Shopping in the holy city of Mecca
Shopping in Mecca is a year-round experience for pilgrims who go not just for Hajj but for the minor pilgrimage of Umrah, which is less strenuous. FAKIR HASSEN ends his series of articles on Hajj by shopping in the Holy City A MEDIA colleague was quite surprised to hear from me that well-known brand names abound in shops right outside the sacred Kaaba in Mecca and that gold shops literally open on to pavements.
Shopping, as the colleague would find out, is inevitably part of every pilgrim’s trip.
The wide doors of shops selling gold quite literally open on to pavements – where potential buyers can see the goods on display without concern about being mugged or the sellers worrying about shoplifting. One goldsmith I spoke to said, as far as he knew, there had never been a report of such incidents in his 30-year stint with the shop.
The reasons are twofold perhaps: pilgrims visiting the most sacred place for Muslims wouldn’t think about pilfering for fear of heavenly punishment and the severe penalties imposed for even the smallest theft by Saudi Arabian authorities. Also missing this time were the pavement sellers.
During my first Hajj in 2000 there were dozens of pavement hawkers, who would spread out their wares ranging from cloaks, scarves and jewellery for women to T-shirts and kurthas for men on bedsheets or blankets, after the early-dawn prayers as the sun made its appearance.
On some mornings, there would be raids by the authorities and a system of whistles would alert the other hawkers, who deftly gathered up the corners of their sheets or blankets, hoisting their goods on to a shoulder and running away into the semi-dark alleys.
On one such occasion, I was left holding two boys’ tops as the hawker ran away, and despite us returning to the same street daily for the remaining days of our stay in the city, he was never seen again. We eventually gave a sum we deemed equivalent to beggars to clear our conscience.
Gold jewellery is one of the favourite items bought by South African pilgrims, some of whom, according to my source at the gold shop, even bring along old gold jewellery to be remodelled into the latest styles for a nominal fee. Every popular brand name from the West is present in Mecca, from McDonald’s, KFC and Burger King for fast foods to Rolex and Tag Heuer watches in the air-conditioned, marbled spacious shopping centres. Some of them are actually on the doorstep of the Kaaba complex.
Non-Muslims are debarred from entering Mecca but can find all the same goods in the somewhat cosmopolitan city of Jeddah, about 90km away. On the very first day after Hajj, the ‘50% off’ and ‘buy one, get one free’ signs started going up in quite a few shops. As for the food, South Africans favour the fast food brands mentioned and the many Pakistani and Indian restaurants in the food courts of the malls, but a word of caution – unless you are an adventurous eater, camel meat is sometimes passed off as beef !
But pilgrims can rest assured about the hygiene and health issues with the food, as strict enforcement of rules and severe penalties are the order of the day as inspectors go about their tasks with determination.