Mekka in the Latter Part of the 19th Century: Daily Life, Customs and Learning. The Moslims of the East-Indian Archipelago (Brill Classics in Islam)

352 Pages·2007·7.12 MB·English

by  C. Snouck Hurgronje

Mekka in the Latter Part of
the 19th Century
Brill Classics
in Islam
VOLUME 1
Mekka in the Latter Part
of the 19th Century
Daily Life, Customs and Learning.
The Moslims of the East-Indian Archipelago
By
C. Snouck Hurgronje
translated by J.H. Monahan
with an introduction by Jan Just Witkam
LEIDEN BOSTON
•
2007
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISSN 1872–5481
ISBN-13: 978-90-04-15449-0 (slightly revised second edition)
ISBN-10: 90-04-15449-3
© Copyright 2007 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill,
Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in
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Fees are subject to change.
printed in the netherlands
CONTENTS
Foreword ..................................................................................... vii
Plan of Mekka ............................................................................. ix
Groundplan of the Mosque (Haram) .......................................... xi
Introduction Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje’s description
of Mecca ................................................................................. xiii
Part I Daily Life in Mekka ..................................................... 1
Part II Family Life in Mekka ................................................... 93
Part III Learning in Mekka ...................................................... 165
Part IV The Jâwah .................................................................... 229
Index ........................................................................................... 313
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FOREWORD
The author’s fi rst publication (“Het Mekkaansche Feest” 1880, in
Dutch) was a full description of the rites of the Hajj with an attempt to
enquire into their origin. In 1884–1885 he had an opportunity to stay
for a year in Arabia, about half the year in Mekka, where he lived as a
student of Muhammadan learning, and half the year in Jeddah. The
result of his experiences is given in a work in German in two volumes,
under the title “Mekka”, published in 1888–1889. His chief object was
not to study the Hajj, an accurate knowledge of which is easier to obtain
by reading some of the innumerable pilgrims’ handbooks (manâsik) than
by attending the ceremonies in the fearful crowd gathering yearly in the
Holy Town, in the Valley of Mina and on the Plain of Arafât, but rather
to become intimately acquainted with the daily life of the Mekkans and
of the thousands of Muhammadans from all parts of the world liv-
ing in Mekka for material or spiritual purposes. Being a Dutchman,
he took special interest in the colony, counting many thousands, of the
“Jâwah”, as the Mekkans call the people of the East-Indian Archipel-
ago. These take up their abode in Mekka for years, mostly to study
different branches of learning connected with their religion. Those of
them who return home become the instructors of their countrymen,
and in this way infl uence in a high degree the development of Muham-
madan thought among them. These circumstances may justify a whole
chapter of the book having been devoted to the “Jâwah”.
The fi rst volume contains a summary topographical description
of Mekka and a complete history of the Holy City from the time of
Muhammad until 1885 AD. So far as we know, this is the only attempt
at such a history that had yet been made in an European language. For
the present we have restricted ourselves to the second volume, which
seems likely to appeal to a wider public. This volume deals with the
social and family life, marriage and funeral customs, and the learning
of the Mekkans and their foreign guests, and has a fi nal chapter on the
Jâwah. Should this translation of the second volume prove to awaken
suffi cient interest in the subject, it is hoped that an English translation
of the fi rst volume will follow. The present translation has been revised
by the author. It of course represents Mekka as it was almost fi fty years
SNOUCK_F1_v-xxi.indd vii 10/18/2006 1:53:07PM
viii foreword
ago. The life of the town has changed within the last 25 or 30 years
more than it changed during many preceding centuries, owing, partly
to the very great increase of international communication, partly to the
Wahhabite conquest of the Hejaz in 1925. The picture of Mekka as it
was in the days of Turkish rule may have a special interest now that the
old state of things in the Muhammedan world is rapidly passing away.
Mekka, whose inhabitants used to boast of their spending their whole
lives in the Holy Province without any contact with the outer world, is
now in close relation with the West. The present Arab Governor Faisal,
a son of Ibn Sa(cid:123)ûd, has visited several Courts of Europe, young Mekkans
travel widely, and aeroplanes and motor cars have entered into competi-
tion in the Arabian peninsula with the “ship of the desert”. On the other
hand, much of the gay social life of the past has disappeared under the
present puritan régime, which, while reactionary in matters of religious
doctrine and practice, is at the same time incredibly progressive in its
adoption of inventions of the modern mechanical civilisation. Many fea-
tures of Muhammedan culture have, however, maintained themselves
unchanged. The pilgrimage is as crowded as ever, and many other insti-
tutions remain untouched. So, a detailed picture of former conditions is
not entirely out of date, and is not merely of historical interest.
In the translation some parts of the original have been condensed
and some technical details and Arabic names of things have been omit-
ted. The orthography of Arabic words does not claim any rigid consis-
tency; e.g. the two different Arabic letters t and letters s are generally not
distinguished, and the spelling of some names and titles has been given
in accordance with the received European usage rather than scientifi c
correctness.
The German edition of this work was illustrated by a plan of Mekka and
by an album containing a great number of photographs of the town, of
the Great Mosque and other buildings, of authorities, people occupying
several functions in the Holy City, types of Mekkans and of pilgrims from
different lands, especially from the East-Indies, household implements
etc. Forty-fi ve years ago these were practically the fi rst photographs of
places in the Holy Territory and of its inhabitants brought to Europe.
Since that time those photographs have been so often reproduced in
other works and so many new ones of Mekka and Medina have been
made and spread over the world, that it has been thought superfl uous to
do more than incorporate in this translation some typical fi gures.
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