Mecque

Very Good Turkish, Ottoman (1500-1928) Contemporary 1/3 leather bdg. with cloth spine. Leather boards. Restored. Demy 8vo. (22 x 15 cm). In Arabic. [138] p. Slightly chipped extremities of papers. Occasionally stained on pages, wear on binding. Text is fine. Including 'kataba'. The routine, predictable, yet exhaustive nature of the journey Ottoman pilgrims endured may have discouraged them from recording their journeys. The route was relatively well-defined, and the caravan orderly and well-protected. Moreover, Ottoman pilgrims, unlike Christian travelers, were traveling across the lands of the same state, thus seeing people of the same Muslim culture, without needing to speak different languages, use different currencies, or negotiate borders between states. The uniqueness and peculiarity of a journey would motivate the traveler to record it and the result would be of interest to an audience. As for the Ottomans, if the texts which were composed to help future pilgrims with practical information are excluded, the majority of known narratives, are written by those authors such as Ahmed Fakih, Fevri, Evliya Çelebi, Nabi, and Shaikh Sinan er-Rûmî who undertook at least some parts of their journeys independently of the official caravan. Texts which seem to have been intended simply to provide practical information either on the stations or on the rites of the hajj or on both are defined as guidebooks. These texts appear not to be based on a particular pilgrimage journey, regardless of the fact that their authors might have performed the hajj. This manuscript starts with 'Bayân al-Menâzil Beyt Al-Sam wa al-Qabah' [i.e. Descriptions and stations from Damascus to Mecca] including a very detailed routes' list with their times hour by hour. 40 routes and hours probably by mounts and/or walking between Damascus and Mecca, Qaba. Other chapters of the text include rites and routes like "Farziyyat of Hajj, Ihram, Mukhrima, entry to Mecca-i Muqarrama, tawaf, Sa'y between Safa and Marwa, Arafat in Mecca, Muzdalifa from Arafat, Ef'al in Mina, Umra, Taawaf al-Vedâ, Qabr-i Sharif in Medina al-Munawwara, etc. Sheikh Sinan Al-Roumi's manasik al-hajj is one of the most important and famous ones in the hajj literature of the Islamic world. It was a mostly used reference book among Muslim pilgrims, especially in the Ottoman world. Calligrapher and copied by Ahmed b. Muhammed b. Suleyman. Text in black ink and important headings in red ink on paper with 'ahar'. A fine paper suitable for calligraphy. A very good example from the first half of the 18th century.