Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-madinah and Meccah: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-madinah and Meccah, credited to Richard Francis Burton, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-madinah and Meccah, by Richard Francis Burton. Read by volunteer readers. Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821 – 1890) was an English explorer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, ethnologist, linguist, poet, hypnotist, fencer and diplomat. He was known for his travels and explorations within Asia and Africa as well as his extraordinary knowledge of languages and cultures. According to one count, he spoke 29 European, Asian, and African languages. Burton's best-known achievements include traveling in disguise to Mecca, The Book of One Thousand Nights and A Night, an unexpurgated translation of One Thousand and One Nights, bringing the Kama Sutra to publication in English, and journeying with John Hanning Speke as the first Europeans led by Africa's greatest explorer guide, Sidi Mubarak Bombay, utilizing route information by Indian and Omani merchants who traded in the region, to visit the Great Lakes of Africa in search of the source of the Nile. Burton extensively criticized colonial policies (to the detriment of his career) in his works and letters. He was a prolific and erudite author and wrote numerous books and scholarly articles about subjects including human behavior, travel, fencing, sexual practices, and ethnography. A unique feature of his books is the copious footnotes and appendices containing remarkable observations and unexpurgated information. (Summary from Wikipedia)

Recording facts

• Recording title: Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-madinah and Meccah
• Author credits: Richard Francis Burton
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 57
• Listed recording duration: 31:48:32

Catalogue topics

• Mecca
• Medina
• religion
• Islam
• travel
• culture

Opening tracks: first 24 of 57

1. 01 - Preface to the Memorial Edition — 6:45
2. 02 - Preface to the Third Edition — 12:13
3. 03 - Preface to the First Edition — 8:46
4. 04 - To Alexandria — 24:13
5. 05 - I leave Alexandria — 22:27
6. 06 - The Nile Steamboat - The Little Asthmatic — 20:24
7. 07 - Life in the Wakalah, part 1 — 35:01
8. 08 - Life in the Wakalah, part 2 — 35:56
9. 09 - The Ramazan — 24:45
10. 10 - The Mosque — 58:39
11. 11 - Preparations to Quit Cairo — 48:04
12. 12 - From Cairo to Suez — 50:26
13. 13 - Suez — 46:07
14. 14 - The Pilgrim Ship — 45:45
15. 15 - To Yambu' — 40:10
16. 16 - The Halt at Yambu' — 45:26
17. 17 - From Yambu' — 53:41
18. 18 - From Bir Abbas to Al-Madina — 40:31
19. 19 - Through the Suburb — 42:43
20. 20 - The Prophet's Tomb, part 1 — 46:03
21. 21 - The Prophet's Tomb, part 2 — 40:40
22. 22 - An Essay, part 1 — 44:08
23. 23 - An Essay, part 2 — 28:25
24. 24 - Al-Madina — 54:22

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.