BURTON, Sir RICHARD (b. 1821 at Toquay, Devonshire, d. 1890 at Trieste, Italy), well-known traveler (Africa, the Near East, India), Orientalist, and translator. He published 43 volumes on his explorations and almost 30 volumes of translations, among them a complete rendering of the Alf layla wa layla and pieces of Eastern erotica. In 1928 a translation of Saʿdī’s Golestān was published under his name, but it has been shown that this publication is an expurgated version of a translation published in Benares in 1888, which had probably been made by Edward Rehatsek.
Bibliography:
Encyclopaedia Britannica (Micropaedia) II, pp. 393f.
John D. Yohannan, Persian Poetry in England and America. A 200-Year History, Delmar, New York, 1977, pp. 177-81.
(EIr)
Originally Published: December 15, 1990
Last Updated: December 15, 1990
This article is available in print.
Vol. IV, Fasc. 6, p. 567
