The beginning of chapter two details the arrival of pilgrimage season. During these months the Mecca transforms into a crowded city with millions of people traveling to attend. I really enjoyed how detailed and specific the author was when describing the appearance of the city. For example, he wrote, “The homes on the outer rings are made of mud and straw: impermanent structures inevitably swept away by the annual floods that inundate this valley. Closer to the city center, the homes are larger and more permanent, though still made of mud.” This sentence helped me visualize the city very well and allowed me to relate more to the reading.
Another part of the reading I really was when Aslan talked about the Ka’ba transformed surronding areas into sacred grounds, basically making the city of Mecca a neutral zone. This neautral zone encouraged individuals to use the area as a center for trade. I found this very interesting as most likely without the Ka’ba most of these trades might not happen.
Lastly, I found the section of the reading where he talks about one of the problem with Mecca was the concentration of wealth. A few of the ruling families had a large amount of the wealth, which destroyed the “tribal ethic”. There was no longer any concern for the poor and people no longer believed that the tribe was only as strong as its weakest member. This to me seems similar to the United States and how the top 1% own up to 40% of the countries wealth.