A 1-Month Recap on the trail of Islam
Updated: Apr 9, 2023
It's a great feeling to be able to conquer and explore the world freely and easily again after the turbulent Covid times. We no longer notice anything about the pandemic, it seems to have been exactly the right time to start.
Our first month is incredibly intense, we have the first incredible, but of course also typical challenges of a world trip, but all in all things are going really well for our first trip of this length. The experiences are so intense that the first two weeks seem like two months.
A diverse world of emotions spread during the first 4 weeks. When we finally arrived on the plane, we were both looking for our first relaxation in weeks, full of anticipation and excitement that it would start. With music on our ears and the sunny glowing clouds below us, there was a first explosion of feelings of freedom. It's actually starting now for 6 months, a completely new experience that will certainly last for the rest of my life.
Even the arrival plunges us into the colorful diversity of the world, it becomes multicultural, of course, we are on the plane to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 1 hour ride to Mecca and 4 hours drive from the Holy Medina and that is exactly where all the pilgrims want to go, who accompany us. If you haven't already done so, the merry changing starts on the plane, covers fall and are exchanged for large towel capes, everyone is getting ready for their Hejira full of anticipation.
Gabriela hidden in the diverse colors of Abbajas during a spontaneous shopping tour in Jeddah. At the very beginning it was not the easiest to find the right balance between respecting localities and using the freedom of a western tourist.
After having left Dubai, our last stop-over to India, it's worth to recap some facts and experiences about Islam. So let's jump into.
Some important basics about Islam
The focus is on the Prophet Mohammed, then a wealthy man from Saudi Arabia's Mecca, who established a new religious teaching based on the holiest book of the new Islam, the Quran. Jews and Christians were respected as following the Book, but Islam was established as a sort of superimposed religion. This started AD 612.
When Mohammed had to flee from Mecca to Medina building up the first mosque (Qubā. Mosque), the result was Hejira, one of the most important pilgrimages, to the second holiest city of Medina, which we were able to observe in Saudi Arabia and on our paths around it. But the most important mosque of Medina is the Grand Mosque (Al-Masjid an-Nabawī), where Mohammed is buried under one of the mosques towers. The two mosques are connected by a huge walkway across the city with many cafés and shops, it was a very beautiful walk at night.
Quietly it's time to talk about another of our many adventures. it turned out to be a lot more than we would have liked :)
Our stop in Medina:
Since Medina is on the way to Al'Ula, at a suitable stopover distance, a night's break and a few impressions of Islam's second most important city were ideal. Compared to Mecca, where non-Muslims are not even allowed to come near, signs on the highway already indicate this, many travel bloggers have already been to Medina and the new regulations indicate a relaxation.
To make it short:
We were there, no problem at all in the outer area, but our hotel was 100m away from the Holy Mosque of the Prophet Mohammed. Allegedly too close for Non-Muslims. But there were no signs, the hotel gave us a hassle-free check-in, and of course we weren't noticed wrapped in pilgrimage towels.
Our local contact and city guide laughed and at the same time wondered why the hotel accepted us and advised us to wait two hours in the hotel room until he picked us up. We got a great night tour of the city as it was getting late in the meantime.
The Qubā mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia is one of the oldest mosques in the world (older than the Grand Mosque), with a history dating back more than 1,400 years. The mosque is a beautiful example of early Islamic architecture, with a simple yet elegant design featuring white walls and domed roofs.
The next morning we were hoping for an exclusive mosque tour, but this had to be omitted as non-Muslims are definitely not allowed to enter the holy site. But there was a small tour of the forecourt and it was interrupted after 5 minutes by a civil minder who asked about our religious status. Nobody really knew about it, since we were also accepted by the hotel without any problems, so we were indirectly informed that we should please leave the premises slowly if we weren't Muslims. From the moment we entered an area we were being watched over the cameras and as we could see in the hotel room these videos were also being broadcast live on TV as it was Holy Friday.
But our outfits seem to have been praised, which is also important to us. A few weeks ago, Asians who came too close to the mosque in casual summer clothes were immediately expelled from the country.
The Fridays prayers in television, live from Mecca.
In every hotel room in Islamic countries you can find stickers with the praying direction to Mecca and the Kaaba. Also the mobile app helps with such a compass and gives you the exact praying times, because they slightly change by the position of the sun in the sky.
The Mosque is incredibly huge, it was continually expanded, as you can see on the next picture from the Museum in Riyadh. By the way, under the tower with the green roof is the tomb of Prophet Mohammed.
The Grand Mosque (Masjid al-Haram) in Medina as a 3D Model. Only a very small part on the upper left corner is the original mosque before three bigger expansions.
Out of respect for the circumstances, we left the area immediately and were thankfully invited to the ultra-modern Islam Museum on the forecourt and we were taught the basics of Islam through innovative exhibitions worth seeing. Pictures of the impressive museum from the inside were forbidden.
After leaving the museum, you are an expert of Islam and Prophet Mohammed, his wifes, his way of life and the role and rights of women...or what they are not allowed to do, as our guide highlighted to Gabriela. It's not quite familiar for us, how women are separated. As an example, a hairdresser place in Dubai, you can't see anything from outside and Patrik was also sent out as he joined Gabriela into a nails studio to ask something. Strict and against our habits.
This made our Medina appearance a very exclusive and exciting excursion. With some distance and many conversations with locals, one has to realize that there are many relaxations, openings and changes in purely regulatory terms. But for one thing, it takes time. On the other hand, as befits a change process, there is resistance. As such, we believe we have not done anything wrong in the strict sense, but have been guided diplomatically to preserve cultural purity. It's very understandable at the speed at which the region is changing, but it's very difficult at times to know the right pace as a stranger. But that's the exciting thing about such a young tourist country (2019) and we are very grateful throughout the entire trip that tourist blemishes are tolerated with a smile and a note. Thank you world :)
Back to the Islam...
