Motawifs reminisce about serving Hajj pilgrims in years gone by

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In the past, hajj pilgrims would arrive in ships after a long journey that could take about four to five months. (SPA)
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Updated 26 June 2023
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Motawifs reminisce about serving Hajj pilgrims in years gone by

  • Motawif — a guide and general service provider who assists and cares for Hajj pilgrims — is an age-old role that was traditionally passed down from one generation of a family to the next
  • One Mowatif told Arab News that what was once a position held by individuals has now become an institutional role

RIYADH: Hayat Eid, a Saudi former Motawif, recalled how in days gone by she would dress up in her most beautiful clothes and burn incense throughout her house as she prepared to welcome Hajj pilgrims, many of whom had traveled very long distances in the days before air travel was common.

Motawif — the name for the guides and general service providers who assist and care for Hajj pilgrims — is an age-old role that was traditionally passed down from one generation of a family to the next.

Eid’s grandfather, for example, rented buildings, cleaned them and offered accommodation in them to pilgrims. He also hired supervisors and translators to assist the visitors. The job was passed down to his son, Eid’s father.




Abdulrazzaq lulu Buqas with hajj pilgrims he hosted in his home, in a picture taken in may, 1993. (Supplied)

“My father, Jamil Abdulrahman Eid, was the ‘sheikh’ of the pilgrims of Southeast Asia,” she said, referring to the tradition of pilgrims referring to Mowatifs as “sheikhs.”

“My grandfather and grandmother were also among the Motawif and (my grandfather) was ‘the sheikh of Java,’ that is, the sheikh who receives the pilgrims from Java, Indonesia. After my grandparents died, my father rose to the (position of) Motawif.”

Reminiscing about those days in the 1960s and 1970s, Eid, who is now in her 50s and retired, said that pilgrims would send letters to her family asking to stay with the “sheikh” in his house.




Eid family preparing feasts for pilgrims. (Supplied)

“The sheikh explained to them the rituals of Hajj and what they should do (and) take them to the Grand Mosque and return home with them so that they did not get lost,” she added.

Her brother, Adel Eid, said the role of the Motawif was an individual position in the past but has now become an institutional role.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Motawif are guides and general service providers who assist and care for Hajj pilgrims.

• The position, which was once held by individuals and passed from one generation to the next, is now an institutional role.

• Each Motawif was assigned a certain number of pilgrims based on ability; some could serve only 100, others could cope with 1,000.

• They were required to speak the pilgrims’ language or hire interpreters.

“Each Motawif used to serve the pilgrims by himself,” he said. “They would travel to (the pilgrims’) country and market their services … they were also required to be able to speak (the pilgrims’) language well.”




Some of the pilgrims having lunch. (Supplied)

Each Motawif was assigned a certain number of pilgrims based on ability; some could serve only 100, others could cope with 1,000.

Because the Eids assisted pilgrims from Indonesia, they learned the Malay language and about the spices and food their visitors preferred, so that they could make the pilgrims feel as much as home as possible in Makkah.

Adel, who is in his 60s and also retired, said that the pilgrims’ journeys to the Kingdom, mostly on ships, could take four or five months. After docking in Jeddah, they would board buses to Makkah. In most cases, they would be led during their journeys by a Motawif.




A historical motawif identity card belonging to Jamil Abdulrahman Eid, the ‘sheikh’ of Southeast Asian pilgrims. (Supplied)

“Hajj is for those who can afford it, so pilgrims would sell what they had to perform Hajj,” Adel said. “They would come loaded with things to sell in Makkah, such as clothes, sheets, food and gold.”

Wijdan Abdulrazzaq Lulu Buqas, 46, similarly inherited the profession of Motawif. She is also fluent in Malay, having learned it from her father and grandfather. But some nationalities prove more challenging than others.

“We would circumambulate with pilgrims from Southeast Asia and speak their language to serve them but the Chinese language was difficult, and so we brought a translator for the Chinese pilgrims,” she said.




Some pilgrims having an exploring trip around the rituals of Hajj in Makkah. (Supplied)

Some pilgrims bring gold or pearls to give the Motawif as a gift on Eid Al-Adha, Buqas said. Her father, Abdulrazzaq Lulu Buqas, added “Lulu,” the word for pearls in Arabic, to his name to commemorate these gifts from pilgrims.

One “unforgettable situation” that Buqas, who still works as a Motawif, recalls occurred when she met a pregnant woman, in her third trimester, who showed signs of fatigue.

“When I saw the suffering of the pregnant woman we took her to the hospital where she delivered safely,” she said.




