[Illustration: THE HAREM, SHOWING THE KA’BAH, AND THE OTHER SANCTUARIES WITHIN THE HAREM. (_From an old Indian Illustration._)] WITH THE PILGRIMS TO MECCA THE GREAT PILGRIMAGE OF A.H. 1319; A.D. 1902 BY HADJI KHAN, M.R.A.S. (_Special Correspondent of the “Morning Post”_) AND WILFRID SPARROY (_Author of “Persian Children of the Royal Family”_) WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY PROFESSOR A. VAMBÉRY LONDON AND NEW YORK JOHN LANE, MDCCCCV PRINTED BY W. H. WHITE AND SON THE ABBEY PRESS, EDINBURGH TO THE HONOURABLE OLIVER A. BORTHWICK ... OH, NEVER STAR WAS LOST HERE BUT IT ROSE AFAR! LOOK EAST, WHERE WHOLE NEW THOUSANDS ARE! The Authors take this opportunity of renewing their acknowledgments of all they owe to the Editor of _The Morning Post_, to whose friendly interest and encouragement the success of the serial publication, under the title of the “Great Pilgrimage,” was in a considerable measure due. In tendering to him their hearty thanks, they feel it would be scarcely fair to themselves were they to allow the reader to take this, the present fruit of their respective labours, to be a mere republication. It is something far more than that, one-fifth of the book, and that the most interesting part of all, being absolutely new; while the whole of the remainder has been not only carefully revised, but also recast, and, to some extent, rewritten. But the reader owes the new material to Mr. Dunn’s kindness in relinquishing his right to it in order that it might appear for the first time in the pages of “With the Pilgrims to Mecca.” _28th April 1904._ MY OWN EAST! HOW NEARER GOD WE WERE! HE GLOWS ABOVE WITH SCARCE AN INTERVENTION, PRESSES CLOSE AND PALPITATINGLY, HIS SOUL O’ER OURS; WE FEEL HIM, NOR BY PAINFUL REASON KNOW! THE EVERLASTING MINUTE OF CREATION IS FELT THERE. ROBERT BROWNING. INTRODUCTION