A Modern Pilgrim in Mecca and a Siege in Sanaa By John Byng Wavell (Reading, UK: Garnet Publishing, 2005. 349 pages.)

Abstract

It should be noted that the trespassing English pilgrim Arthur Wavell is definitely
not postmodern; his “modern” account of a trip in disguise to Makkah
and Madinah was originally published in 1912. The author revels in explaining
how he pulled off the role of a Zanzibar Muslim on hajj, as though he
is presenting a how-to guide for fellow swashbucklers. Previously, he had
carried out intelligence work for the British Army in South Africa and, in
1906, settled on a farm near Mombasa, where he learned Arabic and met
Muslims. He died at the young age of thirty-four while fighting in East
Africa.
Wavell presents a riveting tale with a self-serving hubris that could easily
be dismissed as a remake of Sir Richard Burton’s earlier and more celebrated
penetration of Makkah. But there is good reason to read this dated
book, if only for the historical view of travel to Makkah near the end of the
Ottoman caliphate. Wavell traveled from Damascus on the Hijaz railway the
very year (1908) that it reached Makkah. His trip was made partly out of
curiosity, no doubt fueled by the fact non-Muslims are forbidden to enter ...