Customer Reviews

One Thousand Roads to Mecca: Ten Centuries of Travelers Writing About the Muslim Pilgrimage

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This is easily one of the most splendid and accessible
English-language works on the hajj in recent years. For Muslims about to undertake the hajj, Wolfe's thousand-year history of the great hajj narratives of men like ibn Jubayr and years later Malcolm X will offer the richness of the pilgrimage, which was often as much a picaresque travel adventure as spiritual rite. Non-Muslims will get a great swath of Muslim intellectual history, freed of the sometimes needless formalism and apologia of recent hajj narratives and a wonderful encapsulation of Islamic civilization at its height, and of course the great beauty of the pilgrimage itself. Wolfe's introductions to the many narratives serve, perhaps unintentionally, as an excellent summary of Muslim history to the present.

Michael Wolfe is an excellent writer. He is also a very convincing writer. For years my parents have been asking me to go for Hajj. I compromised and went for Umra. Mr. Wolfe's preface and the introduction convinced me that I should make this journey. I am preparing for the trip in year 2003. Inshallah.
This is an excellent book. Equally enlighting to Muslims and Non-Muslim. I recommend it.

I found this book to be wonderful. I enjoyed it alot. It really has showen change in the pilgrimage. I would recomend the book for Muslims, like my self and non- Muslims alike.

The scope of this book is incredible spanning nearly 1000 years of people making a pilgrimage. It also demonstrates how life-changing the experience could be. Michael Wolfe is a great writer and does a splendid job introducing each piece. Some of participants are simply incredible people- especially the Spanish Muslim from the 1700s (my memory escapes me as to his names). Each piece shows something new. Its definitely a book I'll be looking into again.