studies at Oxford included falconry and Arabic. Burton's time in the Pakistani province of Sindh prepared him well for the transgressive pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina that he undertook in 1853 (he was not a Muslim and non-Muslims are forbidden to enter these holy cities). Seven years in Pakistan had given Burton a familiarity with the customs and behaviour of Muslims. This journey made Burton famous. He had planned it whilst travelling disguised among the Muslims of Sindh, and had laboriously prepared for the ordeal by study and practice (including having himself circumcised to further lower the risk of being discovered). Although Burton was not the first non-Muslim European to make the Hajj (that distinction belonging to Ludovico di Barthema in 1503), his pilgrimage is the most famous and the best documented of the time. He adopted various disguises, including that of a Pathan, to account for any oddities in speech, but he still had to master intricate Islamic ritual, and the minutiae of Eastern manners and etiquette. Burton's trek to Mecca was quite dangerous and his caravan was attacked by bandits (a common experience at the time). As he put it, although "...neither Koran or Sultan enjoin the death of Jew or Christian intruding within the columns that note the sanctuary limits, nothing could save a European detected by the populace, or one who after pilgrimage declared himself an unbeliever." The pilgrimage entitled him to the title of Hajji and to wear a green turban. Burton's own account of his journey is given in Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al Madinah and Meccah (1855). T.E. Lawrence T.E. Lawrence started out as an archaeologist in what is now Syria and Lebanon where he studied Arabic and immersed himself in Arab culture. After joining the British Army with the outbreak of World War I, he became known for his role in the Arab Revolt against Ottoman rule gaining fame as Lawrence of Arabia. He worked closely with the Hashemite dynasty that established independent Arab states in Hejaz, Iraq, Syria, and Jordan after ending Ottoman rule. Lawrence's heroic reputation was built from his own lively writing skills, sensational reporting by American journalist Lowell Thomas, and later the dramatization of his life in the epic film Lawrence of Arabia. Lady Hester Stanhope Lady Hester Stanhope, after the death of British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger, to whom she acted as hostess,