History of the Hajj

The History of the Hajj encompasses a period starting from the time of Abraham through the establishment of the Islamic Hajj by Islamic prophet Muhammad, to the present-day hajj where millions of Muslims perform their pilgrimage annually.

Origin

In Islamic tradition, pilgrimage was introduced during the time of prophet Ibrahim (Abraham). According to tradition, by God’s command, Abraham left his wife Hagar (Hajar) and his son Ishmael (Ismail) alone in the desert of ancient Mecca with little food and water that soon ended. Mecca was then an uninhabited place.[1] In search of water, Hagar desperately ran seven times between the two hills of Safa and Marwah but found none. Back in despair to Ishmael, she saw the baby scratching the ground with his leg and a water fountain underneath.[2][3] Because of the presence of water, tribes started to settle in Mecca, Jurhum being the first such tribe to arrive. When grown up, Ishmael married in the tribe and started living with them.[3] The Quran states that Ibrahim, along with his son Ishmael, raised the foundations of a house that is identified by most commentators as the Kaaba. After the placing of the Black Stone in the Eastern corner of the Kaaba, Ibrahim received a revelation in which Allah told the aged prophet that he should now go and proclaim the pilgrimage to mankind.[2] The Quran refers to these incidents in 2:124-127 and 22:27-30. Shibli Nomani mentions that the house raised by Abraham was 27 feet high, 96 feet long, and 66 feet wide.[4]

Pre-Islamic Arabia

Pre-Islamic Arabs were idol worshippers. Kaaba was still the center of their worshipping,[5] and was filled with idols and images of angels.[6] During the annual pilgrimage season, people from home and abroad would visit Kaaba. The Quraysh tribe was in charge of entertaining and serving the pilgrims. Shibli Nomani mentions that the pagan Arabs introduced some unholy rites during their pilgrimage. Unlike today's Hajj, they did not walk between the hills of Safa and Marwah and did not gather at Arafat. Some would maintain silence during the whole course of pilgrimage. Except the people from Quraysh tribe, others would perform tawaf in naked state. During the initial years of Muhammad's prophethood, the pilgrimage season offered Muhammad the occasion to preach Islam to the foreign people who came to Mecca for pilgrimage.

Muhammad and the Hajj

The present pattern of the Hajj was established by Islamic prophet Muhammad who made reforms to the pre-Islamic pilgrimage of the pagan Arabs.[7] Mecca was conquered by the Muslims in 630 CE. Muhammad then cleansed the Kaaba by destroying all the pagan idols, and re-consecrated the building to Allah.[6] Next year, at the direction of Muhammad, Abu Bakr led 300 Muslims to the pilgrimage in Mecca where Ali delivered a sermon stipulating the new rites of Hajj and abrogating the pagan rites. He especially declared that no unbeliever, pagan, and naked man would be allowed to circumambulate the Kaaba from the next year.[8] In 632 CE, shortly before his death, Muhammad performed his only and last pilgrimage with a large number of followers, and taught them the rites of the Hajj and the manners of performing them.[9] In the plain of Arafat, he delivered a famous speech – known as The Farewell Sermon – to those who were present there.[10] From then, Hajj became one of the five pillars of Islam.

Medieval and Ottoman eras

During the medieval times, pilgrims would gather in capital cities of Syria, Egypt, and Iraq to go to Mecca in groups and caravans comprising tens of thousands of pilgrims.[11] The Muslim rulers would undertake the responsibility of the Hajj, and provide state patronage for organizing such pilgrimage caravans.[12] To facilitate the pilgrimage journey, a road measuring 900 miles was constructed, stretching from Iraq to Mecca and Medina. The road’s construction was probably undertaken during the third Abbasid caliph al-Mahdi, father of fifth Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid, around 780 CE, and was later named the Way of Zubayda after Harun’s wife, as she is noted for conducting improvements along the route and furnishing it with water cisterns and eating houses for pilgrims at regular intervals.[13][14] Both Harun and Zubayda performed the Hajj several times and spent huge money in the cities of the Hejaz.[15]

