Full name: One Thousand Roads to Mecca: Ten Centuries of Travelers Writing about the Muslim Pilgrimage

Author: Michael Wolfe Year: 1997 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Travel, Non Fiction, Religion, History Purchase/reserch links: Amazon Goodreads LibraryThing ISBNs: 9780802135995 0802135994

The pilgrimage to Mecca, or the Hajj, is a journey all Muslims are enjoined to make once in their lifetimes. Its purpose is to detach human beings from their homes and, by bringing them to Islam's birthplace, to emphasize the equality of all people before God. Since its inception in the seventh century, the Hajj has been the central theme in a large body of Islamic travel literature. Beginning with the European Renaissance, it has also been the subject for a handful of adventurous writers from the Christian West who, through conversion or connivance, managed to slip inside the walls of a city forbidden to non-Muslims. One Thousand Roads to Mecca collects significant works by observant writers from the East and West over the last ten centuries. These two very different literary traditions form distinct sides of a spirited conversation in which Mecca is the common destination and Islam the common subject of inquiry. Similar books: The Silk Road by Valerie Hansen Rag and Bone by Peter Manseau Tibet, Tibet by Patrick French Karma Cola by Gita Mehta The Masque of Africa by V. S. Naipaul The Sisters of Sinai by Janet Soskice Return to Tibet by Heinrich Harrer An Irreverent Curiosity by David Farley Walking the Bible by Bruce Feiler The Paradigm by Jonathan Cahn In Europe by Geert Mak The Fisherman's Tomb by John O'Neill No god but God by Reza Aslan The Triumph of the Moon by Ronald Hutton A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World by Tony Horwitz 1453 by Roger Crowley Landmarks by Robert Macfarlane Caesar and Christ by Will Durant The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt by Richard H. Wilkinson Servants of Allah by Sylviane A. Diouf