Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2002 12:49:06 +0000 (GMT)
From: =?iso-8859-1?q?piers=20smith?= <piersmsmith-AT-yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Muslim holy places


I’ll just add that at different times the holy sites
were not closed off to non-Muslims. The first mosque,
which was built in Medina, was not sacred. Mohammed’s
wives had huts in the courtyard, women, believers and
unbelievers moved freely there. It was probably not
even clear what an unbeliever was (the term ‘kufr’ was
not immediately a rallying-call for globalised
group-think) till local wars, precedent, dogma or
conflicting pathologies worked up the issue. Much
later, until quite recent times, people could still
sell stuff, eat, and sleep there; strangers could find
shelter. Ritual, Power and Difference hadn’t yet
cordoned off the minbar as a mouthpiece of State. As
you suggest, the Saudi system of ID-checks has recent
origins; though maybe we should note that these are
only as strict as those aimed at preventing the spread
of illness. 

The ‘daring’ of nineteenth-century European travellers
needs to be measured not only against the labelling
frenzies of imperial ideologues but also against local
conditions of travel. These were not always so
unwelcoming. Even Burton, who is famous for having
been given a hard time in the Hejaz (his disguise
seems to have been penetrated) by gloating fellow
travellers, and who was travelling at a time when
Wahhabi reformism (or what he drily calls ‘popular
enthusiasm’) was much in evidence, says in his
Preface: ‘any Jew, Christian, or Pagan, after
declaring before the Kazi and the Police Authorities
at Cairo, or even at Damascus, that he embraces
Al-Islam, may perform, without fear of the so-called
Mosaic institution, "Al-Sunnah", his pilgrimage in all
safety.’ 

Piers Smith


 --- "Kamran D. Rastegar" <kdr7-AT-columbia.edu> wrote: 
> 
> 
> finally, we should not confuse the history of
> religious practices in
> hejaz and nejd (where the holy areas are located)
> with the state policies
> of the present government that controls these areas
> - saudi arabia. the
> saudi policy is based on wahhabist interpretations
> that are often very far
> removed from those of earlier periods - ummayyid to
> ottman. i am not sure
> that the present discrimination again non-muslims
> held the same meaning in
> these earlier periods, or that it had the same
> intonation that it has
> today. i would appreciate it if others on the list
> who might know more
> about this would clarify if this has been the case
> throughout islamic
> history, or if it's moreso a result of the last 200
> or so years of
> wahhabist ascendency in the hejaz and nejd.
> 
> -kr
> 
> 
> 
>      --- from list
> postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu --- 

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