The number of pilgrims who assemble at Mecca varies greatly from year to year. It has often exceeded 100,000. Sir Wilfrid Blunt (Fu ture of Islam, London, 1883) estimates the num ber in 1880 at about 93,000. The fanaticism of Mohammedans rigidly excludes all non-believers from the sacred soil of Mecca. Consequently the few Christians who have succeeded in visiting the place have done so in disguise and at the risk of their lives. As early, however, as the first decade of the sixteenth century an Italian, laidovico di Varthema. witnessed the ceremonies and de scribed them in his book of travels (Bologna, 1510; Eng. trans. by J. W. Jones. edited with notes by C. P. Badger in the "llakluyt Society Publications," vol. xxxii., London, 1863). The first . Englishman to enter the sacred city was Joseph Pitts, of Exeter. a sailor. whi) was cap tured by Algerine pirates in 1678 and held as a slave for fifteen years, during which time he made the pilgrimage in company with one of his masters. His narrative was published at. Exeter in 1704. During the nineteenth century the pil grimage was performed by the following: The Spanish adventurer !India, commonly known as (1807; Voyuye en Afrigue et en Asia, Paris, 1814) ; Seetzen (1809), whose jour nal was published after his death by Kruse and Fleischer (Berlin, 1854-50) ; Burekhardt (1814 15; Travels in Arabia. London. 1829) ; Burton
(1853; Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El Medinah and .Weeetsh. 3 vols., London, 1855, several later editions) ; Bicknell (1862) ; Von Menzel, (1864; .Heine Wallfahrt narh Mekka, ' vols.. Leipzig. 1865) ; Keane (1880; Six Months in Hemet and My Journey to Medina. London. l891) ; Snouck-1 'moron je (1884.85; Mekka, 9 vols. and a third of illustration. The Hague. 1888 89) ; Courtellemont (1894; Mon voyage ti la 'kelpie, Paris, 1806). The most thorough and accurate descriptions of the pilgrimage cere monies are those given by Burekhardt and Bur ton. Snouck-Hurgronje gives an account of life in Mecca, a history of the city drawn from orig inal manuscript sources, and details regarding the various classes of the present population, and the arrangements made for receiving and taking care of the pilgrims, based upon a residence in Mecca of more than six months—a longer time than any other European has ever spent there. His illustrations are from photographs. Consult, besides the work already mentioned: Salih Sou bhi, Pelerinage a la Mecytie et a Medina (Cairo, lf.94) ; MilIler, Der Islam im Morgen- and Abendland (Berlin, 1885-87) ; Snouck-Hurgronje, Het Mekkaansche Feest (Leyden, 1880). See MECCA.