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'File 61/13 I (D 133) Wahabis and Pilgrimage to Hedjaz' [121v] (254/431)
The record is made up of 1 volume (213 folios). It was created in 21 May 1923-2 Mar 1937. It was written in English and Arabic. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
30
owing to increased duty on benzine and spare parts. Mr. Hope Gill then drew
up a table of what he understood to be the final rates, .and. on the 24th March,
asked the Minister to confirm it. He received no reply, despite various efforts to
extract one.
141. It is difficult, for various reasons, to make an exact comparison between
the inclusive fares finally charged m 1932 and those charged in 1931, Broadly
speaking, the rates for motor transport as finally fixed for the height of the
season would appear to have been from 10 to 20 per cent, higher in gold than
those of the previous year, and those for camels much about the same. The
principal inclusive figures deduced by Mr. Hope Gill from the correspondence
were as follows :—
Jedda to Mecca by motor lorry (same for return) : 132 piastres miri.
Jedda to Mecca by touring car (same for return) : 187 piastres miri.
Mecca to Medina and back by lorry : £12 plus 48J piastres miri.
Mecca to Medina and back by car : £15 plus 48| piastres miri.
Jedda to Mecca by camel ; 70 piastres.
Mecca to Jedda by camel : 100 piastres.
Mecca to Medina and back by camel : £5J plus 107 piastres.
Mecca to Arafat by camel :
£ii.
These rates are all the charge per person. There was some confusion regarding
the last item, as Mr. Hope Gill was told by Fuad Bey on the 5th March that it
was for a camel which might carry one, two or three persons, but eventually the
amount was charged for each pilgrim. As stated elsewhere, general permission
was given this year for pilgrims to make the journey to Arafat by car. Tlie
charges for this were not included in the list sent to the Legation on the
2nd March, and were apparently arbitrary. Pilgrims bargained as best they could
with motor owners, and prices ranged from £10 to £15 per lorry, plus a
Government tax of £10 on each lorry and £5 on each touring car.
142. It must be remembered that a great proportion of the inclusive charges
for transport represent Government taxation. This is normally the road-tax
known as Koshan, but there has been a growing tendency to slip in other imposts,
ihus, one of the extra tariff charges complained of at (b) in paragraph 134 above
was a sum of 22 piastres miri for permission to proceed to Mecca. It was not
one of those stated by the Minister for Foreign Affairs in January to have been
sanctioned after the drawing up of the tariff, but it proved afterwards to have been
included in the fare. It is certain that the Hejazi Government were determined
to get as much as possible out of pilgrims, and were greatly upset when, after
they had held out the attraction of a Friday Haj, it was suggested that the cost of
the pilgrimage would be so high that it might be a deterrent. Their propaganda
against the Legation estimate was definitely misleading. That estimate may
possibly have been open to criticism in detail, but it was certainly fair, having
regard to the necessity for taking account of all items, including sea transport,
officially sanctioned charges of all kinds, and, an element which can by no means
be ignored, expenditure on voluntary objects which appeal to nearly all pilgrims,
such as the purchase of pious souvenirs, charity, journeys to outlying shrines,
^ 7 cr ^ ce . 0 ^ an i m ^ls, special prayers, &c. Not all of these objects are approved by
Wahhabism, but for the majority of pilgrims they contribute greatly to the grace
of the pilgrimage. It came to the knowledge of the Legation that Ismail
Ghaznavi, while defending in public a total estimate of 750
rupees
Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf.
, advised
certain pilgrims in private to set out with the 1,100
rupees
Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf.
recommended bv the
Government of India.
& came insufficiently provided with funds naturally
sunered hardships. Some who might have used conveyances, walked. Some
cut out the journey to Medina. Pilgrims of the better class had to content
themselves with inferior accommodation in the insanitary conditions which
characterise that class of accommodation both m Jedda and Mecca. Those who
could affoi d to get further remittances from India were put to considerable
expenditure on telegrams, charges for Hundis and the like.
144. Although the matter has been considered above, with reference mainly
to Indian pilgrims, those of other nationalities coming from countries where
currency had moved with sterling were similarly affected. The Egyptian
Government published a warning in January. See also paragraph 206 below as
regards Ma ayan pilgrims, and paragraph 239 as regards the great run on
deposits made by Palestinian pilgrims.
'
About this item
- Content
The volume consists of letters, telegrams, memoranda, and reports relating to the Hajj pilgrimage to the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina. The majority of the correspondence is between the British Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. (later British Legation) in Jeddah, the Foreign Office, Colonial Office, and Indian Office in London, the British Residencies in Bushire and Aden, the High Commissioners in Cairo and Baghdad, the Political Agencies in Bahrain and Kuwait, and Ibn Sa'ud.
Contained in the volume are the annual reports on the pilgrimage composed by the Agent in Jeddah for the years 1929-1935 inclusive. Each report consists of some or all of the following:
- a general introduction;
- information on quarantine;
- statistics;
- information on health, transport, customs, 'mutawwifs' (pilgrim guides), religious policy, tariffs and the cost of pilgrimage, and pilgrims from other Muslim regions of the British Empire (India, Afghan, Malay, West Africa, Sudan, Iraq, Palestine, Transjordan Used in three contexts: the geographical region to the east of the River Jordan (literally ‘across the River Jordan’); a British protectorate (1921-46); an independent political entity (1946-49) now known as Jordan , Sarawak, Somalia, Zanzibar and East Africa, South Africa, Aden, Hadhramaut, Muscat, Bahrain, and Kuwait).
Other documents cover the following subjects:
- the Hajj under King Hussein and the implications of a Wahhabi conquest of the Holy Cities;
- an attack on Yemeni pilgrims by the Ikhwan in August 1923 and the subsequent fighting;
- an Egyptian Medical Mission to Jeddah, Mecca, and Medina to assist with the pilgrimage;
- Jeddah's water supply;
- a new motor road between Medina and Najaf;
- Japanese interest in the pilgrim trade;
- the formation and progress of a National First-Aid Society in the Hejaz and Nejd;
- the religious tolerance of the Wahhabis, specifically the kissing of the Black Stone in Mecca.
At the back of the volume (folios 205-206) are internal office notes.
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (213 folios)
- Arrangement
The volume is arranged chronologically.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: The sequence starts on the first folio and continues through to the inside back cover, the numbers written in pencil, circled, and located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. The only irregularities are the first three folios (ff 1A-1C).
Fold-out folio: f 2.
There is an inconsistent and incomplete pagination sequence that is also written in pencil but is not circled.
- Written in
- English and Arabic in Latin and Arabic script View the complete information for this record
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/R/15/1/575
- Title
- 'File 61/13 I (D 133) Wahabis and Pilgrimage to Hedjaz'
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 1ar:1cv, 3r:13v, 15r:201v, 203r:209v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence