Jump to content

Richard Francis Burton

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821–1890) was a famous English explorer, writer, translator, ethnologist, spy and soldier.[1]

Portrait of Sir Richard Francis Burton

He traveled a lot in Asia, Africa and the Americas.[2] As a spy for the British government, he was also among the very few Western Christian people who secretly managed to visit the Islamic holy city of Mecca, in Arabia, at the time of the Hajj[3]

He is also famous for his English language translation of the Arabic book, One Thousand and One Nights (also called The Arabian Nights).

References

[change | change source]
  1. Lovell, MS 'A Rage to Live:A Biography of Richard and Isabel Burton' New York, 1999
  2. Lovell
  3. Rice, E 'Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton: The Secret Agent' New York, 1990