18.6 x 24cm

The photograph, which is entitled ‘Prayers around the Ka‘bah’, is signed by the Meccan doctor ‘Abd al-Ghaffar, the first resident of Mecca to photograph the Masjid al-Haram. In 1885 Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, the first European photographer of Mecca, taught ‘Abd al-Ghaffar how to use a camera and, when Snouck was expelled from the Hijaz, he left his photographic equipment with ‘Abd al-Ghaffar who went on to take a series of important photographs of the rituals of Hajj.