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Exterior of the 400m by 400m by 400m structure, the Makuub to be built in Riyadh by 2030.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has announced yet another plan for a massive structure in Saudi Arabia in the Saudi capital Riyadh. The structure called the Mukaab, and which resembles the holy kaaba in Mecca, will be the center of The New Murabba, a neighborhood being built to entice tourists to a new kind of commercial Mecca. And because, as Saudi’s on Reddit are saying, mall culture is one of the only things to do in a hot and dry city.

Big enough to fit 20 Empire State buildings inside, consider the Mukaab a shape-shifting fantasy block where you enter realms of the multiverse, without the goggles.

Cut through of the Mukaab in the heart of New Murabba, Riyadh

This oil-funded plan does include green spaces as the renderings suggest and Saudi Arabia has been undergoing plans to plant 1 million mangrove trees. But instead of a multiverse, why not make your city center one of nature and trees like in Paris or New York City? Trees act as a carbon sink and can lower local temps by 5 to 10 degrees sometimes.

According to press material the Mukaab will serve as the focal point in the city’s new downtown, called the New Murabba and in total the land area will be about a third of the size of Manhattan, at seven square miles. The cube will “have it all” namely tourist attractions and smart hotels with 100,000 residential units and 1.4 million square metres of office space.

Below are some simulated images of how the Mukaab will look to visitors:

Like The Line on the Red Sea, the Mukaab promises that everything you need will be a 15-minute walk and just a 20-minute drive the airport. That part we like. But in experimental cities, even on small scale and in a more open-minded society like around Abu Dhabi, their $22 billion zero-energy city experiment known as Masdar failed.

Maybe the starchitects the Saudis have hired know something I don’t but the only way I can see humanity surviving the next 100 years is by getting out in nature, real nature, not a hologram of nature, and by getting away from building monoliths to smaller family-own farms and land. Support agri-tourism, boutique hotels run by locals. Like the Berber hotel I stayed at in Morocco. Owned by a British fellow, run by locals.

Maybe this is too much for the Saudis who in just a few decades have been so removed from their simpler ways of life thanks to oil wealth.

Can the Saudis help the world make a breakthrough on harnessing energy from nature (free energy for all! Instead we hear of human rights violations at places like Neom on the Red Sea.

Meanwhile, the Middle East Monitor has collected some interested quotes from Saudis and what they think of the new Riyadh. Some are against the similarity of the project to the Kaaba in Mecca, and others say that cubes are just common building shapes in Saudi Arabia – so don’t get excited.

As Saudi Arabia is fairly unaccessible to foreign journalists, we won’t know until the Saudi Prince invites us for a visit.

Karin Kloosterman is an award-winning journalist and publisher that founded Green Prophet to unite a prosperous Middle East. She shows through her work that positive, inspiring dialogue creates action that impacts people, business and planet. She has published in thought-leading newspapers and magazines globally, owns an IoT tech chip patent, and is part of teams that build world-changing products to make agriculture and our planet more sustainable. Reach out directly to [email protected]

TV actress Hina Khan recently went on her second Umrah, a religious pilgrimage to the sacred Islamic sites of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. Sharing her experience through a series of photos and videos, Hina expressed feeling emotional, despite it being her second visit, the anxiety and nervousness were similar to her first pilgrimage. Wearing traditional attire, she posted images from the holy shrine and described it as paradise. These snapshots provided a glimpse into her serene moments in the sacred surroundings, capturing the beauty of the place. Meanwhile, Hina had previously performed her first Umrah during Ramadan 2023.

Hina shared a series of pictures during the Umrah pilgrimage. Wearing white attire, she faced the holy shrine, capturing both night and early morning visits. Some images provided an inside look at the shrine, while another featured Hina sitting in a room where the Prophet once stayed, as per her Instagram story. The actress also shared pictures from Masjid al-Haram, where she was seen respectfully touching the sacred Kaaba.

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A post shared by Hina Khan (@realhinakhan)

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A post shared by Hina Khan (@realhinakhan)

In an earlier Instagram story, Hina Khan poured her heart out as she got emotional after visiting Medina and Mecca. She wrote, “It was not my first time, but the anxiety, nervousness, emotions are exactly like the first time, you weep and weep and only weep like a little girl. You feel hypnotised, your lips freeze, you get chills when you look at the majestic Kaaba, you just can’t take your eyes off, it’s so overwhelming. This place brings so much peace and calmness in me. Alhamdulillah.”

