Reviews (7)

Classic adventure... and mostly true!
I confess: Richard F Burton is one of my heroes. In part, it's because much of my life has been spent in his traces, from India, through the Middle East, to Baltimore and the Great Plains.
Sir Richard Burton - a man not of his time
Excellent writing about an arduous journey to meccah. While not the first European to enter the holy city, he was the first to pace off dimensions and publish an extensive survey of the area, the city and the muslims' sacred meterorite. Very interesting subject material particularly in the 21st century.

bibliography & note
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Subjects:  1. Arabian Peninsula    2. Description and travel    3. Essays & Travelogues    4. Mecca    5. Mecca (Saudi Arabia)    6. Medina (Saudi Arabia)    7. Middle East - General    8. Muslim pilgrims and pilgrimage    9. Muslim pilgrims and pilgrimages    10. Saudi Arabia    11. Special Interest - Adventure    12. Travel    13. Travel - Foreign    14. Classic travel writing    15. Islam    16. Other prose: 19th century    17. Pilgrimage    18. Travel / Adventure   

Reviews (1)

First four years after Hicrat
This Volume covers the first four years after the Hicrat. Among various excurcios to neighbouring tribes or caravans the volume covers Badr and Uhud battles. Marriage of Mohammed (AS) to HZ. Aisah, conflicts with Jews in the city of Madina. Tabari usesIbn Ishak, Ibn Hisham as his sources and time to time provides variant stories on same subject with chain of isnads. Contrary to his Tafsir, he does not say which one is more acceptable to him. The translators have some preface and time to time expalanatory commentary in Fine Prints which I found most of them unacceptable. I did not appreciate sometimes their twisted opinions in a book which is supposed to be a translation. But again I appreciate their work for making this book available to English readers. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 622-661    2. History    3. History - General History    4. History: American    5. Islamic Empire    6. Medina (Saudi Arabia)    7. World - General    8. ASIA    9. Asian / Middle Eastern history    10. USA   

Editorial Review

These photographs of the Muslim holy cities Mecca and Medina, taken by a Japanese convert, Ali Kazuyoshi Nomachi, are something new for most Westerners, and perhaps even for many Muslims. Non-Muslims are never allowed into Mecca, and it is almost unheard-of for religious and government leaders to allow such pictures to be taken. Most of these images were shot during the holy month of Ramadan, when many faithful are in Mecca and Medina on pilgrimage. Read more

Reviews (18)

Put Politics and Religion Aside and Enjoy the Pictures
Several readers have reviewed MECCA THE BLESSED, MEDINA THE RADIANT based on their negative political views of Saudi Arabia as well as the religious prohibition preventing non-Muslims from entering Mecca and Medina.Although I share these views (see my review of HATRED'S KINGDOM by Dore Gold), this is not a political book but one of photography and my review is on that basis.And on that basis, the book is very good.
Truely Unique Pictures
I have to say that I found this book to be very enlightning.It is truely a work of art for pictures to convey the emotions and suspenseful situation that the pilgrames who are performing their Hajj are experiencing.I had experienced and performed the Hajj about 3 years ago and truely the pictures convey the emotional and spiritual roller coaster every pilgram had felt.Unfortunately, my only complaint maybe that there aren't enough pictures!!But...kudos to the photographer who had to work through the difficult atmosphere just to get these pictures anyways.
Good between the visual and the intellectual
As many are aware of, Professor Nasr is one of the foremost intellectuals of our time.The information presented is unique in that it is coupled with wonderful pictorials of the Holy Cities of Islam.Both informative and beautiful, this publication offers and a holistic representation of two of the most intact religious sanctuaries on the planet.
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Subjects:  1. Comparative Religion    2. Islam    3. Islam - General    4. Mecca    5. Mecca (Saudi Arabia)    6. Medina    7. Medina (Saudi Arabia)    8. Muslim pilgrims and pilgrimage    9. Muslim pilgrims and pilgrimages    10. Photo Essays    11. Pictorial works    12. Religion    13. Religion - World Religions    14. Saudi Arabia    15. Subjects & Themes - Travel - World/Middle East    16. Photographs: collections   

