The House of Allāh: Origin and History of the Meccan Sanctuary

Harvard HDS

The Meccan Sanctuary, also known as the Kaʿba, is a focal point of worship for Muslims, who pray towards it daily and strive to make a pilgrimage to it at least once in their lifetime. This course is an advanced graduate seminar centered on a host of primary sources (in Arabic) which provide information about Mecca and its shrine in the pre-Islamic and early Islamic periods. We will read sources in the genres of historiography, geography, exegesis, law, hadith, and poetry. We will also engage…