Sir Richard Francis Burton (March 19, 1821 – October 20, 1890) could well be the model for the 19th
century British man for all seasons. He was known as a geographer,
cartographer, and ethnologist; a translator, writer, linguist, and poet;
and as a fencer, soldier, diplomat and spy. He was known for his
travels and explorations in Asia, Africa and the Americas, most famously
for a journey to Mecca at a time when Europeans were banished upon pain
of death and for his journey with John Hanning Speke as the first
Europeans to reach the Great Lakes of Africa in search of the source of
the Nile. Perhaps chief among his gifts was an extraordinary knowledge
of languages and cultures; he reportedly spoke 29 European, Asian and
African languages. In addition to the Perfumed Garden he is responsible
for the first translations of One Hundred and One Nights (a.k.a. Arabian Nights) and the Kama Sutra.
Sheikh Nefzaoui, also spelled Sheikh
Nefzawi, was a member of the Nefzawa Berber tribe in the southern part
of what is now Tunisia in the 15th century. His full name was
Abu Abdullah Muhammed ben Umar Nafzawi. The manual was compiled at the
request of Abd al-Aziz al- Mutawakki, Hafsid ruler of Tunis at the time.