In a previous Instagram story, Hina Khan shared her emotional journey, claiming she was speechless and in tears after visiting the holy shrine. Despite facing challenges in securing an appointment through the Nusuk app for the ziyarat to Roza-e-Rasool (saw), she felt disappointed but decided to pray inside the Haram. After finishing her prayers, she had an urge to go as far as she could. Miraculously, she found herself at the Roza-e-Rasool as the gates opened for a brief period for ladies. Overwhelmed with feeling and experience, Hina cried, feeling that her prayers were noticed, making this experience close to her heart.

Hina Khan, known for her roles in TV shows like Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai and Kasautii Zindagii Kay 2, maintains a strong connection with her audience through social media. Apart from her successful acting career, she actively shares personal moments and experiences, allowing fans a glimpse into her life beyond the screen.

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FILE - In this Sunday, Aug. 4, 2019 file photo, a Moroccan pilgrim runs as pigeons fly outside the Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The hajj is a pillar of Islam, required of all Muslims once in a lifetime. It is a physically demanding journey that Muslims believe offers a chance to wipe clean past sins and start anew before God. Pilgrims seek to deepen their faith on the hajj, with some women adopting the head covering known as the “hijab.” (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)

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FILE - In this Sept. 8, 2016 file photo, a child holds on to his father as he circles the Kaaba, Islam’s holiest shrine, at the Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Pilgrims on the hajj enter into a state of spiritual purity known as “ihram” that is aimed at shedding symbols of materialism, giving up worldly pleasures and focusing on the inner self over outward appearance. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty, File)

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FILE - This Nov. 7, 2011 file photo, made from a helicopter, shows Muslim pilgrims moving around the Kaaba, the black cube seen at center, inside the Grand Mosque, during the annual Hajj in the Saudi holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Muslims do not worship the Kaaba, but it is Islam’s most sacred site because it represents the metaphorical house of God and the oneness of God in Islam. Observant Muslims around the world face toward the Kaaba during their five daily prayers. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

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FILE - In this Sept. 25 2015 file photo, tents for pilgrims attending the annual hajj pilgrimage are seen from a helicopter over Mina, Saudi Arabia. On the second day of the hajj, after spending the night in the massive valley of Mina, the pilgrims head to Mount Arafat, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) east of Mecca, for the pinnacle of the pilgrimage. (AP Photo/Mosa’ab Elshamy, File)

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FILE - In this Sept. 12, 2016 file photo, Indian women cast stones at a pillar symbolizing the stoning of Satan, in a ritual called “Jamarat,” the last rite of the annual hajj, on the first day of Eid al-Adha, in Mina near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty, File)

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FILE - In this Sept. 11, 2016 file photo, Sudanese women pray on a rocky hill known as Jabal al-Rahma, or Mountain of Mercy, on the Plain of Arafat, on the second day of the annual hajj pilgrimage, near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is here where the Prophet Muhammad delivered his final sermon, calling for equality among mankind and for Muslim unity. He reminded his followers of women’s rights and that every Muslim life and property is sacred. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty, File)

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FILE - In this Sept. 13, 2016 file photo, the Abraj Al-Bait Towers with the four-faced clocks stands over the holy Kaaba, as Muslims encircle it inside the Grand Mosque, during the hajj pilgrimage, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Over 2 million Muslims from around the world are beginning the five-day hajj pilgrimage on Friday, Aug, 8, 2019. They will take part in a series of rituals intended to bring about greater humility and unity among Muslims. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty, File)

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FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 8, 2019 file photo, Muslim pilgrims circumambulate around the Kaaba, the cubic building at the Grand Mosque, ahead of the Hajj pilgrimage in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Over 2 million Muslims from around the world are beginning the five-day hajj pilgrimage on Friday. On the first day of the hajj, Muslims circle the Kaaba counter-clockwise seven times while reciting supplications to God, then walk between the two hills traveled by Hagar. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)

By AYA BATRAWY

Over 2 million Muslims from around the world are beginning the five-day hajj pilgrimage on Friday. They will circle Islam’s most sacred site, the cube-shaped Kaaba in Mecca, and take part in a series of rituals intended to bring about greater humility and unity among Muslims.

