A Critical Look at the Swiss Orientalist Burckhardt’s Views about Mecca and Hajj

Attempting to prove that there are important and valuable information, along with the incorrect accounts and analysis in the works orientalists in the period of colonial rule, this article makes a case study of the performance of John Lewis Burckhardt, a Swiss orientalist, in his book "Travels in Arabia". The main concern of this study is to examine the characteristics of the work of Burckhardt as a nineteenth-century orientalist. To answer this question, the mentioned book uses an analytical method based on library sources in its historical study of the subject. After giving a brief account of Burckhardt, the article points to the strengths of his argument in this work regarding the comprehensiveness and diversity of content, the attention given to the social history of the two shrines, making a field of study and not just resting on the transmitted accounts, his perseverance and tireless efforts, and accurate citation, measurement and location of sites; and then investigates the weaknesses of this book, which fall in two categories: unauthentic narration and unsound analysis. Among the shortcomings of this work are those related to Hajj rituals; the incorrect analysis of historical errors concerning the historical places related to Hajj and Umrah rules, incorrect analysis of slavery in Islam, the rite of Ihram, the Quranic view about the People of the Book, the dowry of the Meccan, the picture he gives about the schools of thought in Islam and fanaticism towards Islam. The positive points alongside the shortcomings contained in his work corroborate the view of "the possibility of scientifically benefiting from orientalists’ scholarly works" provided that the reader should be well aware of the shortcomings they make and of their orientation towards certain religious and political thoughts.