night The Kasidah

Sir Richard Francis Burton KCMG FRGS (/ˈbɜːrtən/; 19 March 1821 – 20 October 1890) was a British explorer, writer, orientalist scholar,^[1] and soldier. He was famed for his travels and explorations in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, as well as his extraordinary knowledge of languages and cultures. According to one count, Burton spoke 29 languages.^[2]

Burton's best-known achievements include: a well-documented journey to Mecca in disguise, at a time when non-Muslims were forbidden access on pain of death; an unexpurgated translation of One Thousand and One Nights (commonly called The Arabian Nights in English after early translations of Antoine Galland's French version); the publication of the Kama Sutra in English; a translation of The Perfumed Garden, the "Arab Kama Sutra"; and a journey with John Hanning Speke as the first Europeans to visit the Great Lakes of Africa in search of the source of the Nile.

His works and letters extensively criticised colonial policies of the British Empire, even to the detriment of his career. Although he aborted his university studies, he became a prolific and erudite author and wrote numerous books and scholarly articles about subjects including human behaviour, travel, falconry, fencing, sexual practices, and ethnography. A characteristic feature of his books is the copious footnotes and appendices containing remarkable observations and information. William Henry Wilkins wrote: "So far as I can gather from all I have learned, the chief value of Burton’s version of The Scented Garden lay not so much in his translation of the text, though that of course was admirably done, as in the copious notes and explanations which he had gathered together for the purpose of annotating the book. He had made this subject a study of years. For the notes of the book alone he had been collecting material for thirty years, though his actual translation of it only took him eighteen months."^[3]

Burton was a captain in the army of the East India Company, serving in India, and later briefly in the Crimean War. Following this, he was engaged by the Royal Geographical Society to explore the east coast of Africa, where he led an expedition guided by locals and was the first European known to have seen Lake Tanganyika. In later life, he served as British consul in Fernando Pó (now Bioko, Equatorial Guinea), Santos in Brazil, Damascus (now Syria), and finally in Trieste (now Italy).^[4] He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and was awarded a knighthood in 1886.^[5]