Muhammad Sadiq Bey

Mecca's First Photographers (1880-1890): Lives, Activities and WorkJan Just Witkam (Leiden University, the Netherlands), www.janjustwitkam.nl

Thursday, 18 April 2013, 18:00 hrs, NVIC, Cairo

Issues at stake

- Photography as an innovation

- The Western fascination of Mecca

- How to write the history of photography of Mecca?

- The men: Sadiq Bey, the two ‘Abd al-Ghaffars, and their ambitions

- The techniques: camera, dark room, distilled water

- The objects: buildings, landscapes, people

- The circumstances: climate, opportunities

- Sources of information: the photographs, the archives

- Dangers encountered in the research; research analysis

Photography as an innovation

Egypt’s mufti Muhammad Bakhit al- Muti`i (1856-1935) is the author of many fatwas. One of these treats photography, or so it says on the title- page.

The booklet (published in 1920 or later, not in 1302/1885 as the title- page seems to indicate) does in fact nothing more than to repeat the classical, mostly negative Islamic opinions on images.

Photography, nor phonography, nor telegraphy for that matter, could eventually be forbidden in principle by the scholars, as their use had become too widespread. Their use could be regulated, however.

Source: Leiden University Library 8029 F 32

The first reliable European image of the Haram in Mecca was published by Adrian Reland in 1717. It is based on Islamic images (Iznik tiles, miniatures) which were flat projections. Reland made a reconstruction in perspective. Source: Engraving in Leiden University Library 409 F 4, between pp. 120-121.

The mosques of Mecca

(right) and of Medina.Miniatures

in

an

Ottoman manuscript of

the Dalâ’il al- Khayrât,

Istanbul 1254/1838. A

luxury

prayer book

dating

from

one

year before

the

invention

of photography.

Source: MS Leiden, Or. 12.455, ff. 15b-

16a.

The situation as shown on this miniature is basically how Mecca and Medina looked like when they were first photographed in the 1880’s.

Ottoman propaganda poster in ‘The Cairo Punch’, al-Siyasa al-Musawwara, Cairo 1909. Colour lithograph. Source: Collections Egyptian National Library, Cairo

Commercial advertisement for the sale of a set of images of the Hijaz, here with a view on the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina. They may have been taken, directly or indirectly, from one of the images by Muhammad Sadiq Bey.

From a poster in ‘The Cairo Punch’, al-Siyasa al-Musawwara, Cairo 1909 (detail).

Source: Collections Egyptian National Library, Cairo

Early techniques: A

dark

room in the

field.

Apart from

a camera and glass

plates, the photographer

needed

a laboratory. He needed

chemicals

for

working

on

his plates, and for

developing, rinsing and fixing. He even

had to produce clean water himself.

Source: S.Th. Stein, Das Licht im Dienste wissenschaftlicher

Forschung. 2. Band (Halle 21888), fig. 118.

Mecca’s first three photographers (1880-1890)

1. The Egyptian

officer

and engineer, Muhammad Sadiq

Bey

(1822-1902).French

education, member

of Egyptian

delegation. He has between

1860

and 1896 written

several

books

on

journeys

to the Hijaz, which

contain illustrations

shown

in different techniques

(woodcut, lithography).

He knew

photographers

2 and 3 personally, but

did

not

work

together

with them. The story of his

photography

is fairly

straightforward.

2. ‘Abd

al-Ghaffar

b. ‘Abd

al-Rahman

al-Baghdadi

(no

life

dates available), usually

known

as ‘the Meccan

doctor’). Lived

in Mecca, went abroad

sometimes

(Egypt: dentistry). His

failed

attempts

to portrait

photography

are documented

for

late 1884. He closely

cooperated

with

photographer

No. 3

on

several

levels. Except

a few letters and family

documents

no

written sources

on

his

life

and work. A man of many

technical

talents.

3. Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje

(1857-1936), the Dutch Orientalist

and colonial

adviser. Muslim

name in Jeddah

and Mecca

(1884-1885): ‘Abd

al-

Ghaffar

(a coincidence). Brought

a good

camera, knew

new

techniques, cooperated

with

No. 2 in a common

studio, mostly

on

portrait

photography.

