One Thousand Roads to Mecca: Ten Centuries of Travelers Writing About the Muslim Pilgrimage

Michael Wolfe

GROVE/ATLANTIC Incorporated, 1997 - History - 620 pages

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.

What people are saying

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

User Review  - Hayley Zeller - Goodreads

Not bad. All of the different accounts are well set in a historical context and many are quite readable. Excellent introduction to the diversity of Muslim culture and thought through the lens of the Hajj.

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

User Review  - Anthony - Goodreads

anyone interested in a primer on Islam and the annual pilgrimage to Makkah should read this... more great first person accounts which speak to us through centuries past...

About the author

Michael Wolfe is the author of books of poetry, fiction, travel and history. His most recent works are a pair of books from Grove Press on the pilgrimage to Mecca: "The Hadj," a first-person travel account and "One Thousand Roads to Mecca," an anthology of 10 centuries of travelers writing about the Muslim pilgrimage. In 1997, Wolfe hosted a televised account of the "Hadj from Mecca" for "Nightline "on ABC. He is currently at work on a four-hour television documentary on the life and times of the Prophet Muhammad. He lives in California.

Bibliographic information

• Title: One Thousand Roads to Mecca: Ten Centuries of Travelers Writing About the Muslim Pilgrimage
• Editor: Michael Wolfe
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: GROVE/ATLANTIC Incorporated, 1997
• ISBN: 0802135994, 9780802135995
• Length: 620 pages
• Subjects: History / Middle East / General; Religion / Islam / General