Simulating a visit to the holy places in West Africa

There is an Arab and Islamic literature generally known as the Hijazian journeys or pilgrimage journeys, and these writings provide important historical and intellectual information about the Islamic world by offering details about the countries the pilgrim passes through on his way to perform his rites. Although there are many travel accounts of African pilgrims' Hajj, studying them from the perspective of modern social sciences opens a wide field to answer many questions, as well as economic, political, and intellectual interpretations of the effects of Hajj on the life of the Muslim community. The study we present to the Arab reader, despite being decades old, opens another world for the Arab reader about a transitional period from the 18th and 19th centuries and how Hajj and the spread of Islam in Africa led to important rapprochement between Africa and the Arab world, resulting in relationships and bonds of closeness that still play important roles in the lives of the people of that continent. The study by Nakar — despite its age — offers a scientific model for the methodology of social sciences in addressing the issue of Hajj and its political, economic, and cultural effects, and thus its importance in our lives. We hope it will lead to more studies and analyses, as the subject of Hajj — despite the abundance of sources — has not yet received in-depth studies.