The hajj this year comes at a time of heightened sectarian and political tensions in the Persian Gulf and as Muslim minorities in China, Myanmar, India, New Zealand and other countries face increased threats, even attacks.

Here’s a look at the pilgrimage and what it means for Muslims:

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WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE HAJJ?

The hajj is a pillar of Islam, required of all Muslims once in a lifetime. It is a physically demanding journey that Muslims believe offers a chance to wipe clean past sins and start anew before God. Pilgrims seek to deepen their faith on the hajj, with some women adopting the head covering known as the “hijab.”

Despite the physical challenges, many people rely on canes or crutches and insist on walking the routes. Those who cannot afford the hajj are sometimes financed by charities or community leaders. Others save their entire lives to make the journey.

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WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF THE HAJJ?

While following a route the Prophet Muhammad once walked, Muslims trace the rites of hajj back to the prophets Ibrahim and Ismail, or Abraham and Ishmael as they are named in the Bible.

Muslims believe Ibrahim’s faith was tested when God commanded him to sacrifice his only son Ismail. Ibrahim was prepared to submit to the command, but then God stayed his hand, sparing his son. In the Christian and Jewish version of the story, Abraham is ordered to kill his other son, Isaac.

Pilgrims also trace the path of Ibrahim’s wife, Hagar, who Muslims believe ran between two hills seven times searching for water for her dying son. Tradition holds that God then brought forth a spring that runs to this day.

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WHY IS THE KAABA SO IMPORTANT TO MUSLIMS?

Islamic tradition holds that the Kaaba was built by Ibrahim and Ismail as a house of monotheistic worship thousands of years ago. Over the years, the Kaaba was reconstructed and attracted different kinds of pilgrims who once lived in the Arabian Peninsula. In pre-Islamic times, the Kaaba was used to house pagan idols worshipped by local tribes.

Muslims do not worship the Kaaba, but it is Islam’s most sacred site because it represents the metaphorical house of God and the oneness of God in Islam. Observant Muslims around the world face toward the Kaaba during their five daily prayers.

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WHAT ARE THE RITUALS PERFORMED DURING THE HAJJ?

Pilgrims enter into a state of spiritual purity known as “ihram” that is aimed at shedding symbols of materialism, giving up worldly pleasures and focusing on the inner self over outward appearance.

Women forgo makeup and perfume and wear loose-fitting clothing and a head covering, while men dress in seamless, white terrycloth garments. The white garments are forbidden to contain any stitching — a restriction meant to emphasize the equality of all Muslims and prevent wealthier pilgrims from differentiating themselves with more elaborate garments.

Muslims are forbidden from engaging in sexual intercourse, cutting their hair or trimming nails while in the state of ihram. It is also forbidden for pilgrims to argue, fight or lose their tempers during the hajj. Inevitably, though, the massive crowds and physical exhaustion of the journey test pilgrims’ patience and tolerance.

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THE FIRST DAY OF HAJJ

The hajj traditionally begins in Mecca, with a smaller “umrah” pilgrimage which can be performed year-round. To perform the umrah, Muslims circle the Kaaba counter-clockwise seven times while reciting supplications to God, then walk between the two hills traveled by Hagar. Mecca’s Grand Mosque, the world’s largest, encompasses the Kaaba and the two hills.

Before heading to Mecca, many pilgrims also visit the Saudi city of Medina, where the Prophet Muhammad is buried and where he built the first mosque.

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THE SECOND DAY OF HAJJ

After spending the night in the massive valley of Mina, the pilgrims head to Mount Arafat, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) east of Mecca, for the pinnacle of the pilgrimage.

Thousands will also scale a hill called Jabal al-Rahma, or Mountain of Mercy. It is here where the Prophet Muhammad delivered his final sermon, calling for equality among mankind and for Muslim unity. He reminded his followers of women’s rights and that every Muslim life and property is sacred.

Around sunset, pilgrims head to an area called Muzdalifa, 9 kilometers (5.5 miles) west of Arafat. Many walk, while others use buses. They spend the night there and pick up pebbles along the way that will be used in a symbolic stoning of the devil back in Mina, where Muslims believe the devil tried to talk Ibrahim out of submitting to God’s will.

