The Hajj: The Muslim Pilgrimage to Mecca and the Holy Places

by Francis Edward Peters

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691026190
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	01/11/1996
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	430
Product dimensions:	7.75(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

F. E. Peters is Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Literatures and History at New York University. Among his many books published by Princeton University Press are: Mecca; Children of Abraham; Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; Jerusalem; and Reader on Classical Islam.

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

Editorial Reviews

One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 1994

From the Publisher

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

A strong impression of the powerful impact of the pilgrimage on all who witnessed it.
— Francis Robinson

The Times Literary Supplement

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.

The London Review of Books - Robert Irwin

A strong impression of the powerful impact of the pilgrimage on all who witnessed it.

The Times Literary Supplement - Francis Robinson