A three-day multi-disciplinary academic conference on Hajj, organised by the British Museum with the assistance from the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), University of London, was held at the British Museum on 22-24 March, 2012. There were 12 sessions and 29 lectures in three days of the conference. The conference covered many aspects of Hajj, including literature, history, archaeology, pilgrims' journeys, art, architecture, and photography and material culture.
Opening Address: Importance of Hajj
The opening address on the importance of Hajj was delivered by Professor M.A.S. Abdel Haleem of the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS). He highlighted the centrality in the Hajj of the worship of God alone, which accentuates the spirituality of the experience. Performing Hajj is the lifetime ambition of even the poorest villagers to make the journey to join the whole community of pilgrims, past and present, to actually see the Ka'abah, towards which they face in all their daily prayers, and affirm the essence of their faith: One God, one Qibla, one Kitab, and one religious community, the Ummah.
Professor Abdel Haleem said, "Hajj connects Muslims historically throughout the generations as well as geographically to other Muslims around the world at any particular time. This is one of the most unifying elements in the Muslim communities, Ummah and it's a journey that makes a huge change in the spiritual and social life of the pilgrim."
History of Hajj is the history of continuity
Prof Hugh Kennedy, Professor of Arabic at the SOAS, in his paper, "The History of the Hajj, c.630-1250" introduced some general points about the history of Hajj. He said, Hajj is an extraordinarily remarkable long living event in the sense that the Muslim Hajj begins with the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and the Prophet himself sets the pattern for all subsequent Hajjis; it is continued without any interruption.
Prof Kennedy also mentioned about the Infrastructure development project during the Abbasids period. He said, "The Dhar Zubaida was series of forts and signs and above all water supplies and water systems that would guide and help the pilgrims across this desert. It was by far the biggest infrastructure project developed by the early Islamic Caliphs. And it is interesting that it was patronage by the women above all."
Land and sea transportation
The Hajj was for many centuries a focal point for the many merchant travellers who found this event an opportunity to trade with other fellow Muslims from different lands. Prof Dionisius A. Agius, professor of Arabic and Islamic Material Culture at the University of Exeter, in his paper, "Cargo-Pilgrim vessels of the Red Sea in medieval Islam: perception and reception" discussed the various eyewitness accounts of Muslim writers.
Charles LeQuesne, an independent scholar, in his paper, "Hajj ports on the western coast of the Red Sea," presented an overview of what is known of the key historic ports used by pilgrims travelling across the Red Sea from Africa.
Islamic contact with West Africa
Dr. Sam Nixon, Post-doctoral researcher at the University of East Anglia, in his presentation on "The Pilgrim returns: West African rulers and their Hajj-inspired grand schemes (AD 1000 to the modern era)," talked about the Islamic contact with West Africa. In the earliest centuries of Islamic contact with West Africa the ideas of central Islamic lands which filtered through to West African rulers were often highly selective and radically different from orthodox Islam.
From the 11th century West African rulers formed increasingly stronger ties with Islam and it is from this time that we have the earliest account of a ruler making the Hajj themselves. Throughout the centuries into the modern era a series of monarchs made their way to Makkah. The voyage across the Sahara from West Africa and into Arabia would undoubtedly have been a life changing experience, and it is clear that many of the West African rulers who made the journey were hugely inspired by it to change their own society. Dr. Nixon charted the most famous of these rulers and their Hajj-inspired works, including the religious, political and material changes which were undertaken in their society.
Speaking about Islam in West Africa, Dr. Nixon mentioned about Mansa Musa, the Malian emperor in the 14th century. He said, "Most famous Mansa Musa during his Hajj travelled to Cairo, brought huge amount of gold and spent in Cairo and that stabilised the Egyptian economy."
There was a long series of Malian rulers went to pilgrimage prior to Mansa Musa. What makes Mansa Musa special was his contribution to monumental architecture in the Islamic tradition and mosque building on his return journey and the palace architecture at Niani (Malian capital).
Caliphs built Khans, Mosques, Forts
Andrew Petersen, senior lecturer in archaeology at the University of Wales Trinity St. David in his presentation on "The lost fort of Mafraq and the Syrian route in the 16th century by. The Ottoman conquest of Syria and Egypt" said, The Ottoman Sultan Selim I between 1515 and 1517 marks a turning point in the history of the region. The Ottomans showed their commitment to the revival of Syrian Hajj route by providing it with a number of facilities including khans, mosques and forts. One of the first Ottoman buildings within the newly conquered territories was the fort at Mafraq built under the orders of Selim I sometime between 1516 and 1520.
Mehmet Tutuncu, Chairman of Research Centre for Turkish and Arabic World, Haarlem in Netherlands in his presentation, on "The Ottoman inscriptions of the Hajj route from Damascus," described the Ottoman Sultans role in building khans, mosques and forts. In 1517 the Arab provinces became part of the Ottoman State. Ottoman Sultans carried from these time the honorific title of Khadimul Harameyn (servant of the holy sites). They started building and restoring forts and water-reservoirs for the travellers' pilgrims to Makkah performing the Hajj. In the Ottoman Hajj buildings many inscriptions were written.
Derek Kennet, senior lecturer at the Durham University, Andrew Blair, PhD student at the Durham University and Brian Ulrich, Assistant Professor at the Shippensburg University are conducting The Kadhima Project: mapping trade and pilgrimage routes in early Islamic north-eastern Arabia. The Kadhima project is investigating Sasanian and Early Islamic settlement to about 1000AD in the territory of modern Kuwait. Beginning with nomadic coastal trading sites in the Sasanian period, the project has been able to track the development of sedentary occupation in the later 7th and early 8th century along the coastal 'Tariq Munkadir' to al-Yamamah and the Hijaz (as reported by al-Bakri and others). Much of this is clearly oriented towards trade and pilgrimage into the interior of Arabia, as is demonstrated by the high levels of soft-stone cooking pots that are probably of Hijazi origin.
Several other scholars also presented papers on various aspects of Hajj.
