عودة الحجاج المغاربة من مكة المكرمة وإجراءات الوقاية على متن السفينة ضد عدوى الجدري

Abstract EN

The aim of the current translation of Luis Leon Terras's dissertation entitled "The return of Moroccan pilgrims from Mecca and prevention procedures against smallpox infection on the shipboard"- presented in 1899 by the author Terras as a treatise to obtain a doctorate degree in medicine from the University of Montpellier, France -is to show the content of such a treatise and its importance in the revival of conferences which issued laws regulating the movement of pilgrims.

The dissertation dealt with the pest of moving epidemics from one place to another, the infection of diseases among passengers and required the parking of ships in quarantine stations for prevention.

Furthermore, it resulted in new regulations and procedures, such as having accredited doctors on boards for observing hygienic situations, treating sick passengers in order to prevent the occurrence of diseases and to avoid the disastrous deaths of thousands of people if not millions.

The dissertation, however, was not free from fundamental errors.

The translator has traced such errors in which the author has fallen.

These errors appear clearly in his depiction of the return trip of two thousand and two hundred Moroccan and Tripolitan pilgrims after the Hajj by sea on a shipboard called "Jargovia".

The trip started from the port of Yanbu in Hijaz, then to the port of Suweira in the Morocco, passing through the quarantine Station of the Toor in Sinai and Tripoli in Libya.

The author described what happened to the pilgrims at each stopping port until they arrived to the port of Al Sowairah.

The main aim of the dissertation was to explain the prevention procedures on board against smallpox infection.

The translator concluded that the author had provided good and accurate descriptions of the sites and the events passed by the ship; such as the description of the port of Jeddah and Yanbu.

Nevertheless, he made a mistake in describing the Islamic events, places and figures.

Add to that, pilgrims were depicted with descriptions that showed racism and prejudice against Muslims.

Worse yet was the way he described some of the pillars of Islam, Muslim scholars, and historians due to his lack of knowledge about Islam and Muslims.

The translator blamed the dissertation viva committee for neglecting such errors and not directing the researcher to remove those lapses from his dissertation.