Makkah-Al-Mukarramah

There was no town named Makkah until Prophet Ibrahim left his son Isma'il in a valley surrounded by mountains. That was known as the Bakka valley, or Batn Makkah (the Makkah valley). Although Ptolemy mentions Makkah, the Jews and Christians do not accept that Ibrahim sacrificed Isma`il there because, as they put it, “since it cannot be connected with what is known of Abraham” – as if what is known of Abraham through their own sources is trustworthy! (He was, “an unscrupulous liar” – Encyclopedia Britannica).
Makkan land is rocky, and the area hot and arid, where nothing grows out. Rainfall is scanty and unpredictable. When Ibrahim and Isma'il built the Kabah, it was still predominantly a deserted place; a few Bedouin families belonging to the Jurhum tribe, had settled down because of availability of water in the Zamzam well. But otherwise, it was empty all around. The population thrived on trade: selling ware, hide and perfume. Later, they began to conduct trade between suppliers in India and consumers in the Syrian region: a trade, for all the weary travelling, paid them well, at times profits reaching up to 200%.
Over time, the city developed into a commercial centre thanks to the popularity of the Kabah rebuilt a few times over in pre-Islamic times, and gradually paganized with the help of images and idols imported from outside which soon won the reverence of the locals as well as the in-coming pilgrims. Another function of the pilgrims was that they brought their ware, bought cheap by the Makkans, and sold at goodly prices in the north and south of the Peninsula.
The story of Makkah's Divine defense against the raiders from Yemen – led by one Abraha- who came with the intention to pull down the Ka`bah, is well-known. It happened in the same year the Prophet was born. A huge flock of birds dropped hardened stones on the heads of the invaders who fled in panic in every direction, while the Makkans watched the affair from their refuge on mountain tops.
The town is surrounded by a consecrated area all around, where no bloodshed is allowed, no animal is to be gamed, and no plant to be uprooted. The boundaries of the Haram vary in distance from Kabah: `Arafah is 21.5 km in the south-east, Nakhlah is 13 km in the north-east, Ji`rana is 21.5 km in the north-east, Tan`eem is about 7.5 km in the north, Hudaybiyyah is 21.5km in the west, and Adha Libn is 16 km in the south. The boundary of the Haram is different from the boundary of the Hill: positions at which one has to put on the Ihram if entering for Hajj or `Umrah.
A few decades after Makkah fell to the Muslims, it began to develop into a cosmopolitan town. Dykes and flood barriers were constructed to prevent damage from water rushing down into the valley after sudden heavy rains, wells were dug, water supply system improved, fields around the town cultivated, plus of course, the trade that the pilgrims brought improved. The newest pilgrims were not from the Arabian Peninsula alone: they were arriving from vast distances, and carrying with them strange merchandise and products, dry fruits, frankincense, cloth, toys and fashion items. The promise of the Qur’an came true that if the pagans are prevented from entering into Makkah as pilgrims, resulting in trade losses for the Makkans, Allah will provide with alternatives (Surah Tawbah, Ayah 28).
In the year 63H an Umayyad army was sent against `Abdullah ibn Zubayr, who had proclaimed Khilafah over Hijaz and Iraq. The army loosed an onslaught on Zubayr sending missiles into Makkah, some of which struck the Kabah and set it afire. Ibn Zubayr got it rebuilt after the battle, but he himself could not survive another, later attack by Hajjaj b. Yusuf.
In 130H, a sect arose named the Qarmatis, a splinter group of the Isma`ilis. They believed in orthodox Islam as Kufr and, therefore, killed Muslims at will. By the fourth century they had become quite powerful, spreading anarchy wherever they headed. They attacked Makkah under the leadership of a man called Abu Tahir the Qarmati, slaughtered its residents by the thousands, including those who were holding the Ka`bah cloth, threw the dead into the Zamzam well, tore off the Kabah cloth, pulled down its door, tore out the Black Stone and took it away first to hang it by a pillar in a Kufa mosque (in the hope of future Hajj performed there) and then to Hajr (in the Qatif area, which was the headquarter of the Qarmatis then), along with all the treasures of the Ka`bah: ear-rings of Mariyyah (Umm Walad of the Prophet), the horns of the slaughtered goat of Ibrahim, 13 chandeliers, three mihrabs, and all its gold and artifacts. They had hoped to use the Black Stone for blackmail. After some 22 years it was retrieved from them at the price of 30,000 Dinar and restored to the Ka`bah in 339H, but none of the artifacts of the Kabah. The Qaramitah remained active for a few more decades thereafter, until they lost hopes of wiping out the orthodox Islam, and then fizzled out into oblivion.
