A French Perspective on the Hajj

The engraving depicts a large procession of Muslims on their way to Mecca. The mountains on the left and in the background may represent Mount Arafat, situated east of the holy city and a spiritually important waystation for pilgrims. The appearance of this orientalist and romanticizing image in the popular weekly newspaper Journal pour tous testifies to a French fascination with the hajj at a time (1860) when France was consolidating its colonial rule over Muslim subjects in Algeria and when the French-led construction of the Suez Canal had just begun.

Le pèlerinage de la Mecque, engraving, 1860, artist: Gustave Doré, engraver: Adolphe François Pannemaker; source: BnF Gallica, http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb41940612n, public domain.