SNOUCK HURGRONJE, Christiaan. Mekka in the latter Part of the 19th Century. Daily Life, Customs and Learning. The Moslims of the East-Indian-Archipelago … Translated by J. H. Monahan, formerly H. B. M. Consul at Jeddah. Leiden and London: Brill. 1931.
8vo. Original blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt; pp. vi, 309, [4, errata and explanation of a plan], additional errata tipped in, numerous plates after photographs by the author and an Arab physician of the 1880s; folding city map and ground plan; a little rubbing to extremities, fly-leaves toned as usual and one corner of front fly-leaf with tiny flaw to corner, internally very good.
Rare first edition in English of the German Mekka (1888-1889), an important description of Mecca and the Hajj, including much on the prilgrimage from far flung places, such as Borneo or South Africa. "Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje was a Dutch Orientalist scholar and adviser on ‘Native Affairs’ to the Dutch colonial government. After obtaining his doctorate on the pre-Islamic origins of the Hajj in 1880, Hurgronje travelled to Jedda in 1884 with a view to going to Mecca to observe the Hajj for himself. He brought with him a camera and in the Dutch consulate at Jedda, he used it to photograph pilgrims from Java, Sumatra and the other islands within the Dutch East Indies. Later in 1884 he is said to have converted to Islam and was allowed to go to Mecca. While in Mecca, he made a study of the customs of the Meccans and the Jawa – Southeast Asian pilgrims who had settled in Mecca. Unfortunately, before he was able to witness the Hajj, he was denounced to the Ottoman authorities as an impostor. He had to leave Mecca abruptly leaving his camera behind so that it could be used by Sayyid Abd al-Ghaffar, the doctor he had trained" (British Museum, Photographers of the Hajj, on-line).
In 1885 Snouck Hurgronje (1857-1936) had lived for seven months in Mecca as a student of the Quran, mingled with society, talked with scholars and participated in daily Meccan life. He took photos and made even the first sound recording of a Qu'ran recitation. Whether he converted to Islam is still being debated, wut he was definitely the first Westerner to document life and scenery in the Holy City. The Arab physician who had been trained by and who assisted Snouck Hurgronje as photographer has been identified as Al-Sayyid Abd al-Ghaffar. Many photos are by the Meccan.
See D. van der Wal, Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje: the First Western Photographer in Mecca, 1884-1885 (2011).
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