People who have performed the pilgrimage to Makkah have written hundreds of books about Haj describing their feelings and impressions of what they saw. Many of these publications were inspired by a time in the region’s history when the pilgrimage was a truly grueling and arduous journey.
However this kind of writing waned some time ago — the latest publication I’ve read is by the German diplomat Murad Hoffmann, whose book doesn’t quite have the stature of Barton’s or Burkhart’s, or of such books as Home of the Revelation or Mirror of the Two Holy Mosques as well as a host of other famous books in a number of languages.
Some time ago I appealed for the establishment of a center in Makkah to gather together all the books that have been written about the land of the two holy mosques: a place that isn’t simply a library but also a publishing and translation center.
A number of people in the field of knowledge and ideas were enthusiastic at the time, yet this enthusiasm disappeared a few days later due to a number of factors, one of which was Professor Ahmad Zaki Yamani’s project to gather a number of scholars from around the Islamic world for the purpose of publishing an encyclopedia of the Two Holy Mosques.
According to Yamani’s vision, the encyclopedia is to include everything that has been written about the land of the Two Holy Mosques in all languages.
Gathering material for the collection required research in the world’s great libraries in Turkey, Spain, the Netherlands and the Vatican. We must thank Yamani and his faithful collaborators for the effort.
The scholarly community anxiously awaits publication. Every time I meet Professor Yamani, I urge him to start by publishing the first volume, because waiting to publish until the whole encyclopedia has been assembled may take too long.
Arab News Features 12 February 2003