BURTON, Richard F. Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1855-1856. 3 vols., first edition, 8vo (213 x 133mm.) 14 plates, including 8 tinted lithographs, 5 chromo-lithographed and 1 wood-engraved plate, 3 folding maps and plans, errata leaf in vol. 1. (Toning, 1 quire loosening in vol. 1, 1 plate mounted later, lacking advertisements, lacking half title to vol. 3.) Bound to style in 21st century blue cloth, gilt lettering to spines (endpapers replaced). Note: only vol. 3 calls for a half title. Burton was the first English Christian to enter Mecca and the first European to travel between the holy cities of Islam by the Eastern route. It was on this pilgrimage that he dressed in disguise as an Indian Muslim and where - performing the rituals of the hajj and witnessing the sermon at the end of the pilgrimage- he came to understand Islam as being equally profound as Christianity and Judaism. Provenance: Thomas Dewhirst (stamp to titles and name inscribed to half-titles); Manchester Grammar School (embossed stamp to titles). [Penzer, pp. 49-50] (3).