Picture of pilgrims in front of the accommodation in the 70's. (Supplied)

“I asked her why she came when she was pregnant and she told me that she had applied for Hajj and had been waiting for this opportunity for 20 years, and if she had not come, she would have lost her chance forever. That is why she decided to perform Hajj and complete the fifth pillar of Islam.”

Buqas said that she has witnessed great changes, for the better, in the Hajj experience over the years.

“The difference between Hajj in the past and in modern times is very big because previously there were more difficulties and challenges,” said Buqas. “It would take months to arrange it but today, it takes only hours … thanks to the great efforts by the Saudi (leadership).”

 


A look back: Eight decades of Saudi-US relations

Updated 12 May 2025
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A look back: Eight decades of Saudi-US relations

  • From the 1945 FDR-Ibn Saud meeting to Vision 2030, the two countries have built an enduring partnership
  • President Donald Trump’s second visit to the Kingdom will underscore the mutual interests in diverse fields

RIYADH: Over the past 80 years, the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the US has evolved into a multifaceted partnership encompassing defense, trade, education, tourism, and more — sustained by connections at every level, from government officials to private citizens.

It is no coincidence that President Donald Trump’s first official overseas trip during his second term is taking him to Saudi Arabia, alongside the UAE and Qatar.

In this photo taken on May 20, 2017, Saudi Arabia's King Salman (R) and US President Donald Trump (C), accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump, are shown arriving for a reception ahead of a banquet at Murabba Palace in Riyadh. (Saudi Royal Palace / AFP) 

Since 1974, six US presidents have visited the Kingdom, a testament to Saudi Arabia’s enduring influence as a stabilizing force in a volatile region.

“Today, the US-Saudi relationship is stronger than ever, bolstered by interactions at all levels between our two countries, from government officials to everyday citizens,” Michael A. Ratney, the most recent US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, wrote in an oped in Arab News on Sept. 22 last year.

He added: “This strength is palpable in our wide-ranging cooperation — whether in security, commerce, culture or our joint efforts to resolve regional conflicts in places such as Sudan, Yemen and beyond.”

From early cooperation on defense and energy to modern collaboration in education, technology, tourism, and the arts, the bilateral relationship has deepened with time, shaped by regional events, global shifts, and shared interests.

From the historic 1945 meeting between President Roosevelt and King Abdulaziz to the new era of hi-tech cooperation, Saudi-US ties have weathered wars, economic shifts and political change. Their partnership remains a vital anchor of global stability. (AFP photo)

Education has remained a cornerstone, notably through the King Abdullah Scholarship Program, which has sent thousands of Saudi students to the US. American students have also come to Saudi Arabia through the Islamic University in Madinah and exchange initiatives such as the Fulbright program and partnerships like the one between Arizona State University and the Saudi Ministry of Education.

In recent years, Vision 2030 has injected new dynamism into Saudi-US collaboration, opening avenues for knowledge exchange and attracting billions of dollars in mutual investment.

A picture taken in the Saudi Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah on July 14, 2022, ahead of a visit by the US President Donald Trump, shows hosts addressing guests during a presentation on the Saudi Green Initiative, which also includes goals for tree-planting and reducing emissions.  (AFP)

Like the US, Saudi Arabia is a nation of innovation, valuing entrepreneurship and technological progress. Many trace the momentum in relations to Trump’s 2017 visit or Vision 2030. But the foundations were laid decades earlier.

The roots go back to the 1940s, following the unification of the Kingdom by King Abdulaziz Al-Saud — then known in the West as Ibn Saud — who united the tribes of Najd and Hijaz in 1932 to form Saudi Arabia.

On Feb. 14, 1945, as World War II neared its end, President Franklin D. Roosevelt met King Abdulaziz aboard the USS Quincy in Egypt’s Great Bitter Lake, following the Yalta Conference. The meeting marked a historic turning point. Roosevelt sought King Abdulaziz’s counsel on the issue of Jewish refugees from Europe and looked to Saudi Arabia as a key player in shaping the postwar order.

Roosevelt knew that, even as the Second World War was drawing to a close, in the wings a new world order was taking shape — and that Saudi Arabia was a nation that the US needed to befriend. The two leaders developed mutual respect: Roosevelt gifted the King a DC-3 passenger plane — followed by two more — paving the way for the founding of Saudia Airlines.

Roosevelt died two months later, but the “Quincy Meeting” laid the groundwork for a lasting relationship. In 1953, the two nations formalized military ties through the Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement.

In 1957, King Saud became the first Saudi monarch to visit the US, meeting President Dwight D. Eisenhower at Washington National Airport. The visit emphasized the need for lasting solutions to regional challenges and led to a commitment to strengthen the Saudi Armed Forces.

