Richard Burton

Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890) was a noted soldier, explorer, linguist, ethnologist, and controversialist. He mastered numerous eastern languages, made a pilgrimage to Mecca in disguise, translated The Arabian Nights into English, headed an expedition that discovered Lake Tanganyika in East Africa, and wrote over 80 books (burtonia.org). Unexplored Syria by Burton and Drake was published in 1872.