BY THE LATE
JOHN LEWIS BURCKHARDT
PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR PROMOTING
THE DISCOVERY OF THE INTERIOR OF AFRICA
LONDON : HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, 1829.
[p.v] PREFACE OF THE EDITOR.
SOME years have now elapsed since two distinct portions of Burckhardt's
works (his Travels in Nubia and Syria) were offered to the public, and
most favourably received; their success being insured not only by
instrinsic merit, but by the celebrity of their editor as a scholar and
antiquary, a traveller and a geographer. It must not however be
inferred, from any delay in publishing the present volume, that its
contents are less worthy of notice than those parts which have already
proved so interesting and instructive to a multitude of readers. It was
always intended that this Journal, and other writings of the same
lamented author, should issue successively from the press: "There still
remain," says Colonel Leake, in his Preface to the Syrian Journal (p.
ii.) "manuscripts sufficient to fill two volumes: one of these will
consist of his Travels in Arabia, which were confined to the Hedjaz or
Holy Land of the Muselmans, the part least accessible to Christians; the
fourth volume will contain very copious remarks on the Arabs of the
Desert, and particularly the Wahabys."
[p.vi] Respecting the portion now before the reader, Colonel Leake, in
another place, expresses a highly flattering opinion. "Burckhardt," says
he, "transmitted to the Association the most accurate and complete
account of the Hedjaz, including the cities of Mekka and Medina, which
has ever been received in Europe.