Early cooperation extended to infrastructure, with American architect Minoru Yamasaki designing the Dhahran Civil Aviation Terminal in 1958. Diplomatic visits continued into the 1960s and 1970s, cementing bilateral ties.

In 1966, King Faisal met President Lyndon Johnson during a state visit, followed in 1971 by another official visit, this time with President Richard Nixon.

By 1974, economic ties deepened with the creation of the US-KSA Joint Economic Commission, focused on industrial development, education, technology, and agriculture. That year also saw President Nixon make a historic visit to Saudi Arabia, affirming the growing partnership.

In 1982, Vice President George H. W. Bush visited Riyadh to offer condolences following King Khalid’s death — a gesture underscoring the personal dimension of bilateral relations.

In this photo taken on January 15, 2008, US President George W. Bush dances with a sword with then Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz (R), who was governor of Riyadh, during their tour of the Murabba Palace and National History History Museum. (AFP)

Military cooperation intensified during the Gulf War in 1990–91, when Saudi troops joined American and allied forces in the liberation of Kuwait. The deployment of US troops to Saudi Arabia underlined the Kingdom’s strategic role in regional defense.

In 2002, the Saudi-US Strategic Dialogue was launched during King Abdullah’s visit to President George W. Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas. It aimed to enhance cooperation in counterterrorism, energy, education, and economic affairs.

That spirit of collaboration continued in 2005 with the launch of the King Abdullah Scholarship Program, designed to invest in Saudi Arabia’s human capital. The pilot phase sent over 9,000 Saudi students to study in the US — a number that has since multiplied.

High-level engagements carried on with First Lady Laura Bush’s visit in 2007, followed by President Barack Obama’s first presidential trip to Saudi Arabia in 2009.

In 2012, the GCC-US Strategic Forum was established, with then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attending the inaugural ministerial meeting in Riyadh — elevating the Gulf Cooperation Council’s role in US regional strategy.

The partnership took another leap in 2017 when President Trump visited Riyadh during his first term. His visit featured three high-profile summits: the Arab Islamic American Summit, the US-Saudi Bilateral Summit, and the US-GCC Cooperation Council Summit. The meetings focused on expanding military and commercial ties.

As the Kingdom reshapes its economy and global engagement through Vision 2030, US partnerships remain integral in areas like energy transition, clean tech and digital transformation.

President Trump’s return visit on Monday, his first official trip abroad in his second term, is expected to reinforce those efforts — focusing on investment, innovation and renewed people-to-people ties.

From the historic 1945 meeting between Roosevelt and King Abdulaziz to the new era of strategic cooperation, Saudi-US ties have weathered wars, economic shifts, and political change. As both nations look ahead, their partnership remains a vital anchor of global stability and opportunity.
 

 


Etidal, Telegram remove 16m extremist content

Updated 11 May 2025
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Etidal, Telegram remove 16m extremist content

  • Almost 177 million pieces of extremist material have been removed since the collaboration began in February 2022

RIYADH: The Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology, in cooperation with messaging platform Telegram, removed more than 16 million pieces of extremist material in the first quarter of 2025.

Additionally, 1,408 channels used by extremist groups were shut down as part of joint efforts to counter extremist propaganda, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Sunday.

The center, known as Etidal and based in Riyadh, has been working with Telegram to prevent and counter terrorism and violent extremism by monitoring Arabic language online content.

The removed propaganda included PDFs, video clips and audio recordings, the SPA reported.

Almost 177 million pieces of extremist material have been removed since the collaboration began in February 2022, and 16,201 channels shut down by the end of March 2025.

The ongoing partnership reflects a strong commitment to combating extremist rhetoric and promoting a safer digital environment, the SPA reported.


Saudi Arabia and Bahrain sign agreement to complete medical city project

Updated 11 May 2025
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Saudi Arabia and Bahrain sign agreement to complete medical city project

  • Project marks major collaboration between two countries in field of medical education and healthcare infrastructure

MANAMA: Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa met with Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Education, Yousef bin Abdullah Al-Bunyan, at Al-Sakhir Palace on Sunday during the latter’s visit to sign an agreement for the completion of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Medical City.

The project, being carried out by the Arabian Gulf University, marks a major collaboration between the two countries in the field of medical education and healthcare infrastructure, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

During the meeting, Al-Bunyan conveyed greetings from Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, along with their wishes for Bahrain’s continued development, SPA added.

He also underlined the importance Saudi Arabia places on strengthening its longstanding relationship with Bahrain, particularly in the education sector.

