Mecca Books

The Siege of Mecca: The Forgotten Uprising in Islam's Holiest Shrine and the Birth of al-Qaeda

Yaroslav Trofimov

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Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

On November 20, 1979, worldwide attention was focused on Tehran, where the Iranian hostage crisis was entering its third week. The same morning—the first of a new Muslim century—hundreds of gunmen stunned the world by seizing Islam’s holiest shrine, the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Armed with rifles that they had smuggled inside coffins, these men came from more than a dozen countries, launching the first operation of global jihad in modern times. Led by a Saudi preacher named Juhayman al Uteybi, they believed that the Saudi royal family had become a craven servant of American infidels, and sought a return to the glory of uncompromising Islam. With nearly 100,000 worshippers trapped inside the holy compound, Mecca’s bloody siege lasted two weeks, inflaming Muslim rage against the United States and causing hundreds of deaths.

Despite U.S. assistance, the Saudi royal family proved haplessly incapable of dislodging the occupier, whose ranks included American converts to Islam. In Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini blamed the Great Satan—the United States —for defiling the shrine, prompting mobs to storm and torch American embassies in Pakistan and Libya. The desperate Saudis finally enlisted the help of French commandos led by tough-as-nails Captain Paul Barril, who prepared the final assault and supplied poison gas that knocked out the insurgents. Though most captured gunmen were quickly beheaded, the Saudi royal family responded to this unprecedented challenge by compromising with the rebels’ supporters among the kingdom’s most senior clerics, helping them nurture and export Juhayman’s violent brand of Islam around the world.

This dramatic and immensely consequential story was barely covered in the press in the pre-CNN, pre–Al Jazeera days, as Saudi Arabia imposed an information blackout and kept foreign correspondents away. Yaroslav Trofimov now penetrates this veil of silence, interviewing for the first time scores of direct participants in the siege, including former terrorists, and drawing on hundreds of documents that had been declassified on his request. Written with the pacing, detail, and suspense of a real-life thriller, The Siege of Mecca reveals how Saudi reaction to the uprising in Mecca set free the forces that produced the attacks of 9/11, and the harrowing circumstances that surround us today.

Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah (Volume 1)

Richard Burton

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

bibliography & note 5 out of 5 stars.
43 of 47 people found this review helpful.

India:
Goa, and the Blue Mountains, 1851
Scinde,or, The Unhappy Valley, 1851
Sindh, and the Races that inhabit the Valley of the Indus, 1852
Falconry in the Valley of the Indus, 1852
A Complete System of bayonet Exercise, 1853
Africa:
Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Mecca, 1855
First Footsteps in Africa: or an exploration of Harar, 1856
The Lake Regions of Central Africa: A Picture of Exploration, 1860
The Lake Regions of Central Equatorial Africa with Notices of the Lunar Mountains and the sources of the White Nile...1860
America:
The City of the Saints and across the Rocky Mountains, 1861
The Prairie traveler, 1863
Misc.:
Abeokuta and the Cameroon mountians, 1863
Wanderings in West Africa, 1863
A Mission to Gelele, King of the Dahomes,... , 1864
The Nile Basin, 1864
Wit and Wisdom from West Africa, 1865
The Guide Book: A Pictorial Pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, 1865
The Highlands of Brazil, 1869
Vikram and the Vampires, or Tales of Hindu Devilry, 1870
Letters from the Battlefields of Paraguay, 1870
Unexplored Syria, 1872
Zanzibar, 1872
The Lands of Canzembe, Lacerds's Journey to Cazembe in 1798, 1873
The Captivity of Hans Stade of Hesse, 1874
Ultima Thule; or, A Summer in Iceland, 1875
Etruscan Bologna, 1876
A New System of Sword Exercise for Infantry, 1876
Two Trips to Gorilla Land, Congo, 1876
Scind Revisited: With Notices of the Anglo-Indian Army; Railroads; Past, Present, and Future, 1877
The Gold Mines of Midian, 1878
The Land of Midian, 1879
The Kasidah, 1880
Os, Lusiads, 1880
Camoens:His Life and His Lusiads, 1881
A Glance at the "Passion Play", 1881
To the Gold Coast for Gold, 1883
Kama Sutra, 1883
The Book of the Sword, 1884
Perfumed Garden, 1886
1001 Nights, 1886-1888
Iracema, 1886
Priapea, 1890
Marocco and the Moors, 1891
Il Pentamerone, 1893
The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catallus, 1894
The Jew and the Gypsy, 1898
Wanderings in Three Continents, 1901

