The Hajj by Naser-e Khosraw, from Michael Wolfe’s “One Thousand Roads to Mecca”

17 September 2015

“….The tallest mountain near Mecca is Abu Qubays, which is round like a dome, so that if you shoot an arrow from the foot of the mountain it reaches its top.…Having come into the city, you enter the Haram Mosque, approach the Ka’ba, and circumambulate….. always keeping the Ka‘ba to your left [shoulder]. Then you go to the corner containing the Black Stone, kiss it, and pass on….”

PLEASE CLICK: Naser-e Khosraw’s Pilgrimages to Mecca

A bird’s-eye view of the Ka’ba crowded with pilgrims. The photo is from the archives of the US Library of Congress and was created by American Colony (Jerusalem), Photo Dept., in 1910. Please click for article by Naser-e Khosraw.

Date posted: September 17, 2015.

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A Description of the Hajj by Naser-e Khosraw – from “One Thousand Roads to Mecca” by Michael Wolfe

3 October 2014

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AN INSTALLMENT FROM SIMERG’S MUST READ SERIES ABOUT NASER-E KHOSRAW’S MEMORABLE JOURNEY TO FATIMID EGYPT

A statue of the famous Ismaili dai Nasir Khusraw in Badakhshan.

Please click: Naser-e Khosraw’s Pilgrimages to Mecca
(Links to all series articles provided below)

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Complete series by Michael Wolfe:

Part I – Introduction and Naser-e Khosraw Commences the Journey
Part II – Naser-e Khosraw in Fatimid Cairo
Part III – Naser-e Khosraw’s Pilgrimages to Mecca
Part IV – Naser-e Khosraw’s Dangerous Homeward Journey

A Description of the Hajj by the Ismaili Missionary Naser-e Khosraw – from “One Thousand Roads to Mecca” by Michael Wolfe

10 October 2013

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AN INSTALLMENT FROM SIMERG’S MUST READ SERIES ABOUT NASER-E KHOSRAW’S MEMORABLE JOURNEY TO FATIMID EGYPT

A statue of the famous Ismaili dai Nasir Khusraw in Badakhshan.

Please click: Naser-e Khosraw’s Pilgrimages to Mecca
(Links to all series articles provided below)

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Complete series by Michael Wolfe:

Naser-e Khosraw’s Risky and Dangerous Homeward Journey, from Michael Wolfe’s “One Thousand Roads to Mecca”

8 November 2012

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In our concluding part of the series on Naser-e Khosraw’s travels, the Ismaili poet, philosopher and traveller provides a grim look at the merciless deserts of Arabia and the predatory ways of the Arab Bedouin. He encounters camel riding pirates, and the price of safe-passage costs him and his party their money and their clothes. But he also finds great consolation during a nine-month stay in the city of Lhasa. Read his fascinating account by clicking Naser-e Khosraw’s Dangerous Homeward Journey: From “One Thousand Roads to Mecca” by Michael Wolfe or on the following image:

A portrait of Naser-e Khosraw on a large rock in Badakhshan. Please click on image to read the concluding part of his journey. Photo: Ali M. Rajput., UK.

The Hajj by Naser-e Khosraw, from Michael Wolfe’s “One Thousand Roads to Mecca”

23 October 2012

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IN PART III OF NASER-E KHOSRAW’S TRAVELS

Naser-e Khosraw’s Pilgrimages to Mecca

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Previous posts in the four-part series (the above is Part III):

Naser-e Khosraw’s Pilgrimages to Mecca: From “One Thousand Roads to Mecca” Edited by Michael Wolfe (Part I)
Naser-e Khosraw in Fatimid Cairo: From “One Thousand Roads to Mecca” Edited by Michael Wolfe (Part II

Naser-e Khosraw on Fatimid Cairo’s Biggest Ceremony, from Michael Wolfe’s “One Thousand Roads to Mecca”

19 October 2012

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IN PART II OF NASER-E KHOSRAW’S TRAVELS

“….There is a lighthouse that I saw in Alexandria, on top of which used to be an incendiary mirror. Whenever a ship came from Istanbul and approached opposite the mirror, ﬁre would fall from the mirror and burn the ship up…. On the morning when the Sultan is going out for the ceremony, ten thousand men are hired to hold the steeds….At some distance behind all of these comes the Sultan [al-Mustansir], a well-built, clean-shaven youth with cropped hair, a descendant of Husayn son of Ali. He is mounted on a camel with plain saddle and bridle with no gold or silver and wears a white shirt…”

Naser-e Khosraw in Fatimid Cairo: From “One Thousand Roads to Mecca” Edited by Michael Wolfe

Map of Naser-e Khosraw’s travels as described in his “Safarnama” or the Book of Travels. Credit: Wikipedia. Please click for article.

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Previous instalment: One Thousand Roads to Mecca: Naser-e Khosraw’s Writing About the Muslim Pilgrimage

One Thousand Roads to Mecca: Naser-e Khosraw’s Writing About the Muslim Pilgrimage Edited and Introduced by Michael Wolfe

15 October 2012

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In the early 1990’s Michael Wolfe, a prolific American writer and award winning producer of Islamic documentaries including Muhammad: The Legacy of a Prophet, became aware of a string of accounts by Muslims and non-Muslims who over the last one thousand years had gone to Mecca on the pilgrimage. Wolfe’s accounts are collected into a single volume called One Thousand Roads to Mecca, and the first of the twenty-four edited accounts is based on the Book of Travels, a classic text by the famous Ismaili poet, philosopher and traveller Naser-e Khosraw who lived during Islam’s expansive Middle period between the 11th and 14th centuries. The period has also been called the Golden Age of Muslim travel and, as Wolfe notes, Khosraw set the tone for a thousand years of Persian travel writing.

To begin reading Naser-e Khosraw’s spirited account of his journey, with an excellent introduction by Michael Wolfe, please click One Thousand Roads to Mecca: Naser-e Khosraw’s Writing About the Muslim Pilgrimage, or the image below.