A medieval pilgrim’s account of the adhan betrays it as invented

Evidence

The bare contrast between adhan and bells has been a commonplace of travellers’ reportage, but was rare in the Middle Ages. The anonymous English pilgrim said that ‘five or six fellows’ (ribaldi) made the call ‘to the three corners of the world, leaving out the east’; this was ‘in place of bells’. The adhan actually is made facing the Qiblah, that is, in the direction of Mecca, the mu’adhdhin turning left and right at the phrase ‘come to prayer’. The east would be omitted, therefore, only at a point east of Mecca. It is impossible that this author could have observed the adhan at such a point. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2323

Categorization

• CANDY: A medieval English pilgrim claimed the muezzin’s call omitted the east — impossible unless he was east of Mecca, exposing the report as fabrication. Fun detail for casual conversation.
• XREF: connects to: A medieval pilgrim fabricated or garbled a description of the Muslim call to prayer; Medieval transcriptions of the adhan captured how it sounded to Christian ears