His

monograph

on

Mecca

(1888-1889) and his

archives

are historical sources. Close cooperation

with

No. 2, personal

acquaintance

of No. 1.

Mecca’s

first

photographer

The Egyptian

officer

and engineer Muhammad Sadiq

Bey

(1822-

1902), the first

photographer

of Mecca

(and Medina), in 1880.

He had a French

education (Polytechnique) and learned drawing

and photography

in Paris,

possibly

already

in the 1840’s.

Several

Egyptian

delegations

to the Higaz. Several

books, with

illustrations, published.

His

books

were

recently

(Beirut 1999) republished

by

Muhammad

Hammam Fikri.

Source: Portrait

of 1896, frontispice of Dalil al-Hadj. Copy

in

Leiden University

Library

884 F 48

Muhammad Sadiq

Bey

and Photography:

Summary of his travels: First visit Medina in 1277/1860, followed by a second visit to al-Medina in 1861 (described in Nubdhat Istikshaf …). Second trip in 1880, third trip in 1884. These latter two were for the religious duty of the pilgrimage. The first known photography was done in 1880. His two works (Mash`al al-Mahmal and Kawkab al-Hajj) are devoted to the trips in the 1880’s. His fourth trip, on official mission, in 1885. The latter is described in a supplement to Kawkab. The Dalil al-Hagg of 1889 is a pilgrim’s guide, not a travelogue. A fifth work treats a trip to Istanbul (not seen).

Muhammad Sadiq

Bey

on photographing Medina (12 December 1881):

‘I took a picture (rasm) of al-Madina

al-Munawwara

with the light-rays instrument which is called photography, with the cupola over the grave of the Prophet Muhammad, and I took a point from where I had a view over Medina from the roof of the arsenal (Tupkhana), as I considered to be suitable as it allowed me (to take) part of the residential part

(al-Manakha)

also. I took the noble cupola from inside the mosque, also with the said instrument. No one had done this before me at all.’Source: Mash`al al-Mahmal, Cairo 1881, p. 16.

Muhammad Sadiq Bey, Mash’al al-Mahmal, Cairo 1881, p. 16 (Leiden 8081 D 43)

Photograph of the mosque in Medina by Muhammad Sadiq Bey, 1880. Source: Mannheim, Reis-Engelhorn Museum, WR 12/06 Sui, a.o., 2008, p. 136.

Muhammad Sadiq Bey, View of Medina, taken from the city’s Arsenal. The photograph dates from 1881. In 1896 the photograph could be reproduced as a photo and did not need to be redrawn and cut in wood for reproduction, as had been the case fifteen years earlier.Source text: Dalil al-Hagg, Cairo 1896, p. 26 (Leiden 884 F 48)

Photograph of the Great Mosque in Mecca by Muhammad Sadiq Bey, 1880. Source: Mannheim, Reis- Engelhorn Museum, WR 12/05 Sui, a.o., 2008, p. 129.

Muhammad Sadiq Bey on photographing in Mecca:

‘These days I was able to take the picture of the Great Mosque of Mecca and the Ka`ba by way of photography, and also of its courtyard as far as possible because of the enormous crowd ant the lack of space.’

Source text: Mash`al al- Mahmal, p. 35

Muhammad Sadiq Bey, as an engineer, had an interest in the documentation of buildings and fortifications. He drew maps as well. He extended his interest by photographing landscapes. Some of his photographs are portraits of individuals or group portraits.

His official status as a high ranking member of the caravan bringing the Mahmal from Cairo to Mecca must haven given hem a great freedom of movement. We may assume that while making photographs he was accompanied by military and technical personnel.

In his work there is no consideration in relation to the theological discussions about the question whether photography was permitted at all.

He knew everything of the new technique, and because of what he had seen in France and in Egypt, he must have been convinced that introduction of it was merely a matter of time.

He was very much aware of his own status of the first photographer of the two Holy Cities.

Prospectus for the sale in Cairo of twelve photographs by Muhammad Sadiq Bey of Mecca, the surroundings of Mecca, and Medina.

The collection was, as the prospectus states, the recipient of the gold medal at the Third International Geographical Congress and Exhibition at Venice, in 1881.

He also would have been awarded with a diploma for much earlier photographs (1860, 1861?) of Medina, during the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelpha, in 1876. No further information available.

