The pilgrimage to Mecca is not only one of the pillars of the
religion of Islam, but it has proved one of the strongest
bonds of union and has always exercised a tremendous influence
as a missionary agency. Even to-day the pilgrims who return
from Mecca to their native villages in Java, India, and west
Africa, are fanatical ambassadors of the greatness and glory
of Islam. From an ethical standpoint, the Mecca pilgrimage,
with its superstitious and childish ritual, is a blot upon
Mohammedan monotheism. But as a great magnet to draw the Moslem
world together with an annual and ever-widening _esprit de
corps_, the Mecca pilgrimage is without a rival. The number
of pilgrims that come to Mecca varies from year to year. The
vast majority arrive by sea from Egypt, India, and the Malay
Archipelago. The pilgrim caravan from Syria and Arabia by land
is growing smaller every year, for the roads are very unsafe.
It will probably increase again on the completion of the Hejaz
railway from Damascus to Mecca. All told, the present number is
from sixty to ninety thousand pilgrims each year.--SAMUEL M.
ZWEMER, “The Moslem World.”
(1999)