Ibn Battuta's Travels: Medina to Mecca

The Hajj Begins - From Medina to Mecca - the Center of Islam

The Hajj caravan was probably several thousand people. Each person was responsible for his own animal to ride, supplies, and money for expenses. Because Ibn Battuta was still a poor and unemployed pilgrim, he welcomed support and whatever charity came his way. A law professor "hired camels for me and gave me traveling provisions, etc., and money in addition, saying to me, 'It will come in useful for anything of importance that you may be in need of' - may God reward." And so he finally began his hajj.

The distance from Damascus to Medina was about 820 miles, and the caravan normally covered it in 45 to 60 days. Even though the caravan was protected by the power of the Mamluk army, still there were real dangers.

"Some pilgrims invariably perished along the way... from exposure, thirst, flash flood, epidemic, or even attack by local nomads, who seldom hesitated to disrupt the Sacred Journey for what it might bring them in plunder. In 1361, 100 Syrian pilgrims died of extreme winter cold; in 1430, 3000 Egyptians perished of heat and thirst." [Dunn, p. 67 referring to 'Ankawi.]

Without any serious incidents, the caravan arrived at Medina, City of the Apostle of God - a little island of fertility in the desert. In 622 A.D. Muhammad and a small group of followers retreated from a hostile Mecca. His flight to Medina - the Hijira - would mark the beginning of the Muslim calendar. When the Prophet died in 632, his grave in Medina became a site of pilgrimage second only to the Kaaba itself.

The Mosque of the Prophet housed the sacred tomb of Muhammad as well as two of his successors, caliphs Abu Bakr and Umar, and that of his daughter Fatimah. Muslims were not required to visit Medina, but because of its closeness to Mecca there was a steady stream of pilgrims to Medina.

Then traveling for several more days and visiting more holy sites, they came close to Mecca.

"We set out again at night from this blessed valley [called Marr], with hearts full of gladness at reaching the goal of their hopes, rejoicing in their present condition and future state, and arrived in the morning at the City of Surety, Mecca (God Most High ennoble her)." 

The Main Rituals of the Hajj 

Ibn Battuta performed the rituals within Mecca dressed in the simple white "ihram" cloth worn since he left Medina. First he went to the Kaaba, the holy shrine shaped like a huge cube ... "like a bride who is displayed upon the bridal-chair of majesty, and walks with proud steps in the mantles of beauty... We made around it the seven-fold circuit of arrival and kissed the holy Stone; we performed a prayer of two bowings at the Maqam Ibrahim [a shrine which houses the footprints of Abraham] and clung to the curtains of the Ka'ba ... where prayer is answered; we drank the water of Zamzam...; then having run between al-Safa and al-Marwa, we took up our lodging there in a house near the Gate of Ibrahim." [Gibb, p. 188.]

Ibn Battuta then described the "Standing at Arafat" - an essential part of a Hajj. On the ninth day of the month of the Hajj, the Pilgrims went to the plain called Arafat twelve miles east of Mecca. Here they stood before the Mount of Mercy, where Adam prayed and where Muhammad gave his farewell sermon in 632. They recited prayers and listened to sermons until sunset. On the tenth morning there is a feast, and pilgrims pick up a handful of pebbles and cast seven of them at "the western pillar" at Mina, just as Abraham threw stones at the devil who suggested that Abraham didn't need to sacrifice his son as God commanded.

Ibn Battuta stayed in Mecca for three weeks making visits to other sites, meeting with holy men, and studied with them. Now Ibn Battuta had "graduated" to the status of "al-Hajji" - one who had been on the Hajj.

He had taken a year and a half to reach his destination of Mecca from his homeland of Morocco, and he would make three other trips to Mecca in his lifetime. But rather than return home, he thought about the adventures of travel, of getting a job as a scholar or judge. He had heard about the opportunities opening up to ambitious and learned men in the court of the Sultan of India... Perhaps that would be his destiny. But first, there was so much of the world to see. Where should he go next?

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