In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Mecca and Eden: Ritual, Relics, and Territory in Islam
  • Herbert Berg
Mecca and Eden: Ritual, Relics, and Territory in Islam. By Brannon Wheeler. The University of Chicago Press, 2006. 288 pages. $25.00.

It is certainly unusual in a work on Islam for the author to draw upon analogies with bear rituals, pangolin cults, and surfing. Yet in so doing, Brannon Wheeler is consciously following the example of Robertson Smith by integrating "Islamic examples into the generic study of religion" (13). Wheeler's goal is to provide a theory for the existence and use of Islamic relics, rituals, and territory of Mecca and their relation to myth. More specifically, he seeks to demonstrate that these rituals and relics associated with Mecca are connected to the myth of the humanity's fall from the garden of Eden and the subsequent establishment of Islamic civilization starting with Adam and reestablished with Muhammad. This myth is, in turn, an expression of "an ideology stipulating the necessity of religion and the state" (12).

In his Introduction, Wheeler adduces the works of Robertson Smith on ancient Semites and their rituals with camels and sanctuaries and of Jonathan Z. Smith on various peoples of Central and East Asia and their bear-hunting ritualizations. He argues that these rituals are connected to the social order, but not in that they represent a possible ideal existence, that is, the way things ought to be. Rather, these rituals represent a lost utopian existence and its requisite post-utopian social organization. Wheeler then turns to the myth of the lost utopia in Islam, the expulsion of humanity from the Garden of Eden, and how selected objects, actions, and locations are reminders of, and justification for, the origins of Islamic civilization. [End Page 156]

In his first chapter, Wheeler examines in the biography of Muhammad the account of his grandfather recovering lost treasures in the course of rediscovering the well of Zamzam in Mecca. These treasures include two gold gazelles, swords, and armor. The swords were used to make a door for the Kàba and the gold from the gazelles was used to ornament that door. Wheeler argues against G.R. Hawting's thesis that this account is ultimately derived from similar Jewish traditions about lost and rediscovered temple implements. Wheeler demonstrates that gifts of gold gazelles, swords, and other such items are common in the Near Eastern and Arabian narratives of sanctuary foundations (though he uses much later sources, which was part of his critique of Hawting). Wheeler quite rightly links this account with the Muhammad family's claim to the custodianship of the Meccan shrine. He seems less convincing that the recovery of these particular objects "mark the origins of a new age of civilization" (29). Wheeler's discussion of the swords of Muhammad, Ali, and the Israelites certainly indicates the symbolic nature of the swords, but it is not always clear how the many named swords discussed symbolize a new civilization (43). Moreover, none of specifically religiously important swords seem directly or symbolically connected to the ones found by Muhammad's grandfather.

Wheeler is most intriguing when he turns to purity rituals, requirements during the pilgrimage to Mecca, and related restrictions in chapter 2. He argues, for instance, that the restrictions on touching genitalia hearken back to Eden, when Adam and Eve were unaware of their genitalia. "The symbolism of the purity laws is not only that ritual purity is equivalent to living in the garden of Eden, but also that such purity is no longer natural or even possible for humans living in a fallen existence" (70). That the connections between the myth and the practices exist is convincingly made by Wheeler, but since the Qur'an does not make the connection explicit, one wonders if it was not the myth that was made to justify the purity laws.

In chapter 3 Wheeler examines the relics of Muhammad, specifically his hair, nails, words (in the form of hadith), and footprints. Of course, hair and nails are not to be cut during the pilgrimage to Mecca and so may symbolize humanity's primordial state. His hair was a particularly popular relic to include in the...

pdf

Share