haj

Abu Rahal was one of more than 2 million haj pilgrims expected to attend the 2023 pilgrimage season this week in Mecca and Medina, defying global inflation and higher prices for haj services.

Sayid Mahdi, who will be in charge of around 2,800 Iranian pilgrims that will perform haj next week, said Saudi Arabia has been more cooperative in finding hotels for Iranians this year.

About 19 million also took part annually in the umrah, another form of pilgrimage to Mecca which - unlike the haj - can be carried out at any time of the year, before the pandemic.

Jan 2006: Three hundred and sixty-two Muslim pilgrims are crushed to death at the eastern entrance of the Jamarat Bridge when pilgrims jostle to perform the haj stoning ritual.

About 20 years after that, he took his first haj — the pilgrimage to Mecca — aboard a British Airways de Havilland Comet, the world's first commercial jet airliner.