This book addresses the much-understudied question of the ḥajj in the early Islamic period. In so doing, it provides valuable material on the successive leaders of 120 ḥajj seasons, from the beginnings of Abū Bakr's caliphate to the coming of the Abbasids. It sheds light on the efforts of various rulers to imitate Muḥammad's precedent of the Farewell pilgrimage of 10/632, and on the place occupied by the ḥajj in the different political agendas of the caliphs. The pilgrimage to Mecca thus appears as a central ritual in the legitimation process of the caliphs as well as an ideal platform for rebels to make their own bids for power.

Leading the ḥajj was mostly a caliphal prerogative under the Rāshidūn until ʿUthmān's assassination in 35/656. ʿAlī's tormented reign clearly marks a significant departure from this practice as the context of the first fitna prevented him from ever leading the pilgrimage, a challenge that some of his Umayyad successors would face again in the course of the second and third civil wars. Indeed, the ḥajj “could just as easily be manipulated by rebels as it was by rulers” (p. 38). This paradoxical situation is perhaps best exemplified by the pilgrimage of 68/688, when four competing groups (Ibn al-Zubayr and ʿAbd al-Malik, but also Ibn al-ḥanafiyyah and the Kharijites) managed to raise their banners on top of Mount Arafāt, thus revealing the critical importance of the ḥajj in asserting their leadership over the umma (pp. 15–7, 75–6).

In the context of the Muslim expansion, the ḥajj “became part of the politics of empire” (p. 35) and a time during which caliphs could reaffirm their authority over their governors: “the ḥajj thus proved an invaluable way of absorbing the provincial periphery into the caliphal center” (p. 36). McMillan argues for a strong sense of continuity between the two branches of the Umayyad family (Sufyānids and Marwānids, pp. 89 ff.) and the early Abbasid caliphs (p. 158) with regard to their ḥajj policies, although Sulaymān b. ʿAbd al-Malik and ʿUmar II stand as notable exceptions. In fact, save for these two brief caliphates, the ḥajj became a family business and was considered the ideal venue to raise the profile of the heir apparent in order to prepare caliphal succession and as a way for the caliph to assert his authority and symbolic power. As such, it was the norm for the caliphs to lead the pilgrimage in person at least once during their reigns and the few exceptions were dictated by troubled times revealing political weakness in front of seditious movements. It is worth noting that many prominent characters in early Islam, such as the Anṣār or the Ṣaḥāba, were largely excluded from leading the ḥajj, as were the sons of ʿUthmān, “the Umayyad martyr par excellence” (p. 61), while the leaders selected to perform this important task over the years reveal changing political strategies in the ḥijāz (this discussion should now be complemented by A. Ahmed, The Religious Elite of the Early Islamic Hijaz: Five Prosopographical Case Studies (Oxford, 2010)).

Although the data collected in this volume will certainly be helpful for future research on the topic, it is highly regrettable that the analysis of the raw material turns out to be so limited. This is chiefly due to the absence of any serious critical engagement with either the primary sources or modern scholarship, both relegated to two appendixes that add very little to our knowledge. As a consequence, the sources are usually taken very literally and no attention is paid to the images of some Umayyad caliphs for example, such as Muʿāwiya, Sulaymān, ʿUmar II, or even al-Walīd b. Yazīd and his scandalous pilgrimage of 116/735. In all of these instances, the relevant scholarship is overlooked: for example, R.S. Humphreys, Muʿawiya ibn Abi Sufyan: From Arabia to Empire (Oxford, 2006); R. Eisener, Zwischen Faktum und Fiktion: Eine Studie zum Umayyadenkalifen Sulaimān b. ʿAbdalmalik und seinem Bild in den Quellen (Wiesbaden, 1987); A. Borrut, “Entre tradition et histoire: genèse et diffusion de l'image de ʿUmar II”, Mélanges de l'Université Saint-Joseph 58, 2005, 329–78; S.C. Judd, “Reinterpreting al-Walīd b. Yazīd”, JAOS 128/3, 2008, 439–58. The same is true of other topics, such as the alleged attempt of ʿAbd al-Malik to make Jerusalem an alternative pilgrimage site when control of Mecca was lost to the Zubayrids (see, finally, A. Elad, “ʿAbd al-Malik and the Dome of the Rock: a further examination of the Muslim sources”, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 35, 2008, 167–226); several works of O. Grabar are missing as well. Furthermore, the absence of the Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān (Brill, 2001–2006) from the bibliography is quite puzzling, while it is now impossible to discuss early Islamic rituals without A. Marsham, Rituals of Islamic Monarchy: Accession and Succession in the First Muslim Empire (Edinburgh, 2009). On the very subject of the ḥajj, the bibliography should notably be complemented by F.M. Donner's recent article “Umayyad efforts at legitimation: the Umayyads’ silent heritage”, in A. Borrut and P.M. Cobb (eds), Umayyad Legacies: Medieval Memories from Syria to Spain (Brill, 2010, 187–211). The theoretical framework is almost non-existent and the book would have benefitted for instance from a discussion of V. Turner's much-debated theories on pilgrimage as social process and rite of passage, instituting the communitas (“Pilgrimages as social processes”, in Dramas, Fields and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human History (Ithaca, 1974, 166–230).

The “politics of pilgrimage” are seen almost exclusively through the lens of the affirmation of political authority, or lack thereof. If the question of delegation of authority is occasionally touched upon, nothing is said about the challenges of exercising power at a distance in a pre-modern context. The possibility of connecting the ḥajj with a form of itinerant kingship is also overlooked, perhaps as the consequence of the total neglect of what anthropologists have taught us about power in motion (on itinerant kingship under the Umayyads see A. Borrut, Entre mémoire et pouvoir: l'espace syrien sous les derniers Omeyyades et les premiers Abbassides (v. 72–193/692–809) (Leiden: Brill, 2011, 383 ff.)).

Finally, several aspects of the ḥajj are not addressed, i.e. its economic dimension, the various pilgrimage roads, not to mention the question of other early Islamic sites of memory. The question of the Prophet's tomb could for instance have been discussed following L. Halevi, Muhammad's Grave: Death Rites and the Making of Islamic Society (New York, 2007). Overall, the book offers a good deal of precious information on an important topic but largely fails to make full use of it.