The author was treasurer and advisor to the Nawab of Tonk, a principality in the northwest of India, now part of the Indian state of Rajasthan. When the Nawab was deposed in 1867, Hafiz Ahmed Hassan accompanied him into exile, first to Benares and then in 1870 on the Hajj. Having visited the Holy Cities, the author travelled to England where he spent a short sojourn before returning to India. His account of the pilgrimage provides a valuable record of the conditions and practices of the time, with descriptions of Jeddah, Mecca and Medina, as well as his fellow pilgrims and the treatment they received at the hands of Bedouins and tax collectors. A useful adjunct to the works of Richard Burton and Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje.

First edition. 8vo, viii, 174 pp., 10 pages of ads at end, photographic frontispiece, fine original green decorative cloth gilt, bevelled boards, edges red, short splits to rear inner hinge but firm, a very good copy.