Mecca

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(Redirected from Makka)

This article is about the city in Saudi Arabia. For other uses, see Mecca (disambiguation)

Mecca [[IPA|Template:IPA]] or Makkah Template:IPA (in full: Makkah al-Mukarramah; Template:Lang-ar) 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 at Template:Coor dm, 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. In the 1980s the government of Saudi Arabia changed the official English transliteration of the city's name from 'Mecca', as it had been commonly spelled by westerners, to 'Makkah'. See below for the reasons.

1 History
2 The contemporary city
3 The importance of Mecca
4 Non-Muslims and Mecca
5 The spelling of the name
6 References to Mecca
- 6.1 References to Mecca in the Torah/Bible
7 See also
8 External links

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History

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. Some historians do not accept these scriptural assertions, but do believe that Mecca was a shrine and trading center for a number of generations before the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Muhammad, once exiled from the city, returned to it 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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The contemporary city

Image:Ka'ba2003.jpg Image:OldmapofMecca.jpg Image:Mapmakka.jpg The city has grown enormously in the past few decades, as jet travel makes participating in the Hajj ever easier and cheaper and as the crowds of pilgrims swell. Many Saudis are employed year-round to oversee the Hajj; many thousands more work in the shops and hotels that cater to pilgrims. All these Hajj-dependent workers in turn need housing and services. The old, small, walled city of the past is being demolished and replaced by freeways, shopping malls, and skyscrapers such as the Abraj Al Bait Towers.

In the rush to modernize, historic buildings are being demolished. The Wahhabi sect of Sunni Islam that dominates Saudi Arabia views all veneration of shrines and graves as bid'a, innovation, and shirk, idolatry, and hence approves and encourages these demolitions.

Many Muslims are highly concerned by what they see as wilful disregard for their sentiments. Art historians, architects, and historical preservationists also oppose the wholesale destruction, albeit for different reasons. [1]

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The importance of Mecca

Template:Main 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.

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 Template:Coor dms). 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.

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Non-Muslims and Mecca

Image:Supplicating Pilgrim at Masjid Al Haram. Mecca, Saudi Arabia.jpg Non-Muslims are not permitted to enter Mecca, according to the Saudi embassy in London ([2]). 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 spelling of the name

For most English-speakers, Mecca has long been the accepted spelling for the holy city. The word is a transliteration of the original Arabic, and 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, 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.

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References to Mecca

There are possible references to the Kaaba, by Diodorus Siculus a Greek historian of 1st century BC who wrote Bibliotheca Historica, a book describing various parts of the discovered world. Edward Gibbon quoted him in his "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 [3]

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References to Mecca in the Torah/Bible

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Some believe that Mecca is mentioned in the texts that make up the Jewish Torah and the Christian Old Testament. They say that Psalm 84 refers to Mecca -- also that the wilderness of Paran mentioned in many passages is a reference to Mecca. See the main article Bakkah for further discussion.

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