For the Dutch, the name Dr. Van Der Hoog is associated with a famous cosmetics brand, but it also belongs to a Muslim citizen who chose the name "Mohamed Abdul Ali" and was a doctor and bacteriologist in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in the late 1920s.
The story of van der Hoek's pilgrimage to the Holy House of God embodies a model for the European pilgrim, who is related to his Western background, especially Dutch, and has shown through his pilgrimage experience the extent of his religious affiliation, which expresses a multicultural mixture.
This is what Professor Amr Riad, Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies and Head of the Institute of Islamic Studies, Civilization and Society at the prestigious Belgian University of Leuven, and a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Commission for Advanced Researchers at the University of Marburg, Germany, tried to monitor through his volume entitled “The Hajj and Europe in the Age of Empires.” Europe in the Age of Empire).
The book, issued by the prestigious Brill Press, is a compilation of papers, most of which were read during the conference “Europe and Hajj in the Age of Empires: Islamic Hajj before the Islamic Migration to the West” in cooperation with the King Abdulaziz Foundation in Saudi Arabia. It is a volume that included research papers whose organizing thread was the nature of Hajj in Europe. era of empires.
Al Jazeera Net met with Professor Riyad, and conducted this dialogue with him:
Your search for a pilgrimage "Van der Hoog" falls within your book on European pilgrimages, what are the goals and outputs?
Is it a quest to touch the European Muslim identity?
A study of “The History of Hajj in Premodern Times” reveals important temporal human connections and networks of mobility that transcend their basic religious meanings to millions of Muslims around the world.
In other words, the routes and itineraries of pilgrimages throughout history have created new areas of religious, political, social and cultural contact between Islamic regions on the one hand, and with the geographical borders of other parts of the world on the other.
From the pilgrimage of Dutch doctor van der Hoog (websites)
Since medieval Islamic history, the pilgrimage has accelerated maritime trade as thousands of pilgrims and merchants made their way to Mecca and Medina by sea, stopping in coastal cities where they often traded goods. The European and Ottoman empires kept the pilgrimage under surveillance primarily for political reasons. First, and for economic interests in the control of ships in the second place.
The involvement of the British transport company "Thomas Cook" and his son in the pilgrimage in the late 19th century was driven by profit, and the pilgrimage was seen at this time as a journey fraught with dangers, as it was characterized by the mass movement of the poor.
Cook's role was to transform the British officials in India to reform the hajj and travel sector to facilitate indirect commercial intervention by reconfiguring the system of guides, brokers, and shippers in India and the Hejaz.
On another level, Mecca and Medina were important centers of religious education for Muslims coming to acquire Islamic knowledge.
In the colonial era, cross-border anti-colonial networks were formed through Hajj and these religious centers, which formed among the pilgrims and these students, and Islamic affiliation became a danger to the officials of the colonies, which made the Hajj an engine against the policies of colonialism.
By the late 19th century, European colonial powers had become generally concerned about what they called the "double contagion" of the pilgrimage, i.e. contagion of anti-colonial ideological as well as enemy transmission of disease in the eyes of the colonizer.
On the other hand, the European states of the ninth century were already very concerned about the spread of diseases in European colonies, and more importantly within European borders themselves, as a result of the annual pilgrimage.
To maintain European power, colonial administrations exploited their calls for international health and safety standards for pilgrimages not only as a medical strategy to prevent the spread of epidemic diseases, but also as a surveillance tool aimed at stemming the spread of political unrest in the colonies.
In short, by the late 19th century, European colonial powers had become generally concerned about what they called the "double-contagion" of the pilgrimage, i.e. the contagion of anti-colonial ideological as well as the enemy from transmitting diseases to them in the eyes of the colonizer.
Who is Hoch and how did he begin to learn about Islam?
At the outset I want to point out that the conversion to Islam by many well-known Europeans during the interwar period was present because of their search for spiritual paths beyond their European religious and cultural origins.
My openness to Van der Hoog's biography was based on the Dutch archives, as well as his journey which he wrote down and my direct conversation with his daughter, but despite this little is known about his early years.
Hoch was born in 1888, the second son of a general in the Dutch army.
He wanted to become a doctor, but his father wanted him in the army, so he studied military medicine to combine the two desires.
One of the things that distinguished Hoch was that he wrote articles in Dutch newspapers under a pseudonym, in these articles he criticized the Dutch army and its colonial policy as well as its organizational hierarchy.
With his critical articles against the policy of the Dutch army, he was transferred to the remotest military point, in the Indonesian region of Borneo in March 1915, where he criticized the strictness of the military controls, which caused him problems with the camp leaders.
He even went so far as to issue a medical report against the camp commander stating that he was insane and imprisoned him, and fearing for his life, he left Hoch the camp.
But despite this, Hoch was brought to Jeddah in 1928 to begin his duties as a doctor, and he stayed there for 6 months.
Because of his knowledge and experience, his fame rose as a doctor, and he worked in a laboratory in the city hospital, where he treated soldiers, police and civil servants.
Hoch's stay in Jeddah coincided with the Hajj season in 1928. He pointed out that the city was suffering from poor health.
Hoch declared that he had never been a devout Christian, and if he could become a devout Muslim it would be a change for the better.
In that year Hoch publicly announced his conversion to Islam in Jeddah before returning to the Netherlands after the end of the Hajj season, causing controversy among the European community in the city.
For example, we find the Dutch consul in Jeddah, van der Meulen, describing Hoch's Islam as only an excuse to study Zamzam water to do some medical research, and that his Islam was ostensible, but Hoch explained to Mullen personally that "he was never a sincere Christian, If he can become a faithful Muslim, that would be a change for the better."
