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Book Review:
Mecca The Blessed, Medina The Radiant:
The Holiest Cities of Islam
Reviewed by Mohammed Ayub Ali Khan
Islam Online, Chicago
Authors: Photographs by Ali Kazuyoshi Nomashi, Essay by Seyyed Hussein Nasr
Publisher: Aperture Foundation Inc, 20 East 23rd Street, New York, NY 10010
Price: $50.00
The holy cities of Mecca and Medina have commanded incredible reverence from the Muslims and awe and wonder from non-Muslims throughout the centuries and, God willing, always will. To accomplish the pilgrimage of Hajj once in a lifetime is a cherished dream of each and every Muslim. While nothing can capture the spiritual surge experienced by physically being there, photographer Ali Kazuyoshi Nomashi has
captured awe-inspiring sites through the means of his camera lens. This acclaimed Japanese photographer, who has worked for National Geographic and is a revert to Islam, has indeed made a major contribution to the information on Mecca, Medina and the Hajj available in print.
The picture of the Kaabah on the night of the 27th of Ramadan (the night of power) with a mass of humanity doing the Tawaf is indeed powerful. There are many pictures of the Kaaba, which many people don't get to see. For example, the door of the Kaaba and its roof. There is also pictures of the blessed room where the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is buried, which was taken at midnight when no one is present by the special permission of the authorities.
There are pictures of pilgrims coming from all over the world. For example, there is a picture of Muslims from Central Asia who have traveled all the way by road, a picture of Chinese Muslims, Nigerian women who stand out due to their colorful clothing on Eid al-Adha, Malaysian women with their headbands reciting a Du'a, a Pakistani laborer family camping on the hilltops and Shi'a Muslims wailing in the Jannatul Baqi.
There are also some rare historical pictures like the one of the Kaaba during a deluge in 1941 and a picture of Mt. Arafat taken by the Dutch Orientalist Snouck Hurgronje during Hajj in 1885, when it was flooded. In the end, it also contains pictures of the Bedouins, oasis, camel races and Madain Saleh.
The masterly written essay by Seyyed Hussein Nasr is great but incomplete regarding the history of these Holy Places. He also quotes some Israeliyat hadeeths without writing their references, like the alleged story of Nuh's (pbuh) boat coming to the Kaaba and doing Tawaf around it as the body of Adam (pbuh) floated near it. There are some spelling mistakes, too, like Jabal al-Rahmah (Mt. Mercy) is spelled Jabal Al-Rahman and the Sufi saint from Pakistan, Data Ganj Baksh, is instead spelled Daadaji.
Overall, it is a great book and I recommend it to everyone, especially non-Muslims, who are forbidden from entering the sacred territory
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