Portrait of Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, also known as Sheikh Ibrahim ibn Abdallah, 1830.
Portrait of Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, also known as Sheikh Ibrahim, 1830. Wikimedia / Basel Historical Museum

Johan Ludwig Burckhardt: An Intrepid Swiss Explorer

In 1812, the Swiss adventurer and explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt (1784-1817) traversed the ancient Nabataean city of Petra. He was the first European to set his eyes upon the ruins since the time of the Crusades. His life is a curious story of research and unexpected high adventure.

James Blake Wiener

James Blake Wiener

James Blake Wiener is a world historian, Co-Founder of World History Encyclopedia, writer, and PR specialist, who has taught as a professor in Europe and North America.

Website: worldhistory.org
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt was born on November 24, 1784 in Lausanne, Switzerland to Rudolf Burckhardt and Sara Rohner. He belonged to an affluent family from Basel who had built their fortunes on the trade and manufacture of silk. The young Burckhardt grew up in a cosmopolitan household, which moved between Basel and Lausanne. Family friends included notables like Edward Gibbon, Madame de Staël, and and Goethe.
Painting of Johann Ludwig Burckhardt as a two-year-old child by Anton Graff, 1786. Wikimedia / Basel Historical Museum
Burckhardt's life spanned the French Revolution (1789-1799) and the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815), and his family’s fortunes suffered as result of the political upheavals that swept Europe. The Burckhardts regarded the French invasion of Switzerland (1798) and the subsequent Act of Mediation (1803) as disastrous, running counter to their own business and political interests. Facing diminished prospects and opportunities in Switzerland, the young Buckhardt pursued a study of languages, law, and statistics in Göttingen and later in Leipzig. In 1806, Burckhardt relocated to England. Napoleon’s successes against Austria at the Battle of Austerlitz (1805) and Prussia at the twin Battles of Jena and Auerstedt (1806) convinced Buckhardt that Great Britain was the only major European power, which could combat Napoleonic France. Burckhardt’s move to England was also motivated by his desire for a career in the British civil service.
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt at 24 years old, frontispiece of Travels in Nubia, after a drawing by Joseph Slater, 1819. Wikimedia
Although Burckhardt was ultimately unsuccessful in obtaining a civil service position, his linguistic aptitude and erudite mind did not go unrewarded. He eventually found employment with the London-based Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa (better-known as the African Association). Originally established in 1788, the African Association sought to uncover the origins and course of the Niger River, locate the exact location of the fabled city of Timbuktu, and abolish the African slave trade. Increased knowledge of the African continent and Near East was a strategic goal of Great Britain in its global fight against Napoleonic France. For his part, Burckhardt agreed wholeheartedly with the Association’s aims to publish and disseminate new knowledge that would aid the British.  
The source of the Niger River and the location of Timbuktu were not known to Europeans. Wikimedia
While in London, Burckhardt made a strong and favorable impression on the English naturalist Sir Joseph Banks (c. 1742-1820), who was the president of the prestigious Royal Society. After several meetings, Banks agreed to provide the capital necessary so that Burckhardt could undertake an expedition of his own. Curiously, Banks had helped the British-Swiss artist John Webber secure his place in Captain James Cook’s third expedition a generation earlier. In preparation for his journey deep into the heart of West Africa, Burckhardt studied Arabic, medicine, chemistry, astronomy, and African geography at Cambridge University. Once he had learned the basics of Arabic, Burckhardt was ordered to travel first to Syria and then Egypt. There, he would master Arabic and absorb the finer nuances of Arab etiquette before venturing beyond the Sahara Desert.

Journey to the Levant

Burckhardt stopped in Malta, while traveling en route to the Middle East from England, in 1809. In Valletta, he became aware of the fate of the German explorer Ulrich Jasper Seetzen (1767-1811). Seetzen was a fellow alumnus of Göttingen and scientist who died trying to find the ancient Nabataean city of Petra. Intrigued by what he heard, Burckhardt decided to learn more as soon as he reached Aleppo in Ottoman-controlled Syria. Upon leaving Malta, Burckhardt moreover assumed a new identity – that of a Muslim merchant from North India by the name of “Sheikh Ibrahim ibn Abdallah.” He believed this alias would help disguise his imperfect Arabic, and allow him to forgo scrutiny by local inhabitants and Ottoman officials.
Portrait of «Sheikh Ibrahim ibn Abdallah», between 1817-1828. Wikimedia / Basel Historical Museum
If we are to believe Burckhardt’s accounts, the ruse worked well: Whenever someone asked Burckhardt how to say something in Hindustani, he would provide an answer in heavily-accented Swiss German. In the meantime, Burckhardt continued to study Arabic, memorizing entire surahs from the Qu'ran in order to perfect his accent and acculturate into Aleppine society. Burckhardt completed short, independent research trips throughout what is present-day Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Israel, and Saudi Arabia over the next three years. He surveyed ancient and prehistoric sites, and became one of the first Europeans to record Hittite hieroglyphs. He purchased rare maps, books, manuscripts, and scrolls to learn as much as he could about the region’s topography, plants, history, and art. Burckhardt even studied Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) and the customs of the Levant’s Bedouin tribes. Conscious of his foreign background and European appearance, Burckhardt tried to be as surreptitious as possible – he took notes in his diary only when he had complete privacy. He also grew a beard and donned Arab fashion. His precautions were salient, although he was still robbed several times.
Burckhardt's map of Syria and Holy Land, showing Palestine and Egypt and the Ottoman Pashaliks, published in 1822. Wikimedia
Burckhardt was ready to move on to Egypt by the summer of 1812. However, he had not forgotten about Petra. Instead of traveling directly along the Levantine coast to Cairo, he embarked on a route through the desert interior via Amman to Kerak. Burckhardt traveled on the pretense of making a pilgrimage and sacrifice at the Tomb of Aaron – he believed that the ancient city of Petra had to lie somewhere near or within the environs of the Tomb of Aaron. When he arrived in Kerak, the local governor provided Burckhardt with a dubious guide who soon abandoned him in the desert. Burckhardt was left in the wilderness, without a single book or map in his possession. Fortune favored Burckhardt, nevertheless, and it was not long before he stumbled into a Bedouin camp. The nomads proved relatively friendly. They honored Burckhardt’s desire to sacrifice a goat at the Tomb of Aaron, and they promised to take Burckhardt to Aqaba, on the Red Sea, via the Wadi Musa.

