1930 Turkish Map of the Kaaba / Great Mosque, Mecca (Majid al-Haram)

This is a c. 1930 Turkish map of the holiest site in Islam, al-Masjid al- Ḥarām, the Great Mosque of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. As is common for maps of Mecca, this plan of the Great Mosque is oriented to the East-Northeast. The map is meticulously drawn with Kaaba at the center and over one hundred locations throughout numerically identified and corresponded to an index. A table providing important distances - useful for the pilgrim - is included in the lower right. The map records a number of historic Islamic monuments, dating to the time of Mohammed, that have since sadly been destroyed to make way for extensive reconstruction, expansion, and renovation.

The Hajj and the Great Mosque

The Great Mosque, or Grand Mosque, is the largest and most important mosque in the world, the site of the Hajj pilgrimage, one of the Five Pillars of Islam, alongside Shahadah, Salat, Zakat and Sawm. It is also the site of the main phase of the 'Umrah, a lesser pilgrimage that can be undertaken at any time. Various holy sites, including the Kaaba, the Zamzam Wall, the hills of Safa and Marwa, and the Maqam Ibrahim, are located within the mosque compound.

The completion of the Hajj is one of the Five Pillars of Islam and the obligation of every Muslim, if they are financially and physically able, to complete at least once in their lifetime. The literal meaning of the word Hajj is 'heading to a place for the sake of visiting'. In Islamic terminology, Hajj is a pilgrimage made to Kaaba, the 'House of Allah'. The rites of Hajj are performed over five or six days, beginning on the eighth and ending on the thirteenth day of Dhu al-Hijjah, the last month of the Islamic calendar. Today, roughly 2.5 million pilgrims from around the world visit Mecca each year.

Publication History and Census

This map was published c. 1930. While the map is not dated, we know that is postdates the Turkish adoption of the Latin script and predates the c. 1956 First Saudi Expansion of the mosque. There is no record of an institutional holding, but we are aware of at least two examples in Turkey.