Burton, Richard Francis

Sindh, and the Races That Inhabit the The Valley of the Indus; with Notices of the Topography and History of the Province

Hardcover, London: Wm H Allen & Co, 1851. First Edition. Octavo, pp. Viii, 422. Detailed folding map of Sind on light blue paper, 5 appendices, notes. Bound in publisher's terra-cotta cloth with blind triple-lined border enclosing blind oval design on both front and back covers. Gold spine titles now a bit age faded. Previous owner location and date (13 Oct 1857) on first free endpaper. Previous owner mark to front pastedown. Small library stamp to title page and last page, bookplate on rear pastedown. Original publisher's binding professionally repaired. As I write this, this book is the only copy available in original binding. Book enclosed in a new custom box. Today Sindh is a province of Pakistan and its chief city, Karachi, is the 5th biggest city in the world and home to nearly 15 million people. In Burton's day Sindh was the most recently conquered part of British India and Karachi a mud village. Although Sindh was a bit of a backwater, it was strategically located close to Afghanistan and the Sikhs, both of whom Britain had recently fought. Burton arrived in British India as an Oxford drop-out and young officer in late 1842 and stayed there for 7 years, most of that time spent in Sindh. Sindh is where Burton learned his first eastern languages, fell in love for the first time, and perfected his ability to pass as a local through dangerous areas. Sindh is also where Burton became first a Hindu, a Nagar Brahmin snake priest, and then a Muslim. His conversion to Islam was serious as he underwent adult circumcision and studied both Sufi and Isma'ili Islam intensly. He claimed to have become a Master Sufi, probably in 1847 or 1848. It was in Sindh that Burton first planned his famous pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. Burton passed the British Indian Army tests for several Indian and Eastern languages and was assigned to General Napier's staff and the Sindh Survey. These appointments brought money that he spent on books and language teachers. The Survey appointment allowed him to travel alone throughout Sindh, wonderful cover for his true role of Great Game spy reporting directly to General Napier. One of Burton's spy duties was befriending and observing the Aga Khan, leader of all Isma'ilis and descendent of the fabled Assassins. According to Burton's bibliographer, Penzer, this title was very rare when Penzer wrote in 1923. Burton's books have become even scarcer over the ensuing 96 years. This is Burton's third book, the previous two were published the same year as this one (1851) and were also about British India. Of the eventual 4 books Burton wrote about British India, this is the only one mentioned by the Encyclopedia Brittanica in their Burton entry. According to Brittanica, this book is “a brilliant ethnological study, published before the new science of ethnology had a proper tradition against which its merits could be evaluated. ” ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 422 pages. [Item #77202]

Price: $5,500.00