Haj through the eyes of a Russian secret agent

JEDDAH: Haj is one of the five pillars of Islam and one of the great Islamic rituals. The elderly remember how difficult it was to perform the pilgrimage decades ago, recount the challenges and hail the great efforts made by the Saudi government since the era of King Abdul Aziz.
They have words of praise for the great qualitative shift in the organization of the Haj rituals and the great care to ensure that pilgrims return safely to their countries, a goal the Saudi government spared no effort to achieve.
In his book, “Haj — 100 Years Ago,” Russian writer Efim Rezvan collected real reports and stories written by a Muslim Russian officer called Abdul Aziz Davletshin who was secretly sent by the Russian authorities to the Hejaz to perform Haj, collect information and report his observations of the Muslim world.
The book provides valuable information on military outposts, security leaders, features of public life, education, health and mosques at the time.
It includes Davletshin’s detailed observations on Makkah and the holy sites, Taif, Yanbu and Madinah.
The 352-page book is an exquisite descriptive novel of history, geography, politics, sociology and administration in this strategic region.
It was published in Beirut in 1994 and is available in Arabic.
The Russian officer performed the pilgrimage in 1898-1899.
He spoke about how the pilgrimage made it easy for epidemics like plague, typhoid and cholera to spread: “Cholera epidemics spread in abundance at the time of pilgrimage, killing more than half of the pilgrims and extend to the neighboring Bedouin places and to other inhabited places in the Arabian Peninsula as well.”
The Russian officer also spoke about the suffering endured by pilgrims looted by desert “nomads,” of attacks on the pilgrims’ convoys and of some tribes’ armed resistance to the passage of convoys through their territories.
Describing the roads that link Makkah and Jeddah and Makkah and Madinah, which pilgrims had to use, he said: “The soil of all roads in the Hejaz were of very coarse sand which can be found near mountains, where stones are found everywhere. The narrow roads and crossings were full of rock that make the movement more difficult.”
The book gives a glimpse at how it used to be and provides a good point of comparison to the situation today, when pilgrims enjoy all the comfort and luxury befitting the 21st century.