Improbable Women: Five Who Explored the Middle East

12. Creating a Dream

129 12 Creating a Dream Six feet tall; broad chest and erect posture of a soldier; the swarthy face of a gypsy with a deep scar on the left cheekbone, souvenir of an unfriendly African spear; thick, drooping black moustache; and a fierce, hawklike gaze that was intended to intimidate and held more than a hint of the violence of which its owner was capable—this picture partly describes Richard Francis Burton at age thirty-three, when he was already a widely known and celebrated explorer. A more complete description would note that he was a scholar with six books to his credit; a linguist fluent in Arabic, Hindustani, Gujarati, Marathi, Sindhi, Punjabi, and Persian as the first of the twenty-nine languages he would eventually master; a dervish and Sufi master; and an expert swordsman. If even more complete, it would describe Burton as an amateur anthropologist with a lifelong interest in the sexual behavior and misbehavior of mankind along with a corresponding compulsion to record what he learned with clear and convincing detail, and it would describe him as a man unafraid to express his opinion, even when it concerned English women’s need for sexual emancipation. When Burton arrived in Bombay, Jane Digby’s ex-husband Lord Ellenborough had become governor-general of India, though that would have meant little to a fresh subaltern whose father had been a colonel but whose family was not among the nobility. Burton was assigned to the 18th Bombay Native Infantry stationed at Baroda in Gugarat. While most of the British officers spent their time in the regimental compound with tablecloths and silver in the regimental mess, and 130 • Isabel Arundell Burton cheroots and whist after dinner, Burton found his way into the maze of streets, shops, bazaars, and tenements of the local community. As did his fellow officers, Burton took a native “wife,” or bubu, in an arrangement prearranged to terminate when he left India. The relationship was not intended to produce children, but a family in India today carries the surname Burton and claims to be descended from a “sir,” an officer in Baroda. Burton was an enthusiastic participant in the practice and had relationships with a number of women during his stay on the subcontinent. Apart from the sexual services inherent in the arrangement, the bubu became a tutor in both the native culture and language, or a “walking dictionary,” as Burton described his bubu. Within two years of his arrival, having mastered several languages , Burton began undertaking undercover assignments. With the combination of his natural appearance, his language skills, and his knowledge, he was able to pass for a laborer, a trader, or, what was apparently his favorite, a dervish. These assignments freed him from the boredom of garrison life for long stretches of time. The downside was that it was extremely risky. While there is some disagreement among writers, it appears that Burton had genuinely accepted Islam, including a painful adult circumcision; his life depended on isolated and suspicious Muslims believing that his behavior was not a pretense .1 These assignments continued throughout Burton’s service in India, and during that time he conceived what was to be his most daring exploit. Mec c a and Medina are the first and second most holy cities in Islam (the third is Jerusalem). The sacred cities are closed to nonMuslims , but to Muslims they are the goal of a pilgrimage, the haj, which should be taken at least once in a lifetime, if health and finances permit. Other Europeans had been to Mecca before Burton and one, in particular, he admired greatly. Johann Ludwig Burckhardt , the Swiss whom Hester Stanhope had disdained because of his disguise, was an explorer, adventurer, and scholar of the same stature as Burton. Burckhardt made the haj in 1815 and returned Creating a Dream • 131 later to spend three months in Mecca observing and recording his observations. Because he would not be the first to accomplish the feat, one might wonder why Burton wanted to make the journey at all. The answer is simple; Richard Burton was a Muslim and he wanted to accomplish one of the “Five Pillars of Islam.” The next question as to why he chose to make the trip in disguise and thus at great risk is, like the man himself, somewhat more complicated. Burton could have made the haj as an Englishman who had converted to...