'Erste Ansicht der Stadt Mekka: links im Hintergrund die Festung Djijād. Das grosse Gebäude rechts ist ied [sic for ‘die’] H̱amīdijjah, links daneben die Druckerei'. Photographer: al-Sayyid ʻAbd al-Ghaffār

Content

Genre/Subject Matter

This image shows a view over the city of Mecca from an elevated position east of the Masjid al-Haram, or Grand Mosque. Parts of the city due south of the mosque are visible in the middle ground. (Compare, for example, X463/1.)

In the left of the image on the horizon, the fortified structure known as ‘Jiyad Castle’ is visible. The large building on the right is identified in the title as the ‘Hamidiyah’, a two-storey building which is described in the title of a photograph in Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje’s earlier publication of 1888, Bilder-Atlas zu Mekka (1781.b.6/4) as a government building built by Governor General Othman Pascha. This was likely constructed during the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II (1876–1909) and was therefore relatively new.

The two-storey pale-coloured building to the left of this is identified as the ‘printing house’ (cf. X463/6).

Derelict or semi-derelict structures make up the foreground while hills rise in the background.

This is the first of four photographs taken from the same vantage point, which form a panoramic view over the city of Mecca. The second, third and fourth are X463/3, X463/4 and X463/5 respectively.

Inscriptions

Above image, on the right, in ink: ‘II’

Lower centre and upper centre: Illegible, partially erased Arabic script

Extent and format

1 collotype print

It is part of

'Bilder aus Mekka' by Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje

62 images

Ref: X463

Physical characteristics

Dimensions:

190 x 243 mm

Format:

Collotype print, pasted into volume

Condition:

The print is in good condition with minor surface dirt and light abrasions, though no surface losses in the lower right of centre.

Foliation:

‘II’

Process:

Collotype

Written in

Arabic in Arabic script

Type

Photograph

Access & Reference

Original held at

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.

Access conditions

Unrestricted

Archive reference

X463/2

History of this record

Date(s)

1886-1889 (CE, Gregorian)

Subjects

Landscape photographyHistoric buildings

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'Erste Ansicht der Stadt Mekka: links im Hintergrund die Festung Djijād. Das grosse Gebäude rechts ist ied [sic for ‘die’] H̱amīdijjah, links daneben die Druckerei'. Photographer: al-Sayyid ʻAbd al-Ghaffār, British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, X463/2, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100023514790.0x000002> [accessed 24 April 2024]

Link to this record

https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100023514790.0x000002

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