A good deal of information on the medieval hajj comes from the firsthand observations of three Muslim travelers - Nasir al-Khusraw, Ibn Jubayr, and Ibn Battuta - who themselves performed the pilgrimage and recorded detailed accounts of Hajj-travels of their time. Khusraw performed the hajj in 1050 CE. Starting his first journey from Granada in 1183 CE, Ibn, Jubayr, a native of Spain, performed his pilgrimage in 1184 and then went to Baghdad.[16] Ibn Battuta, a native of Morocco, left his home in 1325 and performed his pilgrimage in 1326 CE.[17]

In medieval Iraq, the principal gathering points for the pilgrims were Kufa and Basra where the former was connected to the Hejaz region by the Way of Zubayda. The caravans crossed the Nejd region to reach Medina, and then proceeded to Mecca for the pilgrimage.[18] In medieval Syria, the departure point for the pilgrims was Damascus, while in Egypt, it was Cairo. The hajj caravans would start their pilgrimage journey and, after the performance of pilgrimage, return there. The total journey would take approximately three months on average.[19] Commanders for the caravans leaving from Cairo and Damascus were designated by the Muslim sovereign and were known as Umara' al-Hajj (singular: Amir al-Hajj). They were in charge of protecting the pilgrims of the caravan, and securing funds and supplies for the journey.[20]

After the fall of Baghdad in 1258, Damascus and Cairo became the main assembly points for the pilgrims. While pilgrims of pilgrims of Syria, Iraq, and Iran, and Anatolia regions joined the Damascus caravan, those from North Africa and Sub-Sahara regions joined the Cairo caravan.[21] After the Ottomans came into power, the sultans of Ottoman Empire concerned themselves with the management of hajj program, and allocated annual budget for its arrangement.[22] During this period, Damascus was still the main point from where the chief hajj caravan would depart and come back.[23]

Taxation on pilgrims

According to Ibn Jubayr, during the Fatimid Caliphate (909-1171 CE), taxes were imposed on the pilgrims by the local rulers of Hejaz at the rate of seven and a half dinar per head. Those who were unable to pay them had to suffer extreme physical torture.[24] However, imposing taxes on the pilgrims was considered illegal by the Islamic jurists. After Saladin overthrew the Fatimid Caliphate around 1171 and established the Ayyubid dynasty, attempts were made by him to abolish the taxes on the pilgrims.[24] Saladin's removal of illegal taxes was praised by Ibn Jubayr. Saladin's measures, however, proved insufficient, especially in later times, partly because there were other taxes (like taxes on hajj caravans or camels) and also because the administrative decisions, taken in Damascus or Cairo, were not easy to be applied effectively in Hejaz due to long distance. Some of the later Mamluk sultans – like Baybers and Hassan – made active attempts to control the Meccan local rulers from taxing the pilgrim caravans by compensating the Meccan rulers with annual allocation of a fixed sum of money. [25] Al-Suyuti mentions that in the year 384 AH (around 994 CE), pilgrims who came from Iraq, Syria, and Yemen to perform hajj went back unsuccessful because they were not allowed to perform hajj without paying tax. Only Egyptian pilgrims performed hajj this year.[26]

The Bedouin issue

In the fairly long history of hajj, the nomadic tribes of desert – known as Bedouin – had been a somewhat persistent issue for the hajj caravans.[27] They often used to attack the caravans – hajj or merchandise – that passed their territories, thus posing a security threat. They had to be paid handsome amount of payment in exchange for the security of the hajj caravans.[28] The head of the regime would hand over the payment to the Amir al-Hajj – the commander in charge of the hajj caravans – who would then make the payments to the Bedouin tribes according to the demands of the situation.[29] Even then, there were occasional casualties. In 1757 CE, a Bedouin tribe, Bani Sakhr, attacked the hajj caravans that resulted in the death of many pilgrims, immediately and afterwards, and other casualties.[30]

