From the far-flung corners of the Moslem world, pilgrims last week converged on Mecca, city of the Prophet's birth, where they would make the ritual seven circuits around the shrouded monument and enter to kiss the Black Stone handed down by the Angel Gabriel to Abraham. If they took time to notice, they might have detected a change in the air. Along the six-lane highway that leads inland to Mecca from the Red Sea port of Jiddah, pilgrims were ministered to by mobile hospitals, reservoirs of ice water, and troops of Moslem Boy Scouts. In the capital of Riyadh,...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
