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Anis Al-Hujjaj

The Anis Al-Hujjaj (Pilgrim's Companion, also transcribed Anis ul-Hujjaj) is a seventeenth-century literary work by Safi ibn Vali, an official of the Mughal court in what is now India. Written in Persian, it describes the Hajj (the pillar of Islam which is the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina) undertaken by him in 1677 AD (AH 1088) and it gives advice to pilgrims. Its illustrations depict pilgrims travelling to the holy sites and taking part in the rituals of the Hajj.[1] They are also a visual guide to significant places and people.

Illustration from the Anis Al-Hujjaj showing the port of Surat, Khalili Collection of Hajj and the Arts of Pilgrimage

Summary

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Ibn Vali was an official in the court of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.[1] His Hajj was financially supported by Zeb-un-Nissa, eldest child of Aurangzeb, after ibn Vali wrote for her a commentary on the Quran.[1][2][3] He had also, in 1665, written a universal history.[4] After his Hajj, he returned to his job in the court and continued his scholarship into old age.[4]

 
Pilgrims travelling in a ship across the Sea of Oman[5]

Ibn Vali set out from Delhi in September 1676, reaching the port of Mocha, Yemen in January 1677 and continuing with a caravan of other pilgrims.[6] The sea journey from India to the Arabian Peninsula would have taken about 25 days.[7] The book has advice about travelling on ships across the Indian Ocean, starting with advice on choosing a ship.[8] It recommends that each ship should have a tabib (physician) and a blood-letter.[9] Pilgrims are advised to carry their own water in earthen pots, as the water available on ship tasted unpleasant.[10] If they did not have their own water, they could make the ship's water palatable by adding pomegranate syrup or the juice of soured fruit.[11] The book recommends that travellers should stay close to the main mast and away from the outer side of the deck, in order to avoid sea-sickness.[12] It describes in detail the places visited by ibn Vali and the rituals of the Hajj.[8] These included visits to holy places where the pilgrims shaved their hair, made sacrifices, and performed the stoning of the Devil.[1]

Surviving exemplars

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There are manuscripts of the Anis in the Khalili Collection of Hajj and the Arts of Pilgrimage,[13] in the Royal Armoury in Lucknow,[14] and in the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya in Mumbai.[15]

Illustrations

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While there are other pilgrims' guides that illustrate the pilgrimage and its locations diagrammatically, the Anis Al-Hujjaj is distinctive for also including colourful depictions of the pilgrims themselves.[1][5]

The Khalili exemplar (accession number MSS 1025), thought to originate from Gujarat between 1677 and 1680, consists of 23 folios including nine half-page and eleven full-page illustrations.[1] The text is in nastaliq script, with 23 lines per page.[13] The Khalili manuscript includes labelled depictions of places including Surat, Mocha, Jeddah and Mina.[16] The maps of these towns show buildings which are still identifiable today.[16] The illustrations also depict shrines around Mecca, some of which are no longer in existence. These include birthplaces of Muhammad, of his daughter Fatimah, and of his companion Abu Bakr al Siddiq.[16] The convention for maps in the Anis is that the top of the page represents the direction in which pilgrims are travelling.[16]

The illustrations show ships carrying pilgrims from the port of Surat on the Indian subcontinent, crossing the Sea of Oman, and arriving at Jeddah on the Arabian Peninsula. At Jeddah, smaller boats are shown which would have conveyed passengers between the large ships and the port.[17] Another folio of the Khalili manuscript shows a pilgrim caravan, including its amir al-hajj ("commander of the pilgrimage"), named as Abdi Pasha, and ahead of him the mahmal, an empty litter carried on a camel with each pilgrim caravan from Egypt. Sources differ on whether anything was carried within the mahmal, with some sources saying it was kept empty, although in ibn Vali's illustration it contains a Quran on a stand.[8] The illustrations also show the Sharif Barakat, ruler of the sanctuaries, meeting an emissary of the Ottoman sultan Mehmed IV.[1] The pilgrims converging on Mecca included groups from North Africa, Egypt, Syria, Iran, India and the Arabian Desert; the Anis shows their camps.[1] At Muzdalifah, pilgrims are shown collecting pebbles. Then at Mina they throw the pebbles in the ritual of ramy al-jamarāt (stoning of the Devil).[1]

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    Pilgrims in Mina, being shaved, making sacrifices and stoning the Devil[13]
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    The birthplaces of the Prophet Muhammad; of Fatimah; of Abu Bak al-Siddiq; as well as the Madrasah of Suleiman the Magnificent, and a Bektashi lodge [5]
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    Camp of the North African pilgrim caravan[5]
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    Camps of the Indian (top) and Iranian pilgrim caravans[5]
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    The Amir al-Hajj of the Egyptian caravan riding from Mecca to Medina with the mahmal[13]
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    Pilgrim ships leaving the port of Mocha, Yemen for India[5]

