Desert Traveller: The Life Of Jean Louis Burckhardt
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good , price clipped
Markings: No markings
A richly detailed biographical work, Desert Traveller: The Life of Jean Louis Burckhardt chronicles the remarkable and daring life of the Swiss explorer who, in the early nineteenth century, disguised himself as an Arab merchant to penetrate some of the most forbidden corners of the Islamic world. Katharine Sim presents a vivid portrait of a man who rediscovered the lost city of Petra, became one of the first Westerners to visit Mecca and Medina, and mapped vast stretches of the Middle East and North Africa at great personal risk. Written with narrative warmth and scholarly precision, the biography illuminates Burckhardt's extraordinary linguistic gifts, his deep respect for the cultures he encountered, and the relentless curiosity that drove him across scorching deserts and treacherous mountain passes. Sim draws on Burckhardt's own journals and letters to reconstruct a life of adventure, intellectual passion, and quiet heroism that ended far too soon with his death in Cairo at the age of thirty-two. This is an authoritative and deeply human account of one of history's most underappreciated explorers, essential reading for anyone captivated by the golden age of discovery.
Author: Katharine Sim
Format: Hardback
Published: 1969, Victor Gollancz Ltd
Genre: Biography
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good , price clipped
Markings: No markings
A richly detailed biographical work, Desert Traveller: The Life of Jean Louis Burckhardt chronicles the remarkable and daring life of the Swiss explorer who, in the early nineteenth century, disguised himself as an Arab merchant to penetrate some of the most forbidden corners of the Islamic world. Katharine Sim presents a vivid portrait of a man who rediscovered the lost city of Petra, became one of the first Westerners to visit Mecca and Medina, and mapped vast stretches of the Middle East and North Africa at great personal risk. Written with narrative warmth and scholarly precision, the biography illuminates Burckhardt's extraordinary linguistic gifts, his deep respect for the cultures he encountered, and the relentless curiosity that drove him across scorching deserts and treacherous mountain passes. Sim draws on Burckhardt's own journals and letters to reconstruct a life of adventure, intellectual passion, and quiet heroism that ended far too soon with his death in Cairo at the age of thirty-two. This is an authoritative and deeply human account of one of history's most underappreciated explorers, essential reading for anyone captivated by the golden age of discovery.