Subjects:  1. Business / Economics / Finance    2. Business/Economics    3. Commerce    4. Economic History    5. Economic aspects    6. Economics    7. Finance    8. History    9. Islam    10. Islamic Empire    11. Mecca (Saudi Arabia)    12. Merchants    13. Religious aspects   

Subjects:  1. Mecca    2. Mecca (Saudi Arabia)   

Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. History    3. Mahmud II, 1808-1839    4. Medina (Saudi Arabia)    5. Sutcliff, Rosemary - Prose & Criticism    6. Turkey   

Reviews (2)

A Spiritual Experience
I am just reading the German original of this book. I am deeply touched by it because the sincerity of the author shines through every word. M.Hofmann has been in diplomatic service for decades and served as German Ambassador to Morocco and Algeria. Understand Muslims better
Because the book is about the exepriance of a German Muslim, it gives the reader an idea about the Islamic World and how they think. Because thewriter is a German he is more likely to be able to explain the Islamictraditions that might seem strange to non-muslims or be interpritednegatively. I like the book because it helped me understand how Muslims-who are not Arab -think and express themselves. Hofmann wrote otherinteresting books.One of his best books I think isThe journals of aMuslim German.This book reviels how he was presented to Islam and thedifference Islam brought to his life. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography / Autobiography    2. Description and travel    3. General    4. Hofmann, Murad Wilfried    5. Mecca    6. Mecca (Saudi Arabia)    7. Muslim pilgrims and pilgrimage    8. Muslim pilgrims and pilgrimages    9. Religion    10. Saudi Arabia    11. Travel    12. Islam    13. Journeys   

Reviews (1)

A wonderful window back
Hamza Bogary's The Sheltered Quarter is a wonderful novel about the days before oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia.It details the life of Muhaisin AL-Baliy, a boy growing up raised only by his mother due to his father's death beofre he was born.The book tells of his trials in school with bullies and the like and that he does very well there and becomes an avid reader, so much so that he reads by a streetlight by night because his house doesn't have a proper light.You learn about Auntie Asma, a friend of his mother's who gives her advice on things concerning Muhaisin.She is also a strange women who believes in many superstitions and practices odd rituals.Other characters encountered are Amm Ustad, a freemason, and Muhaisin's likn to the changing world outside Mecca.Overall The Sheltered Quarter is a funa nad interesting read that can enjoyed by anyone looking for a book with good descripttive language and a fascinating story to tell. I know i sure enjoyed reading this wonderful tale, plus it enlightened me to some of things about the Saudi culture i didn't know. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Arabic Literature    2. Bildungsromans    3. Boys    4. Fiction    5. Fiction - General    6. General    7. History: World    8. Mecca (Saudi Arabia)    9. Arabic    10. Fiction / General    11. Literary studies: general    12. Literature: Texts   

Subjects:  1. Children's Books/Ages 4-8 Nonfiction    2. Children: Grades 2-3    3. Islam    4. Juvenile Nonfiction    5. Juvenile literature    6. Mecca (Saudi Arabia)    7. Religion - General    8. Religion - Islam   

Subjects:  1. Islamic shrines    2. Jerusalem    3. Jewish shrines    4. Kabah    5. Mecca    6. Mecca (Saudi Arabia)    7. Religious life and customs    8. Saudi Arabia    9. Temple of Jerusalem (Jerusalem    10. Urban History    11. History / Middle East    12. Spirituality   

Subjects:  1. Children's 9-12 - Sociology    2. Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9)    3. Islam    4. Juvenile Geography    5. Juvenile Religion    6. Juvenile literature    7. Mecca (Saudi Arabia)    8. Muslims    9. People & Places - Asia    10. Religion - Islam    11. Geography    12. Religious education / world faiths   

Reviews (1)

Covering it all
The given book is certainly interesting, and one can get a general view of what were those "rulers of Mecca", where they came from and so on. But for those interested in some certain period of Mecca's life the book offers only small bits of information, for it's aim is a bit vague, and it covers just too big a piece of time to give certain details, which, no doubt, are of interest. So, the book may serve as a good starting point to study the history of Hijaz, yet no more, and after reading it (if interested) one has to search further for more to satisfy his appetite. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. History    3. History - General History    4. Mecca (Saudi Arabia)    5. Middle East - Saudi Arabia   

Reviews (4)

When its good, it's very good...

