The world's largest exhibition on the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, is to be staged at the British Museum early in 2012, it has announced.
Manuscripts, diaries, historic photographs and contemporary art will be displayed to mark the annual ritual, undertaken by Muslims across the world.The museum's director, Neil MacGregor, said the Hajj was a cultural phenomenon "that needs to be better understood".
Hajj: Journey To The Heart Of Islam will run from 26 January to 15 April.
Pilgrim's journey
Every adult Muslim is meant to undertake the Hajj at least once in their life if they can afford the journey to Saudi Arabia and are physically able.Many Muslims save for years in order to perform the pilgrimage. Circling the kaaba in the great mosque in Mecca is
part of the ritual.Once they arrive, they must brave vast crowds and the fierce heat of the desert as they perform the Hajj rituals.
The exhibition will examine the pilgrim's journey, the rituals and the destination to Mecca.
It will also feature the work of contemporary Saudi artists such as Ahmed Mater and Shadia Alem.
The idea is simple and, like its central element, forcefully attractive. Ahmed Mater gives a twist to a magnet and sets in motion tens of thousands of particles of iron, a multitude of tiny satellites that forms a single swirling nimbus. Even if we have not taken part in it, we have all seen images of the Hajj, the great annual pilgrimage of Muslims to Mecca. Ahmed's black cuboid magnet is a small simulacrum of the black-draped Ka'bah, the 'Cube', that central element of the Meccan rites. His circumambulating whirl of metallic filings mirrors in miniature the concentric tawaf of the pilgrims, their sevenfold circling of the Ka'bah.
Mr MacGregor described the Hajj as a "supreme spiritual moment for Muslims" which "shapes the notion of the Islamic community worldwide".He added: "Very beautiful things, supreme works of art, have been made to be sent to Mecca to accompany people.
"We'll be looking at some of those objects and they are supreme."
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