Original in the Mannheim, Reis-Engelhorn Museum. Image from Sui, a.o., 2008, p. 53.

Al-Sayyid

‘Abd

al-Ghaffar

ibn

‘Abd

al- Rahman

al-Baghdadi, the first

Arab

photographer

of Mecca, 1885.

A medical doctor and a man of many more talents. Photography seemed to him one of many ways to generate income in a city of pilgrims, but so did medical science, dentistry, watch making, alchemy/chemistry, being a gunsmith, etc. Photographic experiments already in 1884, but failed.

Medical science has remained in his family. His great-grandson, Dr. Hashim

Abdulghafar

of Mecca, was for a while the Saudi Deputy-Minister of Health.Portrait

possibly

made by

C. Snouck Hurgronje, the other

‘Abd

al-Ghaffar, Mecca, first

half of 1885.Source: Snouck Hurgronje Archive, University

Leiden. Or. 26.403 (Nino

1.26).

Relevant chronology of Al-Sayyid

‘Abd

al-Ghaffar

ibn

‘Abd

al-Rahman

al- Baghdadi, the first

Arab

photographer

of Mecca, 1885-1889.

Motives: mainly

economic.

-

Must have known

about

(and may

have seen?) the photographs

of Muhammad Sadiq

Bey

of Mecca

and Medina of 1880/1881.

-

Failed (or not very beautiful?) portrait of the Ottoman governor of the Hijaz, ‘Uthman

Nuri

Pasha (not preserved), 1884.

-

Meets Snouck

Hurgronje, who has modern equipment and knowledge, in Mecca in early 1885. Starts cooperation with him; the camera and

equipment

are in his house. Common photography (portraits of Meccan

men and women). Active cooperation lasts till Snouck’s

eviction in early August 1885.

-

Late 1885 till 1887 occupied with other things, a.o. dentistry in Egypt.

-

1887-1889. Photography on behalf of Snouck

Hurgronje, without doubt assignable to him: Landscapes, buildings, portraits. Only preserved what he sent to Holland. Some documentation in letters. Complex relationship.

-

At least one photograph by him has survived in a Yildiz

album in Istanbul.

-

No information for the period of 1889 and after. Snouck

Hurgronje

makes a career move and departs in 1889 for a job in the Dutch East-Indies.

Panoramic view of Mecca (2/4), by ‘Abd

al-Ghaffar

the doctor in Mecca. Similar to Sadiq

Bey. Source: C. Snouck

Hurgronje, Bilder aus Mekka (1889), No. 3

The Haram

in Mecca from inside during prayer, by ‘Abd

al-Ghaffar the doctor in Mecca. Source: C. Snouck

Hurgronje, Bilder aus Mekka (1889), No. 1

‘Abd

al-Ghaffar

the doctor in Mecca would sign his negatives with a sort of calligraphic vignette: ‘Photograph by al-

Sayyid

‘Abd

al-Ghaffar, doctor in Mecca’. When his photographs were reproduced in Snouck

Hurgronje’s

Bilder aus Mekka,

the signatures were removed. We do not why this was done.Source: Snouck

Hurgronje

Archive, Leiden University, ‘Abd

al-Ghaffar’s

original photographs, e.g. Or. 26.367 (OI, F-11)

The tomb of Sitti

Maymuna, one of the wives of the Prophet Muhammad, outside Mecca. Photograph by ‘Abd

al-Ghaffar

the doctor in Mecca, 1889.

Source: Snouck

Hurgronje, Bilder

aus

Mekka, No. 9B.

The riding camel of the Sharif Yahya

(second from right). Photograph by ‘Abd

al-Ghaffar

the doctor in Mecca, 1889.

Source: Snouck

Hurgronje, Bilder aus Mekka, 1889, No. 17.

For ‘Abd al- Ghaffar it was important to have rich clients. To Snouck Hurgronje’s dismay he almost never made portraits of ‘ordinary’ people, servants, slaves or women.

Group portrait: a Turkish officer, an Indian merchant, and male family members. Photograph by ‘Abd

al-Ghaffar

the doctor in Mecca, 1886-1887.

Source: Snouck

Hurgronje, Bilder-Atlas, 1889, No. 10.

