Richard Francis Burton

Richard Francis Burton was born to an army officer's family and spent much of his childhood traveling in France and Italy.

Burton matriculated at Oxford in 1840 but was rusticated in 1842 for defying college rules, ending his formal education.

Burton took a commission in the Bombay Army, serving in Sindh under Charles Napier and mastering numerous Indian languages.

Disguised as a Pashtun pilgrim, Burton completed the Hajj to Mecca and Medina, one of the first Europeans to document the pilgrimage in detail.

Burton and Speke became the first Europeans recorded to reach Lake Tanganyika during their East African expedition in search of the Nile's source, a journey that ended in a bitter public feud between the two men.

Burton served as British consul successively at Fernando Po, Santos in Brazil, and Damascus, continuing to travel and write prolifically.

Burton married Isabel Arundell, a devout Catholic from an aristocratic English family, who became his lifelong supporter, editor, and biographer.

Burton took up his final consular post in Trieste, where he devoted himself chiefly to writing and translation for the rest of his life.

Burton issued his ten-volume unexpurgated translation of The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, followed by supplemental volumes; he was appointed KCMG in 1886.

Burton died of a heart attack in Trieste; he was buried at Mortlake in London in a tomb shaped like a Bedouin tent designed by his wife.