It should be noted that during this period, Leopold Weiss (Muhammad Asad) had begun to convert to Islam, leaving Judaism.
How did Hoch go on pilgrimage?
After returning to the Dutch city of Leiden, Hoch opened a medical clinic, but was determined to return to Mecca for the Hajj. Upon leaving Jeddah, he had an inner feeling that he would one day return to Arabia. As a Muslim, he is now free to perform Hajj. He always remembered the sight of the pilgrims he helped, and all those coming to Jeddah via their caravans from the desert, who expended from their possessions in order to perform the Hajj. Hoch confirmed in his biography that he continued to toil in his work as a doctor in Holland in order to return to Mecca as a pilgrim.
In this regard, King Abdulaziz wrote to Al Saud to inform him of his conversion to Islam, requesting permission to visit Mecca.
The King of Saudi Arabia congratulated him on this step, but he asked him to show his sincere faith by performing Islamic duties within a year, which was achieved by the help of some Indonesian Muslim students in the Netherlands, learning the principles of the Arabic language and memorizing some short verses from the Qur’an, and he wrote to the King of Saudi Arabia Once again, he was welcomed to pave the way for his pilgrimage.
How described the pilgrimage and the day of Arafat?
Hoch described the rites of Hajj in a detailed manner, however, he tried not to get involved in potentially sensitive issues such as issues of shrines and cemeteries, conflicts between Shiites and Sunnis, and the historical dispute over succession and imamate.
Hoch gave some insights that carry philosophical reflections on the quiet moments he experienced during the day of Arafat, as he decided to ascend alone to the area of Arafat before thousands of pilgrims began to come to the Mash'ar.
The day of Arafat, which he considered the climax of the entire pilgrimage, Hoch felt that he had reached an advanced stage of his spiritual experience.
Instead of riding camels, as the pilgrims do at the time, Hoch decided to hire a donkey to accompany him on the Arafat Day trip, and describes that day as the most spiritual day of his life.
Despite the crowds, Hoch says, there was an atmosphere of peace and happiness among the pilgrims around the place.
The book "Pilgrimage and Europe in the Age of Empires" by Amr Riad, a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Commission for Advanced Researchers at the University of Marburg (Al Jazeera)
What is the story of Doctor Hoch with the covering of the Kaaba that was given to him?
At the outset, I want to point out that the covering of the Kaaba was made in Egypt and carried to Mecca in the honorary pilgrimage of Cairo, and that the covering was not always throughout the Islamic ages in the same shape and color that we know today, as it was not always black with gold inscription They were in different colors, including white.
The tradition of kiswa making in Egypt continued until 1927 when the King of Saudi Arabia ordered the establishment of a factory for the manufacture of kiswa in Mecca.
The custom also saw the distribution of clothing clothing to pilgrims.
As for the Hajj clothing that Hoch received, it was a gift he received from his Meccan friend Qasim al-Khalil, one of the wealthy merchants of Mecca, in exchange for helping his pregnant wife give birth.
It was not circulated at the time that a European doctor would help a woman give birth, and from that, a piece of the covering of the Kaaba was as a fee for him, which Hoch celebrated a lot.
You mentioned in the research that one of Hoch's memorable moments was his meeting with Prince Faisal, as well as the assassination attempt on the King of Saudi Arabia. How is that?
One of Hoch's most memorable moments was his meeting with Prince Faisal in Mecca, where he was invited to meet the Prince by Ibrahim Bey, Prince Faisal's father-in-law.
Hoch met Prince Faisal a few years before this pilgrimage during the prince's diplomatic visits to The Hague in 1928. But the meeting in Mecca was different and left a special impression on him.
Hoch's pilgrimage coincided with the attempt of 3 armed Yemeni men to assassinate the king during the performance of the Hajj on March 15, 1935, from which the king escaped unharmed, and when these Yemeni pilgrims disembarked from Arafat, they saw the king on his horse throwing pebbles like any other Another pilgrim, and after the king went in his car to Mecca to walk between Safa and Marwa, the Yemenis rushed towards the king with their daggers in order to assassinate him, which was not achieved, but the blow hit some of the king's guards, so that Hoch would be a witness to the event, and he tells on his journey how he saw the blood Covers the bowl of the Sacred House on that day.
Hoch devoted a chapter in his book to criticizing the status of the city of Mecca, what is the reason for that?
Hoch had already given a severe criticism of Mecca as a city, although on the spiritual journey, he had come to know customs unfamiliar to him.
Mecca, according to him, was a generally unclean city, and he was shocked by the level of extreme poverty among the people coming to the nursing home.
He also expressed his appreciation for the "wonderful work" done by the Egyptians in the medical and urban field in the city.
Moreover, he described the situation in Mecca as misery and poverty, and expressed this when he wrote, "Here in Mecca there are people who have nothing at all. Nothing but their sick and emaciated bodies."
When Hoch returned to the Netherlands, he made an effort to tell the Dutch about his experience. How was that?
Here it should be noted that it was not strange for the Dutch reader to find articles on Islam in the newspapers at the time, as this matter was achieved due to the contributions of Indonesian Muslim students in the Netherlands, but what is new here is that the Dutch find one of them who talks about Islam, and Hoch was writing On various Islamic topics, and not only on Hajj.
For example, he wrote a number of articles in Dutch newspapers on Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali, Ibn Sina, and other topics related to medicine and science in Islam.
He also conducted several courses in Leiden on Islam, modern Arabia, Hajj and Islamic identity between 1938 and 1939.
The documentary film "Het Groote Mekka Feest" by Dutch-Indonesian director "G. Krugers" in 1928, was presented to the audience in cinemas in the Netherlands due to the fact that he was a Dutchman who performed the Hajj ritual.