Page 5 - ISLAM Rock n Roll

During the reign of Sulayman i (d. 1566) the Ottomans conquered Mamluk-controlled Palestine, Syria, Egypt and the Hijaz. They then undertook building and maintenance projects in Jerusalem, Mecca and Medina. The Ottomans oversaw
the Hajj, maintained and protected pilgrimage routes (shown on map) and enacted ceremonies for the departure of Hajj caravans from Istanbul, Damascus, and Cairo. In addition to the Hajj, the Ottomans encouraged pilgrimage to Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock. Sulayman commissioned the recladding
of the building’s exterior in coloured glazed ceramic tiles, which altered the building’s original Umayyad appearance
and brought a distinctive Ottoman look to the structure.
Detail of a painting of the arrival of the Hajj caravan at an oasis en route to Mecca by the German painter Georg Emanuel
Opiz (d. 1841), 180–1825. Ottoman o cials, dignitaries and soldiers are shown meeting a religious o cial (dressed in green robes). A camel draped in ne textiles carries the mahmal, a ceremonial palanquin made of silk embroidered fabric that symbolised the ruler’s authority and accompanied the Hajj caravan from Egypt to Mecca. Originally established under the Mamluks, the mahmal ceremony was adopted by the Ottomans. A er the Ottoman Empire’s dissolution in 1923, the ceremony began to lose its signi cance. It remained a popular tradition
in Egypt until 1952.
Istanbul
M e d i t e r r a n e a n
Cairo
Black Sea
Ankara
Aleppo
Damascus Jerusalem
Medina Mecca
Tehran
Ashgabat Mashhad
Bukhara
Herat
Caspian Sea
S e a
Baghdad
Isfahan
Shiraz
Euphrates
Persian Gulf
Nile
Hijaz
pilgrimage
Jedda
Basra
Bushehr
Red Sea