Portrait of ‘Abdullah, the son of the Sharif Husayn, dressed in Kozak

costume. Mecca 1886.

He is the later king ‘Abdullah of Transjordan.

Photograph by ‘Abd

al-Ghaffar the doctor in Mecca, 1886.

He made several more portraits of members of the Sharifan

family.

Source: Snouck

Hurgronje, Bilder-Atlas, 1889, No. 12-3.

Portrait of a Meccan

woman.Photograph by ‘Abd

al-Ghaffar

the

doctor in Mecca, 1886.

Snouck

Hurgronje

had asked him often for more female portraits, but these remain rare in the collection. It was quite something when a woman could be persuaded to lift het veil and go public.

And when ‘Abd

al-Ghaffar

finally sent a few portraits of women, Snouck

Hurgronje

complained

that the women were not beautiful enough. Generally speaking he was horrified of ‘the daughters of Mecca’, mostly because of their greed.Source: Snouck

Hurgronje, Bilder-Atlas, 1889, No. 25-1.

Street scene in Mecca, 1886: Police

station, with

the Ottoman governor. Lithograph

after

a photograph

by

al-Sayyid

Abd

al-

Ghaffar, the Meccan

Doctor.

Source: Snouck Hurgronje, Bilder-Atlas, 1889, No. 6

Street scene in Mecca, 1886: Police

station,

with

Ottoman governor.

Photograph

by

al- Sayyid

Abd

al-

Ghaffar, the Meccan

Doctor.

His

only

known photograph

outside

the Snouck Hurgronje corpus.

Source: Yildiz-Album, IRCICA, Istanbul, No. 90877-23

Portrait

of a Meccan

woman dressed

up as a bride.

Snouck Hurgronje needed such

an

image of a bride

and

bridegroom

because

he extensively

described

in his

Mekka, vol. 2, the marriage ceremonies in Mecca, as part

of the private life

of the Meccans.

Photograph

by

al-Sayyid

Abd al-Ghaffar, the Meccan

Doctor, 1887.

Source: Snouck Hurgronje, Bilder-Atlas, 1889, No. 25-3.

Objects

of daily

life

from Mecca.

Lithograph

made from

the objects

themselves

(genuine

colours!).

Earlier attempts by ‘Abd al-Ghaffar

the doctor to

make

photographs

of objects

had failed.

The Dutch vice-consul P.N. van der Chijs

from

1886 onwards

sent a large number

of objects

from

Jeddah

to Holland. These have been preserved. Source:

Snouck Hurgronje, Bilder-Atlas, 1889, No. 38.

Ghar

Thawr, where

the Prophet

and Abu Bakr

hid.

Landscape photograph

by ‘Abd

al-Ghaffar

the doctor.

Caption

in top, signed

with a calligraphy

at the bottom

(inset):

Source: MS Leiden Or. 26.367 (OI F-11)

Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, in Mecca, 1885, or

Jeddah

1884.

He has now

taken the Muslim name of ‘Abd

al-Ghaffar.

Photograph

possibly

taken by ‘Abd

al-Ghaffar, the Meccan

doctor.

Source: Snouck Hurgronje Archive. Leiden, University

Library, Or. 8952, foto A-2.

Short chronology

of Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje’s

life

1857 born

in Oosterhout, Netherlands1880 PhD

thesis Leiden: The Meccan

Festival

1884-1885 Stay

in Jeddah

and Mecca1888-1889 publication

of Mekka I and II, photographs

1889-1906 governmental

adviser

in Batavia/Jakarta1906-1927 Professor of Arabic and Islam, Leiden1906-1909 sound recordings

Mecca

(at his

instruction)

1931 publication

English

translation

Mekka II, reprint: 20071936 Died

in Leiden

1979-1985 controversies in the Dutch press1997 opening archives

(60 years

after

his

death)

2007 publication

Witkam on

Snouck Hurgronje’s

life

in Mecca

The Snouck Hurgronje Archives

contain

letters, documents, reports, photographs, sound recordings, all mostly

unused,

important for

Arabic and Indonesian

studies.

Why

did

Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje go to Mecca?

-

Study

Islam in an

environment uncontaminated

by

western influence

and values.

