Synopses & Reviews
Among the duties God imposes upon every Muslim capable of doing so is a pilgrimage to the holy places in and around Mecca in Arabia. Not only is it a religious ritual filled with blessings for the millions who make the journey annually, but it is also a social, political, and commercial experience that for centuries has set in motion a flood of travelers across the world's continents. Whatever its outcome--spiritual enrichment, cultural exchange, financial gain or ruin--the road to Mecca has long been an exhilarating human adventure. By collecting the firsthand accounts of these travelers and shaping their experiences into a richly detailed narrative, F. E. Peters here provides an unparalleled literary history of the central ritual of Islam from its remote pre-Islamic origins to the end of the Hashimite Kingdom of the Hijaz in 1926.
Review
One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 1994
Review
"Peters's
The Hajj provides a clear and accurate picture of the organization of [Muslim] rituals. His book is ... sufficiently comprehensive to replace older accounts of the Hajj. By reading the sources it cites, one can follow the key rituals in some detail."
--Robert Irwin, The London Review of Books
Review
"A strong impression of the powerful impact of the pilgrimage on all who witnessed it."
--Francis Robinson, The Times Literary Supplement
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [383]-391 and index.
Table of Contents
| List of Illustrations | |
| The Hajj in Early Photo Documents | |
| Preface | |
| Acknowledgments | |
| Introduction | |
| Maps | |
Ch. I | Origins | 3 |
| The Religion of Abraham | 3 |
| The Primitive Sanctuary | 9 |
| Arabian Paganism | 19 |
| Muhammad and the Hajj | 38 |
Ch. II | Mecca and the Ways Thither | 60 |
| Changes in the Haram | 60 |
| The Paths to Mecca | 71 |
| The Ways from Iraq | 73 |
| The Syrian Hajj | 79 |
| The Hajj Route from Egypt | 86 |
| The Interior Arabian Routes | 98 |
Ch. III | The Medieval Hajj (1100-1400 C.E.) | 109 |
| Ibn Jubayr on the Hajj in 1183-1184 | 109 |
| Entering the State of Ihram | 114 |
| The Pilgrimage to Arafat (13 March 1184) | 119 |
| The Umra of Rajab | 129 |
| Medina the Radiant | 137 |
Ch. IV | Under New Auspices | 144 |
| The Syrian Pilgrimage | 145 |
| The Carriage and Care of Pilgrims | 149 |
| The Bedouin Problem | 157 |
| The Egyptian Pilgrimage | 162 |
| Iranians Make the Hajj | 172 |
| The Caravan as Marketplace in Early Ottoman Times | 180 |
| The Red Sea Crossing | 184 |
| Ali Bey in Mecca (1807) | 194 |
| The Wahhabis in Mecca | 197 |
Ch. V | Through European Eyes: Holy City and Hajj in the Nineteenth Century | 206 |
| On Making the Hajj under Pretense | 206 |
| Charles Doughty on the Hajj | 223 |
| On First Arriving in Mecca | 229 |
| The Haram and Its Denizens | 233 |
| The Pilgrimage of 1842 | 248 |
| Back from Arafat | 252 |
| A Visit to Medina | 257 |
Ch. VI | Steamships and Cholera: The Hajj in Modern Times | 266 |
| The End of the Traditional Hajj | 266 |
| Arrangements Large and Small | 272 |
| Getting There: Transportation on Sea and Land | 282 |
| Health and the Hajj | 301 |
Ch. VII | The Great War and After | 316 |
| The Hijaz Railway | 316 |
| Wartime Pilgrimages | 321 |
| The Postwar Hajj | 331 |
| The Wahhabi Pilgrimage of 1925 | 352 |
| Notes | 363 |
| Works Cited | 383 |
| Index | 393 |