Mecca and the Baron, Faith and Me

About the Book

I spent the most beautiful years of my life in Germany, where I was trained to become a ship’s captain; later I kept my connection to Germany alive especially through reading German books.

A German colleague brought me a book . Its title was Wallfahrt nach Mecca [Pilgrimage to Mecca], by Baron Heinrich von Maltzan, a German who claimed to have visited Mecca 150 years ago. I read the book with great interest. This book was simply fun to read, and it illustrated Arabs and Muslims in a humorous light.

The preface of Baron Heinrich’s book, amazed me as it stated that:

“When Baron Heinrich von Maltzan published his book about his journey to Mecca in 1865, he was suddenly under the spotlight of society. He revealed himself to be a great scholar of Arab history, people, legend, and tradition. His knowledge of Islam and its commandments proved to be without the slightest doubt, the most accurate, not only for his time, but also throughout the century.”

I was shocked; the book fell from my hand, and I was speechless. Baron Heinrich’s work was considered serious science. I realized very clearly for the first time why the western world is so ignorant about us Arabs and Muslims; is this why Germans used to ask me silly questions?

Leon Uris wrote a book once, where he claimed for having penetrated the Arab mind, as if the Arab mind is a locked safe box, which needs to be penetrated. 

The introduction of Arabs and Muslims should never be left to Baron Heinrich von Maltzan or to Leon Uris , we Arabs and Muslims must open up and tell the world who we are , what we think and how our dreams look like, especially in this time of conflict.  

 Muthanna Al Kurtass

About the Author

My name is Muthanna Al Kurtass; I am a Citizen of Saudi Arabia.

Since childhood I liked to tell stories and I always dreamed of writing books, my first book was about "Seamanship" and my cadets who are today filling very important positions in the Arab Maritime Word appreciated that book a lot, since then almost four decades passed, and my real dream of writing a novel never subsided and it came true, as I published my second book called "Sabir the Egyptian' in 2008, and I was very pleased to have received encouraging words from critical readers. 

As a former sea farer whose profession took to all corners of the world, I have come to know the world from seeing, touching and smelling and not only from hearing, reading or watching films.  

In my early years, I spent more than one year at the shores of the lovely Starenberger Lake in Bavaria learning the German Language in a boarding school before going up north to the German sea shores to spend many years among tough German Sailors.

When meeting and talking to people from other parts of the world, it was evident how ignorant we are of each other, an ignorance that lead to many unfortunate happenings.  

This book is meant to be a tool of introducing the East to the West and vise versa, I believe it is very vital if we want to avoid the mistakes of the past and ensure a peaceful future.