Its my opinion that though he wrote an amazing number of books none of them are really 5 star classics though there are some flawed masterpieces in there. He just wrote too fast to care about polishing his works.
As for racism, a charge that could be brought up against all Imperial Englishman, he is no doubt as guilty as his fellows. Not to excuse him for it but though writing within an anglo tradition and to a strictly anglo public he perhaps overstates his own anglo bias just to assure his readers he has not gone native, a charge which would be ruinous to any career, military or literary. I won't try to convince you one way or the other but any man who learns another mans language and his religion and his literature and pays so much mind to him that he can even drink a glass of water using his exact manner is paying that man and his culture some kind of compliment. I won't pretend to understand what exactly Burtons motives were from one moment to the next and one adventure to the next but his relation to all these cultures certainly cannot be reduced to a one word description. Burton is a man of immense learning , his enthusiasms are infectious and his appetites as well as his humor are outrageous. With Burton you always get more than you bargained for, you get the country he is in and all manner of localised detail but also you get Burton, his way of writing, his manners, and his customs.

Editorial Review:

Volume 1 of classic work. Posing as a wandering dervish, Burton gained admittance to the holy Kaabah and to the tomb of the prophet at Medina and participated in all the rituals of the Hadj (pilgrimage). A treasury of material on Arab life, beliefs, manners and morals, etc.

Mecca, The Blessed, Medina, The Radiant: The Holiest Cities of Islam

Seyyed Hossein Nasr

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

These photographs of the Muslim holy cities Mecca and Medina, taken by a Japanese convert, Ali Kazuyoshi Nomachi, are something new for most Westerners, and perhaps even for many Muslims. Non-Muslims are never allowed into Mecca, and it is almost unheard-of for religious and government leaders to allow such pictures to be taken. Most of these images were shot during the holy month of Ramadan, when many faithful are in Mecca and Medina on pilgrimage.

Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University, has contributed an essay explaining the history and significance of the two cities. "Mecca and its twin city Medina flourish as the heart and sacred Center of the Islamic universe and will continue to do so as long as there are men and women who accept the truth of Lailaha illa'Llah and Muhammadun rasul Allah," he writes.

Nomachi has worked for National Geographic and Life, and his pictures have the information-packed clarity one might expect. There are fascinating images: literally hundreds of thousands of white-robed believers circling the Ka'bah, Mecca's sacred center; men ritually shaving one another's heads; tired families fasting; small children praying. Nomachi's pictures are oddly cool, but they convey the all-encompassing nature of the faith. Mecca the Blessed, Medina the Radiant will be especially thrilling to those Muslims still planning their pilgrimage.

Journey to Makkah

Murad Hofmann

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Understand Muslims better 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 11 people found this review helpful.

Because the book is about the exepriance of a German Muslim, it gives the reader an idea about the Islamic World and how they think. Because the writer is a German he is more likely to be able to explain the Islamic traditions that might seem strange to non-muslims or be interprited negatively. I like the book because it helped me understand how Muslims- who are not Arab -think and express themselves. Hofmann wrote other interesting books.One of his best books I think is The journals of a Muslim German. This book reviels how he was presented to Islam and the difference Islam brought to his life.

A Spiritual Experience 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful.

I am just reading the German original of this book. I am deeply touched by it because the sincerity of the author shines through every word. M.Hofmann has been in diplomatic service for decades and served as German Ambassador to Morocco and Algeria.
First of all I find his writing style delightful. Secondly he proves that "even" the way of a Muslim can be a spiritual enlightening path. Okay, sometimes he lifts the index finger like when he writes against alcohol, but in the end he is right. I found some very important hints in this book for my own spiritual path, but I guess this book found me in the right moment - it called me out of the bookshelf of our local book store. If you would like to learn about the Islam, read this book!

Living in Makkah (City Life Series)

Shadiya Sugich

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Editorial Review:

Text and photographs depict various aspects of life in the Islamic holy city. Includes information about its history, Holy Mosque, markets, pilgrim business, daily life, and the economic boom following the rising price of oil in the 1970's.

A Season in Mecca: Narrative of a Pilgrimage

Abdellah Hammoudi

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In 1999, the Moroccan scholar Abdellah Hammoudi, trained in Paris and teaching in America, decided to go on the pilgrimage to Mecca. He wanted to observe the hajj as an anthropologist but also to experience it as an ordinary pilgrim, and to write about it for both Muslims and non-Muslims. Here is his intimate, intense, and detailed account of the hajj - a rare and important document by a subtle, learned, and sympathetic writer.Hammoudi describes not just the adventure, the human pressures, and the social tumult - everything from the early preparations to the last climactic scenes in the holy shrines of Medina and Mecca - but also the intricate politics and amazing complexity of the entire pilgrimage experience. He pays special heed to the effects of Saudi bureaucratic control over the hajj, to the ways that faith itself becomes a lucrative source of commerce for the Arabian kingdom, and to the Wahhabi inflections of the basic Muslim message. Here, too, is a poignant discussion of the inner voyage that pilgrimage can mean to those who embark on it: the transformed sense of daily life, of worship, and of political engagement. Hammoudi acknowledges that he was spurred to reconsider his own ideas about faith, gesture, community, and nationality in unanticipated ways. This is a remarkable work of literature about both the outer forms and the inner meanings of Islam today.

