Burton in Syria

Burton, Richard Francis / Drake, Charles F. Tyrwhitt. Unexplored Syria. Visits to the Libanus, the Tulul el Safa, the Anti-Libanus, the northern Libanus, and the 'Alah.

€ 3.500,00

First edition. Richard Burton, then consul at Damascus, explored the volcanic regions east of that city and the highlands of Syria. The work contains two items of great archaeological interest: the first was the assertion (much derided) that the Hamath stones were of Hittite origin, a matter not finally decided in Burton's favour until eventual decipherment in the 1920s. The second concerned a Moabite inscription recently discovered near the Dead Sea, which suggested that the true result of the conflict with Israel, as narrated in the Book of Kings, was a Moabite victory. The enthusiasm with which Burton challenged the biblical version of events may well have hastened his dismissal from Damascus.

Vol. 1 includes ten fold-out plates reproducing inscriptions found on the Hanath Stones; the remaining plates include reproductions of shells, plants, and Burton's collection of anthropological materials from the Holy Land. Complete copies were scarce in Penzer's day and now rare.

The Burtons rode to Palmyra, Baalbek and the Cedars of Lebanon with Drake and E. H. Palmer on their first encounter, before Drake and Burton set out on their archaeological expedition the following year. Burton did not see Palmer again until 1880 in the Midian but when Burton was recalled from Damascus (a "wicked and unforgivable" Government blunder, according to Penzer), it was Palmer who wrote in protest to the Civil Service Gazette. And when Palmer disappeared in the Sinai desert in 1882, it was Burton who set off in pursuit at the behest of the Foreign Office. Lovell writes that the "Palmer affair marks an end to Burton's physical adventures" and an upsurge in his literary output.

Maps and one plate with tears and old tape repairs verso. Removed from the Wolverhampton Public Library with their usual labels and blind-stamps throughout; slight bumping to corners and extremities.