Sir Richard Francis Burton was a prominent British explorer, writer, orientalist scholar, and soldier, celebrated for his daring travels and extensive explorations across Asia, Africa, and the Americas. His remarkable proficiency in languages and deep understanding of various cultures allowed him to speak an impressive twenty-nine languages. Burton's noteworthy accomplishments include his clandestine pilgrimage to Mecca disguised as a Muslim at a time when the region was closed to non-Muslims under threat of death.

He is also well-known for his unexpurgated translation of One Thousand and One Nights, often referred to in English as The Arabian Nights, and the publication of the Kama Sutra in English. Additionally, he translated The Perfumed Garden, an Arabic work similar to the Kama Sutra, and he partnered with John Hanning Speke to become the first Europeans to witness the Great Lakes of Africa while searching for the Nile's source.

Burton was a vocal critic of colonial policies of the British Empire, often at the expense of his own career. Despite abandoning his university education, he emerged as a prolific author, producing a variety of books and scholarly articles on topics such as human behavior, travel, falconry, fencing, sexual practices, and ethnography. His works are particularly notable for their extensive and informative footnotes and appendices. Burton's military service included a captaincy in the army of the East India Company in India and a brief stint in the Crimean War. He later undertook explorations for the Royal Geographical Society along the east coast of Africa, where he led an expedition that laid eyes on Lake Tanganyika for the first time from a European perspective.

In his later years, Burton served as British consul in several locations, including Fernando Pó (current Bioko, Equatorial Guinea), Santos in Brazil, Damascus (now Syria), and ultimately Trieste (now Italy). He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and was knighted in 1886 for his contributions to geography and exploration.