A Missed Opportunity
The Hajj is a fascinating topic and this book promised something possibly unique: a travelogue which attempts to reconcile the detachment of an ethnographer with the physical, mental and emotional demands of a committed participant. However, the end product is almost completely undone by long, turgid, almost unreadable and certainly incomprehensible passages written in academic gobbledeygook. Sokal & Bricmont did us all a favour by dissing this style of writing in their book 'Fashionable Nonsense'. All we now need is a fatwa from Al-Azhar University which does the same for authors like Hammoudi.Having said this, what remains is actually worth persisting with as the author does not hold back on either the negative aspects or virtues of the Hajj experience. In other words, it's a warts and all portrayal that is rather different from the sanitised descriptions of the pilgrimage in most Islam textbooks. In closing, then, the book is just about worth the effort: two and a half stars would be a more realistic rating if this were possible.

A Muslim writer questions his religion's fundamentals
A SEASON IN MECCA: NARRATIVE OF A PILGRIMAGE comes from a Muslim writer who is always questioning his religion's fundamentals - but not its meaning. His survey of how his fellow Muslim make the pilgrimage to Mecca, and why, gets him on the road of pilgrims, to personally investigate the different worlds of Islam and the varied reasons pilgrims have for making the sacred journey. Moroccan scholar Hammoudi's own pilgrimage to Mecca describes its history, religious importance, and social effects alike, as well as the politics which influence the pilgrimage itself. A 'must' for any who would understand modern Muslim sentiments.
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Subjects:  1. Islam - Rituals & Practice    2. Islam - Theology    3. Islamic Studies    4. Religion - World Religions    5. Anthropology    6. ISLAM_DOCTRINES    7. Islam    8. MECCA (SAUDI ARABIA)    9. Pilgrimage    10. Religion / Islam / Theology   

Subjects:  1. Arabian Peninsula    2. Asia - General    3. Description and travel    4. Mecca    5. Mecca (Saudi Arabia)    6. Middle East - General    7. Muslim pilgrims and pilgrimages    8. Saudi Arabia    9. Travel    10. Travel - Foreign    11. Classic travel writing    12. c 1900 - c 1914   

Subjects:  1. History    2. History: World    3. Islam    4. Islamic History    5. Medina    6. Medina (Saudi Arabia)    7. Saudi Arabia    8. Saudi Arabia - History    9. Asian / Middle Eastern history: c 500 to c 1500    10. Islamic studies    11. Jewish studies    12. Local history   

Subjects:  1. History - General History    2. Juvenile literature    3. Mecca (Saudi Arabia)    4. Middle East - Saudi Arabia   

Subjects:  1. Mecca    2. Mecca (Saudi Arabia)    3. Muslim pilgrims and pilgrimages    4. Pictorial works   

Reviews (2)

Rule of thumb
Whenever Daniel Pipes gives a low rating....the book is well worth the read.
Mecca
"Mecca" is a companion volume to Peters' earlier 1994 study, "The Hajj:The Muslim Pilgrimage to Mecca and the Holy Places" (reviewed in Middle East Quarterly, September 1994).That book focuses on the experience of the pilgrimage, in Mecca and outside it; this one focuses on the geography and history of what Peters calls "the Muslim Holy Land," by which he means "Mecca and Medina and their spiritual environs." "Literary history" points to the fact that there is little or no material evidence for Islam's holy cities before 1925, this book's cut-off date, compelling the researcher to rely almost exlusively on written sources.Read more

Subjects:  1. History    2. History - General History    3. Islam    4. Islam - General    5. Literary History And Criticism    6. Mecca (Saudi Arabia)    7. Medina (Saudi Arabia)    8. Middle East - Saudi Arabia    9. Religion    10. Anthropology    11. Collections & anthologies of various literary forms    12. Islamic studies    13. Middle East    14. Middle Eastern Studies    15. Religion / Islam   

Reviews (1)

Technical and sometimes difficult, but clearly written
One of the premier historians of the rise of Islam examines the evidence for the traditional Muslim story of trade in Mecca, and finds it -- at least -- wanting. A solid refutation of part of the standard Islamic story.Read more

Subjects:  1. Arabian Peninsula    2. Commerce    3. Economic History    4. General    5. History    6. History - General History    7. International - General    8. Islam    9. Mecca (Saudi Arabia)   

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