Burckhardt’s Discovery of Petra

On August 22, 1812, Burckhardt entered Petra. In a letter to the African Association, he wrote: “At the distance of a two long days journey north-east from Akaba, is a rivulet and valley in the Djebel Shera, on the east side of the Araba, called Wady Mousa. This place is very interesting for its antiquities and the remains of an ancient city, which I conjecture to be Petra, the capital of Arabia Petraea, a place which, as far as I know, no European traveler has ever visited. In the red sandstone of which the valley is composed, are upwards of 250 sepulchers entirely cut out of the rock, the greater part of them with Grecian ornaments. There is a mausoleum in the shape of a temple, of colossal dimensions, likewise cut out of the rock, with all its apartments, its vestibule, peristyle etc. It is a most beautiful specimen of Grecian architecture, and in perfect preservation. There are other mausoleums with obelisks, apparently in the Egyptian style, a whole amphitheater cut out of the rock with the remains of a palace and of several temples. Upon the summit of the mountain which closes the narrow valley on its western side, is the tomb of Haroun [Aaron]. It is held in great veneration by the Arabs.”
The narrow passage (Siq) that leads to Petra, Jordan.
The narrow passage (Siq) that leads to Petra, Jordan. Wikimedia
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The Deir (the monastery) in Petra, Jordan.
Ad Deir (“The Monastery”) in Petra, Jordan. Wikimedia
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Mosaic of the Petra Church, Petra, Jordan
Mosaic of the Petra Church, Petra, Jordan.   Wikimedia
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Al-Khazneh (The Treasury) in Petra, Jordan.
Al-Khazneh (“The Treasury”) in Petra, Jordan.   Wikimedia
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The Tombs of Kings in Petra, Jordan
The Tombs of Kings in Petra, Jordan. Wikimedia
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Burckhardt had little time to explore Petra. Concerned that the Bedouins suspected him of being a grave robber or a sorcerer, he continued onwards to Cairo.

Further Expeditions

Between 1812 and 1817, Burckhardt embarked on further research expeditions across eastern North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. He followed the Nile River deep into Upper Egypt and Nubia, becoming arguably the first European to glimpse the long lost ruins of Abu Simbel in 1813. On this same expedition, he also visited the Pyramids of Meroë in present-day Sudan.
Archaeological sites of the island of Meroë: Pyramids of Meroë - Northern Cemetery. Wikimedia
Burckhardt even traveled to the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina between 1814 and 1815. Burckhardt posed as a beggar in order to enter Mecca, which he did successfully. Although the debate as to whether he truly converted to Islam or not still rages – his family denied this but there is some evidence that his conversion was sincere – the fact remains that Burckhardt’s writings are the first primary sources about Mecca composed by a European.
Hajj certificate of Sheikh Ibrahim, 1814. The Hajj is the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca. Wikimedia / Basel Historical Museum
Years of intrepid travel and a rugged lifestyle finally caught up with Burckhardt at the precise moment in which he was ready to embark to West Africa. A series of deadly epidemics, including the Black Death and dysentery, afflicted the Middle East and North Africa during the 1810s. Burckhardt caught dysentery in Jeddah in the summer of 1814, and he succumbed to the disease again only a few months later in Medina. The third time Burckhardt caught dysentery proved fatal, and he died on October 15, 1817 in Cairo at the age of 33. He was buried in Bab el-Nasr cemetery in central Cairo, and one can visit his funerary stele today.
Tombstone of Hajji Sheikh Ibrahim, or Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, in Cairo. Wikimedia

An Important Legacy

Although relatively unknown in Switzerland today, Burckhardt gave posterity an incontrovertible legacy. Burckhardt left extensive and meticulous ethnographic and geographic records of the places and the peoples he encountered during his travels in the Middle East and North Africa. His writings are exceptionally vivid and objective for the era in which he lived. Following his death, the African Association published Burckhardt’s works: Travels in Nubia (1819); Travels in Syria and the Holy Land (1822); Travels in Arabia (1829); Arab Proverbs or the Manners and Customs of Modern Egyptians (1830); and Notes on the Beodouins and Wahabys (1830).
Portrait bust of “Sheikh Ibrahim”, or Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, by Ferdinand Schlöth, 1857. Wikimedia / Basel Historical Museum
Burckhardt's fluency in Arabic and deep understanding of Arab culture allowed him to provide accurate and sympathetic descriptions of Islamic practices still little-understood in Europe. The archaeological information that Burckhardt collected and recorded was additionally of immense importance in shaping European knowledge of the region. His methodologies and findings were used as reference points in subsequent geographical and anthropological studies. By virtue of his contributions to the fields of ethnography, cartography, and archaeology, and for his “rediscovery” of Petra, the late King Hussein of Jordan posthumously awarded Burckhardt the Jordanian Order of Independence, second class, in 1991.

Published on: 22.08.2024

URL: https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/en/2024/08/johan-ludwig-burckhardt-an-intrepid-swiss-explorer/

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