A workshop was organized by King Abdul Aziz Foundation for Research and Archives (Darah), Riyadh, and Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, to prepare a comprehensive encyclopedia of Haj pilgrims and pilgrimage from South Asian countries.
Speaking to Arab News, the organizers said on Tuesday that the workshop was organized in Jamia Millia last week in collaboration with the King Abdul Aziz foundation in which 32 prominent scholars, academics and researchers from India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Maldives, participated.
All of them are experts on past and present Haj management from their countries, and they strongly felt the need to compile the information and bring it out in the form of a comprehensive encyclopedia.
Earlier, Jamia was identified as the nodal agency from South Asian countries to coordinate the compilation of this encyclopedia in an agreement signed more than a year ago by its Vice Chancellor Najeeb Jung and the King Abdul Aziz Foundation.
The Indian contingent of Haj pilgrims remained the largest till the partition of India in 1947 with the separation of Pakistan. Even today India sends the second largest number of pilgrims to perform Haj after Indonesia.
A senior professor at Jamia’s Islamic studies center, in an e-mail reply to Arab News, said: “A lot of material on Indian pilgrims’ journeys to Makkah Mukarramah and Madina Munawwarah is scattered over different parts of the Indian sub-continent and other countries of South Asia in the form of travelogues, details of Haj endowments, systems of transportations, medical facilities for Hajis and their departure and arrival arrangements since ages. It will be properly documented now.”
Founded in 1972 by a royal decree to serve the history of the Kingdom, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Arab and Islamic world, Darah is managed by a board of directors chaired by Crown Prince Salman, deputy premier and minister of defense.
Popularly known as Darah, the foundation manages the historical sources, makes it available for researchers and publishes specialized versions besides running several centers including the Makkah center, the Madinah research and studies center, royal family’s history documenting center and Arab Gulf and East of the Arabian Peninsula history center in Dammam.