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Mecca has been referred to by many names. As with many Arabic words, its etymology is obscure. [24] Widely believed to be a synonym for Makkah, it is said to be more specifically the early name for the valley located therein, while Muslim scholars generally use it to refer to the sacred area of the city that immediately surrounds and includes the Ka'bah.
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Once a year, Muslim pilgrims flowing into Saudi Arabia unite in a series of religious rituals and acts of worship as they perform the Hajj, one of the pillars of Islam. As they fulfill a religious ...
According to Islamic tradition, Islam as a religion precedes Muhammad, [13] [14] [15] representing previous prophets such as Abraham. [16] According to Islamic scholars, Abraham is seen as having built the Kaaba in Mecca, and consequently its sanctuary, which according to the Muslim view is seen as the first mosque [17] that ever existed.
Fred Donner, on the other hand, stated that "[the] assumption that Mecca was the linchpin of international luxury trade [has] been decisively challenged in recent years – notably in Patricia Crone, Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam.", [15] although Patricia Crone's theory has been challenged by Robert Bertram Serjeant who favored the Meccan ...
Earlier, they circled the cube-shaped Kaaba in the Grand Mosque, Islam’s holiest site. More than 1.5 million pilgrims from around the world have already amassed in and around Mecca for the Hajj ...
A camel caravan traveling to Mecca for the annual pilgrimage, c. 1910. The pilgrimage to Mecca is attested in some pre-Islamic Arabic poetry.Compared to Islamic-era poetry where the Hajj appears ubiquitously, only a small number of references are found to it in pre-Islamic poetry, indicating that its Arabian centrality was a development of Islamic times. [5]
In 2019, more than 2.4 million Muslims made the pilgrimage. The pilgrims included 4,200 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank who arrived in Mecca earlier this month, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs.