William George Browne (25 July 17681813) was an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
traveller, whose journey took him through Egypt and the Near East. He published a book of his travels in 1799. Browne was murdered while attempting to reach
Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
.
Life
Browne was born at Great Tower Hill,
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. At seventeen he was sent to Oriel College,
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
. Having had a moderate inheritance left him by his father, on quitting the university he applied himself entirely to literary pursuits. But the fame of
James Bruce
James Bruce of Kinnaird (14 December 1730 – 27 April 1794) was a Scottish traveller and travel writer who confirmed the source of the Blue Nile. He spent more than a dozen years in North Africa and Ethiopia and in 1770 became the first Eur ...
's travels, and of the first discoveries made by the African Association, made him determined to become an explorer of
Central Africa
Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo ...
. He went first to
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
, arriving at
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...
in January 1792, where he studied Arabic.
He spent some time in visiting the
oasis of Siwa or Jupiter Ammon, and employed the remainder of the year in studying Arabic and in examining the ruins of
Ancient Egypt.
In the spring of 1793 he visited
Sinai
Sinai commonly refers to:
* Sinai Peninsula, Egypt
* Mount Sinai, a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt
* Biblical Mount Sinai, the site in the Bible where Moses received the Law of God
Sinai may also refer to:
* Sinai, South Dakota, a place ...
, and in May set out for
Darfur, joining the great
Darb El Arba'īn
Darb El Arba'īn ( ar, درب الاربعين) (also called the Forty Days Road, for the number of days the journey was said to take in antiquity) is the easternmost of the great north-south Trans-Saharan trade routes. The Darb El Arba'īn r ...
caravan which every year went by the desert route from Egypt to Sudan. Many historians and ethnologists claim that Browne was “the first European to set foot in the region and the first to systematically collect material about it.”
Browne became “the first European to travel the whole length of the caravan route in 1793.” He accompanied a camel caravan that traded jewellery, glass, silver and brass, sword-blades, fire-arms, carpets, cotton and cloth to Sudan.
According to
W. B. K. Shaw, this voyage as passing through "over a thousand of the most barren miles in Africa.”
This was his most important journey, in which he acquired a great variety of original information. He was forcibly detained by the
sultan of Darfur and endured much hardship, being unable to effect his purpose of returning by
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
(then known as Abyssinia). In 1796 he was, however, allowed to return to Egypt with a slave caravan consisting of about 500 camels.
In September 1798, he returned to England through Syria and Constantinople.
In 1800 Browne again left England, and spent three years in visiting Greece, some parts of Asia Minor and Sicily. In 1812 he once more set out for the East, proposing to penetrate to
Samarkand and survey the most interesting regions of
central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
. He spent the winter in
Smyrna
Smyrna ( ; grc, Σμύρνη, Smýrnē, or , ) was a Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to promi ...
, and in the spring of 1813 travelled through Asia Minor and
Armenia
Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...
, made a short stay at
Erzurum
Erzurum (; ) is a city in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the largest city and capital of Erzurum Province and is 1,900 meters (6,233 feet) above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 367,250 in 2010.
The city uses the double-headed eagle as ...
, and arrived on the June 1 at
Tabriz
Tabriz ( fa, تبریز ; ) is a city in northwestern Iran, serving as the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. It is the List of largest cities of Iran, sixth-most-populous city in Iran. In the Quri Chay, Quru River valley in Iran's historic Aze ...
. About the end of the summer of 1813 he left Tabriz for Tehran, intending to proceed further eastwards, but was shortly afterwards murdered.
Some bones, believed to be his, were afterwards found and interred near the grave of
Jean de Thévenot
Jean de Thévenot (16 June 1633 – 28 November 1667) was a French traveller in the East, who wrote extensively about his journeys. He was also a linguist, natural scientist and botanist.
Education
He was born in Paris and received his educa ...
, the French traveller.
Works
In 1799 Browne published his ''Travels in Africa, Egypt and Syria, from the years 1792 to 1798''. While informative, the dry style of his book prevented it from becoming popular.
His accounts were “unusual because he compared the customs of the people he visited favorably with those of Europe, a verdict that was not fashionable for this area and period.”
Robert Walpole published, from papers left by Browne, an account of Browne's journey in 1802 through Asia Minor to Antioch and Cyprus in the second volume of his ''Memoirs relating to European and Asiatic Turkey'' (1820); also ''Remarks written at Constantinople'' (1802).
References
*Wyatt, Edmund ''In the Paths of Dangerous Fame: The Life and Travels of the Explorer W.G. Browne'' (Create Space, 2016)
External links
*
*William George Browne (1799):
Travels in Africa, Egypt and Syria From the year 1792 to 1798.' The full text.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Browne, William George
1768 births
1813 deaths
English explorers
People from the City of London