- A coffee table photography book: Mecca the Blessed, Medina the Radiant
There are a lot of books available about making the journey to hajj. Rihla is the classical Arabic term used for the genre of travel writing, particulary for the sake of Allah. Works by hajjis (male) and hajjas (female) abound. The earliest of these works are nearly a thousand years old. There are travelogues, highly personal meditations, scholarly collections, and books barely disguising various political or religious agendas. The vast majority of books come from Muslims from many times and many countries. Yet some of the writing comes from non-Muslims who entered Mecca by deception and surprisingly, by Muslims who seem ambiguous about their intentions for making hajj in the first place (e.g. modern authors making hajj for the sake of a book contract) There is also a hajj traveler or two out there who never definitively say if they even are Muslim. Nonetheless, by doing a little investigating, you may find a book or two on the hajj experience that truly resonates with you, and helps you to prepare mentally for the journey you want to undertake. The recollections of others–with their hardships, rewards and insights–may help you to keep your own difficulties in perspective and inspire you to try just a little bit harder for your own successful hajj.
For Muslims who would like to add to their personal, school or mosque libraries and Muslims who purchase or want to recommend purchases to academic or public libraries, here is a small selection among the many available titles. Sources for the commentaries are linked to each title.
Records Of The Hajj: The Pilgrimage to Mecca is a 10 volume, 6,000 page archive collection of writings:
The contents of this publication have, almost without exception, been selected from primary sources. The earliest period is covered by exact copies of sections on the Hajj in the works of Azraki, Al-Tabari and other Arab chroniclers…. Outstanding among such records are passages selected from the works of Ibn Jubair, Nasir-e Khosrau and Ibn Batuta.
The collection contains travel writing from hajjis throughout the centuries and writings from non-Muslims who made hajj through deception. The more recent time periods include official “observer” (spy?) documents as well as information garnered from modern news agencies.
[There are selections from the] Pilgrimage Reports that were, until the 1950s prepared annually by British political staff assisted by Muslims sent specially to Mecca as observers[....and] careful selections from recent publications and combined them with media coverage including the text of important broadcasts from Riyadh and Tehran.
- Hajj Archives 10 vol set
A single volume collection of hajj writings through the centuries is:
One Thousand Roads to Mecca – Ten Centuries of Travelers Writing about the Muslim Pilgrimage Edited by Michael Wolfe.
One Thousand Roads to Mecca collects significant texts from the last ten centuries by writers from the East and West including Ibn Battuta, whose Travels is the most famous adventure book of Arabic literature; Ali Bey al-Abbasi, a nineteenth-century Spanish Muslim; Sir Richard Burton, who daringly entered the city in disguise; and Malcolm X.
- OneThousand Roads to Mecca
A book that combines reflection, scholarship and personal experience is
From the Two Holy Sanctuaries : A Hajj Journal (Rev) by Gibril Fouad Haddad.
While Hajj books are usually about the rituals of pilgrimage, few, if any, address the loss of voluntary spiritual practices that had been carried out for centuries in Makka and Madina up until the time the Hajj was overseen by the Ottoman Sultans…
Containing over 20 rare images, photographs and manuscripts, From the Two Holy Sanctuaries is the first publication of its kind and will serve as an essential reference for anyone about to embark upon the Hajj wishing to connect themselves with the spirit of the early generations (salaf)….
This is a unique and intensely personal reflection by a husband and wife:
Journey of Discovery: A South African Hajj by Naeem Jeenah
…[A] personal story of a South African couple making their first pilgrimage to Makkah (Hajj) together. The authors are highly intelligent, well educated, slightly sarcastic, but very devout in a way that resonates with the faith of other young people throughout the world. But this book is more than the musings of young professionals on the meaning of a traditional ritual. The authors are South African activists struggling against apartheid and its aftermath. At the same time, Shamima and Na’eem grapple with gender and authority issues within Islam, especially as these issues question their social activism. Their book is therefore a focused story of Muslims committed to social reform and seeking to reconcile their activism with their deeply traditional faith. The story is made all the more poignant knowing that the trip is both the vehicle of spiritual discovery and the couple’s last trip together. Shamima died a few months later….
In 1994 Shamima was diagnosed with cancer and after several years struggle with the disease, decided that she would rather live her life doing what she loved than lying sick in a hospital. She and Na’eem performed Hajj together in 1997 and on their return began working on a manuscript about their experience that was to become “Journey of Discovery”. Unfortunately, Shamima did not survive to see her work published.
Among hajj writings from Muslim women, there are two, each claiming an historical first. The first hajja rihla writer:
A Princess’s Pilgrimage : A Pilgrimage to Mecca (1863-1864) by Nawab Sikandar Begum
In 1870, Begum Nawab Sikandar Begum of Bhopal became the first Muslim woman to publish an account of her pilgrimage to Mecca. Her critical and often surprising description provides unique insight into the factors that went into writing this quintessentially Muslim journey in a colonial environment…. It is accompanied by a critical Introduction and Afterword that make this offering a comprehensive resource on travel writing by South Asian Muslim women.
The other is the hajj writings entitled simply Pilgrimage to Mecca by Lady Evelyn Cobbold
… [T]he first British woman convert to Islam on record as having made the pilgrimage to Makkah and the visit to the Prophet’s Tomb at Madinah, Lady Evelyn Cobbold (1867-1963)…. [T]he young Evelyn Murray had spent childhood winters in North Africa. There she had been imbued with the Muslim way of life, becoming, as she puts it, ‘a little Muslim at heart’.
A book of photographs: Mecca the Blessed, Medina the Radiant by Ali Kazuyoshi Nomachi & Seyyed Hossein Nasr
These photographs of the Muslim holy cities Mecca and Medina, taken by a Japanese convert, Ali Kazuyoshi Nomachi, are something new for most Westerners, and perhaps even for many Muslims. Non-Muslims are never allowed into Mecca, and it is almost unheard-of for religious and government leaders to allow such pictures to be taken. Most of these images were shot during the holy month of Ramadan, when many faithful are in Mecca and Medina on pilgrimage.
Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University, has contributed an essay explaining the history and significance of the two cities. “Mecca and its twin city Medina flourish as the heart and sacred Center of the Islamic universe and will continue to do so as long as there are men and women who accept the truth of Lailaha illa’Llah and Muhammadun rasul Allah,” he writes.
Thanks to the Sacred Sites website for some of these titles.