Trading activities

Throughout the history, the pilgrimage journey to Mecca had offered the pilgrims as well as the professional merchants the opportunity to conduct various merchandising activities both en route and in Mecca, Damascus, and Cairo.[31] The exemption of customs on land and the security provided to the hajj caravans further made it a lucrative field for trading. Many pilgrims brought goods, produced in their respective lands, in order to sell them, thus becoming an occasional trader, and managing some expenses for hajj trip.[32] According to John Lewis Burckhardt, the Afghans brought coarse shawls, beads of stone, tooth-brush; the European Turks brought shoes, slippers, knit silk purse, embroidered items, and sweetmeats; the Anatolian Turks brought Angora shawls and carpet; the pilgrims of Maghreb brought cloaks made of wool.[32] The professional businessmen conducted large-scale merchandising activities that included transportation of goods between Mecca and their own towns as well as sales alone the hajj route.[33] The Indian and other Eastern goods, brought to Mecca by ships, were purchased by big merchants of Cairo and Damascus who, upon return, then sold them in their own markets. These goods generally included Indian textile, various spices, coffee, drugs, and precious stones.[34]


See also

References

  1. ↑ Ibn Kathir (2001). Stories of the Prophets: From Adam to Muhammad. Mansura: Dar Al-Manarah. English Translation by Sayed Gad et all. p. 78. ISBN 977-6005-17-9.
  2. 1 2 Peters, F. E. (1994). The Hajj: The Muslim Pilgrimage to Mecca and the Holy Places. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. pp. 4–7. ISBN 0-691-02120-1.
  3. 1 2 Husayn Haykal, Muhammad (2008). The Life of Muhammad. Selangor: Islamic Book Trust. pp. 29–30. ISBN 978-983-9154-17-7.
  4. ↑ Shibli Nomani. Sirat-un-Nabi. Vol 1, Lahore
  5. ↑ Haykal (2008). The Life of Muhammad. p. 35.
  6. 1 2 Haykal (2008). The Life of Muhammad. pp. 439–40.
  7. ↑ "Hajj". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 2014. Retrieved 12 August 2014.
  8. ↑ Haykal (2008). The Life of Muhammad. p. 501.
  9. ↑ Juan E. Campo, ed. (2009). Encyclopedia of Islam. Facts On File. p. 494. ISBN 978-0-8160-5454-1.
  10. ↑ Malcolm Clark (2011). Islam For Dummies. John Wiley & Sons. p. 99. ISBN 978-1-118-05396-6.
  11. ↑ Peters, F. E. The Hajj: The Muslim Pilgrimage to Mecca and the Holy Places. p. 164.
  12. ↑ Juan E. Campo, ed. (2009). Encyclopedia of Islam. Facts On File. p. 283. ISBN 978-0-8160-5454-1.
  13. ↑ Robinson, Francis, ed. (1996). The Cambridge Illustrated History of the Islamic World. Cambridge University Press. p. 139. ISBN 9780521669931.
  14. ↑ Tarikh al-Khulafa (History of the Caliphs) by Jalaluddin al-Suyuti
  15. ↑ Peters, F. E. The Hajj: The Muslim Pilgrimage to Mecca and the Holy Places. p. 71.
  16. ↑ John Block Friedman, ed. (2013). Trade, Travel, and Exploration in the Middle Ages: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. p. 270. ISBN 113559094X. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  17. ↑ John Block Friedman, p.269
  18. ↑ Peters, F. E. The Hajj: The Muslim Pilgrimage to Mecca and the Holy Places. p. 74.
  19. ↑ Peters, F. E. The Hajj: The Muslim Pilgrimage to Mecca and the Holy Places. p. 87.
  20. ↑ Singer, Amy (2002), Constructing Ottoman Beneficence: An Imperial Soup Kitchen in Jerusalem, SUNY Press, p. 141, ISBN 9780791453513
  21. ↑ Peters, F. E., (1994). P. 164
  22. ↑ Peters, F. E., (1994). P. 145-6
  23. ↑ Peters, F. E., (1994). P. 146
  24. 1 2 Peters, F. E., (1994). P. 109-10
  25. ↑ Peters, F. E., (1994). P. 110-11
  26. ↑ Al-Suyuti, Jalal al-Din. Tarikh al-Khulafa.
  27. ↑ Peters, F. E., (1994). P. 159
  28. ↑ Peters, F. E., (1994). P. 159-60
  29. ↑ Peters, F. E., (1994). P. 159-60
  30. ↑ Peters, F. E., (1994). P. 161
  31. ↑ Peters, F. E., (1994). P. 180
  32. 1 2 Peters, F. E., (1994). P. 181
  33. ↑ Peters, F. E., (1994). P. 182
  34. ↑ Peters, F. E., (1994). P. 180-81
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