AI-Hajj in Arabic means the pilgrimage to MAKKA. This was
an ancient rite which was recognised a long time before the
rise of Islam. According to the holy Quran and Islamic
tradi tion, AI-Haj j goes back to the time of the prophet
Ibrahim. Thus MAKKA was a focus for worship but it was also
a commercial centre and a way station/stopping place on the
ancient trade caravan road between south western -Arabia and
Bilad AI-Sham,' now Syria. In part the inhabitants of MAKKA
practised this trade because their environment was not
suitable for other alternative economic activities.
The importance of MAKKA, as a ritual place increased after
the rise of Islam because it became Qibla-Kiblah -
the direction to which muslims turn in praying towards AIKa'aba.
Yathrib - later to become Medinah - is the second holy city.
In fact it was not a ritual place, but like MAKKA it was a
stopping place on the ancient trade caravan road. The
inhabitants of Medinah practised agriculture because their
environment was more suitable than that at MAKKA; water was
available and the land was fertile so that in addition to
trade, they also practised agriculture.
The importance of Medinah as a holy place only developed
after AI-Hijra - the immigration of the prophet Mohammad,
peace be upon him, to it and his establishing of Islam at
that site. Medinah became the capital of the Islamic state
both religiously and politically. Islam then spread from
Medinah over the Arabian Peninsular to the world beyond.
The consequence of the conquest of Iraq, Bilad AI-Sham,
Egypt, the north coast of Africa and Persia was that the
majority of the population of these countries accepted and
adopted Islam as their religious faith. As a result of this
the populations of these countries came annually to make AlHajj and in doing so developed several additional pilgrim
caravan routes. However, it is the Syrian and Egyptian
pilgrim routes - Tareeq AI-Hajj AI-Shami and Wal Masri which
are the objects of this work. In both these cases the
pilgrim caravan routes were previously ancient trade caravan
routes which travelled through Arabia, particularly through
the western province of Al Hijaz.
The geographical location of Arabia, the cross roads of
three continents, Asia, Africa, and Europe, made important
the pre-Islamic routes which ran through it. Of course the
function of this network at that time was commercial but
after the rise of Islam the function of this network of
routes became to transport the pilgrims. The geological and
topographical features, as well as climatic conditions, in
Arabia played a great role in determining the ancient routes
in Arabia. The availability of water was a very important
consideration on these routes and was influenced by
environmental conditions. Since the rainfall is
insufficient, the resulting absence or shortage of water on
the pilgrim caravan routes made the caliphs pay great
concern to providing the pilgrim routes with the most
essential facilities, particularly water supplies and
storage. Ever since the earliest Islamic times, they
provided for the travellers Al birak, water tanks; Ahwadh cisterns; Qanawat - channels; and abyar - wells, in order to
make AI-Hajj journey more comfortable. The pilgrim caravans
in general, and the Syrian and Egyptian pilgrim caravan
routes in particular, passed through several stages of
development since their origin in early Islamic times and
these evolutionary stages can be seen until the beginning of
this century. Because the object of this thesis is to
document the remains of the water resource structures, an
extensive survey and investigation has been completed on the
Syrian and Egyptian pilgrim caravan routes. The field work
has been conducted in Saudi Arabia, particularly in the
north western region where the Syrian and Egyptian pilgrim
routes cross the country. The field work mainly aimed at
ascertaining the location of all the way stations and their
names and surveying each station in order to record the
surviving remains of water resource structures. The field
work covered a large area of about 8, OOOkm transect and
extended from MACCA in the south through Medinah to the
North as far as Halat I Ammar on the north at the border
between Saudi Arabia and Jordan. From N.W. to S .Wit
stretched from Haql on the Gulf of AI-' Aqaba as far as
MAKKA. These routes consist of the major, or principal
caravan routes as well as a number of traverse routes which
allow travellers a choice of transit as well as connecting
routes. There are large way stations as well as small minor
way stations. As part of this dissertation, almost all the
stopping places have been identified and documented by mapping and photography.