Mecca: From Before Genesis Until Now

Mecca: From Before Genesis Until Now In this his latest work, eminent Islamic scholar Martin Lings discusses the significance of the pilgrimage to Mecca in the light of the tradition of Abraham. Drawing upon his own experience of performing the pilgrimage first in 1946 and then again in 1978, as well referring to the traditional sources he describes how the Hajj, proclaimed and established by Abraham and Ishmael about 4,000 years ago, and renewed by the Prophet Muhammad some fourteen hundred years ago, has continued to be performed without a break until the present day, its spiritual meaning as profound and timeless as ever. To read this book is to be taken far back, or rather let us say irresistably re-absorbed, into an ancestral past which belongs to all the three mono- theistic religions. Jews and Christians, some of these to their surprise and not a few of them to their joy, will find that they have deep spiritual roots in the Arabian peninsula. Not only Jews but also Christians trace with love and with gratitude their line of liturgical descent back to David; and for him, as well as for Moses before him, the concept of what is called the Holy Land extended beyond doubt, as we shall see, far enough South to include that ancient sacred city to which this little volume is consecrated. About the Author Martin Lings read English at Oxford where he was a pupil and later a close friend of C. S. Lewis. In 1935 he went to Lithuania where he lectured on Anglo-Saxon and Middle English and subsequently he went to Egypt and and lectured mainly on Shakespeare at Cairo University. In 1952 he returned to England and joined the staff of the British Museum where he was Keeper of Oriental Manuscripts. In addition to writing many books he is also the author of the chapter