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Editor's Note:
The annual Hajj, the annual pilgrimage of Muslims performing
one of the basic duties of their faith - a joyous profession of
their faith, will begin tomorrow, December 17, 2007, in Saudi
Arabia. Today we are pleased to mark the eve of Hajj with an
interview with Dr. David E. Long. For more on the Hajj we
suggest you read Dr. Long's essay "The Hajj and Its
Impact on Saudi Arabia and the Muslim World," which is
also being reprinted today (links below).
A career foreign service officer before retiring to become a
consultant on Middle East affairs, he is author of numerous
books on the Middle East and his "Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia" is among the definitive texts on the
subject.
Dr. Long was interviewed by telephone from his home in
Northern Virginia on January 14, 2005. This SUSRIS exclusive
interview originally appeared in SUSRIS on January 23, 2005.
You
can find these reports and more articles, links and resources
at a SUSRIS Special Section on Hajj 2007. Click
here for more.
SUSRIS:
Thank you, Dr. Long for taking time today to talk with us
about the Hajj. What is the Hajj and why do people do it?
Dr.
Long: The Hajj is one of the five pillars or the
foundation of Islam and therefore it is the obligation of
everyone who is physically and financially able to do so to
make the Hajj once in their lifetimes. Pilgrimages to Makkah
actually predate Islam, but the Hajj is considered by all
Muslims to be divinely inspired by God as set down in the
Qur'an and the Sunna. It is one of the Five Pillars of Islam,
the others being: the profession of faith - "there is no
God but God and Mohammed is the messenger of God"; Zakat
or charity; prayer five times a day, and fasting during
Ramadan. The rites are based on the instructions Muhammad gave
in his Farewell Hajj just before he died. They have remained
virtually unchanged to this day
SUSRIS: What role has Saudi Arabia played in hosting
the pilgrims?
Dr. Long: That is a fascinating question. There was
great fear when the Saudis took Makkah and annexed the Hijaz
that they would do things that were not in line with the
established practices. The fear first arose when the
puritanical Islamic revival movement of Muhammed Ibn Abu
Wahhab spread from Najd throughout Arabia, beginning in the
18th century.
Ibn
Abu Wahhab preached that all sorts of innovations had been
introduced into Islam since the time of Mohammed; his reform
movement was basically a movement to get back to the original
Islam. The centerpiece of his reform movement was Tawhid, or
monotheism. The religious establishment who ran the Hajj
feared that if the people followed the reform movement, it
would cost them both economically and influence they held with
the people. For example, one of the things that the movement
called for was banning the practice of seeking intercession
with God through Muslim saints by making pilgrimages to their
tombs - very lucrative for those who controlled the tombs.
Mohammed Ibn Abu Wahhab considered intercession heretical as
it denigrated the sovereignty and omnipotence of God.
But when the Al Sauds annexed the Hijaz and took over the
administration of the Hajj in 1925-1926, it soon became
apparent that the fears were unfounded. From that time to
this, the Saudi regime has gone all out to make sure it was
available to all those who were able to attend. As a token of
this responsibility, King Fahd assumed the title Khatim al-Haramain
(Custodian of the Two Holy Places, i.e. Makkah and
al-Madinah).
The
job has not always been easy. Not only are the administrative
tasks of providing services to over two million pilgrims
enormous, but there have been all sorts or political divisions
and problems that posed dilemmas for the Saudis.
For example, during the period of Nasserism and secular Arab
nationalism there were many people who wanted to use the Hajj
as a platform for political protest and the Saudis absolutely
forbade that. They said it was not a time for politics; the
Hajj was purely religious and they wanted to keep it that way.
They would not allow protest over secular political issues --
even if they agreed with them -- that they did not feel were
legitimately in the context of religious celebration.
After the 1979 revolution, Iranian provocateurs stirred up
trouble at the Hajj. It was partly religious but it was mostly
political. It was an attempt to undermine the Islamic world's
acceptance of Saudi custodianship, to undermine their
reputation for running Hajj. But it backfired; it did not
work, in fact, just the opposite. On the whole, I think that
the record of the Saudis has been fairly good in terms of
their striving to help people meet the obligation to come to
the Hajj without being subjected to political protest.
Now that's on the political side. The administrative problems
the Saudis have had to encounter have in many ways been even
more daunting. In the beginning, the Saudi Government was far
less advanced than the former Hijazi government and not
capable of administering such a huge task. What they came up
with, I think, was pretty ingenious: a public utility concept
-- my term not theirs - similar to public utilities in the
United States. The Hajj is administered primarily by the
private sector but it is closely regulated by the government,
which even collects the fees from the Hajjis and remits it to
the private Hajj service sector to insure that the pilgrims
are being fairly treated. Had the government tried to
nationalize Hajj administration, there would likely have been
chaos. But instead, they allowed private guilds (somewhat like
guilds in medieval Europe) that had been guiding pilgrims for
centuries, to continue to administer the Hajj but under strict
supervision.
