AMONG the least probable but most published plans of IS/ISIS/ISIL is their reported intention of destroying the Kaaba in Mecca.
Equally unlikely is the suggested intention of the Saudi government to move the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad from its present location in Medina.
For now there is no chance of either atrocity happening, which is just as well for the millions of pilgrims this haj season.
The pilgrims know exactly what landmarks to expect, especially in Mecca, with the wealth of illustrated books and websites at their disposal. But this was not always the case.
There can be few cities on earth depicted as extensively as Mecca. The hypothetical prohibition of portraying living beings in Islam doesn’t need to apply to a cityscape such as this. The countless paintings of Mecca do not show the even greater number of people to have entered and circumambulated.
Representations of the heart of the holy cities are to be found throughout the Islamic world, and in the pre-photographic age every one was different. Whatever medium the image was in, the artist would stamp his mark on it. The Kaaba would usually be the centre of attention, and there is only a limited amount of artistic licence allowed with this holiest of sites. Being a large black cube with some discreet gold inscriptions also makes it relatively difficult to apply too much creativity. The surroundings within the Masjid al-Haram have changed constantly, however, and outside the walls of the mosque, the skyline looks different every month in the modern age.
For an object of such importance and visual presence, the Kaaba seldom appears by itself in art of the Islamic world. Images tend to be part of the general layout of Mecca, including the mountains beyond. The most popular representations are in the Futuh al-Haramayn guidebooks and in prayer books known as the Dalail al-Khayrat, which often have a page depicting Mecca that faces one depicting Medina. The Kaaba is generally depicted as being part of the process of pilgrimage and the other elements are not ignored. There are numerous maps, paintings, textiles and ceramics of the Ottoman era that take the form of an instruction manual in which every part of the haj experience is written next to the part of Mecca in which it happens. The Kaaba is usually at the centre but doesn’t always receive a description. Its presence is self-explanatory and part of a whole. Circumambulation is meaningless without performing the other haj rites of passage.
There is an emotional dimension to Mecca, and the Kaaba in particular, which can be seen in the talismanic properties attributed to the Kiswah black cloth covering and the willingness of viewers to snip pieces off the holy cloth in the same way that Medieval Christian relic hunters would dismember saints. A few years ago, the highest price ever paid for an Islamic work of art was almost US$20 million (RM65 million) for a purportedly 12th Century key that was said to have been made to unlock the door of the Kaaba. It turned out to be a fake.
Mecca has never been a fossilised city like Venice, preserved for the pleasure of tourists and newlywed film stars and human-rights lawyers. There is a connection between the two cities however. The German conceptual artist Gregor Schneider created a tribute to the Kaaba that was fractionally larger than the original and without religious inscriptions, which was accepted for the Venice Biennale 10 years ago. It was deemed to be a terrorist threat and was then cancelled. It would have looked almost as imposing in St Mark’s Square as the Kaaba does in the Masjid al-Haram, but it’s hard to think what else the two historic cities have in common. Schneider’s choice of location was made ostensibly because Venice had once been the gateway through which the Islamic world entered Europe. At another level he might have been aware of squares within squares.
Mecca is about religious duty and not sightseeing. This has not prevented artists from trying to record a city that was once rather small. The only unchanging features are the Kaaba and the hills behind Mecca, although they are now obscured by the high rises that dwarf the Masjid al-Haram.
In addition to the innumerable depictions on paper, one of the most intriguing media is ceramic. Tiles featuring significant elements of Mecca and the Masjid al-Haram are perhaps the most durable representations in existence. The most prized of these are Iznik wares from the Ottoman Empire, painted and fired near Istanbul. The two holy cities were for centuries among the greatest jewels in the Ottoman crown, only removed from them after the World War 1.
Just before this were the first ever photographs of the holiest city. Muhammad Sadiq Bey, an Egyptian colonel and engineer photographed Medina in 1861 and Mecca in 1880. Sotheby’s sold his original photographs of Mecca in 1998 for a world record of £1.25 million (RM6.6 million). This was the highest price for any photograph at the time. After that, photography was in effect banned until the 1970s when British Muslim Peter Sanders was officially invited to photograph the whole haj experience.
Of everything that exists in Mecca, it is the Kaaba that makes the city unique. It has been a sanctuary for Muslims since the Prophet Muhammad declared it to be so. Non-Muslims cannot go near it. This is, therefore, as potent a symbol to non-believers as to those who pray towards it. The Kaaba is something beyond the comprehension of non-believers. Orientalist painters of the 19th and early 20th Centuries tackled almost every forbidden aspect of the Islamic world, lingering especially long in the harem. Mecca was one theme that they did not approach. Orientalist pictures do not feature the Kaaba, although there are famous works by Leon Belly and others depicting the progress of haj pilgrims en route to their destination.
In addition to its spiritual significance, the Kaaba might be seen as a symbol of solidity in surroundings that are constantly changing. In the time of Muhammad, it was the shifting sands and barren landscape of Arabia that would have given the granite structure of the Kaaba some of its immutability. While the streets outside the mosque resonate to the sound of commerce, as they always have, and while the surrounding hotels and condominiums keep growing taller, the Kaaba remains unchanged. It existed before the time of Muhammad, although it cannot be called pre-Islamic as Islam stretches back to the time of the supposed original builder, Adam. It has been used for pagan purposes and its universality can be seen in the breadth of curiosity that it arouses.
The most recent source of fascination is a series of works by Ahmad Mater al-Ziad.
Magnetism is everything that the title suggests. By using a small magnet and a lot of iron filings, the artist has managed to show the effect that the Kaaba has on those around it. It’s an impressive metaphor and attractive in every way, and can be enjoyed by non-Muslims as much as by those who are allowed to be part of the real experience this week.