See also

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Anis al-Hujjaj.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Nassar, Nahla (2020). "The Anis al-Hujjaj ('Pilgrims' Companion') of Safi ibn Vali". Explore Islamic Art Collections. Retrieved 2020-11-25.
  2. ^ Schimmel, Annemarie (2004). The Empire of the Great Mughals: History, Art and Culture. Reaktion Books. p. 154. ISBN 978-1-86189-185-3.
  3. ^ Khalili, Nasser (2017). "A History of the Hajj in Ten Objects". Holy Makkah: a Celebration of Unity. London: FIRST. ISBN 9780995728141. Archived from the original on 2022-04-06. Retrieved 2020-12-16.
  4. ^ a b Hadi, Nabi (1995). Dictionary of Indo-Persian Literature. Abhinav Publications. p. 529. ISBN 978-81-7017-311-3.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Rogers, J. M. (2010). The Arts of Islam. Masterpieces from the Khalili Collection. Thames & Hudson. pp. 284–7. ISBN 9780500515549. OCLC 1000710554.
  6. ^ Khan, Iftikhar A. (1 January 2012). "A Hajj Pilgrim's Travelogue and Manual: The Sea Traveller 1676-1677". Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society. 60 (1): 7–12.
  7. ^ Agius, Dionisius A. (2013). "Ships that Sailed the Red Sea in Medieval and Early Modern Islam: Perception and Reception". In Porter, Venetia; Saif, Liana (eds.). The Hajj: collected essays. London: British Museum. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-86159-193-0. OCLC 857109543.
  8. ^ a b c Porter, Venetia (2013). "The Mahmal Revisited". In Porter, Venetia; Saif, Liana (eds.). The Hajj: collected essays. London: British Museum. p. 199. ISBN 978-0-86159-193-0. OCLC 857109543.
  9. ^ Singh, Abhay Kumar (2006). Modern World System and Indian Proto-industrialization: Bengal 1650-1800. Northern Book Centre. p. 659. ISBN 978-81-7211-201-1.
  10. ^ Lambourn, Elizabeth A. (2018), "The "Simple" Bare Necessities: On Water and Rice", Abraham's Luggage: A Social Life of Things in the Medieval Indian Ocean World, Asian Connections, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 173, doi:10.1017/9781316795453.006, ISBN 978-1-107-17388-0, retrieved 2020-11-17
  11. ^ Lambourn, Elizabeth A. (2018), "The Balanced Body: On Vinegar and Other Sour Foods", Abraham's Luggage: A Social Life of Things in the Medieval Indian Ocean World, Asian Connections, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 237, doi:10.1017/9781316795453.008, ISBN 978-1-107-17388-0, retrieved 2020-11-17
  12. ^ Singh, Abhay Kumar (2010). "Disease, Morbidity and Mortality in the Indian Ocean World, 1500-1800". In Sharma, Yogesh (ed.). Coastal Histories: Society and Ecology in Pre-modern India. Primus Books. p. 131. ISBN 978-93-80607-00-9.
  13. ^ a b c d "Safi ibn Vali's Anis al-Hujjaj ('Pilgrims' Companion')". Khalili Collections. Retrieved 2021-06-01.
  14. ^ Naz, Humera (2016). "History in the Guise of Hajj Safarnamas (the Hajj Narratives): An Appraisal of the Musafire-Hejaz (a mid-twentieth century hajj pilgrim's travelogue and manual, compiled in Sindh-Pakistan)". Pakistan Perspective. 21 (1). ISSN 2707-899X. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  15. ^ "Futuh Al-Haramayn : a pilgrim's guide to Hajj | National Museum New Delhi". The Heritage Lab. 2019-08-11. Retrieved 2020-11-25.
  16. ^ a b c d King, Geoffrey (December 2011). "Mukhâ' (Mocha), Jidda and Makka Al-Mukarrama: Urban Mapping in the Anis Al-Hujjâj Ms. in The Nasser D. Khalili Collection". Liwa (Journal of the National Center for Documentation and Research). 3 (6): 3–4. ISSN 1729-9039.
  17. ^ Agius, Dionisius A. (2013). "Ships that Sailed the Red Sea in Medieval and Early Modern Islam: Perception and Reception". In Porter, Venetia; Saif, Liana (eds.). The Hajj: collected essays. London: British Museum. p. 93. ISBN 978-0-86159-193-0. OCLC 857109543.
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