Western accounts of the Hajj, the ritual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, are rare, since access to Mecca is forbidden to non-Muslims. In the Muslim world, however,

This collection of first hand accounts of travellers on Muslim pilgramages provides a literary history of the central ritual of Islam, from its remote pre-Islam

Mecca is the most forbidden of Holy Cities. Many Muslim historians and geographers have studied it--and countless pilgrims and travelers have left behind lively

An overview of the Islamic movement