The Founder’s Library displays rare photos of Mecca and Medina 140 years ago

The participation of the King Abdulaziz Public Library in the “Bennale” of Islamic Arts, which is held in Jeddah from January 23 to April 23, 2023, under the title “The First House”, expresses the library’s contributions to the promotion of Arab-Islamic culture, with its rare holdings that form pictures. Pictures of Islamic history, both near and far.

The library’s participation in the Biennale appears by displaying a collection of its rare photographs and displaying them in the Makkah Hall, which are the first photographs of Makkah and Madinah that were taken with the camera of Major General Muhammad Sadiq Pasha in 1880, as the King Abdulaziz Public Library was the first to include Sadiq Pasha’s collection in its holdings. In addition to Muhammad Sadiq himself’s four books: “A Brief Exploration of the Road to the Hijaz Land from Al-Wajh and Yanbu Al-Bahr to the Prophet’s City and an Explanation of its Military Map (1877 AD), the second (Mishaal Al-Mahmal in the Hajj Journey by Land (1880 AD), and the third (Kawkab Al-Hajj in the Journey of Al-Mahmal by Sea) And his journey by land (1885 AD) As for his last book, it was (Pilgrimage Guide for those coming to Mecca and Medina from every pilgrimage (1885 AD), and these books are rare and important, as they include information on the social and urban situation of the western region of the Kingdom during the last half of the last century AD.

The King Abdulaziz Public Library is distinguished by its hosting of a photo archive, which is considered one of the rarest photographic collections in the world, with a total of 8,100 individual original photographs or groups preserved in albums, taken by the most famous photographers of the East and the Arab region since the beginnings of solar photography in the year (1740 AD), in addition to the photographs taken by travelers. Ship captains, military personnel, envoys, consuls and politicians who visited the region from the middle of the last century until the beginning of the current century. This historical archive of images is one of the most unique sources in the world that embodies the image of the Arab region in the past.

Most of these photos record some important monuments in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in addition to depicting some feelings and religious monuments in both Mecca and Medina, in addition to many photos taken of historical archaeological sites in Arab capitals and cities that reflect in their entirety a diversity of forms of social life and Arab transactions, and date For the civil and architectural development in it, where its markets, mosques, roads and all forms of life appear in it, in addition to a group of photographs taken on important historical occasions of prominent political and social figures.