The principal guild consists of mutawwiffin (sing. mutawwif).
They are sort of like family-run religious tour guide
companies, if you will. Collectively, the mutawwiffin are
responsible for pilgrims from every country in the world. For
example, there is a mutawwif responsible for all the pilgrims
coming from the United States. Closely associated with the
mutawwifin are the Wukala' (sing Wakil), or Agents. Located in
the port city of Jiddah, they are responsible for meeting
pilgrims arriving by air or sea, seeing them safely off to
Makkah and seeing them off on the return trip home. (With the
creation of an all-weather road system, an increasing number
once again travel overland by car or bus.)
There is another guild in Makkah, the Zamazimah (sing. Zamzami).
Historically, their task was to provide pilgrims with the holy
water of Zamzam, a well inside the Haram Mosque. That has
become a major undertaking with the great increase in numbers.
Can you imagine when you have two million people who want to
drink Zamzam water that's a pretty big task? They do that, but
their skill has expanded and that is why they are called
Zamazimah. In fact they bottle Zamzam water -- the real Zamzam
water -- send it all over the world. It is a non-profit
foundation to raise money for worthy causes.
Finally, to meet, guide and see off the Hajjis that visit
al-Madinah, the guild of Adilla (sing. Dalil) are located in
al-Madinah where they meet, guide and see off the Hajjis that
visit that city.
Compare the Hajj to a city of two million people. Over two
million people attend the Hajj each year. Think about it -
providing transportation, sanitation, health care, food, and
drink. What happens if somebody gets lost and speaks an
uncommon language? There are some pilgrims in their 60s and
70s who have saved up for a lifetime to make the Hajj. The
chances of a medical emergency among this group are high,
particularly in the summer months when the temperature can
reach 135 degrees Fahrenheit, and they are usually outside or
living in a tent. Throughout the area, the government has
installed high overhead sprinklers to lower the chances of
heat stroke. These are not conditions on the magnitude of the
South Asia tsunami, but they must be dealt with on a yearly
basis. It is truly a mind-boggling task.
SUSRIS: Your analogy of a population, an overnight
collection, of two million people, equivalent to a US
metropolitan region is interesting. Can you give us a sense of
the magnitude of the event?
Dr.
Long: I think that puts it in the right perspective. When
you have that many people, there are bound to be glitches here
and there. What is amazing is that there aren't more. For
example, let's talk about transportation. Let me walk you
through the Hajj.
When pilgrims near Makkah, whether by air, land or sea, they
must enter a ritual state of purification called Ihram. It
includes wearing Hajj garments -- women do not wear veils -
and refraining from cutting hair or nails, or having sex.
Those in Ihram are easily recognizable by the garments they
wear - two seamless pieces of white terry cloth for men and a
long white robe for women. Women do not wear veils.
Upon reaching Makkah, one goes to the great Haram Mosque. The
first rite is the Tawaf, the seven-fold circumambulation of
the Kaaba, the dark stone cubic building in the center of the
main mosque area. One then takes a drink of holy Zamzam water
and then makes seven one way trips between Safa and Marwah,
which are two little hills that are now incorporated into the
mosque complex. That commemorates when Hagar was frantically
looking for water for her infant son, Isma'il. In response,
according to Islamic tradition, God struck open a rock and out
came the water of Zamzam.
The logistics of moving the pilgrims through these rites are
not particularly difficult. They are done ad seriatim as
people arrive, not all at the same time. Afterwards, all the
pilgrims travel east of Makkah to the Plain of Arafat. The
choicest place to be is a small hill called the Mount of
Mercy, but as all two million arrive, a tent city to
accommodate them, replete with shops, first aid stations, fire
stations, sanitations facilities, communications and
transportation, stretches for miles across the plain.
It is at the Plain of Arafat that the Hajj culminates at
sunset on Standing Day, the ninth day of the Muslim lunar
month of Thul-Hijjah (which occurs eleven days earlier each
year on the solar calendar - this year on January 20).
Everyone - all two million plus-- must say prayers at Arafat
at sunset on that day else the Hajj is forfeited.
Following prayers, everyone must travel back toward Makkah to
another location, Mina for the beginning of the Eid al-Adha
(The Great Feast of the Sacrifice), which is celebrated
throughout the Muslim world. The trek is called the Rush (Nafrah),
but it takes about 12 hours to get everyone there. Think about
two million people leaving from the same place at the same
time, and going to the same place. Think about the Super Bowl
or a World Series game, and what kind of traffic jam that
causes. Multiply that by twenty, but instead of going north,
south, east and west think of them all going in the same
direction and out of piety many of them want to walk. We're
talking about the biggest traffic jam ever.
