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 Abu ad-Din al-Husayn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Jubayr |
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FOR OVER A thousand years, performing the pilgrimage to Mecca has been a sacred duty and every Muslim's dearest wish. Among those too poor to afford the trip, the strength of this desire has given birth to dozens of stories of magical transportation to the holy shrine. One account tells the story of a disciple of Sidi Hamed Buqudja (a 7th century Moroccan saint) who expressed the wish to go to Mecca. The saint told him to go to the sea and throw himself in the water. So he went there, but could not persuade himself to do as told. A man on horseback came along and, upon hearing the saint's advice, fearlessly rode into the water. The saint, who was hidden in the sea, at once took the horse and the rider on his shoulders and transported them to Mecca.
However, magical transport did not factor in the pilgrimage of the Middle Ages' writer and philosopher ibn Jubayr. When the time came, he took up his pilgrim staff and set out in the traditional and arduous manner all the way to Mecca. Abul-Husayn Muhammad ibn Ahmed ibn Jubayr was born in Valencia in the year 1145. He grew up in his native city and entered the employ of the governor of Granada, Prince Abu Said Uthman ibn Abdel-Mu'min of the Berber dynasty of the Almohades, who by this time had established themselves as the independent rulers of Muslim Spain. Ibn Jubayr was his secretary.
One day the governor called for ibn Jubayr and before attending to the business at hand offered him a cup of wine. A good Muslim, the secretary assured his master that his lips had never touched the sinful drink, upon which the governor ordered seven cups filled with wine and forced his docile employee to drink them. Ibn Jubayr drank, at a loss to decide whether he feared his God or his master more. As soon as he had swallowed the last drop, Abu Said was seized with pity and remorse and filled the seven cups with golden dinars which he poured into his employee's gown.
Having received the reward for his submission, ibn Jubayr vowed at once to go on the holy pilgrimage, partly to expiate his wayward action but also because it was every good Muslim's duty. On February 3rd 1183, accompanied by Abu Ja'far Ahmad ibn Hassan, a physician from Granada, he departed for Mecca. Ibn Jubayr kept a well-documented travel log of this voyage.
Through several frightening storms, he and his fellow pilgrims were carried by ship to Alexandria, where their mistreatment at the hand of the customs officials enraged ibn Jubayr. Having called God's wrath on the offenders' heads, he chose to believe that these wrongdoings, if only known to the great sultan Salaheddin who now ruled Egypt, would have been forbidden at once.
Ibn Jubayr professed great admiration for Salaheddin (1171-1193), founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, who had forcibly removed the heretic (Fatimid and Shi'a) caliph of Egypt. Though some of the Fatimid rulers had been men of culture, and under them Egypt enjoyed a remarkable period of tranquility and prosperity, the luxury and ease in which they themselves lived, as well as their apparent lack of piety, shocked their subjects. It is reported, for example, that the richest among them, Al-Mustansir (1035-1094), had a Ka'ba-like pavilion erected in the garden of his palace where he used to drink while listening to string music and beautiful singers. "This is indeed more pleasant than staring at a Black Stone and listening to a muezzin's drone and drinking impure water," he had allegedly declared.
The Muslim population, Sunni at heart, was therefore only too happy to welcome Salaheddin, who restored official orthodoxy, a feat that filled the Sunni ibn Jubayr with infinite respect and gratitude.
Undeterred by the customs incident, the two travelers were ready to wax lyrical about the construction of the city of Alexandria and the marvels that it contained. To start with, ibn Jubayr described the lighthouse as "an aweinspiring sight." He added that, "[at] its summit [is] a mosque having the qualities of blessedness, for men are blessed for praying within." Then came the wonderful sight of the many colleges and hostels "erected there for the students and pious men from other lands."
Proceeding towards Cairo on foot, the travelers visited large towns and villages stopping at Tantadah (Tanta) long enough to partake in the Eid El-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice) with the inhabitants.
In Misr (Fustat) where the mosque of Amr ibn El-Aas merited a special stop and in Cairo, they visited "the monuments and blessed shrines." In particular, the tomb of Al-Hussayn left ibn Jubayr speechless, his heart filled to the brim with the love of God; then on to the cemeteries and the tombs of the Imams, where he noted the numerous miracles attributed to the saints buried there.
Rejoicing at the sight of the living and the dead sharing the space of the maqaber (cemetery) in harmony, the two companions went on a tour of the four congressional mosques, where they listened in rapture to the khutba (sermon) according to the Sunni practice and finally inspected the theological colleges of Fustat and Cairo (ibn Jubayr does not dwell on Al-Azhar, a Fatimid establishment), as well as the famous maristan (hospital) built by the beloved new sultan.
The sight of the mighty Citadel, "an impregnable fortress adjoining Cairo which the Sultan thinks to take as his residence, extending its wall until it enfolds the two cities of Misr and Cairo" gave ibn Jubayr even greater satisfaction when he realized that the forced laborers employed to do the work were not Egyptians but "only Rumi [foreigners, mostly Franks captured during the Crusades] prisoners." Had he known that the stones for this construction were being quarried from six small pyramids at Giza, he would have probably found more cause to thank the Lord for Salaheddin's cleverness.
They crossed the bridges, for which ibn Jubayr again called God's blessings upon his idol, and reached the Pyramids "of miraculous construction." Taking into account the meticulously detailed descriptions of every Muslim shrine and mosque he passed and the care he took in explaining the functioning of the Nilometer, one is a little taken aback by his almost nonchalant dismissal of this particular testimony to Egypt's ancient civilization: "To be short, none but Great and Glorious God can know their story," he concluded, after a few minutes of speculation. The Sphinx, "The Father of Dread," received the same treatment. He merely described it as facing the Pyramids.
They sailed from Fustat toward Qus, a meeting place for the pilgrims, on the
first of May. Descriptions of sights and monuments occupy ibn Jubayr until they arrive safely in Qus on May 19th. There they joined the caravans headed for Aydhab, "a city on the shores of the Jiddah sea." More trials and tribulations awaited the two friends, which included "dispossessing the pilgrims of their property and shedding their blood." Their belongings much depleted but their spirits undaunted, they finally reached Mecca, which they entered from the "Umra Gate" on August 4, 1183.
Having performed his most sacred duty, Hajj ibn Jubayr and his friend returned to Granada on May 3, 1185, after many more hair-raising adventures on their way back.
"The span of our journey, from the time of our leaving Granada to that of our return, was two full years and three months and a half. Praise be to God, Lord of the Universe," ibn Jubayr concluded, before putting down his pilgrim staff and his travel log.
Source : Egypttoday.com by : Fayza Hassan
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