King Hamad welcomed the minister and reciprocated the well-wishes, reaffirming Bahrain’s appreciation for the strong ties between the two nations.

He expressed satisfaction with the progress of joint projects, particularly King Abdullah Medical City, which he said reflected the depth of cooperation between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.


Riyadh community reclaims power of writing

Updated 11 May 2025
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Riyadh community reclaims power of writing

  • Kitabah initiative for Arabic writers carves out a space for creativity

RIYADH: What would happen if you wrote every day for 100 days? In Riyadh, a growing Arabic writing community has taken on the challenge, inviting writers of all levels to rediscover the joy of writing one day at a time.

The “100 Days of Writing” initiative offers a space for reflection, consistency and expression, far from the pressures of social media.

“Writing is an essential tool for anyone who wants to think,” Mohammad Aldhabaa, founder of the community, told Arab news.

He said that writing can serve as a form of meditation and healing, helping individuals process emotions and better understand themselves.

“There are many things you can do with writing on a personal level, to reflect, to deconstruct identity, and to make sense of experiences, he said. 

There are many things you can do with writing on a personal level, to reflect, to deconstruct identity, and to make sense of experiences.

Mohammad Aldhabaa, Kitabah founder

While the community grew, Aldhabaa saw firsthand the challenges Arab writers face online: “We don’t have the infrastructure to allow writers in Arabic to write and publish their work and to reach their audience using modern digital tools,” Aldhabaa explained.

Many writers are forced to rely on fragmented, English-oriented services like newsletter platforms and generic website builders. It is hard to expect consistent, high-quality content in Arabic without a proper system that incentivizes writers, he said.

Out of this need for better infrastructure, the community built its own solution: Kitabah, a publishing platform designed specifically for Arabic writers.

The platform allows users to publish work, create personal websites, and in future phases, monetize their writing. 

Kitabah integrates social features to help writers grow their audience without having to independently market their work, similar to Substack or Medium which are useful for writers working in English.

“We didn’t want to create separated islands where each writer builds a blog and struggles to bring in traffic,” Aldhabaa said. “Everything is distributed through the Kitabah feed, and also you have your own website.”

He explained that writers can publish, connect their work to a newsletter, and link their personal site across social media. “There’s a traffic engine behind it, so writers don’t have to do all the heavy lifting.”

Initiatives like this can help shape the Kingdom’s literary and cultural landscape, he said, by empowering more writers to tell locally rooted stories.

“That is very important and crucial, playing into the soft power of Saudi Arabia the ability to have way more writers and creators be able to focus on telling stories about the communities we grew up in, the stories we come from. Because there is something that is very valuable and has very impactful results,” he said.

The community attracts experienced writers and absolute beginners. “We don’t want it to be only seasoned writers who already have a certain level of achievement because the idea of the community is to allow people to try and to learn, and not to create a status-based community.”

Hanen Shahin, a member of the community, said: “The writing community is an alternative environment to the forums we used to write in years ago. Social media came along and made it a competitive space driven by numbers and algorithms, an unhealthy environment for emerging writers, and sometimes even a damaging one.”

Shahin said that writing communities, by contrast, offer the guidance and perspective many writers need.

“You’re not just writing consistently but doing so while receiving feedback from people with refined taste and diverse backgrounds, which gives you a broader view of your work.”

Lana Elsafadi, another member, said: “Writing has helped me know myself better and get better at sorting out my feelings clearly. I feel really good when I can make a helpful comment that shows a deep idea or gives good advice, whether it’s about personal things or work.”

One hundred days may seem a big challenge, but for many writers in Riyadh, it is just the beginning.


Saudi crown prince, Al-Sharaa discuss Syria’s stability and security

Updated 11 May 2025
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Saudi crown prince, Al-Sharaa discuss Syria’s stability and security

  • Al-Sharaa thanked Saudi Arabia for its “continued support,” highlighting the Kingdom’s role in strengthening Syria’s territorial integrity and stability

RIYADH: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Syria’s President Ahmed Al-Sharaa held a phone call on Sunday, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

During the call, the crown prince and Al-Sharaa discussed the latest developments in the Syrian Arab Republic, and reviewed all efforts to support its security and stability, SPA added.

According to a Syrian Presidency statement, Prince Mohammed “reiterated the Kingdom’s commitment to supporting Syria’s security and stability, encouraging political solutions that preserve the country’s unity, and contributing to its reconstruction.”

He also emphasized Saudi Arabia’s keenness to expand economic and investment ties with Syria in the period ahead, the statement added.

Al-Sharaa thanked Saudi Arabia for its “continued support,” highlighting the Kingdom’s role in strengthening Syria’s territorial integrity and stability.