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THE FINAL THREE DAYS OF HAJJ

The last three days of the hajj are marked by three events: a final circling of the Kaaba, casting stones in Mina and removing the ihram. Men often shave their heads and women clip a lock of hair at the end in a sign of renewal.

The final days of hajj coincide with Eid al-Adha, or the festival of sacrifice, celebrated by Muslims around the world to commemorate Ibrahim’s test of faith. During the three-day Eid, Muslims slaughter livestock and distribute the meat to the poor.

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This article was originally published at Stratfor.com.

By Anisa Mehdi

This year more than 2.3 million people made the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca required at least once of every Muslim who is financially and physically able to complete it. And this time, there was no catastrophe at the Jamarat Bridge, where the bottlenecks of the ritual "Stoning of the Devil" have been known to facilitate lethal hazards before. Noting the relative safety of the 2017 pilgrimage, the chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria announced that there were only seven deaths among pilgrims from his nation, and those were attributed to natural illness. He affirmed that, "The mortality recorded this year is the lowest in the last 10-15 years."

Clearly this is good news for the yearly crowds of devout visitors, most of whom are now making their way home from Saudi Arabia following the hajj's conclusion on Sept. 3. They have seen the Kaaba toward which Muslims face during daily prayers, and many have visited Medina, where the first Muslim community was established and where the Prophet Mohammed is buried.

Death cannot be completely averted at the hajj. Sometimes people intentionally participate in it late in life in hopes that they may die on sacred ground. In spite of 25 hospitals, 155 state-of-the-art medical clinics and the only hospital in the world open just one day a year to serve pilgrims praying on the Plain of Arafat on the 10th day of the pilgrimage month, death will walk among the millions who make the journey to Mecca. It's statistically unavoidable.

But this year's triumph was the naturalness of it all. There were no stampedes, as in 2015; no fires, as in 1997; and no cholera epidemics, as in the 1860s and at the turn of the 20th century. There was, however, an unnatural impediment to the pilgrimage: Hopeful Qatari pilgrims, a number within the quota limits Saudi Arabia had set, were blocked from participating in the 2017 trek.

Answering the Call of Abraham

The hajj began in response to God's instruction to Abraham to,

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Proclaim the Pilgrimage to all people. They will come to you on foot and on every kind of swift mount, emerging from every deep mountain pass to attain benefits and celebrate God's name, on specified days, over the livestock He has provided for them -- feed yourselves and the poor and unfortunate -- so let the pilgrims perform their acts of cleansing, fulfill their vows, and circle around the Ancient House. (Sura 22: 27-29)

The call of Abraham, Ibrahim in Arabic, predates Judaism, Christianity and Islam. But when the legendary ancestor of these monotheisms repeated the proclamation to his followers, pilgrimage meant to come and circumambulate the Kaaba. It did not include Standing at Arafat or the "Stoning of the Devil," which were included later.

Since 630, when the Prophet Mohammed and his followers took control of Mecca from the powerful Quraysh family, the pilgrimage has become a mandate for Muslims. Thanks in part to the interventions of T.E. Lawrence 100 years ago this month and in part to the House of Saud's alliance with the British against the Ottoman Empire in World War I, today's curator of the pilgrimage is the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques -- more commonly known as the King of Saudi Arabia.

This year's hajj happened to fall at a time when the king was at odds with Qatar. In the wake of the decision by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to sever ties with Qatar this spring, followed by a blockade and the closure of borders on June 5, cooperation between the kingdom and Qatar has ground to a halt. But on Aug. 17, Riyadh announced it would open the Salwa border crossing to Qatari pilgrims. Saudi King Salman also ordered that Saudi-chartered planes would be sent to ferry Qatari pilgrims from the kingdom's Eastern Province through Jeddah to pilgrimage sites.

Though Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani welcomed the decision, he cautioned that the hajj should not be politicized. He then did just that, requesting that the relaxation of the border be extended to lifting the entire blockade. The situation devolved into a tit for tat between the two countries on Twitter. And rather than completing an ordinary and orderly passage between neighboring nations, Qatari pilgrims languished as the hajj came and went.

