A view of Mecca, India, Gujarat, Kutch, last quarter 18th century

The area of Kutch in Gujarat had a large community of Muslims in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The rulers of Kutch also took an interest and ensured that there were enough boats at their shores to carry Muslims who would arrive from all over India to embark on the Hajj pilgrimage. It is quite likely that this illustration of Mecca, and the following depiction of Medina (lot 14 in the present sale), were produced by an artist from Kutch after visiting the Holy Sites of Islam. It is also possible that these two depictions of Mecca and Medina were based on European engravings brought to India by Western travellers. The unusual perspective of these views is noteworthy and is in contrast to the more common bird’s eye perspective of the Holy Places produced in India and Ottoman Turkey in the nineteenth century.