Egypt - The An-Nakhl fortress, a stage on the pilgrimage route to Mecca

The pilgrimage to Mecca The greatest dream of a pious Moslem, whether he be African, Asian, European, of Arab culture or not, a Sunnite or a Shiite, is to tread on the very same sacred ground (haram) of Mecca to which he turns at each prayer, in order to repeat the gestures of the Prophet who, whilst accomplishing them, became part of the Brahminical tradition. Two types of pilgrimage can be made: the hajj, a group pilgrimage which is compulsory for all those who can afford it and which takes place on a fixed date once a year between the 7th and 10th of the month of the lunar year of the dhul’Hijja. Then there is the Umra, which can be undertaken by an individual at any time of the year. Thus, from the Atlantic to China, from Europe to Africa, a huge network of pilgrimage routes (the durub al-hajj) arose from the VIIIth century on with the expansion of Islam. Among the “durub” those of Egypt were the most dense and most used since the Middle Ages. The importance of Egypt Egypt was always a commercial and cultural staging point for the travellers from the East or from the West. Its position within the Arab world was always quite privileged as well as the pilgrimage or hajj routes which were always congested throughout the year and which were used by both pilgrims and traders. Ibn Battuta, from Tangiers, in the XIVth century, undertook his tremendous journey (from 1325 to 1353) which lasted 29 years and which took him as far as the Maldives, Sumatra, Java, then China and Niger, went to Mecca no less than four times and passed twice through Cairo, Sinaï and Gaza.