A Visual History of the Hajj

‘Alexander the Great visits the Ka’bah’, folio from a copy of Firdawsi’s Shahnamah, mid 16th century, The Khalili Collections.

A Visual History of the Hajj is one of several exhibits produced by Google Arts and Culture and the Khalili Collections, assembled over five decades by Professor Nasser D. Khalili. Hajj is the annual pilgrimage to the sacred city of Mecca, the holiest city in Islam and the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad. Every year Muslims from around the world arrive in Saudi Arabia and perform a series of elaborate rites which take place during five days of Dh'l-Hijjah, the 12th month of the Islamic calendar, Hajj begins with a visit to the Ka'bah and culminates on the Pain of Arafat a short distance away. Amongst the highlights of the exhibit are “Alexander the Great visits the Ka'bah," a folio from a copy of Firdowsi's Shahnamah. Under the influence of translations into Arabic of the highly-fictionalised Greek Alexander romance, Alexander the Great was identified with the Qur’anic prophet Dhu’l-Qarnayn (‘he of the two horns’), with a universal mission to impose the monotheistic religion of Abraham. His journey to the Ka‘bah was the first of his world journeys, when he declared himself master of Arabia and destroyed those who had distorted its religious tradition.