In the centuries that followed, Makkah was spared any political role. The city, along with Madinah, remained the city of knowledge and pilgrimage. The Haram underwent several expansions over the centuries. Makkah had quite early lost its position as a prestigious commercial center, especially because of the rise and fall in the number of pilgrims due to political upheavals bordering on anarchy almost all over the Islamic lands. That resulted in the spread of poverty among the Makkans that lasted almost until the discovery of oil, which was preceded by the proclamation of `Abdul `Aziz as the King of Hijaz in 1925.
In the year 1039H (1629 CE) the Makkans experienced such heavy rains as never before in their history. The Kabah was almost sunk in water. When the water was drained out, the worst fears came true. Its northern wall had collapsed. With the help of engineers from Egypt repairs began, but strangely, hardly had the works completed when another heavy barrage of rain dipped the Ka`bah in water and when water was cleared, more parts had collapsed. There was no alternative but to pull down the building and rebuild which was undertaken by the Ottomans.
Throughout history, Makkah and Madinah have remained objects of service by countless Muslims who sent in their charities and endowments, and took up philanthropic works there. (Even in a small state of the Deccan (which lasted until 1948), a large commercial building was built in the city of Hyderabad (called Madinah Building) whose income was earmarked for charitable works among the poor of Madinah). Most details will have to be ignored in view of the nature of this present work, but the following single illustration should give some idea of Makkah's place in the heart of the Muslims.
When Haroon al-Rashid’s wife Zubaydah learnt of the difficulties the Makkans and pilgrims were facing in obtaining water, which was being sold at exorbitant prices, she undertook to create catchment devices, build water-storage facilities and create a system of ducts and canals for the benefit of the Makkans and yearly pilgrims. She purchased a spring at the foot of the Mount Taad, on the way to Ta’if from Makkah near Hunayn, and then, creating water storing artificial ponds at the foot of several mountains of the region, got dug canals connecting them all to the main canal that was dug at Hunayn, from where a main canal was dug right up to Makkah, where the residents benefited from a pond created inside the town. She had employed great number of Engineers and experts for this purpose.
Not satisfied with that, she got another large pond created at the foot of the Mount Sahra between Ta’if and `Arafat which collected rain water of the area. She connected this pond with another that was dug in `Arafat – called Bi`r Nu`man - to meet with needs of the pilgrims at `Arafat. The pond was further connected through water channels with ponds in Muzdalifah and Mina. Thereafter, it was connected to a large pond in Makkah, where the water finally ended. The vast net-work was known severally as Bi`r Zubaydah, `Ayn Zubaydah and Nahr Zubaydah. This project alone (since she was involved in other philanthropic projects), undertaken at the end of the second Islamic century cost her 1,700,000 Dinar, each Dinar weighing roughly 4.5 gm of gold. When the accounts were presented to her she directed the huge volumes to be consigned to River Dijlah saying, “Let us leave the accounting for the Day of Accounting.” She also ordered that any money that was left in the hands of the contractors was theirs, and even ordered rewards for the leading figures of the project.
Not satisfied with that, she got another large pond created at the foot of the Mount Sahra between Ta’if and `Arafat which collected rain water of the area. She connected this pond with another that was dug in `Arafat – called Bi`r Nu`man - to meet with needs of the pilgrims at `Arafat. The pond was further connected through water channels with ponds in Muzdalifah and Mina. Thereafter, it was connected to a large pond in Makkah, where the water finally ended. The vast net-work was known severally as Bi`r Zubaydah, `Ayn Zubaydah and Nahr Zubaydah. This project alone (since she was involved in other philanthropic projects), undertaken at the end of the second Islamic century cost her 1,700,000 Dinar, each Dinar weighing roughly 4.5 gm of gold. When the accounts were presented to her she directed the huge volumes to be consigned to River Dijlah saying, “Let us leave the accounting for the Day of Accounting.” She also ordered that any money that was left in the hands of the contractors was theirs, and even ordered rewards for the leading figures of the project.
Incidentally, when the dams, ducts, ponds and springs fell into disuse because of lack of maintenance, another woman, (Ottoman) Sultan Sulayman’s daughter Princes Fatimah took up the task of repairs and renovation of the net-work. She ordered aqua-ducts cut through hard rocks in a project that took ten years, at the end of which, the two huge artificial ponds of Hunayn and `Arafat were re-connected – at the huge personal cost to Fatimah of 500,000 Pounds - and water once again brought to the comfort of the Makkans in 979H/1571CE.
The water channels, springs and ponds of Zubaydah and Fatimah remained in use until recent times when they were replaced by the modern piping system that receives water from Desalination Plants at Jeddah and other places. This Holy town has had an interesting story which has to await subsequent updating of this work for unfolding.