Captain Richard Burton

Richard Burton 1821-1890 was a British diplomat, an orientalist, and a linguist. He occupied among others the position of Great Britain's Consul in Damascus 1869-1871. The Ottoman Empire and Great Britain enjoyed cordial relations throughout most of the 19th century. The British assisted the Ottomans during Napoleon's Egyptian campaign 1798-1801 and helped them evict Ibrahim Pasha and the Egyptian army from Syria in 1841. The second half of the 19th century witnessed recurrent British-Ottoman collaboration against Russia's incursions. The Turks used to affectionately call the British ambassador in Constantinople "the Great Elchi".

Captain Burton mastered several languages. He wrote and translated several books. He had enough acquaintance with the religion of Islam that many assumed he was a Muslim which made it possible for him to enter the holy city of Mecca as such. His stay in Damascus was a busy and fruitful one despite political upheavals and sectarian tensions (the memory of the 1860 massacre was still fresh). He befriended quite few Damascene notables and enjoyed close friendship with Emir Abdul Qadir al-Jazaeri. He also made several powerful enemies on account of his proverbial honesty and impartiality (so at least was the opinion of his spouse, Lady Isabel Burton who loved and respected him tremendously). 

Captain Burton was recalled from Damascus by the British Government after a relatively short stay. The reasons (always according to Ms. Burton) were threefold: 

1. His intervention to protect poor debtors from prominent Jewish usurers who, though Damascene, were British protégés. Lady Burton would not identify them by name but she did describe them pejoratively as "Shylocks" while she asserted her endless love and respect for Jews in general. Be that as it may, those usurers appealed to leading Jews in Great Britain namely Sir Moses Montefiore, Sir Francis Goldsmid, the Rothschlids. It was inevitable that some would suspect the Burtons of harboring anti-Semitic tendencies.

2. Captain Burton's intervention in a dispute between the Jews of Nazaeth and its Ortgodox Christians. This time he sided with the Jews.

3. The perfidy of Damacus' Ottoman Governor, (1865-1871) Rashid Pasha who was to be deposed shortly after the recall of Captain Burton. 

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