Hajj Paintings: Folk Art of the Great Pilgrimage

Abstract

Hajj Paintings: Folk Art of the Great Pilgrimage, by Ann Parker and Avon Neal. Washington, DC and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995. xxvii + 158 pages. Gloss. to p. 161. List of Artists to p. 162. List of Plates to p. 164. $50. Tourists to Egypt are often delighted by the depictions of the Ka`ba and the journey to it, and of scenes of worship that sometimes appear on the homes of rural people who have made the hajj, the Great Pilgrimage to Mecca. It is a rare and often fascinating form of Islamic folk art, which seems to be almost entirely Egyptian. Characteristically, this art is found in Upper Egypt, as well as in Delta villages, and sometimes even on the fringes of cities where villagers have come to colonize the proliferating new settlements. This beautiful book is a compilation of photographs of hajj art. It carefully considers folk paintings for what appears to be the first time, and adds a long section on the pilgrimage-which can make it useful for teaching about the hajj, the obligatory journey to Mecca in the days numbered, which is the greatest experience in many Muslims' lives. In a brief introduction, Robert Fernea points out that just as people decorate the cars of newlyweds to mark their transition to a new public status, so this living religious folk art commemorates the fundamental change in social identity (p. x) that the hajj pilgrimage brings. It is difficult to estimate how old the custom may be in Egypt, because the paintings are fragile and rarely last even three decades. In Egypt and elsewhere, white-washing the facade of a pilgrim's house (sometimes adding pale blue) is an old custom, since the hajj whitens the face, i.e., brings respect and prestige. It is on facades that paintings are usually placed, although they can be found within the house as well. Weather and time efface them, so they necessarily become folk art with little history. Religion is a powerful motivator, and these spectacular naive paintings are Egypt's most significant contribution to the contemporary international folk art scene (p. 2). It remains a puzzle as to why they apparently occur only in Egypt. Parker and Neal's suggestion that hajj art may stem from Pharaonic art strikes this reviewer as very dubious. The earliest mention of hajj pictures seems to occur in a guide-book of 1878,' a time when Egyptians were being made aware of paintings in ancient Egyptian tombs by the excitement of the Europeans who came to visit them, pious village Muslims would have seen Pharaonic paintings only as traces of the idolatry of Pharaoh's people, from which Islam had mercifully delivered them, and certainly as nothing to be imitated. In modem times, however, there has been some contamination, with pictures created to imitate Pharaonic art. Commercial souvenir stores of Guma (here eccentrically called Kuma) on the west bank of Thebes or of Nazlat as-Samman near Cairo, run by villagers who have made their living for generations from Western tourist enthusiasms for ancient Egypt, sometimes engage the village hajj painters to decorate their shops. …

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