فصلنامه میقات حج
پیاپی 115 (بهار 1400)

In this report, after a brief introduction of the history of Morocco and its Hajj pilgrimage, we will deal with the contemporary Moroccan Hajj pilgrimage, mainly based on the internet data from the site of the Moroccan Endowment and Religious Affairs Organization. No research has been done so far on the contemporary Maghreb (Moroccan) pilgrimage. Therefore, this article is innovative in its data and will lead to a better introduction of this country and its pilgrimage.

Mecca and Medina, as the centers of the revelation and mission of prophecy, have always been the destinations for Muslims, especially for the religious scholars. Religious scholars were migrating to Mecca and Medina with the aim of performing their religious duties and the obligation of the Hajj and Pilgrimage, as well as getting religious knowledge from the scholars in al-Haramayn al-Sharifayn. In this descriptive-analytical article, the pilgrimages of the Maghreb scholars in the middle ages of the history of Islam and their achievements in the field of cultural exchange between the Maghreb and al-Haramayn al-Sharifayn are studied. The findings of this research shows that the many Maghreb thinkers traveled to the East, especially to al-Haramayn al-Sharifayn, presented in the classes of the scholars of Mecca and Medina, and listened to their hadith narrations. Based on the scientific and practical methods of the scholars, living in Mecca and Medina, and receiving the permission to narrate the narrations, they returned to the Maghreb, full of science and spirituality, and tried to republish religious knowledge. In the works written by the Maghreb scholars themselves or by others about these travels, while introducing the professors, they were explaining how the immigrant scholars were studying and getting permission from the thinkers of Mecca and Medina. Also, this article investigates the role of these travels in the cultural exchange between the Maghreb and Hejaz and the effect that scholars had on the deepening and expansion of the Islamic sciences and knowledge in the Maghreb.

The two cities of Mecca and Medina, due to their sanctity and importance to Muslims, are the subjects of many local histories during the Islamic period. Among the many works produced in this field, one can find significant local histories written by the scholars and authors originally from the Islamic Maghreb. With a brief review of the historical course of the local historiographies of Mecca and Medina, this article tries to introduce in detail the local histories written by the originally Maghreb historians such as Al-ʻIqd al-thamīn and Shifāʼ al-gharām by Taqi al-Din Fasi (from the local histories of Mecca), Nasihat al-Mushavir by Ibn Farhun, and Bahjat al-nufūs wa al-asrār by Marjani (from the local histories of Medina) to show the role and place of the scholars of the Islamic Maghreb in writing the local histories of these two holy cities of Muslims.

Recourse to the Prophet (S) and pilgrimage to his tomb have always been the stable sirah of the Companions, followers, and religious leaders since the beginning of Islam and these issues have also been considered by Muslim writers. However, in the 7th century and with the advent of Ibn Taymiyyah and after him Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, one of the most important issues criticized was the appeal to the Prophet (S) and pilgrimage to his tomb. Belief in the sanctity of appealing to the Prophet (S) after his demise and traveling to visit his shrine is one of the issues that Wahhabism is still trying to expand. Against them, Shiite scholars and some Sunni ones emphasize the approval of recourse to the Prophet (S) and his pilgrimage. The purpose of this article is to get acquainted with the efforts of the scholars of the Islamic Maghreb in this regard.  Enumerating the writings of the Islamic Maghreb scholars with the focus on the recourse and pilgrimage to the Prophet (S), the article will lead the readers to be acquainted with their works in this field.

People of the Maghreb (including the four countries of Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Libya) have a special share in writing the Hajj travelogues. The written heritage of the Hajj pilgrimage by the Maghreb people shows the level of the care and effort of the Maghreb pilgrims in preserving the memory of their Hajj journey in the progress of their cultural history. This article seeks to offer a descriptive list of the available travelogues of the pilgrims of the Maghreb from the beginning to the contemporary era. The total identified travelogues includes 108 printed and manuscript ones organized according to their titles along with their bibliographic specifications and a brief description. Also, the researches carried out are included in the entity of each travelogue under the title of the ‘Relevant Sources’

