Mekka in the Latter Part of the 19th Century

The annual spectacle of millions of pilgrims flooding Makkah has capturedthe imagination of generations of readers. This interest in the hajj, however,has not necessarily produced quality scholarship. From crude ethnographicsummaries to careful narratives of spiritual attainment, the literature has beeninconsistent at best. Brill’s republishing of Dutch scholar Christiaan SnouckHurgronje’s (1857-1936) forgotten work offers the modern reader not only aninvaluable window into the hajj as practiced before the age of mass communication,but provides a hitherto neglected discussion on the social, cultural,political, and economic impact that the experience had upon Muslims.Often lost in the generalizations one finds in descriptions of the annualpilgrimage, the world in which the reader is thrust while reading this bookoffers a Makkah that is far more culturally dynamic than expected. Hurgronje’sworld is one filled with cultural and doctrinal variances that aremanifestedin the different ways in which Muslims worshiped, clothed themselves,and ultimately socialized while in Makkah. In this sense, his carefulstudy of life over the months leading to the hajj exposes the reader to a fluidcultural and economic process that constantly transforms, leaving the readerwith the impression that life was not, as the clichés so often try to instill,“timeless.” Hurgronje, to his credit, is not interested in retelling theOrientalist trope; rather, he strives to provide a serious ethnographic and historicalstudy.As Hurgronje himself writes, this is a study to help non-Muslims, especiallyfellow Dutchmen, understand their Muslim subjects living in the FarEast. For this reason, the book’s final part focuses exclusively on the Makkanexperience of Dutch subjects. In this regard, it is a careful analysis of howMuslims from Java, Borneo, and Sumatra interacted with fellow Muslims;socialized in this cosmopolitan milieu; and adopted numerous personal andcollective activities during their stay. That being said, it is especially impressivethat this study is not meant to be only a tool for colonial governance ...