Author Description

On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the death of the famous Orient traveller Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, alias Sheikh Ibrahim, an international conference took place at the University of Basel in October 2017. The authors have compiled their contributions to this publication based on their papers at that conference. The texts, some in German, some in English, link Burckhardt?s development and origins in the aristocracy of Basel with his career as a traveller to the Orient in the service of the English, consistently relating both aspects to one another for the first time. The publication also presents documents from Burckhardt?s written estate that have not been published to date, together with recent research approaches and perspectives.