Word: jidda
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Beirut to Jidda. Ahmed Murad is one of the few U.S. citizens ever to make the pilgrimage, and the road he took to get there was long and roundabout. Born in Lebanon, he came to the U.S. in 1902, armed with a railroad ticket to West Virginia, the names of relatives and not a word of English. But he learned fast, traveled far and lived well, until a quarrel with his Kentucky wife ended in divorce, and in 1947 he decided to go back to the Middle East. He bought a small house in Damascus, married again and settled down...
...obtained a certificate of good conduct. Then he went to the Saudi Arabian consulate for a free visa (before 1951, when Saudi Arabia was not yet oil-rich, the government taxed pilgrims $72 a head). Then Ahmed paid $144 for a round-trip airplane ticket from Beirut to Jidda on the Red Sea, 1,000 miles away...
...Jidda he met his mutawwif-a professional guide who took Ahmed and 20 other Syrians under his wing for about $15 each, instructing them in the religious procedures required of a pilgrim and arranging food and lodging for the entire trip. Life used to be grim in Jidda during the ten days of the hadj, as heat-sick pilgrims squatted in the streets gathering strength for the 46-mile trek to Mecca. But newly rich Saudi Arabia has recently built a "Pilgrim City"-a roofed compound, equipped with food shops, electricity, running water and toilets. Here pilgrims wait...
...Jidda to Mecca. When his day of departure finally arrived, Ahmed set out on the road through the mountains clogged with thousands of pilgrims ("White, brown, black, yellow people, all moving together"). As they streamed along the road together-a few in cars and buses, some on mules, but most on foot-a steady chant rose in unison from the column: "Labbaika Allahumma labbaika! [Here we are, Lord, here...
...recover," said one veteran, "they are perfectly happy, because they have died on a hadj.'' The death rate for this year's pilgrimage was more than a thousand. Many were buried within twelve hours in unmarked graves in one of two vast cemeteries near Mecca and Jidda...