first edition in the original blue cloth

First edition in original cloth of Burton's account of his pilgrimage to Mecca.

Burton was the first English Christian to enter Mecca freely as a true Mohammedan pilgrim (travelling in disguise as an Afghan Pathan) and the first European to travel between the Holy Cities by the eastern route. Burton had originally intended to cross the peninsula but was frustrated by fierce fighting among the interior tribes. He spent a month at Medina before going on to Mecca where he performed all the rituals of the Hajj.

First edition; 3 volumes, 8vo (23 x 15 cm); half-title in vol. III, 5 coloured chromolithograph plates, 8 tinted lithograph plates, 1 wood engraved plate, 1 folding map, 3 plans, of which 2 folding, publisher's advertisements at end of vol. I, pastedowns with printed advertisements, contemporary ownership inscriptions to front free endpapers, touch of spotting to frontispieces; publisher's blue cloth with black decorative borders and spines, gilt lettering to spines, neatly rebacked with original spines laid down, a very good set; xiv, [1], 388, 24; iv, 426; x, [1], 448pp.

Abbey (Travel), 368; Casada 53; Howgego IV, B95; Penzer pp.43-50.