MEMOIR OP BURCKHAIIDT. 49 



itamaii to Aleppo, where he arrived on the 1st *tf 

 January, 181 1. 



His journey to Baalbec had been undertaken 

 more for his own private gratification than in the 

 hope of gathering new information ; but his tour 

 into the Haouran opened up a new field of observa- 

 tion, the fruits of which were some valuable papers 

 communicated to the committee of the Afiican As- 

 sociation, containing a classification of the principal 

 Arab tribes near the confines of Syria, and a treatise 

 on the manners and customs of the Bedouins, giving 

 very interesting details of their encampments, tents, 

 dress, furniture, diet, arts, arms, industry, educa- 

 tion, religion, and government. 



With a view to render himself still more familiar 

 with the manners and language of the Arabs, before 

 proceeding into Ejypt, he had requested of his em- 

 ployers in London to allow him six months in addi- 

 tion to the stipulated two years' residence in Syria, 

 which was readily granted; and on coming back 

 to Aleppo, he resumed his studies with increased 

 ardour, in order to qualify him, not merely to 

 speak, but to act as a Mussulman. In one of his 

 letters, he writes, " I have completed the perusal of 

 several of the best Arabic authors, in prose as well 

 as poetry. I have read over the Koran twice, and 

 have got by heart several of its chapters and many 

 of its sentences. I am likewise nearly finishing u 

 thorough course of the precepts of the Mahomme- 

 dan religion, a learned Effendi having taken upor. 

 himself the task of explaining to me the book 



