A Secret Pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina

First issued in the 1850s as Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah, this travel book records Richard Burton's journey to the Islamic holy cities while disguised as a Muslim pilgrim under the name Hajji Abdullah. He travels from Egypt through the Red Sea and the Hejaz to Medina and then to Mecca, describing caravans, lodgings, the rites of the hajj, and the constant risk of discovery. The narrative mixes topography, ethnography, and the practical details of language, dress, and ritual needed to pass among pilgrims. It is a first-person account of a forbidden itinerary, not a theological treatise.

Bound in light brown buckram, blocked with a black design by David Eccles. Black slipcase.