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Pilgrim's Progress. €fu= **gE r*s*****Eee * *F**=#E# ae*e *xfo*fu€€**acByWilliamGreen

IN 2011, NEARLY 3 MILLION MUSLIMS

made the pilgrimage, or hajj, to Mecca.

Worshippers from almost everylandtraveled to this holy city in the SaudiArabian desert: zzz,6oo fromlndonesiaalone;99,ooo from Nigeria; r3,8oo fromChina. Yet to non-Muslims, Mecca is a

mystery. One of the first to glimpse itswonders was the British explorer Richard

Burton, who ventured there in 1853,

disguised as an Afghan doctor. In hisbesl-selling account, he recalled:' Ablunder, a hasty action, a misjudgedword, a prayer or bow, not strictly the

right shibboleth, and my bones wouldhive whitened the desert sand"'

Non-Muslims are still forbidden to visit

Mecca. But a captivating alternative nowexists for those curious about the experi-

ence-the exhibition "Hajj: Journey to the

Heart of Islam," which runs until April 15

at London's British Museum. It's a stun-ning show, featuring an extraordinaryran[e of objects-from priceless paintingsto n-umble items like Burton's ownbat-tered metal flask, which he filled with wa-

ler fromZamzam, Mecca's sacred well'Beside this flask stands a cotton-and-velvethelmet, once dipped in Zamzam water to

protect its owner, Tipu Sultan, the Muslimiuler of Mysore. The British killedhim in1799 and stole the helmet as a souvenir.

The focal point of Mecca is the blackgranite Kaaba, a cuboid building that

Muslims believe was constructed byAdam after his expulsion from the Gar-

den of Eden, then rebuilt by Abraham'The site attracted devotees even before the

birth of Islam. An exquisite painting fronaround r55o depicts Alexander the Gr:a:kneeling beside the Kaaba in pra]'er.

while his soldiers standback in arve. Itwas the Prophet Muhammad rvho estab'

lished the Kaaba as the center of Islam.

Born in Mecca, he performed the haji r::

632 and stipulated that every Muslimmust make this pilgrimage at least on;e'

In their fervor, the Pilgrims-orhaj jis-braved storms, plagueand Beciou

in bandits. Some perished, and the erhi-bition touchingly includes the tombstone

of an unnamed visitor buried in \Iecca

9oo years ago. Other travelers were an\'

ihing but anonymous. One celebritv pi'-grirnwas the African King N{ansu \Ius:'who embarked from Timbuktu in r3::with 5oo slaves, dispensing so much sc-:

44

along the way that the commodity priceplunged in Egypt. A map from r5z5 por-trays him clutching his bullion.

One ofthe loveliest treasures on dis-play is The Pilgrim's Com anion, a guide-book written during a yearlong hajj in1676. The Indian author shares tips onhow to avoid getting cheated by ship cap-tains, fend offattackers and bail out wa-ter. The manuscript also includeswonderfully detailed paintings depictinghajjis at sea and camping with camels.

Venetia Porter, the exhibition's cura-tor, says her toughest challenge was se-lecting objects to tell the story ofaspiritual journey in a way that's "evoca-tive to non-Muslims." She's particularlymoved by such simple items as a photo-graph of pilgrims crossing the desert in19o9: privileged hajjis perch on camelsand carry parasols, while poorer oneswalk alongside. As Porter says, "You feelvou're with them."

lntheirfervor, thepilgrims bravedstorms, plague andBedouin bandits

Spiritual richesItems on show include

paintings, textilesand, below. an ancient

copy of the Koran

)

J.

Neil MacGregor, the director of theBritish Museum, is dazzled by a vast silkcurtain made in 1857 to cover the door ofthe Kaaba. Sumptuously embroidered ingold and silver thread, it was commis-sioned by an Ottoman sultan. MacGregordraws a connection between this "mar-velous" textile and the painting of Alex-ander the Great praying at the Kaaba. Inboth cases, he says, "the supreme earthlypower submits and respects a higherpower. It's a very moving idea."

What makes the exhibition so en-thrallingis this juxtaposition of sublimeart and commonplace items. One mo-ment, you marvel at a ravishing textile;the next, you see a Mecca PilgrimageTicket from the travel agent ThomasCook, entitling a passenger to sail bysteamboat from Bombay to feddah andback "during 1886." Both capture themagic of the hajj. But fornon-Muslims,this view from afar will have to suffice. I