Politicizing religious practice is hardly unique to this moment in time. Remember King Henry VIII's break with Rome over the matter of divorce, or the Medici family's ties to the popes of yore. Indeed, the U.S. Constitution's Establishment Clause was an attempt to pre-emptively take the politics out of religion.

Pilgrims, too, have had difficulty making the trip to Mecca in the past because of their political circumstances. For instance, Saudi Arabia has abridged permission for Iranian pilgrims to participate in the hajj before. But criticism of the kingdom's hegemony over the cities of Mecca and Medina and its unilateral control over who may and may not visit them is mounting. As I wrote in December 2015,

Muslim leaders … have begun to suggest that it might be time for the reigning House of Saud to relinquish its absolute control over the two cities, which lie within the geographic boundaries of the kingdom. The Saudis' claim on Mecca and Medina comes as a result of conquest, not election. With protests mounting against Saudi Arabia's administration of the hajj, unsafe conditions for pilgrims on the rise, and challenges to Saudi Arabia's rampant destruction of archaeological sites in the two cities to make way for luxury hotels and high-rise buildings growing increasingly vociferous, pushback against the kingdom's custodial role will likely get stronger as time goes on.

More recently, Al Jazeera quoted Saad Sultan al-Abdullah, the director of international cooperation at Qatar's National Human Rights Committee, as saying, "There should be no mixing between political disputes and Muslims' natural and human right to perform their religious duties." Abdelmajid Mrari, the head of the Middle East and North Africa division at the Brussels-based Alliance for Freedom and Dignity, has castigated Saudi authorities for mishandling the situation as well. He told Al Jazeera, "Mecca is not owned by any government. Mecca is for all Muslims. The Saudi behavior is a clear violation of Islamic values and norms, as well as all international human rights agreements and conventions."

The Health of a Nation and Its Visitors

The desire of the masses who wish to perform the act of courage and piety that the pilgrimage represents shows no sign of waning. So far, there have been no popular protests against Saudi Arabia's monarch, hegemony or monopoly; there has been only an uptick in pilgrims petitioning for visas and a concomitant increase in infrastructure to support the hajj, provided by the Saudi government.

So as millions of Muslims from countries around the world make their way home from a transformative rite of Islamic passage, many will breathe a sigh of relief that it was, after all, a relatively uneventful hajj. Many more will hope that next year's hajj is not marred by geopolitical jockeying. And on the heels of an apparent success for Saudi Arabia's infrastructure, the world will wonder what the kingdom's next offering will be to the visitors flocking to its borders to perform devotions.

At some point in the not-so-distant future, pilgrims may be able to extend their pilgrimage visas and become tourists, walkers and hikers, taking in the scenery and enjoying the hospitality of communities on the Red Sea coast of the Arabian Peninsula. In an attempt to diversify his country's economy beyond petroleum and pilgrimage, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is forging ahead with Riyadh's Vision 2030 plan for reform, a proposal that calls for preserving a "sophisticated heritage" and restoring ancient cultural sites.

To that end, the Saudi government announced last month the development of a resort island on the Red Sea with eased restrictions for travelers with tourist visas. Meanwhile, expeditions to the desert outside Jeddah, known as "hashes," have been popular among expatriates for decades; there may be opportunities to expand those adventures as well. Should the kingdom open cultural heritage sites and new walking trails to the many pilgrims who visit it every year, it will create yet another stream of revenue for Riyadh -- and a natural gateway to better health for the nation's visitors and economy alike.

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Ziauddin Sardar tells the story of Mecca with rare insight and passion

In the history of religion, and in the wider story of mankind’s yearning to understand its place in the universe, Mecca is almost as important a site as Jerusalem, yet in English it is still virtually unwritten. There are a few Victorian travelogues, it is true – Sir Richard Burton disguised in his walnut greasepaint and turban, etc – but for every book on Mecca there are several shelves on Jerusalem; for every study of the Hejaz, there exists a groaning library on the Holy Land. Luckily, Ziauddin Sardar has now admirably filled the gap.

“The holy precincts around the Kaaba contain stories stretching back to the very beginning of time,” writes Sardar. Adam, remembered in Islam as the first prophet, is said in Arabian tradition to have visited the city and to be buried there. It is also believed by some to be remembered as a place of pilgrimage in the Bible, under its earlier name of Baca: “Blessed are those… who have set their hearts on pilgrimage,” reads Psalm 84. “As they pass through the valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs.”

