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"Hajj: journey to the heart of Islam"
Apr. 12th, 2012 09:06 pmYesterday I went to the British Museum to go to the exhibition on the Islamic pilgrimage, Hajj: journey to the heart of Islam. Actually, I went on Tuesday, but I'd have had to wait three hours to get in, so instead I decided to wait a day and bought a ticket to get me in yesterday.
It didn't start well: I was in the first room when an alarm went off, which everyone ignored, and so did I. Then another one, a but more insistent; but we only started leaving once the museum guards started ushering us out. Once they started, they were very efficient: it was all very orderly, though no one really knew what was going on, why the alarms had gone off, our when (if at all) we could get back in.
Despite a couple of drops of rain, it wasn't too much of a hardship hanging around outside for forty five minutes before they could re-open the doors and let everyone back in. I had been standing near the steps so I was one of the first back in the exhibition - a bit of a boon since it was very crowded - and I picked up where I had got to when the alarms interrupted my visit.
It was an interesting exhibition - fascinating, full of objects and descriptions of experiences I would not normally encounter: as a non-muslim, I will never be allowed into Mecca to see these things for myself.
But I found it also very frustrating: I was severely lacking in context. I found it very hard to understand why nearly three million people embark on the pilgrimage, aside from it being part of their religion. It clearly has huge effects on the pilgrims - there were many accounts (ancient and modern) of what the the hajj meant to people, but I had no conception why. (I overheard a muslim woman - a hajji - explaining to a young woman who I assumed not to be a muslim - how powerful she had found her experience of the hajj. But I didn't hear why.) I didn't feel I had journeyed to the heart of Islam.
(If you know me offline, you'll probably know that I have no religious faith whatsoever, and find it hard to comprehend people who do: it makes no sense to new in the slightest.)
I wanted to know a lot more about Islam. The centre of the hajj - the ka'ba - apparently houses the temple built by Abraham and Ismail, and rebuilt by Mohammed (the founder of Islam), his wife and son. The rituals that make up the hajj reflect the acts of Abraham, and his family, and later Mohammed: circling the ka'ba, drinking from the Zamzam spring, running between hills, stoning three pillars (they standing for the devil) and praying in the desert.
All this was explained, and I understand in a factual way; but not at all in a spiritual. I wanted to know much more about the ka'ba: what lies beneath the exquisite cloth coverings. What makes it so important? (OK, "built by Abraham..." - but I still don't get it). I wanted to know about the pillars: who built them, and why? What are they made of?
I wanted to know more about the founding of Islam - and what went before: what did Islam replace, and why has it been so successful?
The involvement of a variety of Islamic rulers in the hajj, dating back to medieval times and increasingly prevalent in modern society (the exhibition was sponsored by the house of Saud), means there is also a political perspective which I wanted to understand - particularly in the light of ongoing terrorist threats. (I had wondered whether the evacuation has been due a perceived threat from objectors to the exhibition.)
Maybe that is just one of the problems with being a tourist. The exhibition was packed, and there were many families. There were a lot of muslim women wearing a variety of head coverings. Lots of people completely ignored the guards' repeated instructions not to photograph or video the exhibits - once young guy was videoing all the text panels of every exhibit, which struck me as being a curious use of video.
Many of the exhibits were very beautiful. I believe there is a prohibition in Islam of images of God our the prophets (which would rule out much western painting!), so many of the artefacts feature beautiful Arabic calligraphy, particularly verses from the koran and prayers. There were some fascinating photographs too - both of the modern ceremonies and going back to the 19th century, when making the pilgrimmage was much harder (a time before planes and trains).
Modern artistic interpretations of the hajj worked very well too - I was struck by iron filings arranged around a magnetic ka'ba.
But I also felt I was missing something - that the curator wasn't telling me everything I needed to understand the exhibition, perhaps. Or maybe, unable to make that leap of faith, I was never going to get it...
It didn't start well: I was in the first room when an alarm went off, which everyone ignored, and so did I. Then another one, a but more insistent; but we only started leaving once the museum guards started ushering us out. Once they started, they were very efficient: it was all very orderly, though no one really knew what was going on, why the alarms had gone off, our when (if at all) we could get back in.
Despite a couple of drops of rain, it wasn't too much of a hardship hanging around outside for forty five minutes before they could re-open the doors and let everyone back in. I had been standing near the steps so I was one of the first back in the exhibition - a bit of a boon since it was very crowded - and I picked up where I had got to when the alarms interrupted my visit.
It was an interesting exhibition - fascinating, full of objects and descriptions of experiences I would not normally encounter: as a non-muslim, I will never be allowed into Mecca to see these things for myself.
But I found it also very frustrating: I was severely lacking in context. I found it very hard to understand why nearly three million people embark on the pilgrimage, aside from it being part of their religion. It clearly has huge effects on the pilgrims - there were many accounts (ancient and modern) of what the the hajj meant to people, but I had no conception why. (I overheard a muslim woman - a hajji - explaining to a young woman who I assumed not to be a muslim - how powerful she had found her experience of the hajj. But I didn't hear why.) I didn't feel I had journeyed to the heart of Islam.
(If you know me offline, you'll probably know that I have no religious faith whatsoever, and find it hard to comprehend people who do: it makes no sense to new in the slightest.)
I wanted to know a lot more about Islam. The centre of the hajj - the ka'ba - apparently houses the temple built by Abraham and Ismail, and rebuilt by Mohammed (the founder of Islam), his wife and son. The rituals that make up the hajj reflect the acts of Abraham, and his family, and later Mohammed: circling the ka'ba, drinking from the Zamzam spring, running between hills, stoning three pillars (they standing for the devil) and praying in the desert.
All this was explained, and I understand in a factual way; but not at all in a spiritual. I wanted to know much more about the ka'ba: what lies beneath the exquisite cloth coverings. What makes it so important? (OK, "built by Abraham..." - but I still don't get it). I wanted to know about the pillars: who built them, and why? What are they made of?
I wanted to know more about the founding of Islam - and what went before: what did Islam replace, and why has it been so successful?
The involvement of a variety of Islamic rulers in the hajj, dating back to medieval times and increasingly prevalent in modern society (the exhibition was sponsored by the house of Saud), means there is also a political perspective which I wanted to understand - particularly in the light of ongoing terrorist threats. (I had wondered whether the evacuation has been due a perceived threat from objectors to the exhibition.)
Maybe that is just one of the problems with being a tourist. The exhibition was packed, and there were many families. There were a lot of muslim women wearing a variety of head coverings. Lots of people completely ignored the guards' repeated instructions not to photograph or video the exhibits - once young guy was videoing all the text panels of every exhibit, which struck me as being a curious use of video.
Many of the exhibits were very beautiful. I believe there is a prohibition in Islam of images of God our the prophets (which would rule out much western painting!), so many of the artefacts feature beautiful Arabic calligraphy, particularly verses from the koran and prayers. There were some fascinating photographs too - both of the modern ceremonies and going back to the 19th century, when making the pilgrimmage was much harder (a time before planes and trains).
Modern artistic interpretations of the hajj worked very well too - I was struck by iron filings arranged around a magnetic ka'ba.
But I also felt I was missing something - that the curator wasn't telling me everything I needed to understand the exhibition, perhaps. Or maybe, unable to make that leap of faith, I was never going to get it...