BIBLIOGRAPHY.—Besides the Arabic geographers and cosmographers, we have Ibn (Abd Rabbih's description of the mosque, early in the loth century Cited Farid, Cairo ed., iii. 362 sqq.), but above all the admir able record of Ibn Jubair (A.D. 1184), by far the best account extant of Mecca and the pilgrimage. It has been much pillaged by Ibn Batilta. The Arabic historians are largely occupied with fabulous matter as to Mecca before Islam ; for these legends the reader may refer to C. de Perceval's Essai. How little confidence can be placed in the pre-Islamic history appears very clearly from the distorted accounts of Abraha's excursion against the Hejaz, which fell but a few years before the birth of the Prophet, and is the first event in Meccan history which has con firmation from other sources. See NOldeke's version of Tabari, p. 204 sqq. For the period of the Prophet, Ibn Hisham and Wakidi are valu able sources in topography as well as history. Of the special histories and descriptions of Mecca published by Wustenfeld (Chroniken der Stadt Mekka, 3 vols., 1857-49, with an abstract in German, 1861), the most valuable is that of Azraqi. It has passed through the hands of several editors, but the oldest part goes back to the beginning of the 9th Christian century. Kutbeddin's history (vol. iii. of the Chroniken)
goes down with the additions of his nephew to A.D. 1592.
For European descriptions of Mecca from personal observation see Burckhardt's Travels in Arabia (cited above from the 8vo ed., 1829). The Travels of Aly Bey (Badia, London, 1816) describe a visit in 1807; Burton's Pilgrimage (3rd ed., 1879) often supplements Burckhardt ; Von Maltazan's Wallfahrt nach Mekka (1865) is lively but very slight. 'Abd el-Razzaq's report to the Government of India on the pilgrimage of 1858 is specially directed to sanitary questions; C. Snouck-Hur gronje, Mekka (2 vols., and a collection of photographs, The Hague, 1888-89), gives a description of the Meccan sanctuary and of the pub lic and private life of the Meccans as observed by the author during a sojourn in the holy city in 1884-85 and a political history of Mecca from native sources from the Hegira till 1884. Eldon Rutter, The Holy Cities of Arabia, vol. i. (1928), is the most recent work. For the pil grimage see also Snouck-Hurgronje, Het Mekkaansche Feest (188o).