https://www.speakingtree.in/article/showcasing-the-haj
The first major exhibition to explore the traditional pilgrimage to Mecca which is central to the Muslim faith, the Haj exhibition at British Museum, concluded recently. It was one of a series of shows that focus on spiritual journeys.
Drawing together artefacts from collections in Saudi Arabia, as well as public and private archives in the UK and around the world, ‘The Haj-Journey to the Heart of Islam’ exhibition featured everything from archaeological material and manuscripts to photographs, textiles and contemporary art. The exhibition also included gifts left at the sanctuary in Mecca as acts of devotion, as well as souvenirs brought home.
Cultural Partnerships
The exhibition, which was organised in partnership with the King Abdulaziz Public Library, Riyadh, examined three key strands.
These were: the pilgrim’s journey with an emphasis on the major routes used across time; the Haj today, its associated rituals and what the experience means to the pilgrim and Mecca; the destination of Haj, its origins and importance.
The show took visitors on a journey that starts with how Muslims prepare for the pilgrimage, including settling outstanding debts and asking for the forgiveness of others. Many pilgrims also make wills before they depart, reflecting the belief that they should be prepared for the possibility that they may not return home.
Loans on show at the exhibition included significant material from Saudi Arabia including aseetanah, which covers the door of the Kaaba, as well as other historic and contemporary artefacts from key museums in the Middle East. Other objects came from major public and private collections in the UK and around the world, among them the British Library and the Khalili Family Trust.
The exhibition brought together exquisite artefacts tracing four ancient pilgrimage routes — across Arabia, North and West Africa, the Ottoman Empire and the Indian Ocean, the latter including a map of the Indian Ocean made by a seaman from Kutch, annotated in Hindi, Gujarati and English, as well as prosaic items such as tickets for a Thomas Cook Haj ship and a sample of a Bengali embroideredrumal cloth, shipped over the Indian Ocean to be traded at Mecca and taken home by Indonesian pilgrims as a souvenir. The fifth pilgrimage route depicted was the contemporary journey made by 20,000-odd British Muslims every year from Heathrow Airport. At the exhibition’s end was an audio exhibition playing some moving testimonies from British Muslims of their Haj pilgrimages, recorded by anthropologist Sean McLouglin from Leeds University.
A Successful Show
The first museum show anywhere in the world to focus on the pilgrimage, in less than seven weeks, it exceeded the museum’s target of 80,000 visitors.
By the end of the exhibition, 119,948 adult tickets (under-16s get in free) had been sold at £12 each, with all advance tickets sold out and the museum opening for longer hours to accommodate the extra demand.
As non-Muslims, neither the director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor, nor the lead curator, Venetia Porter, can ever set foot at the sites or experience the rituals, the exhibition describes. “In a way that’s the point of the exhibition,” MacGregor said. “The Haj is the fifth pillar of Islam, and the only one which non-Muslims are not welcomed to observe or share. The purpose of the British Museum, when it was founded, was to enable its visitors to understand the world better, and this must surely meet that objective.”
MacGregor described the Haj as “the high point of the intersection between theology and logistics”.
The exhibition also traced the suppliers of travellers’ provisions, the organisers of camel caravans, the queen who left a legacy of a chain of wells and rest houses, and the builders who constructed railways specially for the pilgrims.
ASAD MIRZA, editor of Britain Today, reports on the exhibition ‘The Haj — Journey to the Heart of Islam’, that he saw on his recent visit to the UK
The first major exhibition to explore the traditional pilgrimage to Mecca which is central to the Muslim faith, the Haj exhibition at British Museum, concluded recently. It was one of a series of shows that focus on spiritual journeys.
Drawing together artefacts from collections in Saudi Arabia, as well as public and private archives in the UK and around the world, ‘The Haj-Journey to the Heart of Islam’ exhibition featured everything from archaeological material and manuscripts to photographs, textiles and contemporary art. The exhibition also included gifts left at the sanctuary in Mecca as acts of devotion, as well as souvenirs brought home.
Cultural Partnerships
The exhibition, which was organised in partnership with the King Abdulaziz Public Library, Riyadh, examined three key strands.
These were: the pilgrim’s journey with an emphasis on the major routes used across time; the Haj today, its associated rituals and what the experience means to the pilgrim and Mecca; the destination of Haj, its origins and importance.
The show took visitors on a journey that starts with how Muslims prepare for the pilgrimage, including settling outstanding debts and asking for the forgiveness of others. Many pilgrims also make wills before they depart, reflecting the belief that they should be prepared for the possibility that they may not return home.
Loans on show at the exhibition included significant material from Saudi Arabia including aseetanah, which covers the door of the Kaaba, as well as other historic and contemporary artefacts from key museums in the Middle East. Other objects came from major public and private collections in the UK and around the world, among them the British Library and the Khalili Family Trust.
The exhibition brought together exquisite artefacts tracing four ancient pilgrimage routes — across Arabia, North and West Africa, the Ottoman Empire and the Indian Ocean, the latter including a map of the Indian Ocean made by a seaman from Kutch, annotated in Hindi, Gujarati and English, as well as prosaic items such as tickets for a Thomas Cook Haj ship and a sample of a Bengali embroideredrumal cloth, shipped over the Indian Ocean to be traded at Mecca and taken home by Indonesian pilgrims as a souvenir. The fifth pilgrimage route depicted was the contemporary journey made by 20,000-odd British Muslims every year from Heathrow Airport. At the exhibition’s end was an audio exhibition playing some moving testimonies from British Muslims of their Haj pilgrimages, recorded by anthropologist Sean McLouglin from Leeds University.
A Successful Show
The first museum show anywhere in the world to focus on the pilgrimage, in less than seven weeks, it exceeded the museum’s target of 80,000 visitors.
By the end of the exhibition, 119,948 adult tickets (under-16s get in free) had been sold at £12 each, with all advance tickets sold out and the museum opening for longer hours to accommodate the extra demand.
As non-Muslims, neither the director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor, nor the lead curator, Venetia Porter, can ever set foot at the sites or experience the rituals, the exhibition describes. “In a way that’s the point of the exhibition,” MacGregor said. “The Haj is the fifth pillar of Islam, and the only one which non-Muslims are not welcomed to observe or share. The purpose of the British Museum, when it was founded, was to enable its visitors to understand the world better, and this must surely meet that objective.”
MacGregor described the Haj as “the high point of the intersection between theology and logistics”.
The exhibition also traced the suppliers of travellers’ provisions, the organisers of camel caravans, the queen who left a legacy of a chain of wells and rest houses, and the builders who constructed railways specially for the pilgrims.
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