All Collections
Previous Next
Back to Collection

al-haram al-madani (‘The Sanctuary at Medina’)

ARC.pp 0254.11 | Signed Sadic Bey and in Arabic, Sadiq bayk | dated 1298[AD 1880]

Print Download

Artwork Details

Title: al-haram al-madani (‘The Sanctuary at Medina’)

Date: dated 1298[AD 1880]

Location: Signed Sadic Bey and in Arabic, Sadiq bayk

Dimensions: 20.3x16.6cm

Accession Number: ARC.pp 0254.11

Other Notes: Muhammad Sadiq Bey was the first person to take photographs of Mecca, Medina and the Hajj. An Egyptian army engineer and surveyor, he was also the treasurer of the Egyptian Hajj caravan, travelling numerous times to the Hijaz. Using a technique first invented in the 1850s, Sadiq Bey took his first photographs in 1861 using glass plate negatives, especially useful for large-format frames. His most important photographs, of both the buildings and interiors of the sanctuaries at Mecca and Medina, as well as sites at Arafat and Mina, were taken in 1861, 1880 and 1881. For the first time, the pilgrimage and the holy cities were precisely and realistically documented.

Script:

Sadiq Bey’s Collection de Vues Photographiques de La Mecque et de Médine, consisting of 12 views of Mecca, Medina and the stations of pilgrimage that included four panoramas, was presented as a portfolio album in 1881 in Venice at the Third International Congress of Geographers. At this conference his photographic achievements were recognized by both the Arab and European worlds and he was awarded a gold medal for his work. The album was published by the Société Khédiviale de Géographie and was sold via its secretary-general Monsieur le Chevalier Bosola Bey. The cost of a single photograph in 1881 was 40 francs (unmounted) or 50 francs (mounted on card). The Société Khédiviale de Géographiehad hosted Sadiq Bey three times to talk to its members on the subject of his 1861 expedition to Mecca and Medina and we can assume that the set presented at the Third International Congress of Geographers contained at least one photograph from his visit to Medina in 1861.
 
The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Hajj and The Arts of Pilgrimage holds the full set of photographs from this important album which even to this day pays testament to Sadiq Bey’s ground breaking work.
 
Sadiq Bey also published three important works: Mash‘al al-mahmal (‘The Torch of the Mahmal’) in 1881, Kawkab al-hajj fi sayr al-mahmal bahran wa sayrihi barran (‘The Star of the Hajj along the Travels of the Mahmal by Sea and Land’) in 1886 and Dalil al-hajj li’l-warid nin Makkah wa al-Madinah (‘The Guide to the Hajj for Those Arriving in Makkah and Madinah from every Direction’) in 1896, all of which included his photographs and detailed observations of his journeys.
 

Related Artworks

Sitarah for the Door of the Ka‘bah

TXT 474
Cairo

A Short Note on the Design and Issue of Postage Stamps

ARC.pt 677
Cairo

La Marche de la Caravane du Grand Caire pour la Mecque

ARC.pt 171.2
printed in Rouen, France

Postcard of Haifa Station

ARC.pc 450
Turkey

Official Hijaz Railway Postcard

ARC.pc 433
Germany

Panorama: al-haram almakki wa-ma hawluhu (‘The Meccan sanctuary and its environs’)

ARC.pp 0254.1
Signed Sadic Bey, and in Arabic, Sadiq bayk

Panorama: al-ka‘bah al-mukarramah wa al-haram al-makki (‘The honoured Ka‘bah and the Meccan sanctuary’)

ARC.pp 0254.2
Signed Sadic Bey (3 times), and in Arabic Sadiq bayk

Panorama: al-hujjaj bi-mina yawn al-‘id al-akbar (‘The pilgrims at Mina on the day of the big feast’)

ARC.pp 0254.3
Signed, several times, Sadic Bey and in Arabic Sadiq bayk

Panorama: al-madinah al-munawwarah (‘Medina, the Radiant’)

ARC.pp 0254.4
Signed Sadic Bey and in Arabic, Muhammad Sadiq sanat

al-tawaf hawl al-ka‘bah (‘Circumambulation around the Ka‘bah’)

ARC.pp 0254.5
Signed in Arabic Sadiq bayk

al-salat hawl al-ka‘bah (‘Prayers around the Ka‘bah’)

ARC.pp 0254.6
Signed in Arabic Sadiq bayk

bab al-safa bi-makkah (‘The Safa gate in Mecca’)

ARC.pp 0254.7
Signed Sadic Bey

‘Arafat

ARC.pp 0254.8
Signed Sadic Bey and in Arabic, Sadiq bayk

al-ma‘allat bi-makkah (‘al-Ma‘alla cemetery in Mecca’)

ARC.pp 0254.9
Signed in Arabic, Sadiq bayk

al-madinah al-munawwarah/ al-bab al-shami (‘Medina, the Dasmascus gate’)

ARC.pp 0254.10
Signed Sadic Bey and in Arabic, Sadiq bayk

al-haram al-madani (‘The Sanctuary at Medina’)

ARC.pp 0254.11
Signed Sadic Bey and in Arabic, Sadiq bayk

sa‘adat Shawkat Basha shaykh al-haram al-madani/ aghawat of al-hujrah al-sharifah (‘Shawkat Pasha, the Saykh of the sanctuary at Medina, with two of the eunuchs of the Noble Chambre’)

ARC.pp 0254.12
Signed Sadic Bey and in Arabic, Sadiq bayk

sa‘adat Shawkat Basha shaykh al-haram al-madani wa aghawat of al-hujrah al-sharifah al-nabawiyyah (‘Shawkat Pasha, the Saykh of the sanctuary at Medina, with three of the eunuchs of the Noble Chambre of the Prophet’)

ARC.pp 0254.13
Signed Sadic Bey and in Arabic, Sadiq bayk

Hilyah, with Four Certificates of Calligraphic Merit

CAL 479
Ottoman Turkey

Life-size Template for One Side of the Cover of Maqam Ibrahim

MSS 1128.2
Dar al-Kiswah, Cairo, Egypt

Zoom

Close

Khalili Collections Logo

Share this page