Mecca
This article is about the city in Saudi Arabia. For other uses, see Mecca (disambiguation)
Mecca or Makkah (in full: Makkah al-Mukarramah; , Turkish: Mekke
) is the capital city of Saudi Arabia's Makkah province, in the historic Hijaz region. It has a population of 1,294,168 (2004 census). The city is located 73 kilometres (45 mi) inland from Jeddah, in the narrow sandy Valley of Abraham, 277 metres (909 ft) above sea level. It is located 80 kilometres (50 mi) from the Red Sea.
The city is revered as the holiest site of Islam, and a pilgrimage to it is required of all able-bodied Muslims who can afford to go, at least once in their lifetime. Muslims regard the al-Masjid al-Haram (The Sacred Mosque'') as the holiest place on Earth.
The term 'Mecca' has come into common usage
metaphorically to mean any all-important site for any particular group of people, or a main attraction in a certain place or group of people that has a large turnout. In the 1980s the government of Saudi Arabia changed the official English transliteration of the city's name from 'Mecca', as it had been and continues to be commonly spelled by westerners, to 'Makkah'. See
below for the reasons.
Muslims believe that the
Kaaba, the small cubical building now surrounded by the
Sacred Mosque, was built by
Abraham and has been a religious center ever since. Mecca became inhabited by the
Quresh tribe, which directly descends from
Khaidar, the second son of
Ismail. Descendants of this tribe today refer to themselves as
Qureshis and are predominantly
Muslim. Historians generally agree that Mecca was a shrine and trading center for a number of generations before the
Islamic prophet
Muhammad. Muhammad, a member of the
Quresh tribe exiled from the city for preaching against paganism, returned to the city in triumph in 630 CE and after removing the cult images from the Kaaba, dedicated it as the center of Muslim pilgrimage. (For further information, see the main article,
Conquest of Mecca.)
After the rise of the
Islamic empire, Mecca attracted pilgrims from all over the extensive empire, as well as a year-round population of scholars, pious Muslims who wished to live close to the Kaaba, and local inhabitants who served the pilgrims. Due to the difficulty and expense of the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage was small compared to the millions that swell Mecca today. The city too was small. 18th and 19th century maps and pictures show a small walled city of mud-brick houses crowded around the mosque.
Mecca was never the capital of the Islamic empire; the first capital was
Medina, some 250 miles (400 km) away. The capital of the
caliphate soon moved to
Damascus and then
Baghdad. Mecca re-entered Islamic history briefly when it was held by
Abd-Allah ibn al-Zubayr, an early Muslim who opposed the
Umayyad caliphs. The caliph
Yazid I besieged Mecca in 683 CE. Thereafter the city figured little in politics; it was a city of devotion and scholarship. For centuries it was governed by the
Hashemite Sharifs of Mecca, descendants of Muhammad by his grandson
Hassan ibn Ali. The Sharifs ruled on behalf of whatever caliph or Muslim ruler had declared himself the Guardian of the Two Shrines. Mecca was attacked and sacked by
Ismaili Muslims in 930 CE and by
Wahhabi Muslims in 1803. In 1926, the Sharifs of Mecca were overthrown by the Saudis, and Mecca was incorporated into
Saudi Arabia.
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1787 Turkish map of Mecca |
The city has grown substantially in the last several decades, as the convenience and affordability of
jet travel has increased the number of pilgrims participating in the
Hajj. Thousands of Saudis are employed year-round to oversee the Hajj and staff the hotels and shops that cater to pilgrims; these workers in turn have increased the demand for housing and services.
As the city expands, old and historic buildings are being replaced by freeways, shopping malls, and skyscrapers (such as the
Abraj Al Bait Towers). The
Wahhabi sect of
Sunni Islam that dominates Saudi Arabia views all veneration of shrines and graves as
bid'a,
shirk, and idolatry, and hence approves and encourages the demolition of such structures. However, other Muslims as well as art historians, architects, and historical preservationists have expressed opposition to the continued destruction of significant buildings in Mecca.
[FEATURE - Developers and purists erase Mecca's history Reuters, by Laith Abou-Ragheb, July 8 2005.]For Muslims, a pilgrimage to Mecca called the
Hajj is required as one of the
Five Pillars of the faith. In recent years, about two to three million have gathered for the major pilgrimage, during the Muslim month of
Dhu al-Hijjah, and many more perform the minor pilgrimage or
Umrah, which may be performed at any time of year.
