Islamic History and Dutch Travel Illustration, De Kabba, of Het Huis Gods Te Mecca, circa 1750 View of the Kaaba and Masjid al-Haram

Masjid Haram

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De Kabba, of Het Huis Gods Te Mecca, circa 1750, documents an eighteenth-century Dutch visual account of the Kaaba and Masjid al-Haram, presenting Mecca’s central Islamic sanctuary to European readers through travel literature and engraved book illustration. The image supports research into European representations of Islam, the visual circulation of sacred geography, and the ways non-Muslim audiences encountered Mecca through printed images rather than direct access to the holy city. The Kaaba, located within the Sacred Mosque in Mecca, is the focal point of Muslim prayer and pilgrimage, giving this print significance as a European attempt to depict one of Islam’s most important religious spaces.

De Kabba, of Het Huis Gods Te Mecca. Dutch travel account on Arabia and the Middle East, circa 1750. Engraving, approximately 7.5 by 8 inches. The composition places the Kaaba at the center of the courtyard, surrounded by domed structures and arcaded architectural elements, with more than twenty Muslim figures shown praying in the open court. The sheet’s Dutch title translates as “The Kaaba, or the House of God at Mecca,” and its visual organization directs the viewer toward ritual action as well as sacred architecture. Similar Dutch impressions of this title are recorded as eighteenth-century engravings issued in Amsterdam around the middle decades of the century, and related Kaaba engravings also circulated in European editions connected with Qur’an translation and Islamic subjects, including editions associated with André Du Ryer’s influential French translation of the Qur’an.

The print belongs to a broader eighteenth-century European market for illustrated accounts of Arabia, Islam, and the Ottoman and Middle Eastern worlds, where images of Mecca served educational, devotional, polemical, and antiquarian interests depending on the publication context. Its value rests not in eyewitness documentation, which is not established here, but in its evidence of how European print culture pictured Muslim worship and the built environment of the Masjid al-Haram for readers outside the Islamic world. Unmounted and unframed, trimmed, with original fold and minor handling wear; overall very good. A focused eighteenth-century visual source for the study of Mecca, Islamic sacred geography, and Dutch representations of Muslim prayer and pilgrimage.

Item #14548

Price: $480.00