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Societies and nations generally construct their worldviews and strive to realize their religious and political objectives in the light of these worldviews. Christians of Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries began to explore the world and discovered new continents. They disseminated their views related to the peoples of the world, especially the Muslims, through their travelogues and books. It is generally acknowledged that the books published from the national pedestal are always biased. Hence, the analysis of books that are politically and religiously oriented is a very important task. Keeping this purpose in view, this article discusses the case of Vincent le Blanc as the second European non-Muslim to visit Makkah and Madinah. It argues that, in reality, the man never did as he claimed. The visit was staged mainly for the interest of Christian anti-Islamic polemics. The justification of this contention is two-pronged. Le Blanc's fallacious, self-contradictory and irrational accounts of Makkah and Madinah, their holy mosques, and of hajj rituals are scrutinized. It is followed by bringing to fore his extensive plagiarism of the work of Ludovico di Varthema. The findings of this study suggest that the books written by tourists such as Le Blanc are characterised by biases and alienated approaches. Therefore, their propositional as well as linguistic material should always be viewed cautiously to safeguard against their misleading contents.

Societies and nations generally construct their worldviews and strive to realize their religious and political objectives in the light of these worldviews. Christians of Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries began to explore the world and discovered new continents. They disseminated their views related to the peoples of the world, especially the Muslims, through their travelogues and books. It is generally acknowledged that the books published from the national pedestal are always biased. Hence, the analysis of books that are politically and religiously oriented is a very important task. Keeping this purpose in view, this article discusses the case of Vincent le Blanc as the second European non-Muslim to visit Makkah and Madinah. It argues that, in reality, the man never did as he claimed. The visit was staged mainly for the interest of Christian anti-Islamic polemics. The justification of this contention is two-pronged. Le Blanc's fallacious, self-contradictory and irrational accounts of Makkah and Madinah, their holy mosques, and of hajj rituals are scrutinized. It is followed by bringing to fore his extensive plagiarism of the work of Ludovico di Varthema. The findings of this study suggest that the books written by tourists such as Le Blanc are characterised by biases and alienated approaches. Therefore, their propositional as well as linguistic material should always be viewed cautiously to safeguard against their misleading contents. Keywords: Vincent le Blanc, Makkah and Madinah, Ludovico di Varthema, Christian Anti-Islam Polemics

This article discusses the contributions of the Abbasid caliphs to the architectural development of the Prophet's Mosque in Madinah. Those contributions began almost as early as the Abbasid caliphal government had officially emerged as the successor to the Umayyads, and ended with a major rebuilding and renovation work in 887 AH/1482 CE, about 35 years before the ultimate dissolution of the Abbasid regime. The last work was executed by the Mamluk rulers as the Abbasid proxies. The paper focuses on discussing the consequences and implications of a political disintegration during the Abbasid era for the architectural development and serviceability of the mosque. The article concludes that the Abbasid contributions to the architectural development of the Mosque were rather inadequate. The blame is to be attributed partly to the Abbasids themselves and partly to the prevalent circumstances in the state that eventually incapacitated the Abbasid government from performing its entrusted duties and responsibilities. However, even for the creation and fostering of the latter, it was again the Abbasids who more than anybody else are to be held accountable.[Artikel ini membahas peran para khalifah Abbasiyah dalam pengembangan arsitektur Masjid Nabawi di Madinah. Kontribusi mereka dimulai sejak awal pemerintahan Abbasiyah muncul sebagai penerus Umayyah dan berakhir dengan renovasi besar pada 887 H/1482 M, sekitar tiga dasawarsa menjelang berakhirnya pemerintahan Abbasiyah di Mesir. Pekerjaan terakhir dilakukan oleh penguasa Mamluk sebagai wakil Dinasti Abbasiyah. Fokus makalah ini adalah konsekuensi dan implikasi dari disintegrasi politik selama era Abbasiyah terhadap pengembangan arsitektur dan fumgsi Masjid Nabawi. Artikel ini menyimpulkan bahwa kontribusi Dinasti Abbasiyah untuk pengembangan arsitektur Masjid Nabawi kurang memadai, sebagai cerminan ketidakmampuan para khalifah Abbasiyah menjalankan peran, fungsi, dan tanggung jawabnya. Bahkan sebenarnya dalam renovasi yang terakhir pun, orang lain yang bertanggung jawab.]