A man of sturdy temperament, silver tongue, and swarthy countenance, Richard Francis Burton—born in Torquay in 1821—was better equipped than most Englishmen for undercover travel in Arabia. Laid low for a time in Karachi in 1848 by trouble with his eyesight, Burton began shaping a plan for a feat never yet achieved: to enter Mecca not merely as a European infidel but as a pilgrim indistinguishable from the rest.
Against the perils of the journey, and the risk of execution if unmasked, Burton could set his talent for disguise and his gift for languages. An Arabist since his Oxford days, he now spoke Hindustani, Gujarati, Marathi, Persian, Sindhi, and more. He was also drawn to Islam and eager to study it more deeply. “The more he thought of it,” writes his biographer, Mary S. Lovell, “the more the notion took shape as a credible project.”
