Critical investigation of The Grand Mosque of Makkah

Early ages

The history of the Grand Mosque dates back to the date of the construction of the Kaaba, which was built by the Prophet of God ‘Abraham’ (King, 1985). Before that time, the region was a dry valley surrounded by mountains on each side. The Kaaba was the first building in the city of Makkah where Abraham and his family was the first to inhabit Makkah after the Great Flood where he was coming from the Levant (Firestone, 1990). After that time, the city became a conduit for convoys and a shelter for the inhabitants of the immigrant tribes because of the existence of a large well beside the Kaaba called Zamzam well. The well still contain water in large quantitiy and a large amount of water is pumped out of the well on daily basis (Hawting, 1980). Makkah became a system of government, power and administration under the reign of Isma’il, the son of the Prophet Abraham. There were only a small number of house adjacent to the Kaaba (Toulan, 2017). After this period, the city administration transferred and protected the tribes that inhabited the area at that time. The Quraysh tribe was the last tribe to look after the Kaaba before the Islamic religion was established by one of its members, the Prophet Muhammad (Toulan, 2017).

 

Islamic Era

One of the reasons for the emergence of the religion of Islam is to prevent people from worshiping the idols or to get rid of the so-called pagan religion. The people of Quraysh tribe were the ones who used to worship the idols. After the conquest of Makkah by the Prophet Mohammed and his companions in 630 AD, these idols were removed, and the Kaaba became an enclosed outer enclave, later called the Grand Mosque (Feener, 1998). The Grand Mosque remained in the same condition until it was expanded in 634-644 AD –

In the era of Umar Ibn Al-Khattab, number of houses were purchased near the grand Mosque due to the increase in the number of pilgrims (Al-Qudsy & Rahman, 2011). The rulers of this region continued to care about this mosque over time until the government of Saudi Arabia took over the administration of the Grand Mosque. Under the new administration of the grand Mosque, particular financial budgets were allocated towards its maintenance. The Gran Mosque is considered to be the most religious attraction on Earth, that is visited by over 11.6 million Muslims annually (Fig. 3) (Henderson, 2011). The government of Saudi Arabia plans to increase this number to 30 million pilgrims by 2030 (Yezli et al., 2017).

Modern Era

The capacity of the mosque has increased from 200,000 to 1.85 million during the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (IINA, 2015). The report shows that the construction of the mosque amounted to about 1.83 million square meters, to take place such massive expansion, over 5880 properties had to be removed that were adjacent to the mosque. Also, the expansion project used more 13 million cubic meters of rock pieces, 3 million cubic meters of reinforced concrete of all types, 800 tons of reinforcing steel, 37,800 pieces of artificial stone, 1.21 million square meters of marble surfaces, 1020 chandeliers of all sizes, 3,600 wall lighting units and 158 electric elevators. 188 entrances, 12,400 toilets, 8,650 hand-washing facilities and 2,500 fire-fighting equipment were built. The expansion included 11878 meters of tunnels, the tunnels are distribute for pedestrians, emergency vehicles and for normal traffic. The expansion required 4524 digital audio speakers, 6635 fixed and mobile surveillance cameras, 44 television cameras, radio and television studios and 1,860 hours of a unified system. All systems are electronically controlled by a government organisation where sound, surveillance, clocks, doors, telephones, crowd control, signage, air purification, air conditioning and refrigeration are controlled. The project includes seven power plants with a capacity of 4,412 MVA, with cables measuring 104,317 meters in length. It has a station with a maximum capacity of 160 thousand tons of cooling and a central waste collection plant with 600 tons of automatic discharge per day (IINA, 2015).

 

  1. Weather:

The city of Makkah is dominated by the desert climate, like most of the Arabian Peninsula. Because of the existence of Makkah in the tropical region “The Tropic of Cancer”, its relative distance from the Red Sea coast is characterised by a relatively dry climate. The temperature rises in summer and reaches about 47 ° C in June. In winter, Makkah differs from the rest of the Arabian Peninsula. It is characterised by warm climate and temperature ranges from 25 ° C to 17 ° C. Rainfall increases in November, December and January. The annual rainfall rate in Makkah is between 25 and 80 millimetres, winds are inflamed from northern, northwestern and southwestern directions, with an average speed of 3 to 36 knots. For humidity, it stays pretty much constant through most of the year, and on average humidity is between 32 and 57% (PME, 2018).

