The Return from the Pilgrimage

At the head of a caravan of pilgrims returning from Mecca in al-Wasiti's Maqamat al-Hariri, a decorated riding litter is mounted on the back of the lead camel. Al-Wasiti finished the ninety-nine miniatures in this manuscript in the Islamic year 634, which is 1237. It is one of the earliest visual records of the medieval Muslim pilgrimage. He gave every returning pilgrim a specific face and a specific expression. Twenty years later, in 1258, the Mongol army sacked Baghdad and slaughtered its population. The Baghdad school of figure painting essentially ended with them. The manuscript itself survived. Now at Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris @labnf