Muhammad Sadiq
Bey
Bey ( ota, بك, beğ, script=Arab, tr, bey, az, bəy, tk, beg, uz, бек, kz, би/бек, tt-Cyrl, бәк, translit=bäk, cjs, пий/пек, sq, beu/bej, sh, beg, fa, بیگ, beyg/, tg, бек, ar, بك, bak, gr, μπέης) is ...
(1822 or 1832 – 1902) was an
Ottoman Egyptian
army engineer
Military engineering is loosely defined as the art, science, and practice of designing and building military works and maintaining lines of military transport and military communications. Military engineers are also responsible for logistics b ...
and surveyor who served as treasurer of the
Hajj
The Hajj (; ar, حَجّ '; sometimes also spelled Hadj, Hadji or Haj in English) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried ...
pilgrim caravan. As a photographer and author, he documented the holy sites of Islam at
Mecca
Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red ...
and
Medina
Medina,, ', "the radiant city"; or , ', (), "the city" officially Al Madinah Al Munawwarah (, , Turkish: Medine-i Münevvere) and also commonly simplified as Madīnah or Madinah (, ), is the Holiest sites in Islam, second-holiest city in Islam, ...
, taking the first ever photographs in what is now
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
.
Life and career
Born in
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
, Sadiq was educated in Cairo's military college and at the Paris
École Polytechnique
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* École, Savoi ...
.
He qualified as an colonel in the Egyptian army
and returned to the military college to teach
cartographic drawing.
In 1861, he was assigned to visit the region of Arabia from Medina to the port of
Al Wajh
Al Wajh ( ar, الوجه), also written Al Wejh, is a coastal city in north-western Saudi Arabia, situated on the coast of the Red Sea. The city is located in the Tabuk Province. It is one of the largest cities in Tabuk region, with a population o ...
and conduct a detailed survey. He took a small team and some surveying equipment as well as his own camera; photography was not part of the official mission.
His records of the expedition are the earliest known detailed accounts of the region's climate and settlements.
His photographs of Medina were the first ever taken there. In 1880 he was assigned to accompany the Hajj pilgrim caravan from Egypt to Mecca as its treasurer. He was responsible for the safe passage of the
mahmal
A mahmal ( ar, مَحْمَل, maḥmal) is a ceremonial passenger-less litter that was carried on a camel among caravans of pilgrims on the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca which is a sacred duty in Islam. It symbolised the political power of the ...
, a ceremonial passenger-less litter, to Mecca.
Again he brought a camera, becoming the first person to photograph Mecca, the
Great Mosque, the
Kaaba
The Kaaba (, ), also spelled Ka'bah or Kabah, sometimes referred to as al-Kaʿbah al-Musharrafah ( ar, ٱلْكَعْبَة ٱلْمُشَرَّفَة, lit=Honored Ka'bah, links=no, translit=al-Kaʿbah al-Musharrafah), is a building at the c ...
, and pilgrim camps at
Mina and
Arafat.
In the 1870s he was given the title
Bey
Bey ( ota, بك, beğ, script=Arab, tr, bey, az, bəy, tk, beg, uz, бек, kz, би/бек, tt-Cyrl, бәк, translit=bäk, cjs, пий/пек, sq, beu/bej, sh, beg, fa, بیگ, beyg/, tg, бек, ar, بك, bak, gr, μπέης) is ...
and two decades later the higher rank of
Pasha
Pasha, Pacha or Paşa ( ota, پاشا; tr, paşa; sq, Pashë; ar, باشا), in older works sometimes anglicized as bashaw, was a higher rank in the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman political and military system, typically granted to governors, gener ...
. By the end of his military career he reached the rank of
''liwa'', equivalent to Major-General. He was briefly the governor of the Egyptian city of
Arish
ʻArish or el-ʻArīsh ( ar, العريش ' , ''Hrinokorura'') is the capital and largest city (with 164,830 inhabitants ) of the North Sinai Governorate of Egypt, as well as the largest city on the entire Sinai Peninsula, lying on the Mediter ...
but returned to Cairo after suffering sunstroke. He was married for 34 years; his wife died while accompanying him on a trip to Medina and is buried there.
Sadiq died in Cairo in 1902.
Photographs
Sadiq used a
wet-plate collodion camera, which had been invented in the 1850s. This produced negatives on wet glass plates, requiring a portable
darkroom
A darkroom is used to process photographic film, to make prints and to carry out other associated tasks. It is a room that can be made completely dark to allow the processing of the light-sensitive photographic materials, including film and ph ...
. From these negatives he made
albumen prints which he signed or, later, stamped.
The sanctuaries of Mecca and Medina are the
holiest sites of Islam. As part of the Hajj which is one of the
five pillars of Islam
The Five Pillars of Islam (' ; also ' "pillars of the religion") are fundamental practices in Islam, considered to be obligatory acts of worship for all Muslims. They are summarized in the famous hadith of Gabriel. The Sunni and Shia agree on ...
