Introduction

A facsimile-edition of the 40 magnificent photographs, originally published in 1889 in the Bilder Atlas to the classic 2-volume work on Mecca by the world famous Dutch orientalist and islamologist Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, together with the 20 photographs of the additional fourth and last volume, also published in 1889. The facsimile addition is accompanied by an extensive commentary by Jan Just Witkam, professor of Arabic studies at Leiden University.

This series represents a most important documentation of the people and customs associated with the 19th-century pilgrimage to Mecca and the residents, topography and architecture of the area.

Historical context and background information

Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje (1857-1936) was a Dutch scholar of Oriental cultures and languages and Advisor on Native Affairs to the colonial government of the Netherlands East Indies.

He received his doctorate at Leiden University in 1880 with a dissertation on Het Mekkaansche Feest (The Festivities of Mecca). Snouck became a professor at the Leiden School for Colonial Civil Servants in 1881 and visited Mecca in 1884-1885 as one of the first Western students of Oriental culture to do so. In 1889 he left for the Dutch East Indies to become official advisor to the Dutch government on colonial affairs. He wrote more than 1,400 papers on Aceh, the position of Islam in the Dutch East Indies, the colonial civil service and the phenomenon of nationalism. As the adviser of J. B. van Heutsz, the military governor of Aceh, he took an active part in the end of the Aceh War. He used his knowledge of Islamic culture to devise strategies to crush the resistance of the Aceh inhabitants and impose Dutch colonial rule on them. His success in the Aceh War earned him influence in shaping colonial administration policy throughout the rest of Indonesia. Until 1906 Snouck played an important role as gouvernment advisor on indigenous, Arab and Islamic affairs. In that year he returned to Leiden, where he occupied the chair of Arabic languages until 1933.

During his long and productive life Snouck left a long trail of documents and publications. Before the age of 40 Snouck had achieved the legendary status that he retains to this day.

In his dissertation on the festivities of Mecca (1880), for the greater part based on classical texts on Meccan history, Snouck launched several provocative ideas on, and compelling interpretations of the origin of the Islamic pilgrimage and the role of the prophet Ibrahim (Abraham). A few years later he undertook a journey to Mecca to see the holy city of Islam with his own eyes. Since Mecca is closed to non-Muslims, earlier Western travelers to the city had disguised themselves as inhabitants of a Muslim country. Snouck did not resort to this deceit. Speaking the language very well, behaving and dressing like the local inhabitants, he traveled under his own name and succeeded in beeing accepted by the Meccans. In addition to seeing Mecca for himself he also wished to show it to his fellow Europeans, for which purpose he outfitted himself with photographic equipment.

Snouck’s visit, and his monograph on Meccan history and society, published in 1888-89 after his safe return to Leiden, made him instantly famous. His richly illustrated work has continued to astonish readers ever since. The book has two volumes of text – the first a historical study on the city of Mecca and its rulers, the second describing Mecca’s society in the 1880s – and a portfolio of photographic images. Some of these were made by Snouck Hurgronje himself, making him the first European photographer of Mecca, and, after an Egyptian officer, the second one ever to photograph the city.

Snouck would have liked to see the great annual pilgrimage (hajj), but he was forced to leave Mecca just before it began. This did not detract from the value of his study of Islam in its very centre.

Back in Leiden in 1889, when the Bilder Atlas already had been printed, Snouck received an additional set of 20 photographs taken by the Meccan doctor and naturalist Abd al-Ghaffar who was instructed by Snouck how to use the photographic equipment. This Abd al-Ghaffar – by coincidence the same name Snouck had used during his stay in Mecca – thereby became the first native Meccan photographer of his town.

These 20 views of Mecca, include images of the mosque and the Kaaba, the surroundings of Mecca, the camp of the Mèjmünah pilgrims, the Muna valley with pilgrims, Mount Arafah, and indigenous people. The collection was published by the Leiden publishing house E.J. Brill in 1889 with the title Bilder aus Mekka. Mit kurzem erläuterndem Texte von C. Snouck Hurgronje (Pictures from Mecca, with brief explanatory texts by C. Snouck Hurgronje).

The present facsimile edition of both, the Bilder Atlas with 40, and the Bilder aus Mekka with 20 photographs – the ‘additional volume’ to the Bilder Atlas, as Snouck calls it in his preface – will be accompanied by an extensive commentary by the Leiden Arabist and Orientalist Professor Jan Just Witkam, a well-known expert on Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje and in a sense Snouck’s successor on the chair of Arabic studies in Leiden.

Pricing and subscription

The facsimile will be published in a limited edition of 1000 copies only. Subscription price is € 950 ,- excluding VAT and shipping. Price after publication will be approx. € 1250 ,- excluding VAT and shipping. Please contact us to preorder.

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