Ibāḍiyya is a religion, attributed to Abdullah ibn Ibad Tamimi, whose historical centers were Oman and parts of the Islamic Maghreb. In this religion, the Hajj is one of the objective obligations of Sharia and one of the pillars of Islam. Hence, the Ibāḍiyyats of the Maghreb also paid attention to it. In this article, to prove this claim, documentary evidence about the life of Imam Abdul Wahab bin Abdul Rahman Rostami (d. 211), the political-religious leader of the Ibāḍiyyats of the Maghreb, is presented. The evidence shows that he intended to perform the Hajj in the 8th and the last decade of the 3rd centuries AH. Although it is suggested that he may have had a political motive for re-emphasizing the Hajj, his request of a fatwa from Rabi ibn Habib, the Ibāḍiyyats’ Imam in Oman, and his reference to the Ibāḍiyya elders of the Maghreb show that the Hajj was a very important issue among the Maghreb’s Ibadiyyats, whose abandonment could only be justified in an emergency case.

Libya was not independent in the mid-nineteenth century. The Romans, the Greeks, the Ottomans, and the Italians were among the rulers of this land. Libyan empowered people have performed the Hajj rituals since the first century AH; but throughout history, their Hajj pilgrimage has faced some challenges. This descriptive-analytical article, first, introduces Libya and gives a brief overview of the pre- and-post-Islamic history of that land, and then discusses the way of the Hajj pilgrimage by the Libyan pilgrims and the challenges they face. The article concludes that except during the Ottomans rule in Libya, when pilgrimage was less challenged, the Libyan people have faced internal and external problems in performing the Hajj rites. The insecurity of the Hajj route, the lack of water, the long distance, the contagious diseases, and the lack of the sanitary facilities on the one hand and the presence of the colonialists and especially the military occupation of Libya by Italy have been serious challenges for the Libyan pilgrims. The Saudi government’s hostile relations with Libya during Muammar Gaddafi’s rule were another external challenge to Libyans Hajj pilgrimage.

This article deals with the religious and cultural impacts of the Sanūssiyya Movement in the Hejaz as one of the most influential Islamic movements because, based on the capabilities and available facilities, it helped in creating a human society with cultural and economic components according to the then data. This movement was not a local one; rather, its founder, Muhammad ibn Ali al-Sannssi, acted in a way to make it an influential Arab movement. This study sought to record an important period in the history of the Sanūssiyya movement in the Hejaz and attempted to discover its roles and effects on the Hejaz community. The Hejaz region, due to its religious importance, enjoyed a prominent place in the history of this movement. In fact, the Sanussi invitation began in the Hejaz. The first Sanussi Zāwiyah (assembly) was established in the Hejaz and in Abi Qabis Mountain, then many of the Sanussi Zāwiyahs were established in the Hejaz and other Islamic countries, welcomed by many people of the region. Sheikh Faleh Al-Zahiri was one of the most prominent students of the Sanussi Zāwiyah and later became one of its prominent sheikhs and his fame spread in the horizons. He achieved a prominent scientific place in many Islamic regions to teach, so much so that Sultan Abdul Hamid invited him to teach in Istanbul. He trained scholars who carried the standard of science in the Islamic world.

This article examines the views expressed in the five Hajj travelogues of the Islamic Maghreb about the ethics, behaviors, and customs of the people of the cities along the way. The travelogues discussed in this article are Rihlat Ibn Jubayr, Rihlat al-Abdari, Mustafād al-riḥlah wa-al-ightirāb (Tujaybī Šabbāt), Rihlat ibn Battuta, Ansāb al-akhbār wa-tadhkirat al-akhyār (al-hajj Abdullah ibn Sabbah). The cities in question start from Gharnāṭī in Andalusia and passing through Šabbāt, Murrākuš, Fes, etc. to Cairo, then to Mecca and Medina, and on the way back include the cities of Baghdad, Mosul, and Damascus. In general, some cities are mentioned in only one of these travelogues, such as Gharnāṭī, Šabbāt, Murrākuš, Fes, Oran, Bajja, Qabis, and Medina. Some other cities are described in two or more travelogues and the views expressed in them are the same. These cities are Béjaia, Tunisia, Tripoli, Aidhab, Jeddah, Mosul, and Damascus. The third group includes the cities about which the travelogues express different positive or negative views, including Tlemcen, Kirwan, Alexandria, Cairo, Mecca, and Baghdad.