Page 85 - Arabiab Studies (IV)
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Hakluyt’s description of the Hajj
C. F. Beckingham
So far as is known, Lodovico di Varthema was the first European
witness to describe the Muslim pilgrimage, though he was certainly
not, as has often been claimed, the first European to visit Mecca.
His description occurs in the early part of a narrative of his travels
in Asia, first published in Italian in 1510 under the title Itinerario.
The book was very successful and was translated into several
languages in the course of the 16th century. An English version
was included by Richard Eden in his History of travayle (1577);
this, however, like the other vernacular translations published in
the same century, was made, not from the original Italian, but from
the Latin version of Arcangelo Madrignano, first published in
1511.
Twenty-two years later, Hakluyt made available another
description, which has, however, attracted little notice.2 It is
printed on pp. 198-213 of the first part of the second volume of the
second edition of his Principal Navigations, dated 1599, and is
entitled ‘A description of the yeerely voyage or pilgrimage of the
Mahumitans, Turkes and Moores unto Mecca*. It is anonymous
and undated.
In their study of the content and sources of Hakluyt’s principal
works A. M. and D. B. Quinn state: ‘This is a composite. The
material on pp. 198-202 has not been located. The sections on pp.
203-13 are represented in a Venetian Relazione, B. M. Royal MS
14.A.XV, ff. 41-87.’3 The first part, of which the source is
unknown, begins with a description of Alexandria. The headings of
the subsequent sections into which it is divided are: ‘Of the Coast
of Alexandria*; ‘Of the mightie Citie of Cairo’; ‘Of certaine notable
monuments without the citie of Cairo’; ‘Of the patriarke of
Greece’. The remaining sections, represented in the manuscript in
the British Library, arc entitled: ‘Of the preparation of the Carovan
to goe to Mecca’; ‘The beginning of the voyage’; ‘Of things notable
which are seene in this voyage by the way’; ‘Of the Serifo the king
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