One Thousand Roads to Mecca

One Thousand Roads to Mecca: Ten Centuries of Travelers Writing about the Muslim Pilgrimage by Michael Wolfe
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

23 personal relations from a pilgrimage to Mecca.
Most of them are just pages from travel diary - names of places, list of events, very rarely there is some religious reflection, but lots of social gossip.
Only 3 relations I found really interesting.
Year 1927 - Mohammad Asad. Austrian of Jewish origin, who wholeheartedly converted to Islam. His relation is truly inspired by his beliefs.
Maybe worthwhile to mention, that in later years Mohammed Asad was very involved in creation of Pakistan and occupied high position in Pakistani government, he served as a plenipotentiary minister in United Nations. He is also an author of highly praised translation of Qur'an.
Year 1927 - Winifred Stegar, a pilgrim from Australia. The strange thing is, that there is no relation of her visit to Mecca. Her story is cut at the city borders.
I read a voluminous biography of Winifred which contains a long relation of visits to Mecca an Medina. There is absolutely no religious inspiration in it, but lots of relations about maltreatment, cheating, robbery.
Year 1964 - Malcolm X - Afro-american activist who calls himself an extremist.
This one I found most authentic.

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