Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah, vol 1 | Page 5

Pitts, or of the wild journal of Giovanni Finati.
Such extracts have been now made from these writers that the general
reader can become acquainted with the adventures and opinions of the
different travellers who have visited El Hejaz during a space of 350
years. Thus, with the second volume of Burckhardt's Travels in Arabia,
the geographer, curious concerning this portion of the Moslem's Holy
Land, possesses all that has as yet been written upon the subject.
The editor, to whom the author in his absence has intrusted his work,
had hoped to have completed it by the simultaneous publication of the
third volume, containing the pilgrimage to Meccah. The delay, however,
in the arrival from India of this portion of the MS. has been such as to
induce him at once to publish El Misr and El Medinah. The concluding
volume on Meccah is now in the hands of the publisher, and will
appear in the Autumn of the present year. Meanwhile the Public will
not lose sight of the subject of Arabia. Part of El Hejaz has lately been
inspected by M. Charles Didier, an eminent name in French literature,
and by the Abbe Hamilton,-persuaded, it is believed, by our author to
[p.xxvii]visit Taif and Wady Laymum. Though entirely unconnected
with the subjects of Meccah and El Medinah, the account of the Sherif's
Court where these gentlemen were received with distinction, and of the
almost unknown regions about Jebel Kora, will doubtless be welcomed
by the Orientalists and Geographers of Europe.
Mr. Burton is already known by his "History of Sindh." And as if to
mark their sense of the spirit of observation and daring evinced by him
when in that country, and still more during his late journeyings in
Arabia and East Africa, the Geographical Society, through their learned
Secretary, Dr. Norton Shaw, have given valuable aid to this work in its
progress through the press, supplying maps where necessary to
complete the illustrations supplied by the author,-who, it will be

perceived, is himself no mean draughtsman.
It was during a residence of many years in India that Mr. Burton had
fitted himself for his late undertaking, by acquiring, through his
peculiar aptitude for such studies, a thorough acquaintance with various
dialects of Arabia and Persia; and, indeed, his Eastern cast of features
(vide Frontispiece, Vol. II.) seemed already to point him out as the very
person of all others best suited for an expedition like that described in
the following pages.
It will be observed that in writing Arabic, Hindoostannee, Persian, or
Turkish words, the author has generally adopted the system proposed
by Sir William Jones and modified by later Orientalists.[FN#5] But
when a word (like Fatihah for Fat-hah) has been "stamped" by general
popular use, the conversational form has been
[p.xxviii]preferred; and the same, too, may be said of the common
corruptions, Cairo, Kadi, &c., which, in any other form, would appear
to us pedantic and ridiculous. Still, in the absence of the author, it must
be expected that some trifling errors and inaccuraci[e]s will have here
and there have crept in. In justice to others and himself, the Editor,
however, feels bound to acknowledge, with much gratitude, that where
such or even greater mistakes have been avoided, it has been mainly
due to the continued kindness of an Eastern scholar of more than
European reputation,-who has assisted in revising the sheets before
finally consigning them to the printer.
Let us hope that the proofs now furnished of untiring energy and
capacity for observation and research by our author, as well as his
ability to bear fatigue and exposure to the most inclement climate, will
induce the Governments of this country and of India to provide him
with men and means (evidently all that is required for the purpose) to
pursue his adventurous and useful career in other countries equally
difficult of access, and, if possible, of still greater interest, than the
Eastern shores of the Red Sea.
THOMAS L. WOLLEY.
Hampton Court Palace,
June, 1855.
[p.xxix] TO COLONEL WILLIAM SYKES, F.R.SOC., M.R.G.SOC.,
M.R.A.SOC.,
AND LORD RECTOR OF THE MARISCHAL COLLEGE,

ABERDEEN.
I DO not parade your name, my dear Colonel, in the van of this volume,
after the manner of that acute tactician who stuck a Koran upon his
lance in order to win a battle. Believe me it is not my object to use your
orthodoxy as a cover to my heresies of sentiment and science, in
politics, political economy and-what not?
But whatever I have done on this occasion,-if I have done any
thing,-has been by the assistance of a host of friends, amongst whom
you were ever the foremost. And the highest privilege I aim at is this
opportunity of publicly acknowledging the multitude of obligations
owed to you and to them. Accept,