The earlier evidence of representations of Mecca and Medina in Islamic material culture are pilgrimage certificates now housed at the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art (TIEM). While the oldest document dates to AH 476 AH/AD 1084, representations of holy places begin to appear in these documents from the late 12thcentury and are more prevalent in Ayyubid scrolls. While instances of scrolls featuring representations of Mecca and Medina can be found across diverse regions, ranging from Egypt to China and from the 12th to the 19th century, they demonstrate distinct technological approaches, yet share commonalities in the models of representation and their multifunctional use.
The majority of early certificates were commissioned as proxies for an elite of esteemed pilgrims, such as sultans or emirs, who personally did not visit the holy sites. They display diverse physical characteristics: some are handwritten, while others utilize the woodblock printing technique, a method also employed in related amulet scrolls depicting Mecca and Medina. The certificates, initially conceived as legal documents attesting to the completion of pilgrimage, subsequently reveal a more extensive purpose. They transcended the private realm, finding a place in the public sphere, as they were certainly displayed in religious buildings. Furthermore, noteworthy examples of smaller pilgrimage certificates directly associated with the revered ziyāra to Medina also demonstrate their function as talismanic documents, evident through the presence of folds on the paper and the empty spaces meant for the pilgrim names. Later scroll production of the 18th and 19th century expanded to encompass additional sites visited alongside Mecca and Medina, thereby offering a holistic perspective of the spiritual journey undertaken and establishing connections with specific Sufi brotherhoods.
While existing examples have been examined predominantly from an art historical standpoint, this paper endeavors to shift the focus to the technological craftsmanship behind their creation and the intended purposes they fulfilled. By exploring the journey from production to utilization, this paper aims to offer insights into the materiality, function, and significance of these Mecca and Medina scrolls, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of their role in Islamic devotional practices in the medieval and pre-modern periods.
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Mounia Chekhab-Abudaya, David J. Roxburgh and Amélie Couvrat-Desvergnes “Sayyid Yusuf’s 1433 Pilgrimage Scroll (Ziyārātnāma) in the Collection of the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha”, Muqarnas 33 (December 2016): 345-407.
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Barry Flood, Technologies de devotion dans les arts de l’Islam. Pèlerins, reliques et copies (Paris: Musée du Louvre/Hazan, 2019)
Lyla Halsted, “Printing, Protection, and Pilgrimage: A Block Printed Arabic Amulet Depicting Mecca and Medina,” Muqarnas 41 (upcoming 2024)
Ulrich Marzolph, “From Mecca to Mashhad: the narrative of an illustrated Shi‘i pilgrimage scroll from the Qajar period,” Muqarnas 31 (2014), 207-242
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Mounia Chekhab-Abudaya
Senior Curator
Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) Doha
Professional Experience
Since 2020: Senior Curator, MIA, Doha
2012 - 2020: Curator for Manuscripts and Western Mediterranean collections, MIA, Doha
2007 - 2012: Lecturer, Islamic Art History, Panthéon Sorbonne University and INALCO Paris
Education
2017-2018: Post-doctoral Research Associate, Aga Khan Program for Islamic Art and Architecture, Harvard University, Cambridge MA
2012: PhD in Islamic Art History, Panthéon Sorbonne University, Paris
2010: Double Bachelor Degree in Classical Arabic and Oriental Dialects, INALCO, Paris
Selected Publications
“Inner Visions: art practice and Ṣūfī devotion in Morocco at the turn of the fourteenth/twentieth century”, Journal of Material Cultures in the Muslim World 4 (July 2023).
“Islamic Pilgrimage”, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion, Oxford University Press, published online on 22nd March 2023. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.952.
“Traveling manuscripts: understanding pilgrimage in Central and Eastern Islamic Lands”, in Peter PERDUE, Helen SIU and Eric TAGLIACOZZO (ed.), Asia Inside Out, vol. 3, People and Processes, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2019: 146-178.
“Sayyid Yusuf’s 1433 Pilgrimage Scroll (Ziyārātnāma) in the Collection of the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha” (in English), (co-authors Prof. David Roxburgh and Amélie Couvrat-Desvergnes), Muqarnas 33 (December 2016): 345-407.
“Timurid ‘Umra certificate” (catalogue entry, in English), in Barbara Drake BOEHM and Melanie HOLCOMB (ed.),Every People Under Heaven: Jerusalem, 1000-1400, exhibition catalogue, New-York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, September 2016: 53-54.
Mémoires du Hajj - Le pèlerinage à la Mecque vu à travers les Arts de l’Islam, la production intellectuelle et matérielle de l’époque médiévale à l’époque contemporaine, Paris, Cahiers de l’Islam, novembre 2014.
Instances of scrolls featuring representations of Mecca and Medina can be found across diverse regions, ranging from Egypt to China, from the twelfth to the nineteenth century. While existing examples have been examined predominantly from an art historical standpoint, this paper shifts the focus to the technological craftsmanship behind their creation and the intended purposes they fulfilled. By exploring the journey from production to utilization, I aim to offer insights into the materiality, function, and significance of such scrolls, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of their role in Islamic devotional practices in the medieval and pre-modern periods.