Haj trail being pushed as heritage site

Saturday, September 2, 2017


 

Muhannad contemplated the trail ahead of him with great emotion. As an Iraqi national, he became sentimental as he looked at vestiges of a highly prized road that his grandfathers used for centuries to cross from their homeland through the Arabian Desert to reach the holy city of Makkah.

Standing near the limpid waters of a vast pool in northern Saudi Arabia, Muhannad felt that every stone, every well, every landmark on “Darb Zubaida” reflected the extraordinarily rich history of a trail that for hundreds of years since the mid seventh century facilitated religious aspiration, commercial activities, trade links and cultural exchanges.

The Iraqi translator, who was on a tour with friends in the area retracing movements by their ancestors, felt a sense of inner glory that in the middle of the vast desert characterising the northern part of Saudi Arabia, Darb Zubaida had weathered all natural conditions and served millions of travellers.

He was also proud that among the seven major routes that emerged since the spread of Islam to connect countries and cities with Makkah, Zubaida’s Trail, used by Muslims from Kufa in south-central Iraq and beyond, was among the most important.

The trail is about 1,277 kilometres long; 228 kilometres are in Iraq and the rest in Saudi Arabia.

It is named after Zubaida Bint Jaafar, wife of the Abbasid Caliph Harun Al Rashid.

Zubaida, affectionately meaning Little Butter Ball in Arabic, lived in the late eighth and early ninth centuries and is well known for the series of wells, reservoirs and artificial pools that provided water for Muslim pilgrims along the route from Baghdad to Makkah and Medina.

She decided to build the wells and pools after she realised, as she was performing Hajj, the pain and sufferings endured by pilgrims. She reportedly swore that she would do her utmost to ensure that no pilgrim would die from thirst on the way to or from Makkah.

Historians reported that on her fifth pilgrimage to Makkah, she spent more than 2 million dinars (Dh6,376) improving the water supply system in Makkah and the surrounding province after noticing that a drought had devastated the population.

The trail dated back to the pre-Islamic era, but reached its peak of prosperity during the Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258).

“Markers and milestones were installed and the trail was developed with stations and provided with wells, pools, dams, palaces, houses, and pavement that made it more easily accessible. A total of 27 major stations located 50 kilometres apart and 27 substations between the main stations have been identified,” the Saudi delegation to Unesco said in its description of the route that flourished during the time of the early caliphate.

It started as the “Darb Al Hira”, in reference to an ancient city in Mesopotamia located south of what is now Kufa. The trail was used by travellers and traders before Islam.

It was also used by the Muslim army led by Khalid Ibn Al Waleed after he discovered that it was the shortest distance for the troops.

As more Muslims started using it for pilgrimage and umrah as well as for commercial purposes, the architecture was improved to facilitate movement, mainly by governors in what is now Iraq.

According to the Saudi delegation to Unesco, the first of the Abbasid Caliphs, “Assafah”, ordered in the year 751 the installation of milestones, flags and lighthouses along the trail from Kufa to Makkah. “The following caliphs and their wives, especially Zubaida, completed the development of the route and provided it with all necessary amenities like water reservoirs, wells, palaces and rest houses all along the road.”

However, as the Abbasid state weakened, the trail lost its importance and was almost completely abandoned by the pilgrims and travellers.

Saudi Arabia now is working on reviving the significance of the trail by registering it on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

The trail is among 10 historic and archaeological landmarks in the Kingdom that the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) is recommending for registration.

The Commission said that Darb Zubaida was selected because of its cultural and historic importance in Islamic history.

“It was well-known in Islamic history among all Muslims including caliphs, sultans, ministers and pilgrims.”

For Saudi Arabia, the Zubaida Trail “perfectly embodies the cultural significance coming from exchanges and multi-dimensional dialogue across countries as it permitted to bring together Muslim pilgrims from different ethnic groups and regions, creating the cultural, religious and scientific exchanges among the people of various parts of the world.”

“[The] Zubaida Trail illustrates the interaction of movement, along the route, in space and time from the pre-Islamic period to the end of the Abbasid Caliphate in the 13th century. The stations and forts, combined with their routes and commercial markets, provide a very complete picture of the Arab desert culture strung along a trade route. Remains of all the elements that comprised the stations (dwellings, forts, caravanserais, and markets) are still found along the trail. The limited recent development of these sites has given them considerable protection from urban encroachment and none of their attributes are now under threat.”

Saudi Arabia has currently four properties inscribed on the World Heritage List:

• Al Hijr Archaeological Site (Madain Salih) (2008): the largest conserved site of the civilisation of the Nabataeans south of Petra in Jordan.

• Al Turaif District in Diriyah (2010): the first capital of the Saudi Dynasty, in the heart of the Arabian Peninsula, north-west of Riyadh. Founded in the 15th century, it bears witness to the Najdi architectural style.

• Historic Jeddah, the Gate to Makkah (2014): From the seventh century it was established as a major port for Indian Ocean trade routes, channelling goods to Makkah. It was also the gateway for Muslim pilgrims who arrived by sea.

• Rock Art in the Hail region (2015): The ancestors of today’s Arab populations have left traces of their passages in numerous petroglyphs and inscriptions on the rock face. They show numerous representations of human and animal figures covering 10,000 years of history.

(Source: Unesco)


 

Source: http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/saudi-arabia/haj-trail-being-pushed-as-heritage-site-1.2081189