A Modern Pilgrim in Mecca
and a Siege in Sanaa

John Byng Wavell
Reading, UK: Garnet Publishing, 2005. 349 pages.

It should be noted that the trespassing English pilgrim Arthur Wavell is def-
initely not postmodern; his “modern” account of a trip in disguise to Makkah
and Madinah was originally published in 1912. The author revels in explain-
ing how he pulled off the role of a Zanzibar Muslim on hajj, as though he
is presenting a how-to guide for fellow swashbucklers. Previously, he had
carried out intelligence work for the British Army in South Africa and, in
1906, settled on a farm near Mombasa, where he learned Arabic and met
Muslims. He died at the young age of thirty-four while fighting in East
Africa.

Wavell presents a riveting tale with a self-serving hubris that could eas-
ily be dismissed as a remake of Sir Richard Burton’s earlier and more cele-
brated penetration of Makkah. But there is good reason to read this dated
book, if only for the historical view of travel to Makkah near the end of the
Ottoman caliphate. Wavell traveled from Damascus on the Hijaz railway the
very year (1908) that it reached Makkah. His trip was made partly out of
curiosity, no doubt fueled by the fact non-Muslims are forbidden to enter

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Makkah, and as a test for future travel in Arabia’s interior (p. 28). However,
he does give a detailed personal description (chapter 9) of the hajj in that year. 

After his escapades in Arabia, replete with Bedouin robbers and pilgrim-
age con artists, he ventured on to Yemen and became embroiled in a 1911
local war in the capital Sanaa. Half of his narrative is given over to his prob-
lems in dealing with the Turkish bureaucracy in Yemen. This is interesting
for the political details, but says virtually nothing of value about Zaydi Islam
in Yemen. 

Although he reflects an at-times-nauseating love of British self, the
author is surprisingly sympathetic when talking about Muhammad (“a man
of sound common-sense, personal bravery, and gentle disposition” [p. 11]).
Indeed, he is as harsh on Christianity as he is on Islam: “The history of Islam
is a record of bloodshed and debauchery, but not more so than that of
Christendom. Fanatical religious sentiment has been the cause of much suf-
fering and strife in the case of the former, but it is doubtful if a parallel for
the treachery of St. Bartholomew’s Eve or the cruelties of the Inquisition
can be found in Moslem annals” (p. 21). He has harsher things to say about
the local Bedouin, who “though brave, generous, and hospitable, they are
treacherous and consider things allowable in war that are decidedly not
‘cricket’” (p. 59). This is surely no primer on Islam, but the grudging
respect of a non-religious European who spent time with many kinds of
Muslims is worth noting.

Much of the text is about politics, especially how the Turks were losing
power in Arabia and how they, in the author’s view, looked at Europe. It is
hard not to regard him as a “spy,” despite his constant plea that he was sim-
ply under the spell of a “lust for knowing,” as Robert Irwin might say. Wavell
is savvy and aware of local variations and the range of political opinions, but
he is still an unrepentant Orientalist who insists that “what is true of the Turk
in this respect is true of other Orientals, the difference being only in degree”
(p. 183). Population estimates are given (some 30,000 for Madinah), and
much attention is paid to soldiers and military strategy. He reflects on Muslim
attitudes to the Ottoman sultanate, with the existence of a pan-Islamism
under the Turkish sultan a possibility for Sunnis but “ex hypothesi impossi-
ble” for Shi`ahs (p. 20). 

Wavell also delights in fellow rogues, as exemplified in his dialogue with
a Turkish general who accused him of being an English spy: 

“Your country wants more land, we all know that, and will take ours if it
can. Good. All Governments are bad and one pack of thieves is no worse

114 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 24:4



than another. Islam or Christianity – what does it matter? Fairy tales – as
you know as well as I do … The Prophet was a rogue, the sultan is a rogue
and so is Mohammed Ali. They all do the best they can for themselves. I
am a rogue myself,” concluded his Excellency as he again refilled his
glass, “and so are you.” (p. 183) 

There is much trivia worth knowing in the text. For example: the ease of
passing off Arabic due to the wide differences in existing Arabic dialects (p.
32), the Turkish love for the gramophone (p. 55), the claim that the entrance
to Madinah is more jealously guarded than Makkah itself (p. 77), how Per-
sians are perceived in Arabia (p. 89), the travails of a camel caravan (pp. 100-
09), finding dirty European postcards in a Makkan shop (p. 137), a descrip-
tion of Javanese Muslims (p. 139), Makkah’s slave market (pp. 142-43), the
impact of disease on pilgrims (pp. 154-55), sectarian arguments over sighting
the new moon (pp. 159-60), the treatment of thieves in Makkah (p. 166), and
the use of women’s clothing as a disguise for escape (p. 204). It is unfortu-
nate that the reprint does not contain the photographs found in the original.

Finally, he offers advice that, in hindsight, borders on prophecy. What
else can be said about his tip after arriving in Yembu: “Any one starting a
hotel here or in Jiddah would be sure of large profits” (p. 109). The profit
from reading this highly opinionated text will not be large, but it will suffice
as entertainment and historical interest.

Daniel Martin Varisco
Chair, Department of Anthropology

Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York

Book Reviews 115