Exactly what the pilgrims were worshipping seems to have changed over time: a succession of pagan deities were the subject of rituals in the Kaaba over almost a millennium. Then in the early 7th century the prophet Muhammad swept them all away and replaced the idols with the idea of a single almighty god, Allah. His revelations were said to have been dictated to him, through the person of the Angel Gabriel, in a cave on a mountainside high above the city.

Recently, scholars such as Patricia Crone and Tom Holland have cast doubt on whether Mecca was actually the place where Muhammad received his revelations and where the Qur’an reached its substantive form. The geography of the Qur’an, with its vines and olive groves, they argue, appears to resemble far more the Mediterranean littoral than the bleak wastes of the Hejaz. Slightly frustratingly, this version of events is dismissed by Sardar in little more than a footnote, with the observation that “absence of evidence amounts to little more than absence of archaeology”, itself the results of the Saudi royal family’s “horror of history”.

What Sardar gives us, instead, is a beautifully rendered account of the Muslim version of events, as told by a rational, likable, intelligent and mildly sceptical follower of the prophet. Sardar aims to make us understand why this great city has been the focus for the prayers of so many billions of human beings through time and across the globe.

The tale opens with Abraham, and his concubine, Hagar. At the urging of his wife, Sarah, Abraham took Hagar and her son, Ishmael, and left them in the desert outside the site of the future city of Mecca. But God answered Hagar’s prayers for help and the spring of Zamzam was revealed to them. According to the Qur’an, it is their descendants who first peopled the valley and built the city.

Muhammad’s revelations and his successful establishment of an empire of faith changed the fortunes of Mecca for ever, turning it into the greatest religious centre for Islam. Yet while the city was coveted by a succession of the great Islamic dynasties that ruled the Middle East, Mecca never became a major cultural or political centre like Alexandria or Damascus: instead, like Jerusalem, it was always a city of faith and left to the pilgrims and their devotions.

Sardar is himself a dedicated haji, who has made many times the pilgrimage to Mecca required of every Muslim, and this book is full of witty tales from his different pilgrimages. The villains of this story, throughout the second half of the book, are the ultra-puritanical Wahhabis and their Saudi patrons. Sardar gives an excellent account of the Wahhabis’ first capture of the city in the early 19th century when the Ottomans were busy with Napoleon’s arrival in Egypt, when they destroyed all the Sufi and Shia shrines in Arabia and Iraq. This included destroying the tombs of descendants of the prophets in Mecca as well as wreaking devastation on the holy cities of Najaf and Kerbala.

At the time, most Muslims regarded the Wahhabis as an extreme and alien sect, a perversion bordering on infidelity – kufr. Even to this day, the Wahhabis make up only a small percentage of the world’s Muslims. However, the Wahhabis have used their oil revenues – the Saudis control one fifth of the world’s reserves – to attempt to remake Islam in their own narrow and puritanical image. Saudi-owned houses overwhelmingly dominate Arabic publishing.

If more and more of the Muslim world is now open to a newly intolerant and sometimes violent strain of Islam, no force has been more responsible for this than the ultra-orthodox tribal absolutism of Saudi Arabia. It is no coincidence that Saudi Arabia provided 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers.

But as Sardar shows, almost as reprehensible was the destruction wrought on Mecca since the 1950s when the Saudis’ bad taste, hatred of history and megalomania all combined with a sudden flood of oil money to allow them to recreate Mecca as a sort of Arabian Nights version of Disneyland, a Muslim Las Vegas. The Saudi desecration of Mecca and the bulldozing of the old city is told in graphic and tragic detail: “An estimated 95% of the city’s millennium-old buildings, consisting of over 400 sites of cultural and historical significance, were demolished to build this eruption of architectural bling. Bulldozers arrived in the middle of the night to demolish Ottoman-era town houses… The house of Khadijah, the first wife of the Prophet Muhammad, has been turned into a block of toilets.”

Sardar surveys modern Mecca with a love that is mixed with a profound sense of disappointment and loss. Yet the book that results is a major achievement and a hugely enjoyable and important study of one of the world’s great cities.

William Dalrymple’s most recent book, Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, was shortlisted for the Duff Cooper and Samuel Johnson prizes. It is published in paperback by Bloomsbury