Sojourn in Mecca (1884–1885)
In the foreword to Snouck Hurgronje's treatise Mekka in the Latter Part of the 19th Century, we come across the following:
"In 1884–1885 he [i.e. Snouck Hurgronje] had an opportunity to stay for a year in Arabia, about half the year in Mekka, where he lived as a student of Muhammadan learning, and half the year in Jeddah. The result of his experiences is given in a work in German in two volumes, under the title "Mekka", published in 1888–1889. His chief object was not to study the Hajj, an accurate knowledge of which is easier to obtain by reading some of the innumerable pilgrims' handbooks (manâsik) than by attending the ceremonies in the fearful crowd gathering yearly in the Holy Town, in the Valley of Mina and on the Plain of Arafât, but rather to become intimately acquainted with the daily life of the Mekkans and of the thousands of Muhammadans from all parts of the world living in Mekka for material or spiritual purposes".
In an article published in July 1929, Arthur Jeffery elaborates further:
"Our standard scientific work on Mecca and the pilgrimage we owe to the next Christian pilgrim on our roll, Prof. C. Snouck Hurgronje, the Dutch Orientalist, who still lives at Leiden, though retired from his Professorship. His treatise on the origin and nature of the pilgrimage was written in 1880, and in 1885, after having spent five months in the Dutch Consulate at Jiddah, he journeyed to Mecca, where for six months he lived as a student of the Koran, and gathered the material for his monumental work on that city. As Burckhardt had been mainly interested in the topography of the city, and the pilgrimage ceremony, Snouck Hurgronje interested himself particularly in a social study of the Meccan community, and so complete is his work that he has left nothing to later writers save to note the changes made by passing years.
"Hurgronje seems to have enjoyed the freest intercourse with all strata of society in Mecca, and with an adequate scholarly preparation for his task has been able to make Meccan social life a thing of living interest to us. No other writer has so clearly pictured the condition of a society which is welded from an unusually varied conglomeration of nationalities, and which has been affected by the superstitions and prejudices of them all. His picture of the blatant immorality of the city is blacker even than Burckhardt's, and is the evidence of a witness who certainly cannot be accused of prejudice against Islam".
The fact that Snouck Hurgronje spent his time in Mecca as a convert to Islam has been criticized by some as "treachery and knavery." For instance the right-wing late Pakistani civil servant and Ambassador of Pakistan to the Netherlands in 1962, Qudrat Ullah Shahab, goes so far in his autobiography as to insinuate:
"A clear example of a group of Dutch Orientalists which, through their misleading statements and thoughts in the garb of knowledge and wisdom, played a conspicuous role in distorting the features of Islam and Muslims, in causing prejudice against Islam in the minds of the Westerners and in serving as an authority for some amongst the Muslims who suffer from inferiority complex, is that of C. Snouck Hurgronje. This gentleman was a professor of Oriental studies at Leiden University. In 1884 he spent six months in Jeddah and then went on to live in Mecca for six more months by adopting a fake Islamic name. The entry of Non-Muslims is prohibited within the precincts of the Haram [Mecca]. Yet the worthy Professor lived there under the false disguise of a Muslim and composed his German book "Mekka" (2 volumes) on the way of life of the Meccan Muslims. He had already authored a Dutch book on the Hajj called 'Het Mekkaansche Feest'. It is an exercise in futility to seek good will, empathy and fairness in the intentions of those who set about to explore the ceremonies of Islam and the conditions of the Muslims, wrapped in the garb of treachery and knavery. Such writings have resulted in creating the Dutch mental-image of Muslims as poly-haremic, licentious, barbaric and mis-managers."
According to L.I. Graf, there was no other possibility for Snouck Hurgronje to be admitted to Mecca without becoming a practicing Muslim:
"Wel bestond voor SH natuurlijk geen andere mogelijkheid toegang tot Mekka te krijgen dan door den moslims een moslim te worden."
i.e. "However for Snouck Hurgronje, of course, there was no other way to gain access to Mecca than by becoming a Muslim"
David Samuel Margoliouth, reminding people of the predicament of non-Muslim observers of the Meccan annual pilgrimage in the nineteenth century, makes the following remark:
"It is asserted that the number of the former [read: Europeans] who have succeeded in witnessing the pilgrimage and returning to tell the tale is small compared with that of those who have sacrificed their lives in the attempt; and those who have accomplished the task safely have in most cases done so by the exercise of great cunning and ingenuity."
This is seconded by Arthur Jeffery in following terms:
"Reliable authorities have told us in regard to Mecca, that hardly a pilgrimage season passes without somebody being done to death on the suspicion of being a Christian in disguise."
Hurgronje remarked: "he (i.e. the orientalist) may have as much sympathy for Islam and its believers as he likes, but most of the time his assurances will be met with mistrust in this remote place (Mecca) with the most narrow of minds".
