One Thousand Roads to Mecca: Ten Centuries of Travelers Writing about the Muslim Pilgrimage

Front Cover
Michael Wolfe
Grove Press, 1997 - History - 620 pages
Michael Wolfe's exemplary (Library Journal) collection of historical writings on the Hajj, now updated with a new introduction by Reza Aslan.

Since its inception in the seventh century, the pilgrimage to Mecca, or the Hajj, has been the central theme in a large body of Islamic travel literature. Beginning with the European Renaissance, it has also been the subject for a handful of adventurous writers from the West who, through conversion or connivance, managed to slip inside the walls of a city forbidden to non-Muslims. One Thousand Roads to Mecca collects significant works by observant travel writers from the East and West over the last ten centuries. The two very different literary traditions form distinct sides of a spirited conversation in which Mecca is the common destination and Islam the common subject of inquiry.

Excerpted works include travel narratives by Ibn Jubayr, Ibn Battuta, J. L. Burckhardt, Richard Burton, the Begum of Bhopal, John Keene, Winifred Stegar, Muhammad Asad, Harry St. John Philby, Lady Evelyn Cobbald, Jalal Al-e Ahmad, Malcolm X, and Michael Wolfe.

 

Contents

Nasere Khosraw Persia 1050 II
13
Ibn Jubayr Spain 118384
33
Ibn Battuta Morocco 1326
51
Enter the Europeans Renegades Impostors Slaves and Scholars 15031814
69
Ludovico di Varthema Bologna 1503
79
A Pilgrim with No Name Italy ca 1575
90
Joseph Pitts England ca 1685
102
Ali Bey alAbbasi Spain 1807
126
Eldon Rutter Great Britain 1925
329
Winifred Stegar Australia 1927
347
Muhammad Asad Galicia 1927
363
Harry St John Philby Great Britain 1931
384
Lady Evelyn Cobbold Great Britain 1933
406
Hamza Bogary Mecca ca 1947
441
Jalal Ale Ahmad Iran 1964
455
Malcolm X United States 1964
486

John Lewis Burckhardt Switzerland 1814
162
Sir Richard Burton Great Britain 1853
197
Her Highness Sikandar the Begum of Bhopal India 1864
226
John F Keane AngloIndia 187778
245
Mohammad Hosayn Farahani Persia 188586
276
Arthur J B Wavell AngloAfrica 1908
295
The Early Twentieth Century 192533
319
Saida Miller Khalifa Great Britain 1970
504
Michael Wolfe United States 1990
523
Maps
551
Acknowledgments
569
Selected Bibliography
581
Index
589
Copyright

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About the author (1997)

Michael Wolfe is the author of eleven books of poetry, fiction, and travel. In 1990, he made the pilgrimage to Mecca and subsequently wrote two books on the subject, The Hadj: An American's Pilgrimage to Mecca and One Thousand Roads to Mecca: Ten Centuries of Travelers Writing about the Muslim Pilgrimage. For 15 years he was the publisher of Tombouctou Books. He is currently Co-Executive Producer and President of Unity Productions Foundation, a nonprofit media company that produces documentary films for television.

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