So transportation, the problems they have to address are
mind-boggling. They have everything from taxicabs to big buses
that come down from Turkey and Central Asia with the Hajis
living in them. Think of all the fender benders and that's
just one thing.
SUSRIS: And they are from all corners of the globe?
Dr.
Long: Yes, from all corners of the globe. And speaking
over 100 languages or dialects and a large number of them up
in years. But the gargantuan logistical task does not end
there. During the Eid al Adha each family is supposed to
sacrifice an animal. Of course many insist on a sheep, nothing
smaller. For years, hundreds of thousands of sheep were
slaughtered, and after families took what they could use, the
rest was simply buried because of the lack of processing
facilities for sheep sacrificed one day of the year. But the
goal of the Eid is to give up something valuable, not blood
sacrifice, and so now it is possible to purchase a sheep, have
it slaughtered in the correct way and have the meat
distributed worldwide to the needy. It is both practical and a
suitable act of piety.
These are just some of the logistical problems that confront
the Saudis. It is a Herculean job. One of the things that
makes it all work is the attitude of the people. The Hajj is
an incredibly and deeply joyous time -- not the sort of the
manufactured happiness of New Year's Eve West where everyone
goes out and tries to pretend they are having a great time.
People from all over the Muslim world who attend are
overflowing with good will.
One can feel it feel it even watching on Saudi television
where it is broadcast. Watching the broadcast, one can hear a
spontaneous chanting of the Talbiyyah, a ritual prayer
repeated throughout the Hajj. First will come one or two
voices, then a dozen, and then thousands are chanting it. Even
for those not physically present, it is hard not to have
chills run up and down your back
SUSRIS: How does the role of Saudi Arabia as the
custodian of the two holy places and the role as host for the
pilgrimage effect the thinking of the people and government of
Saudi Arabia?
Dr. Long: The attitude toward the Hajj in Saudi Arabia
may be somewhat analogous to being a Catholic living in Rome.
You might take it for granted, but at the same time it
permeates your whole life. Proximity to the Muslim holy places
can indeed be taken for granted by Saudis, particularly those
who live in Makkah and al-Madinah and nearby towns and cities.
But on the other hand, Islam in all its dimensions is just a
part of one's daily life in a way that is difficult to
duplicate in many other places throughout the Muslim world.
One of the issues now facing Saudis and others from the Gulf
is that physically there are only so many people who can do
this each year and they are about to max out. They have spent
literally millions of dollars expanding the capacity of the
holy cities and the holy mosques to accommodate these people.
You remember when I said the two little hills that were
incorporated into the complex -- Safa and Marwah. You've seen
pictures of the Prophet's Mosque in Al-Madinah. These are huge
places, and they can accommodate over a million people at the
same time -- that is just mind-boggling.
But still, the government has had to say to people who live in
Saudi Arabia and neighboring states that they cannot go to the
Hajj more than once every five years. Because there are so
many people living in Saudi Arabia, there are three million
people living in nearby Jeddah -- what if they all showed up?
It is a difficult dilemma for the government to limit local
attendance at the holy places during the Hajj, but it must be
done to make room for those attending for the first and
perhaps last time in their lives.
SUSRIS: A news report said this year's visa quota for
the Hajj was 1.2 million.
Dr. Long: Yes they do limit visas. They have to. The
people in the Arabian Peninsula don't need a Hajj visa.
They have to do this in order to accommodate people because it
is a religious obligation and they take it very seriously.
Again that is another logistic problem they have to address.
Security is the same way. As people found out back during the
Arab nationalist era and as the Iranians discovered after the
Islamic revolution, there is a backlash against people who try
to use the Hajj for political purposes. This is a very holy
celebration and anybody who tries to stir up trouble is
subject to a backlash, a feeling against them.
SUSRIS: Does Saudi Arabia exercise any special place in
the Islamic world since it is the home of the holy sites?
Dr. Long: I think that it would be precise to say that
Saudi Arabia feels a special responsibility to the rest of the
Muslim world as the birthplace of Islam and the location of
its two holiest places. They do place great importance on
their relations with other Muslim states, and to increase good
relations throughout the Muslim world they created the OIC
[Organization of the Islamic Conference]. It is probably fair
to say that they do exercise a special place in the Islamic
world, but it is not an 'imperial' thing. They feel that as
the keepers of the holy places and the birthplace of Islam
they have to be concerned about the hearts and minds of
Muslims. But that doesn't translate into Saudi hegemony over
anything because it wouldn't be Saudi hegemony, it would be
God's hegemony over the world in an Islamic context.
SUSRIS: How does the Hajj fit into the changing
security posture in the Kingdom - given the Al Qaeda attacks
of recent years?
