The pilgrimage has been cancelled before
Saudi Arabia has confirmed nagging fears Muslims have had ever since the start of this pandemic. While it hasn’t cancelled Hajj altogether, the Middle Eastern country has blocked Hajjis from around the world from visiting the holy sites of Mecca and Madina this year because of fears of infection.
While this year’s Hajj was slated from late July till early August, the 2.5 million or so Muslims who were planning on performing the pilgrimage this year will have to postpone their trips. Only a small number of Saudis and people from around the world already resident in the kingdom will be allowed to perform the ceremony this year.
When Saudi Arabia stopped all international air travel from 20 May, it was seen as a sign that Hajj would be cancelled this year. This will be the first time since the founding of the modern state of Saudi Arabia in 1932 that all visitors from outside the kingdom will be refused entry to perform Hajj. The current format of the pilgrimage has continued almost uninterrupted since 630 AD, even through the recent Ebola crisis and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) epidemic before that.
Hajj disruptions throughout history
There have been times in history when Haj pilgrimage has been disrupted. Starting in the year 930 AD, Hajj was suspended for around 20 years when some Qarmatians—followers of a small sect of Shia Islam—raided the mosque and stole the stone of Kaaba and took it with them to the island that is today Bahrain. It was only returned to Mecca when the rulers of the erstwhile Abbasid Caliphate agreed to pay a ransom to bring the stone back.
During the eight-year period between 983-991 AD Hajj was again disrupted because of conflict between the Fatimid rulers of Egypt and the Abbasids who controlled Iraq and Syria. Many pilgrims couldn’t make the trip for years after the Mongols invaded the Middle East in the year 1258 AD either. More recently, when France under Napoleon Bonaparte tried to scuttle the expansion of British colonial interests in the Middle East, it led to a conflict that disrupted Hajj routes between 1798 and 1801. And when a handful of Middle Eastern countries including Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Qatar in 2017, the kingdom blocked pilgrims from that country from Hajj that year.
There is also precedence for cancelling Hajj because of an outbreak of contagion. The plague brought a stop to the pilgrimage in 967 AD, while cholera killed thousands of pilgrims in the 19th Century and repeatedly led to the cancellation of Hajj. In 1831, there was a bad outbreak of cholera in India and a large number of pilgrims from the country headed to Mecca and Madina died from the illness en route. In 1858, another cholera outbreak resulted in returning Egyptian pilgrims to be quarantined by the country’s Red Sea border.
Difference between Hajj and Umrah?
Only trips taken to Mecca and Madinah during the designated period of time determined by the lunar calendar is considered Hajj. Trips to the two holy sites during the rest of the year are called Umrah, a lesser version of the big, auspicious event. During the pilgrimage, Muslims pray in the Grand Mosque of Mecca and circumambulate the holy rock of Kaaba there, visit the holy Mt Arafat in addition to performing a number of other rituals over the course of a week. The celebration of Eid-al-Adha marks the end of the Hajj season for the year.
Every year Saudi Arabia hosts millions of Hajjis who stay in the many luxury hotels that have sprung up in Mecca and Madina as well as in a vast tented city of affordable accommodation that is put together to house pilgrims. Saudi Arabia lets in only a predetermined number of Hajjis, with specific quotas for pilgrims from countries every year.