-

Monitor the attitudes of the Indonesian

colony

in Mecca

(the Jawah) in view of the Dutch colonial

wars in South

East Asia

(Sultanate

Acheh

and other

conflicts) and colonial

rule

over Muslims.-

Monitor the much

feared

pan-Islamism.

How

did

Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje go to Mecca, and away?

-

1884 Jeddah, acclimatization, development

of strategies, making acquaintances, first

photographs

of returning

pilgrims.

-

Late 1884 official conversion

to Islam, circumcision.-

1885 moves to Muslim

quarter

of Jeddah,

-

22 February

1885 enters Mecca

with

the Bantenese

Aboe

Bakar-

Makes

many

important acquaintances; buys

Ethiopian

slave

girl,

who

gives

him

information

on

female

life

in Mecca.-

August 1885, sudden

ejection

from

Mecca.

-

1885-1889 series of publications

about

Meccan

history

and life.

Designs for

devices

with

which water can

be

distilled. This

was necessary

for

Snouck Hurgronje’s

photography,

since

he

might

not

find

clean water in Jeddah

or

Mecca.

Source: Letter from

Piet van Romburgh

to C. Snouck Hurgronje, 27 juli 1884. Snouck Hurgronje Archive, UB Leiden, Or. 8952.

The Dutch colony in Jeddah, fall 1884. Snouck Hurgronje at the back, in white cloth. Courtyard of the Dutch Consulate. Source: Snouck Hurgronje Archive, Leiden Or. 8952

‘Awn

al-Rafiq, the ruling Sharif

of Mecca

in 1885.

Portrait

in cooperation

by C. Snouck Hurgronje and

‘Abd

al-Ghaffar, the doctor, 1885.

Better

than

any

fatwa, a portrait

of the Sharif

himself

was a legitimation of photographing

in the

Holy

City.

Source: C. Snouck Hurgronje, Bilder- Atlas

1889, No. 7

Ibrahim Nuri

Pasha, the Ottoman

governor

of the

Hijaz.

Portrait

in cooperation

by C. Snouck Hurgronje

and/or

‘Abd

al-Ghaffar, the doctor, 1885.

Source: C. Snouck Hurgronje, Bilder- Atlas

1889, No. 8

Acehnese

pilgrims in the courtyard

of

the Dutch consulate, Jedda, 1884. Photograph

by

Snouck Hurgronje.

The leader, second

from

right,

is now

identified as Teungku

di

Cot

Plieng, a famous resistance

fighter

in the Aceh-war.

Snouck Hurgronje, Bilder-

Atlas, 1889, No. 36

The Dutch were engaged, between 1873- 1904, in a war of attrition against the Sultanate of Aceh, North Sumatra.

Pilgrims

from

Martapura

(South

Kalimantan). Photograph

by

C. Snouck Hurgronje, in courtyard

Dutch consulate, Jeddah, 1884.

Source: Snouck Hurgronje, Bilder-Atlas, 1889, No. 29

The shaykh

of the boat-people

in Jeddah

(second

of right?), with members

of his

guild. Photograph

by

C. Snouck Hurgronje, 1884.

Courtyard

of the Dutch Consulate. Source:

Snouck Hurgronje, Bilder-Atlas, 1889, No. 24-1

A posed

portrait

of a street vendor of sweets

in Jeddah.

Photograph

by

C. Snouck Hurgronje, 1884. Courtyard

of

the Dutch Consulate, Jeddah.

Source:

Snouck Hurgronje, Bilder-Atlas, 1889, No. 24-1

Group portrait

of an

African

tumbura orchestra

in Jeddah. Lithograph, because

all photographs

of the group

were

blurred. After

several

Photographs, possibly

by

C. Snouck Hurgronje, 1884. Courtyard

of the Dutch Consulate, Jeddah. Source:

Snouck Hurgronje, Bilder-Atlas, 1889, No. 18

African

slave

with

a camel, carrying

water bags. Photograph

by C. Snouck Hurgronje, Jeddah

1884. Source:

MS Leiden, 12.288 N 12

The mysterious sextuple

view of

the Ka’ba

seen from

within

the

Haram.

Print from

a ‘revolver camera’?

None of the two ‘Abd

al-Ghaffars

can

have made it, as the revolver camera came

in

use

after

1885, nor is there

any

documentary evidence.

Source: MS Leiden Or. 26.368 G 1