DOHA: Fifty-three black and white photos of Makkah taken during the Haj season in 1908 will be displayed at the ‘Haj hundred-year-old photographs of Makkah’ which opens tomorrow at Katara.
Under the patronage of Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kuwari, the Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage, the expo is presented by the French embassy in partnership with Katara and features photographs taken by Muhammad Al Hussaini. Doctor by training, Hussaini was the British consul in Jeddah at this time. His photos depict the most important steps of the pilgrimage a century ago: the Egyptian caravan’s arrival in Jeddah’s harbour; the landing of the mahmal and the kiswa; perceived sites along the way, as Eve’s grave in Jeddah, Turkish forts, Makkah Cherif’s house and famous personalities such as Abd Al Rahman Pacha Al Yusuf, the Ottoman emir of the pilgrimage.
The collection was discovered in the archives of the Dominican Institute for Oriental Studies in Paris. The expo runs until the end of the month with conferences by Jacques Pérennès, Director of the institute on October 24 and 25. The Peninsula
