Contexts: Introducing the ḥağğ, al-Maqrīzī, and al-Ḏahab al-masbūk (Seventh – Fifteenth Centuries)

Ever since the dawn of Islam, the Qurʾānic injunction to perform theḥağğor pilgrimage to God’s House has encouraged ever more Muslims from ever more places across the globe to come to the West-Arabian region of the Hijaz. Today, more than two million male and female pilgrims every year partake in the series of prescribed acts in and near the sanctuary of Mecca that make up this pilgrimage ritual. They do so in an environment that has substantially altered since the middle of the previous century. Modernisation, particular views of Muslim orthodoxy, and various incidents with and concerns for