Qualla: Zamzam Well

Zamzam Well: Introduction

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kskhh, CC BY-SA 4.0. Hagar runs between two hills. Her infant son Ismail is lying in the sand, dying of thirst, and she is looking for any sign of water in a place that should not have any. According to Islamic tradition, she ran seven times between the hills of Safa and Marwah, and when she returned to the child, water had come up from the ground. Some versions say Ismail scraped the earth with his feet and the spring opened beneath them. Others say the angel Gabriel struck the ground. Either way, the well they call Zamzam has been there ever since. Pilgrims who complete the Hajj still walk the course between Safa and Marwah today, seven laps, in memory of Hagar's desperate search.

Read more: Zamzam Well on Qualla

Image: Kskhh | CC BY-SA 4.0

Zamzam Well: Inside the Masjid al-Haram

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mardetanha, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Zamzam Well sits twenty meters east of the Ka'ba, within the Masjid al-Haram, the sacred mosque at the center of Mecca. This is the holiest place in Islam, the point toward which every Muslim turns five times a day in prayer. The well itself was renovated in 2017 and 2018 and...

Read more: Zamzam Well on Qualla

Image: Mardetanha | CC BY-SA 3.0

Zamzam Well: The Name That Echoes

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mbenoist at French Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. The origin of the name is uncertain. The historian Jacqueline Chabbi argues the word is an onomatopoeia, a sound-word. It may describe the distant roll of thunder, a guttural murmur made with a closed mouth, or, applied to water, an abundant supply that does not dry up. Early Isl...

Read more: Zamzam Well on Qualla

Image: Mbenoist at French Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

Zamzam Well: The Jurhum and the Rediscovery

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Angnation, CC BY-SA 3.0. After the time of Hagar and Ismail, Islamic tradition holds that the well was used by the Jurhum tribe that settled in the Mecca valley. At some point, accounts differ on when and why, the well dried up or was deliberately buried. For centuries it was lost. Its rediscovery is att...

Read more: Zamzam Well on Qualla

Image: Angnation | CC BY-SA 3.0

Zamzam Well: A Well That Drew the World

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Khalili Collections, CC BY-SA 3.0 igo. Medieval Arabic writers noted that Zoroastrians regularly made pilgrimages to Mecca to pray at the well, based on what they called their kinship with Abraham. The practice indicates something important: Zamzam was a pan-religious pilgrimage site long before it became specifically...

Read more: Zamzam Well on Qualla

Image: Khalili Collections | CC BY-SA 3.0 igo

Zamzam Well: A Mother's Search, Still Retraced

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Fadi El Binni of Al Jazeera English, CC BY-SA 2.0. The ritual of Sa'i, the walking seven times between Safa and Marwah, remains one of the core components of the Umrah and Hajj. Pilgrims retrace the path Hagar ran, recognizing a woman's desperate search for water for her child as fundamental to the sacred geography of Islam. Zamz...

Read more: Zamzam Well on Qualla

Image: Fadi El Binni of Al Jazeera English | CC BY-SA 2.0