Another and the most important pilgrimage is the Haij, the journey to Mecca to the Kaaba, which every Muslim should do once in their life. This results in a real and large flow of tourists, i.e. Saudi Arabia is already extremely touristy today, but very Muslim around the holiest sites of Islam and the opening is now valid for non-Muslims for other tourist purposes throughout the country.
The 3D Model of Mecca and the Kaaba. Surprisingly the clock tower - belonging to the pilgrim site - is the third tallest building of the world.
To understand some facts about the tumults between different Muslim countries, another important piece of information is the event of the murder of Ali, the son-in-law of Mohammed, after his death in 632. The community around the murdered stepson established a second stream within Islam, the shiism. The rest of Islam is practiced by the Sunnis. This separation embodies many of today's conflicts that can be observed on the world map and that sometimes lead to complications when entering the country if you have unsuitable stamps in your passport, which we are almost completely spared with Polish and German passports. For example, Farsi-speaking citizens of Iran are not very welcomed in Saudi Arabia. Even the Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam was not possible anymore for Iranians, and by the way also not safe.
BREAKING NEWS: Actually it's great news, that Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi plans to visit Saudi in the coming weeks after the two countries announced to establish their diplomatic relations again. It might be a long way, but an important start. It feels like and many books say, that the countries of the Middle East understand the importance of transformation and peace. We can confirm the impression, but of course we were too far away to make a judgement.
Here is a great AlJazeera article with a timeline of the most important happenings.
One critical element is the Five Pillars of Islam: 1) Believe in the only one god and Mohammed as his prophet. 2) Praying five times a day and the holy work-free Friday, what needs to be considered at Muslim sights ;) 3) Fasting during Ramadan, what needs also to be considered, because many restaurants and cafes stay closed until the sun disappear. 4) Making the Haj to Mecca. 5)
Islam in Central Asia
In Central Asia, around 80% of the population is Muslim, almost all of them Sunni. Islam slowly spread, initially more as a political model, later also the religious features, whose rituals were always practiced in a certain way.
The largest Mosque of Central Asia in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Built over 10 years with the financial help of Quatar. 2500sqm with space for 4000 vehicles and simultaneous prayers for 120000 people.
In Soviet times, many rituals, including three of the Five Pillars, were banned. The Soviets distrusted Islam and its general resistance. Opposition to Islam took even more extreme forms under Stalin, such as the closing and demolition of mosques and the arrests of mullahs. These phenomena persisted even up to Gorbachev, which reduced the number of mosques in Central Asia to an amazing minimum. Perhaps it is no coincidence that mosques are not so conspicuous for us today and that Islam is also lived very personally in Central Asia. We haven't been able to hear shouts over minarets since Saudi.
Many madrasahs, like the ones we were able to marvel at in their full beauty in Samarkand, were closed. A madrasa is a Qur'an school that not only teaches religiously, but was also very strongly influenced by Islam. The Uzbek madrasas are world-famous and have contributed a lot to teaching, we have seen magnificent buildings and it must have been an exclusive affair to be able to take part in the teaching of a madrasa. - Quasi an early form of a university.
Can't imagine that Uzbek cities had more of these magnificent buildings before the Soviets encroached. Fortunately, they still characterize the cityscape today.
A short Soviet story of the Teahouse Rohat, Dushanbe
Teahouse Rohat in Dushanbe, Tajikistan was built in the 1980s during the Soviet era and is a unique example of Soviet modernist architecture. However, in the 2000s, there were calls from some Tajiks to demolish the building due to its association with Soviet rule. Despite these efforts, the teahouse still stands today as a popular gathering spot for locals and tourists alike, serving as a reminder of Tajikistan's complex history and cultural influences.
Watching tables full with local men, talking about the latest news while eating and drinking made us clear, why this popular building was not taken to the ground. But interesting, that the Tajiks want to remove the Soviet signs from the pictures to strengthen their own identity.
The recommendation "vegetarian-friendly" from TripAdvisor we can't confirm. As it sometimes happened, also Teahouse Rohat took the Meat out of the stew and sold it as vegetarian. Anyway it was a funny evening with a lot of hand signs, our picture book (a gift from my team, thank you so much) to orchestrate the staff. The restaurant is a marathon place for the staff thanks to its architecture and the missing table delegation, we saw them running from one end to the other for the whole evening :)
Sufism in Central Asia
To explain the spread of Islam one must still explain Sufism, whose followers sought knowledge about and contact with God through personal individual experiences, under the guidance of teachers and masters. It also gives a better understanding of the colorful and historical Samarkand and all the remarkable buildings in Central Asia.
Because of the very individual rituals we did not see too many people praying on the streets. Not like in Saudi, people pray secretly wherever they want to, the mosques seemed not as crowded as in the Arab countries.
Literature
All in all, Islam is very complex due to the many smaller groups, which makes it very difficult today politically, diplomatically and, unfortunately, also in terms of warfare to achieve peace in and between many Muslim countries. We disregard opinions and political images here and these situations are all very individual and too complex to be briefly described here. We can recommend "Understanding Islam" by Gerhard Schweizer, an interesting book on the diversity of Islam, as well as very interesting works by Peter Scholl-Latour, who explains in great detail the diplomatic challenges with and between Islamic countries. More detail about Saudi you can find in Susanne Koelbl's book "Behind the kingdom's veil", very detailed from her years in Saudi with a lot of insider knowledge from great relationships within the country.