Dr. Long: People should always be mindful of the
security situation anywhere they go. But there are two other
considerations here: one, any terrorist group that seeks
legitimacy from some Muslim constituency would be foolish
indeed to commit an act of violence at such a holy
celebration. Those who have tried in past years have found it
overwhelmingly counterproductive. One must assume that they
seek to recruit followers and it is not going to win hearts
and influence people to kill your own people during the
holiest gathering of the year.
SUSRIS: Is there potential for some activity to
embarrass the Saudis as the hosts.
Dr. Long: There is always that potential but as the
Iranians found out the odds that it would be totally
counterproductive and backfiring are huge. The terrorists in
Saudi Arabia have found out that the people turned against
them when they started killing Muslims. One of the reasons
they went for the Interior Ministry last month was to isolate
them in the minds of people as the enemy rather than as
Muslims.
Al-Qaeda is expounding a cause, but no matter how fanatical
they might be, they cannot succeed by alienating the very
people you are supposedly trying to protect from the outside
enemy. There may be some organization with a kind of Jim Jones
mentality that does something really irrational, but Al-Qaeda
does not appear to me to be that irrational. They may be
zealots but they think rationally. You can't rule it out but I
would find it incredible that they would be so stupid.
SUSRIS: So the security challenges are just the
physical accommodation of over two million people.
Dr. Long: Nothing of the magnitude of the Hajj is that
simple, and of course, the Saudis are going to have to worry
about political security. But Hajj administration is such a
gigantic undertaking that they will have plenty of other, more
mundane forms of security to worry about.
SUSRIS: What is it about the Hajj that people should
understand? How should people put it in the context of world
events?
Dr. Long: There are many ways you can do that. The
first that comes to mind is that the Hajj creates an
opportunity for non Muslims and people who don't know much
about Islam -- particularly those people who have a totally
negative view of Muslims as terrorists and the other images
that are prominently displayed in the media -- that this is a
gathering of 2 million faithful people in a joyous time in the
21st century. With all the strife and all the suffering going
on in the world it is just absolutely amazing.
It shows as much as anything can, the collective heart of the
largest religious group in the world -- 1.2 billion people,
more of them than anyone else. That in itself is not the
lesson, the lesson is to get along in this world with anybody
you need a sense of perspective. This is a great way of
gaining perspective by looking at how so many people do an act
of piety and religious obligation in an atmosphere of joy
every year regardless of what's going on in Iraq, or anywhere,
and I think that would be a lesson to contemplate.
SUSRIS: That's a great observation. Thank you, Dr. Long
for sharing your insight on the Hajj with us today.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
 David
E. Long is a consultant on Middle East and Gulf affairs and
international terrorism. He joined the U.S. Foreign Service in
1962 and served in Washington and abroad until 1993, with
assignments in the Sudan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan.
His Washington assignments included Deputy Director of the
State Department's Office of Counter Terrorism for Regional
Policy, a member of the Secretary of State's Policy Planning
Staff, and Chief of the Near East Research Division in the
Bureau of Intelligence and Research Bureau. He was also
detailed to the Institute for National Strategic Studies of
the National Defense University in Washington, 1991-92, and to
the United States Coast Guard Academy, 1989-91, where he
served as Visiting Professor of International Relations and in
1990-91 as Acting Head of the Humanities Department.
A native of Florida, he received an AB in history from
Davidson College, an MA in political science from the
University of North Carolina, an MA in international relations
from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a Ph.D. in
International Relations from the George Washington University.
In 1974 -1975, Dr. Long was an International Affairs Fellow of
the Council on Foreign Relations and concurrently a Senior
Fellow at the Georgetown University Center for Strategic and
International Studies. While on leave of absence from the
State Department, he was the first Executive Director of the
Georgetown University Center for Contemporary Arab Studies,
1974-1975. In 1982-1983, he was a Senior Fellow of the Middle
East Research Institute and Adjunct Professor of Political
Science at the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1987-1989,
he was a Diplomat in Residence and Research Professor of
International Affairs at Georgetown.
Dr. Long has been an adjunct professor at several Washington
area universities, including Georgetown, George Washington and
American Universities and the Johns Hopkins University's
School of Advanced International Studies. He has also lectured
extensively in the United States and abroad on topics relating
to the Islam, the Middle East and terrorism.
His publications include The Government and Politics of the
Middle East and North Africa (co-editor with Bernard Reich,
4th ed. 2002), Gulf Security in the Twenty-First Century
(co-editor with Christian Koch, 1998), The Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia (1997), The Anatomy of Terrorism (1990), The United
States and Saudi Arabia: Ambivalent Allies (1985), Saudi
Arabian Modernization (with John Shaw, 1982), The Hajj Today:
A Survey of the Contemporary Makkah Pilgrimage (1979), Saudi
Arabia (1976) and The Persian Gulf (1976, revised 1978).
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