Pre-Islamic Arabia The pilgrimage to Mecca is attested in some
pre-Islamic Arabic poetry. Compared to Islamic-era poetry where the Hajj appears ubiquitously, only a small number of references are found to it in pre-Islamic poetry, indicating that its Arabian centrality was a development of Islamic times. Among the references that do exist, they are concentrated among poets who resided near Mecca with a notable absence among those in northern, eastern, and southern Arabia. Pre-Islamic poetry consistently associates the Hajj with a single deity (
Allah), correlating with the rise of
pre-Islamic Arabian monotheism indicated by
inscriptions, although the survival of vestigial pagan rites is indicated by the mention of sacrifice stones in these contexts. The rites of the pre-Islamic Hajj in the sixth century were similar to those in the Muslim era, and evidence from the poetry of
Zuhayr bin Abi Sulma found in the
Mu'allaqat shows that, by the sixth century, the
Quraysh (and perhaps earlier,
Jurhum) were the custodians of the Kaaba. Some of the main changes between the pre-Islamic and Islamic Hajj instituted by Muhammad appear to have been his decoupling of the Hajj from animal hunting and animal sacrifice rites.
Pre-Islamic Arabia was a region of many pilgrimage rituals beyond that of Hajj. Many words were used to describe pilgrimage, including the Semitic
ḥgg. The most important pilgrimage ritual in
South Arabia was the one to the
Temple of Awwam, dedicated to the god
Almaqah, which was associated with a
ḥaram or
maḥram. A number of other South Arabian deities were also associated with special sanctuaries and pilgrimages, including
Dhu Samawi,
Qaynan, Siyan, and several more.
Muhammad and the Hajj The present pattern of the Hajj was established by
Islamic prophet Muhammad who made reforms to the pre-Islamic pilgrimage of the pagan Arabs. Mecca was conquered by the Muslims in 630 CE. Muhammad then destroyed all the pagan idols within the Kaaba, and consecrated the building to
Allah. Next year, at the direction of Muhammad,
Abu Bakr led 300 Muslims to the pilgrimage in Mecca where
Ali delivered a sermon stipulating the new rites of Hajj and abrogating the pagan rites. He especially declared that no unbeliever, pagan, and naked man would be allowed to circumambulate the Kaaba from the next year. In 632 CE, shortly before his death, Muhammad performed his only and last pilgrimage with a large number of followers, and taught them the rites of the Hajj and the manners of performing them. In the plain of Arafat, he delivered a famous speech – known as
The Farewell Sermon – to those who were present there. From then, Hajj became one of the
Five Pillars of Islam. Hajj was made compulsory in 9th Hijri.
Caliphate era During
medieval times, pilgrims would gather in the capital cities of
Syria,
Egypt, and
Iraq to go to Mecca in groups and
caravans comprising tens of thousands of pilgrims. The Muslim rulers would undertake the responsibility of the Hajj, and provide state patronage for organizing such pilgrimage caravans. To facilitate the pilgrimage journey, a road measuring 900 miles was constructed, stretching from Iraq to Mecca and Medina. The road's construction was probably undertaken during the third
Abbasid caliph
al-Mahdi, father of fifth Abbasid caliph
Harun al-Rashid, around 780 CE. It was later named the 'Way of
Zubayda' (
Darb Zubaidah), after Harun's wife, as she is noted for conducting improvements along the route and furnishing it with
water cisterns and eating houses for pilgrims at regular intervals. Both Harun and Zubayda performed the Hajj several times. They also conducted improvement activities in
Mecca and
Medina, which included the construction of an
extensive aqueduct system. A good deal of information on the medieval hajj comes from the firsthand observations of three Muslim travelers -
Nasir Khusraw,
Ibn Jubayr, and
Ibn Battuta - who themselves performed the pilgrimage and recorded detailed accounts. Khusraw performed the hajj in 1050. Starting his first journey from
Granada in 1183, Ibn Jubayr, a native of
Spain, performed his pilgrimage in 1184 and then went to Baghdad. Ibn Battuta, a native of Morocco, left his home in 1325 and performed his pilgrimage in 1326. After the
fall of Baghdad in 1258 (during
Mamluk period), Damascus and Cairo became the main assembly points for the pilgrims. While pilgrims from Syria, Iraq, and Iran, and Anatolia regions joined the Damascus caravan, those from
North Africa and Sub-Saharan regions joined the Cairo caravan. During this period, Damascus and Cairo were still the main points from where the chief hajj caravans would depart and come back. These caravans included thousands of camels for carrying pilgrims, merchants, goods, foodstuff, and water. A lot of people also made their pilgrimage journey on foot. The rulers would supply necessary military forces to ensure security of hajj caravans. Commanders for the caravans leaving from Cairo and Damascus were designated by the Muslim sovereign and were known as
Amir al-Hajj. They were in charge of protecting the pilgrims of the caravan, and securing funds and supplies for the journey. Surgeons and physicians were also sent with Syrian caravans to doctor the pilgrims free of costs. During this period, around 20,000 to 60,000 people made their pilgrimage annually. With the opening of
Suez Canal in 1869, the travel time for pilgrimage was shortened. Initially, the
British ship companies had a monopoly in these steamship business and they offered little facilities to the pilgrims. In 1886, the then government of India adopted some regulations to improve the pilgrimage journey from India to Hejaz. During the early twentieth century, the Ottoman Sultan
Abdul Hamid II constructed the
Hejaz Railway between Damascus and
Medina which further facilitated the pilgrimage journey: the pilgrims traveled in relative ease and reached Hejaz in only four days. Starting from Damascus in September 1900, the railway reached Medina in September 1908 having a span of 1,300 kilometers (810 mi). The railroad was damaged during the
First World War by an
Arab Revolt force led by British officer
T. E. Lawrence. in Switzerland built a class of ten
2-8-0 locomotives for the Hejaz Railway in 1912, numbered 87–96. After a contract between the
Saudi Arabian government and the Misr Airlines of Egypt in 1936, the Misr Airlines introduced the first airline service for Hajj pilgrims in 1937. The subsequent engine trouble of the aircraft disrupted the hajj flights, and the
Second World War from 1939 to 1945 caused a decrease in pilgrims' number. Modern transportation systems in the pilgrimage journey effectively began only after the Second World War. Saudi Arabia established the Arabian Transport Company and the Bakhashab Transport Company, in 1946 and 1948, respectively, in order to transport the pilgrims at various Hajj sites which proved highly effective in later years, and the use of camels as a means of transport for pilgrimage journeys virtually ended in 1950. The 1970s and subsequent decades saw a dramatic increase in the number of pilgrims because of the availability of affordable
air travel system. In 1979, a large group of rebels seized the mosque. This was known as the
Grand Mosque seizure. It took two weeks for the authorities to bring the situation under control and the rebels were later executed. In recent years there have been
several notable incidents such as a
human stampede in 2004 and
2006, a
crane collapse in 2015 and a
stampede in the same year; the government of Saudi Arabia has spent billions of dollars in crowd control and safety measures. During the
COVID-19 pandemic, only 10,000 people were
allowed to participate in the Hajj of 2020, with pilgrim numbers rising to 59,000 in 2021. Amidst the lifting of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, Hajj participation figures rebounded to 926,000 in 2022, and roughly doubled to 1.84 million in 2023. == Hajj routes ==