JOHN LUDWIG, celebrated for his extensive journeys in the East, was descended from an ancient family in Switzerland, who had been long established at Kirchgarten, near Lausanne. His father, John Rudolph, had been tried by a French military commission on a charge of having delivered up the tête du pont at Hunningen to the Austrians, and, though acquitted, received such treatment from the French republican authorities as made a lasting impression on his mind, and induced him to remove his family from the territories where their power predominated, and to establish them at Basle. He then entered into a Swiss corps in the service of England.

John Ludwig, the eighth son, was born at Lausanne in 1784. Having acquired the usual classical instruction at Neuchâtel, he was placed at the university of Leipzig; and, after a residence there of two years, he concluded his studies at Göttingen. During his residence at the latter seat of learning, his talents, application, and good conduct, had gained him the esteem and respect of the professors, but especially of the celebrated Blumenbach. When he resolved on proceeding to England, Blumenbach gave him a letter of introduction to Sir Joseph Banks, who, with the other members of the African Association to whom he was introduced, accepted his offer of travelling to explore the interior of Africa. After the plan of his journey had been settled, he diligently prepared himself for it by application to those studies which were most appropriate. He passed his time partly in London and partly at Cambridge in acquiring a knowledge of astronomy, chemistry, mineralogy, medicine, and surgery. He suffered his beard to grow, accustomed himself to the dress and manners of the East, inured himself to all kinds of hardships and privations, and diligently learned to read, write, and speak the Arabic language; in all which pursuits he was much assisted by Browne, who during his travels in Africa had acquired a perfect knowledge of the languages and customs of Mahommedan nations.

After these preparations, having received his instructions from the society, he left England, and in April 1809 reached Malta; whence he proceeded, in the following October, to Aleppo. Being determined to acquire the Arabic language in perfection, he appeared there as a Mussulman under the name of Sheik Ibrahim Ibn Abdallah; and, during more than two years passed in that part of Asia, he had so perfected himself in the language as not to be distinguished from the natives, and acquired such accurate knowledge of the contents of the Koran, and of the commentaries upon its religion and laws, that after a critical examination, the most learned Mussulman entertained no doubt of his being really what he professed to be, a learned doctor of their law.

During his residence in Syria he visited Palmyra, Damascus, Lebanon, and the other parts of that interesting country, and thence repaired to Cairo in Egypt, with the intention of joining a caravan, and travelling to Fezzan, in the north of Africa. In 1812, whilst waiting for the departure of the caravan, he undertook a journey to the Nile, as far up as Mahass; and then, in the character of a poor Syrian merchant, he made a journey through the Nubian desert which Bruce had traversed, passing by Berber and Shendy to Suakin, on the Red Sea; whence he performed the pilgrimage to Mecca by way of Jidda. In this journey he endured privations and sufferings of the severest kind. He returned thence to Cairo in a state of great exhaustion; but in the spring of 1816, he travelled to Mount Sinai, whence he returned to Cairo in June, and there made preparations for his intended journey to Fezzan, and to explore the sources of the Niger. Several hindrances prevented his prosecuting this intention, till at length, in April 1817, when the long-expected caravan prepared to depart, he was seized with an illness which ended his life. He had from time to time carefully transmitted his journals and remarks, and a very copious series of letters; so that nothing which appeared to him to be interesting in the various journeys he made has been lost.

The communications from Burckhardt were laid, from time to time, before the public with appropriate maps; and much light has been thrown by them on the geography of the countries he visited, and on the manners, laws, religion, and commerce of their inhabitants. His Journey along the Banks of the Nile from Assouan to Mahass, on the Frontier of Dongola, was published in 1819, in 4to; and the volume also contained a description of a Journey from Upper Egypt through the Deserts of Nubia to Jidda in Arabia. To this is added an Appendix, with an Itinerary from the Frontiers of Bornou and by Bahr el Ghazal and Darfour to Shendy; and notices of the country of Soudan, west of Darfour, with vocabularies of the several languages.

In 1822 a volume was published containing a Tour from Damascus in the countries of Libanus and Anti-Libanus; a Journal of an Excursion into the Haouran in 1810; a Journey from Aleppo to Damascus in 1812; a Journey from Damascus into the Haouran in 1811; a Journey from Damascus through the Mountains of Arabia Petraea in 1812; and a Journal of a Tour in the Peninsula of Mount Sinai in 1816. In 1829 was published a posthumous volume of Travels in Arabia, in 4to (2 vols. 8vo); and in 1830 another volume, in 4to, entitled Manners and Customs of the Egyptians.