 

  1. Value (Why is it important?):

Religious and strategic value

Grand Mosque is considered holy for Muslims, that has gained this holiness given the sanctity of fighting it. It is said that offering one prayer is equivalent to 100 thousand prayers in this mosque. That indicates the exceptional status of this mosque among Muslims. The Kaaba is the direction in which Muslims direct their faces in every prayer. It is considered a pilgrimage to Muslims, so the Hajj or Umrah “Islamic pilgrimage” is not completed unless prayers are performed in this Mosque. There are many scientific seminars and other important religious lessons that take place in this mosque and muslims from around the world come to attend such events just to be able to have more knowledge about their religion.It is the destination of the poor because of many charities there. Because of the presence of this mosque in this country at present, Saudi Arabia has emerged as one of the most valued country in the entire Muslim world (Niblock, 2004).

 

Economic value

The history of trade in Makkah started with the construction of the Kaaba, as more and more people used to come and stay in the city in order to perform Hajj and Umrah, that created the need for people to start trade. Historical sources have not specifically stated the exact date or time, when such trade started, but it could be argued that the beginning of the sixth century AD trade started to took place in Makkah (Al-Amin, 1969).  These markets are attended by those who wanted to trade, and those who did not have a trade. The commercial caravans of Makkah toured the Arabian Peninsula carrying trade between East and West, passing through Yemen, Abyssinia, Syria and other neighbouring civilisations, until commercial relations were established with the north of the Arabian countries, Persians and different cultures (Al-Amin, 1969).

The trade around the Grand Mosque had increased and decreased until it reached the Saudi era when King Abdul Aziz “the founder of the third Saudi state” was able to bring Makkah under his rule (Aldiyn, 1985). A new era of stability and prosperity began in Makkah, and its effects were reflected on the development of the commercial movement when King Abdul Aziz declared the elimination of bribery, corruption and tyranny (Aldiyn, 1985). In that era, oil was discovered and exported to other countries, this affected the movement of trade and its development until the business in Makkah rose to degrees, which had not reached ever before. In our time we may see that the commercial activity in Makkah has reached the peak of the gains, with the proliferation of commercial markets and food shops, hotels and so on. As well as the establishment of the Chamber of Commerce is one of the most important achievements that played an essential role in the development of trade in this holy land.

 

References

Al-Amin, A. (1969). the dawn of Islam, the Arab Book House. In: Beirut.

Al-Qudsy, S., & Rahman, A. (2011). Effective Governance in the Era of CaliphateUmar Ibn Al-Khattab (634-644). European Journal of Social Sciences, 18(4), 612-624.

Aldiyn, A. K. (1985). Peninsula in the reign of King Abdul Aziz. Lebanon: The House of Science for millions, Beirut.

Ascoura, I. E. (2013). Impact of pilgrimage (Hajj) on the urban growth of the Mecca. Journal of Educational and Social Research, 3(2), 255.

Barau, A. S. (2010). Sharia land use sustainability model. Paper presented at the Book of Proceedings of Conference on Technology and Sustainability in the Built Environment.

Dietz, R. S., & McHone, J. (1974). Kaaba Stone: Not a meteorite, probably an agate. Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 9(2), 173-179.

Feener, R. M. (1998). The History of al-Tabari (Ta’rikh al-rusul wa’l-muluk): An Annotated Translation. The Victory of Islam: Muhammad at Medina, AD 626-630/AH 5-8, Vol. VIII, by Al-Tabari Muhammad Ibn Jarir. Translated with notes by Fishbein Michael. 215 pages, bibliography, index. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1997 ISBN 0-7914-3149-5. Review of Middle East Studies, 32(2), 187-188.

Firestone, R. (1990). Journeys in holy lands: The evolution of the Abraham-Ishmael legends in Islamic exegesis: SUNY Press.