The History of Al-Tabari: The Foundation of the Community (History of Al-Tabari)

V. M. McDonald

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

First four years after Hicrat 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This Volume covers the first four years after the Hicrat. Among various excurcios to neighbouring tribes or caravans the volume covers Badr and Uhud battles. Marriage of Mohammed (AS) to HZ. Aisah, conflicts with Jews in the city of Madina. Tabari uses Ibn Ishak, Ibn Hisham as his sources and time to time provides variant stories on same subject with chain of isnads. Contrary to his Tafsir, he does not say which one is more acceptable to him. The translators have some preface and time to time expalanatory commentary in Fine Prints which I found most of them unacceptable. I did not appreciate sometimes their twisted opinions in a book which is supposed to be a translation. But again I appreciate their work for making this book available to English readers.

The Sheltered Quarter: A Tale of a Boyhood in Mecca (CMES Modern Middle East Literature in Translation)

Hamza Bogary

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A wonderful window back 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Hamza Bogary's The Sheltered Quarter is a wonderful novel about the days before oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia. It details the life of Muhaisin AL-Baliy, a boy growing up raised only by his mother due to his father's death beofre he was born. The book tells of his trials in school with bullies and the like and that he does very well there and becomes an avid reader, so much so that he reads by a streetlight by night because his house doesn't have a proper light. You learn about Auntie Asma, a friend of his mother's who gives her advice on things concerning Muhaisin. She is also a strange women who believes in many superstitions and practices odd rituals. Other characters encountered are Amm Ustad, a freemason, and Muhaisin's likn to the changing world outside Mecca. Overall The Sheltered Quarter is a funa nad interesting read that can enjoyed by anyone looking for a book with good descripttive language and a fascinating story to tell. I know i sure enjoyed reading this wonderful tale, plus it enlightened me to some of things about the Saudi culture i didn't know.

Editorial Review:

Hamza Bogary describes a bygone way of life that has now irreversibly disappeared. He speaks of life in Mecca before the advent of oil. Only partly autobiographical, the memoir is nevertheless rich in remembered detail based on Bogary's early observations of life in Mecca. He has transformed his knowledge into art through his sense of humor, empathy, and remarkable understanding of human nature. This work not only entertains; it also informs its readers about the Arabia of the first half of the twentieth century in a graphic and fascinating way. The narrator, young Muhaisin, deals with various aspects of Arabian culture, including education, pilgrimages, styles of clothing, slavery, public executions, the status of women, and religion. Muhaisin is frank in his language and vivid in his humor. The reader quickly comes to love the charming and mischievous boy in this universal tale.

The Sheltered Quarter: A Tale of a Boyhood in Mecca (CMES Modern Middle East Literature in Translation)

Hamza Bogary

Amazon Price: $10.95 List Price: $10.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Center for Middle Eastern Studies, The University of Texas at Austin Amazon Marketplace: 25 new & used starting at $1.89

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A wonderful window back 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Hamza Bogary's The Sheltered Quarter is a wonderful novel about the days before oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia. It details the life of Muhaisin AL-Baliy, a boy growing up raised only by his mother due to his father's death beofre he was born. The book tells of his trials in school with bullies and the like and that he does very well there and becomes an avid reader, so much so that he reads by a streetlight by night because his house doesn't have a proper light. You learn about Auntie Asma, a friend of his mother's who gives her advice on things concerning Muhaisin. She is also a strange women who believes in many superstitions and practices odd rituals. Other characters encountered are Amm Ustad, a freemason, and Muhaisin's likn to the changing world outside Mecca. Overall The Sheltered Quarter is a funa nad interesting read that can enjoyed by anyone looking for a book with good descripttive language and a fascinating story to tell. I know i sure enjoyed reading this wonderful tale, plus it enlightened me to some of things about the Saudi culture i didn't know.

Editorial Review:

Hamza Bogary describes a bygone way of life that has now irreversibly disappeared. He speaks of life in Mecca before the advent of oil. Only partly autobiographical, the memoir is nevertheless rich in remembered detail based on Bogary's early observations of life in Mecca. He has transformed his knowledge into art through his sense of humor, empathy, and remarkable understanding of human nature. This work not only entertains; it also informs its readers about the Arabia of the first half of the twentieth century in a graphic and fascinating way. The narrator, young Muhaisin, deals with various aspects of Arabian culture, including education, pilgrimages, styles of clothing, slavery, public executions, the status of women, and religion. Muhaisin is frank in his language and vivid in his humor. The reader quickly comes to love the charming and mischievous boy in this universal tale.