, pilgrims perform rituals at Mecca and other nearby sites.
On his expeditions from 1861 to 1881, Sadiq photographed the interiors and exteriors of sites on the Hajj pilgrimage route as well as at Medina. Photographing the
Al-Masjid an-Nabawi
Al-Masjid an-Nabawi (), known in English as the Prophet's Mosque, is a mosque built by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the city of Medina in the Al Madinah Province of Saudi Arabia. It was the second mosque built by Muhammad in Medina, after Qub ...
(Prophet's Mosque) and its surroundings in Medina on 11 February 1861, he noted in his diary that no-one had taken such photographs before.
He used walls and mosque roofs as vantage points to capture
panoramas
A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word was originally coined in ...
of the cities.
He also photographed people connected to the holy sites. As well as the Hajj pilgrims walking around the Kaaba, he photographed Shaykh 'Umar
al-Shaibi, the keeper of the key of the Kaaba, and Sharif Shawkat Pasha, guardian of the Prophet's Mosque.
In 1876 his photographs of Medina were displayed at the
Centennial Exposition
The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the ...
in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
. He presented an album of twelve photographs at the 1881 Third International Conference of Geographers in
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
, winning a gold medal. As a result, this set was published as ''Collection de Vues Photographiques de La Mecque et de Médine''.
His photographs are held today by collections including the
Khalili Collection of Hajj and the Arts of Pilgrimage
The Khalili Collection of the Hajj and the Arts of Pilgrimage is a private collection of around 5,000 items relating to the Hajj, the pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca which is a religious duty in Islam.
It is one of eight collections assembl ...
, the
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
, the
Reiss Engelhorn Museum
The Reiss Engelhorn Museum, or (rem for short), is a museum in Mannheim, Germany. It has an exhibition area of , and houses around 1.2 million objects.
Facilities and collection
The Reiss-Engelhorn-Museum is one of the major museums in Mannhei ...
,
and the
Harvard Fine Arts Library.
The curator Claude Sui describes Sadiq's achievements in photography as very significant: "
e sheer quality of his photographs is evidence of his talent in this field and reveals professional standards in his handling of the wet collodion procedure".
His photography reflects both a cartographer's awareness of spatial relationships
and a devout Muslim's connection to the region, culture, and people.
Publications
The report of his 1861 visit to Medina was later published in 1877 in the ''Egyptian Military Gazette'' and then in a book, ''Summary of the Exploration of the Wajh-Madinah Hijaz Route and its Military Cadastral Map.''
His other publications include:
* ''Collection de Vues Photographiques de La Mecque et de Médine'', 1881. This was a set of twelve photographs of stations of the Hajj, including four panoramas.
* ''Mash'al al-mahmal'' ("The Torch of the Mahmal"), 1881.
* ''Kawkab al-hajj fi sayr al-mahmal bahran wa sayrihi barran'' ("The Star of the Hajj along the Travels of the Mahmal by Sea and Land"), 1886.
* ''Dalil al-hajj li'l-warid nin Makkah wa al-Madinah'' ("The Guide to the Hajj for Those Arriving in Makkah and Madinah from every Direction"), 1896.
All his books combine photographs and written advice for Hajj pilgrims based on his repeated visits to the area.
His publications in French were a summary of his work that missed out the detail of his Arabic publications, so for a long time the non-Arabic world was unaware of his achievements.
Gallery
File:Khalili Collection Hajj and Arts of Pilgrimage Arc.pp-0254.2.jpg, Panorama of the Kaaba and the Meccan sanctuary
Khalili Collection Hajj and Arts of Pilgrimage arc.pp 0211.09 CROP.jpg, A general view of Medina, including the Al-Masjid an-Nabawi
Al-Masjid an-Nabawi (), known in English as the Prophet's Mosque, is a mosque built by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the city of Medina in the Al Madinah Province of Saudi Arabia. It was the second mosque built by Muhammad in Medina, after Qub ...
and its Green Dome
The Green Dome ( ar, ٱَلْقُبَّة ٱلْخَضْرَاء, al-Qubbah al-Khaḍrāʾ) is a green-coloured dome built above the tombs of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the early Rashidun Caliphs Abu Bakr () and Umar (), which used to be A ...
See also
*
Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje
Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje (8 February 1857 – 26 June 1936) was a Dutch scholar of Oriental cultures and languages and advisor on native affairs to the colonial government of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia).
Born in Oosterhout in 1857 ...
, first European to photograph Mecca
Notes
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sadiq, Muhammad
1832 births
1902 deaths
Photographers from Cairo
Architectural photographers
19th-century photographers
Hajj
19th-century Egyptian writers
École Polytechnique alumni
Egyptian soldiers
Military personnel from Cairo