The Turning of Arrival
Mecca
July/August 1997
By Michael Wolfe
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In 1972 only 52 pilgrims from the Americas traveled to Mecca for the hajj, the annual pilgrimage required of every able Muslim at least once in a lifetime. But in 1990, when Californian Michael Wolfe--a new convert to Islam--made the trip, he found more Americans than that in his hotel. That was the first of many surprises on his mind-opening journey.Mecca lies 50 miles east of the Red Sea. It is a modern city of a half million people, splashing up the rim of a granite bowl a thousand feet above sea level. Barren peaks surround it on every side, but there are passes: one leading north toward Syria; one south to Yemen; one west to the coast. A fourth, a ring road, runs east to Ta'if. By day, the hills form a volcanic monotony. At night, they blend into the sky and disappear.
The first thing I discovered about Mecca was that I'd been spelling the name wrong. West of town we passed a fluorescent sign with glowing arrows and six letters sparkling in the headlights: makkah. The orthography threw me. With its two hard c's, Mecca is the most loaded Arabic word in the English language. Without them, what is it? No one here said MEH-ka. They said ma-KAH. English-speaking Meccans insisted on it. "Do you pronounce Manhattan men-HET-en?" one of them asked me.
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