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City map of modern-day Mecca |
The focal point of Mecca is the
Ka'bah, the "House of God" believed by Muslims to have been rebuilt by
Abraham and his son
Ishmael; it is covered in a gold-embroidered black fabric (
kiswah). The pilgrims circle the Ka'bah seven times and may also try to touch or kiss its cornerstone, the
Black Stone. Pilgrims then drink from the
well of Zamzam. The water of Zamzam is believed to have special properties and health benefits. Few pilgrims return from the Hajj without a large plastic bottle of the Zamzam water.
During the Hajj the pilgrims travel to Mina, a small village, where
Iblis (the
Devil), symbolised by stone columns, is ritually stoned. They then proceed to the
Hill of Arafat, a site for prayers, where the prophet Muhammad is believed to have delivered
The Farewell Sermon.
The importance of Mecca for Muslims is inestimable. All
Muslims, wherever they are on the earth, are required to pray five times a day in the direction of the Ka'bah in Mecca (located at ). This direction of prayer is known as the
qiblah. Muslims regard
al-Masjid al-Haram (or 'The Sacred Mosque') as the holiest place on Earth.
Non-Muslims are not permitted to enter Mecca, according to the Saudi embassy in London.
[ Information for the Traveller Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia - London.] Road blocks are stationed along roads leading to the city. As one might expect, the existence of "forbidden cities" and the mystery of the Hajj aroused intense curiosity in European travellers. A number of them pretended to be Muslims and entered the city of Mecca and then the Kaaba to experience the Hajj for themselves. The most famous account of a foreigner's journey to Mecca is
A Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Mecca and Al-Madina, written by Sir
Richard Francis Burton. Burton traveled as a
Qadiri Sufi from Afghanistan; his name, as he signed it in Arabic below his frontispiece portrait for "The Jew, The Gypsy and al-Islam," was
al-Hajj 'Abdullah.
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The holy mosque centre, showing the Ka'bah after the Friday prayers |
Mecca has long been the accepted English spelling for the holy city as a transliteration of the original
Arabic. The word has become part of the English language as a metaphor for a site of pilgrimage for people with a particular interest. In an effort to distinguish between the metaphorical and official references to the holy site, the Saudi Arabian government in the 1980s began promoting a new transliteration,
Makkah al-Mukarramah, meaning Mecca the Blessed, which is closer to the original Arabic. This new usage has been adopted in many places and by certain organizations, such as the
U.S. Department of State,
[U.S. Department of State Background Note: Saudi Arabia.] but is not part of the active vocabulary of English-speakers at large. Some leading media organizations such as
Reuters, the
BBC and
New York Times continue to use Mecca.
Bibliotheca Historica, a history by the
Greek historian
Diodorus Siculus, makes several possible references to the
Kaaba.
Edward Gibbon quotes Diodorus in
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire:
The genuine antiquity of Caaba ascends beyond the Christian era: in describing the coast of the Red sea the Greek historian Diodorus has remarked, between the Thamudites and the Sabeans, a famous temple, whose superior sanctity was revered by all the Arabians; the linen of silken veil, which is annually renewed by the Turkish emperor, was first offered by the Homerites, who reigned seven hundred years before the time of Mohammad.And a temple has been set-up there, which is very holy and exceedingly revered by all Arabians. [ Ka'bah As A Place Of Worship In The History Islamic Awareness, M S M Saifullah ]Some people believe that references to Mecca exist in the texts that compose the
Jewish Torah and the
Christian Old Testament. Examples of possible references to Mecca include
Psalm 84 and the wilderness of
Paran, which is mentioned in many passages of the Bible.
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Islam*
Muslim*
Hajj*
Medina*
Jerusalem*
Hijaz*
Saudi Arabia*
Jeddah*
Islamic architecture*
List of famous mosques*
List of holy cities*
Uzza*
Manah*
Allat
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Cities and Countries (German)*
Mecca's Direction*
Saudi Information Resource - Holy Makkah*
The Saudi Government's official site for Makkah (Arabic)*
Map of Mecca*
Pictures of Mecca*
Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al Madinah and Meccah, by Richard Burton *
A 3D model of the Kaaba and Haraam - multimedia*
Pictures Mecca
