In Saudi Arabia, a Wahhabi fear of promoting idolatry had led to the destruction of many early Islamic monuments. When the al-Saud tribes entered Mecca in the 1920s, they destroyed cemeteries containing graves of important early Muslims. More recently, Saudi efforts to accommodate the growing number of hajjis have wreaked havoc on early Muslim monuments. The expansion of the Grand Mosque has turned the house of Muhammad’s beloved Khadija into a bank of toilets; a Hilton hotel now sits where once stood the home of Abu Bakr, Aisha’s father and Islam’s first caliph.
