50 Fun Facts About Hajj

The Hajj is a pilgrimage to Islam's holiest city, in which modern country?

Pilgrims usually visit Medina and the Prophet's Mosque on the same journey, but that is not part of the rite.

How many times in a lifetime is a Muslim who is able required to perform the Hajj?

The duty applies to those physically and financially capable of the journey while still supporting their family.

The Hajj is one of how many Pillars of Islam?

The others are the declaration of faith, prayer, almsgiving and the Ramadan fast.

In which month of the Islamic calendar does the Hajj take place?

It is the twelfth and last month; because the lunar year is shorter, the Gregorian date moves earlier each year.

Roughly how many days earlier does the Hajj fall each Gregorian year?

That drift means the Hajj falls twice in one Gregorian year every 33 years, most recently in 2006.

Which year set the record for Hajj attendance, with over 3.1 million pilgrims?

The 2000–2019 average was about 2.27 million, two-thirds of them from abroad.

The Arabic word ḥajj is related to which Hebrew word for 'festival'?

The Hebrew term covered the three yearly pilgrimage festivals to the Temple in Jerusalem.

According to Islamic tradition, which prophet built the Kaaba with the help of his son Ishmael?

The Quran refers to the story in verses 2:124–127 and 22:27–30.

Whose desperate search for water, running between two hills, is re-enacted by pilgrims?

She ran seven times between Safa and Marwah before water sprang up under the baby's foot.

In what year did Muhammad perform his first and only Hajj, the Farewell Pilgrimage?

He had cleansed the Kaaba of idols two years earlier; he died later the same year.

What was the title of the official who commanded the great medieval pilgrim caravans to Mecca?

Under the Mamluks and Ottomans the caravans travelled with soldiers and physicians against Bedouin raiders and thirst.

What is the white-garbed state of consecration a pilgrim enters before the Hajj called?

Men wear two unstitched white cloths; the garments are meant to erase distinctions of wealth and recall burial shrouds.

Which of these is forbidden while a pilgrim is in the consecrated state?

Also banned are perfume, hunting, uprooting plants, marrying and, for men, covering the head.

What is tawaf?

The circuits go counter-clockwise, each beginning and ending at the Black Stone.

How are men encouraged to perform the first three circuits of tawaf?

The remaining four circuits are taken at a more leisurely pace.

What may pilgrims do on each circuit if the crowd makes it impossible to touch or kiss the Black Stone?

Water is allowed, even encouraged, during tawaf because of the risk of dehydration; food is not.

What is sa'i?

Once done in the open air, the course is now enclosed inside the Sacred Mosque with air-conditioned tunnels and an express lane.

Two green pillars along the sa'i course mark what?

Elsewhere pilgrims are advised to walk.

The 9th day of the pilgrimage month, considered the day of Hajj itself, is known as what?

Pilgrims stand in vigil from noon to sunset; without an afternoon at Arafat the Hajj is invalid.

What does 'Tarwiyah', the name of the first day of Hajj, mean in Arabic?

Pilgrims once had to carry their own water from Mecca to waterless Arafat and reminded each other to drink up.

Roughly how far east of Mecca is the plain of Arafat?

Pilgrims must leave for Muzdalifah after sunset without praying the sunset prayer at Arafat.

What is Jabal al-Rahmah, the hill on the plain of Arafat, said to be the site of?

The name means Mount of Mercy; scholars deliver the Hajj sermon from near it.

What do pilgrims gather during their night in the open at Muzdalifah?

They pray the sunset and night prayers together there and sleep on the ground under the sky.

On the 10th day of the month, how many stones does a pilgrim throw, and where?

The other two pillars are stoned on the following days; all three represent Satan.

For safety, what replaced the three stoning pillars at Mina in 2004?

Pilgrims throw from ramps on the multi-level Jamaraat Bridge.

How do many pilgrims now fulfil the animal sacrifice without being present at the slaughter?

Modern abattoirs process the meat and send it as charity to the poor worldwide.

Which global festival coincides with the sacrifice at Mina?

It commemorates the patriarch's willingness to sacrifice his son, and a ram being provided in his place.

What do male pilgrims do after the sacrifice, in the rite called halak?

Women cut the ends of their hair instead.

What is the Tawaf al-Wadaa?

Wadaa means 'to bid farewell'.

What title may a pilgrim add to their name after completing the Hajj?

Scholars stress it should signal religious commitment, not social status.

What is the 'lesser pilgrimage' that can be made to Mecca at any time of year?

It shares rites with the Hajj but takes only hours and does not discharge the once-in-a-lifetime duty.

Which American activist described the racial unity he saw on Hajj in April 1964?

He wrote of pilgrims 'from blue-eyed blondes to black-skinned Africans' sharing one ritual, and it rearranged his thinking.

A 2008 study with Harvard's Kennedy School found what effect of performing the Hajj?

Returning pilgrims showed more favourable attitudes towards women's education and employment.

What is Mina, 8 km southeast of Mecca, nicknamed?

More than 100,000 air-conditioned tents house pilgrims for their nights there.

Which country introduced the first airline service for Hajj pilgrims, in 1937?

Steamships had begun carrying pilgrims from the 1850s; before that the journey was by camel.

Per the article, how much has Saudi Arabia spent on pilgrimage facilities since the 1950s?

Country quotas keep numbers manageable, and pilgrims now carry e-bracelets storing their data.

What does the Arabic word ka'ba literally mean?

Muslims first prayed towards another city; the direction changed to the Kaaba in 624.

Before 624 CE, in which direction did Muslims face during prayer?

The change to the Kaaba is attributed to the revelation of Surah Al-Baqara 2:144.

What is the kiswah?

It is renewed every year, and for centuries was carried to Mecca with the pilgrim caravan.

Which caliph was the first to send a kiswah of Coptic linen from the Nile valley?

Later Umayyads and Abbasids kept relying on the same workshops, and Muhammad Ali Pasha paid for it from the state treasury.

Which sect carried off the Black Stone in 930 and held it for ransom for years?

Their leader set it up in his own mosque hoping to divert the Hajj; it was eventually returned broken into fragments.

How is the Black Stone held together today?

It was smashed by a catapult stone during the siege of Mecca in 683 and rejoined with a silver ligament.

The Black Stone has often been described as what, though never analysed with modern techniques?

Some writers compare it to the meteorite once venerated at the Temple of Artemis.

Who is said to have rediscovered and excavated the Zamzam Well in the 6th century?

The well is roughly 30 metres deep, and its water is offered in coolers throughout the mosque.

Which West African ruler's 1324 pilgrimage became legendary for the gold he carried?

Mali may have been the world's largest gold producer at the time.

Jeddah's Hajj Terminal, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, is modelled on what?

246 miles of French steel cable hoist its fibreglass roof; a tented terminal was unheard of at the time.

The Masjid al-Haram in Mecca holds which two records among the world's buildings?

Expansions have pushed its capacity from 770,000 towards more than two million worshippers.

What did the Saudi government permit women to do at the 2021 Hajj for the first time?

They had to travel in a trustworthy group; the 2020 and 2021 Hajj were otherwise limited to residents because of COVID-19.

In 2023, which platform did Saudi Arabia adopt for Western pilgrims' Hajj registration?

Makkah Route lets pilgrims clear Saudi formalities at their home airport; the Fatwa Robot dispenses religious advice.

Approximately how far is Medina, which pilgrims traditionally visit, from Mecca?

The Prophet's Mosque there contains Muhammad's tomb; the Quba Mosque is also usually visited.