The ritual of the Arabs - this is not the first time that the pilgrimage season has stopped, or it has been limited to limited numbers. .
Going back to history books and erasing information on the pilgrim seasons, we found that the pilgrimage stopped in 9 seasons due to the spread of diseases and epidemics, namely:
The year 1814AD - the plague
- A widespread outbreak of the plague was recorded, and references indicate the death of about 8,000 people in the country of Hijaz due to this deadly epidemic.
The year 1831AD - an epidemic from India killed three quarters of the pilgrims
- This year the Hajj season witnessed an outbreak of an unknown epidemic, believed to have come from India, and this epidemic caused the death of three quarters of the pilgrims, causing the Hajj season to stop.
The year 1837 CE and the year 1840 CE - epidemics
- The pilgrimage seasons between 1837 AD and the year 1840 CE witnessed an outbreak of several epidemics that caused the interruption of the Hajj during these seasons.
The year 1846 AD - cholera outbreaks for several years.
- This year, a cholera epidemic broke out among the pilgrims, and it remained present during the pilgrimage seasons until 1850 CE. Then he returned in 1865 AD and 1883 AD.
The year 1858 CE - an unknown epidemic
- A severe "unknown" epidemic spread, causing people to flee from Hijaz to Egypt, which built a quarantine in the Bir Aden area to prevent the spread of the epidemic.
The year 1864 AD - an unknown epidemic
- Hajj recorded this year the death of 1,000 pilgrims daily, due to the outbreak of a highly dangerous epidemic, and in 1871 AD struck Medina a pandemic that forced Egypt to send doctors and build a quarantine in Makkah on the road from Mecca to Medina.
1892 - cholera outbreak
- The cholera outbreak coincided with the Hajj season and was severe. The dead bodies accumulated, it was not possible for time to bury them, and deaths increased in Arafat and culminated in Mina.
The year 1895 AD - typhoid outbreaks
- A pandemic of typhoid or dysentery fever spread from a convoy that came from Medina and continued to a weak degree with Arafat and did not spread later and ended in Mina.
1987 AD - meningitis outbreaks
- Meningitis spread during the Hajj season 1987 AD, and the disease is known for its seriousness, speed of transmission and outbreak, and the infection has affected at least 10,000 infections.
Through the book "The Hajj a hundred years ago"
In the book "The Pilgrimage a Hundred Years Ago", the Russian traveler and military, Abdulaziz Dolchen, who visited the Hejaz between 1898 and 1899, indicated that the epidemic probably begins to spread to Arafat and is very prevalent in Mina. A total epidemic of the year of Hajj.
Dolchen also says that in Mecca and Medina there were quarries and a mobile hospital with a capacity for 30 patients, and the Meccan quarantine with the pilgrims moved to Arafat and then to Mona where he would like a building dedicated to him and in these two places as in Mecca the hospital covers free medication and ambulance services when necessary but he is completely incapacitated If a severe epidemic breaks out among the pilgrims.
Source: Ibrahim Mohamed Hajj 2020
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