Pilgrimage to Mecca - the hajj - is one of the five basic obligations of the pious Muslim. The Maghrebi caravan departed annually from Morocco, Cairo and Damascus; until this century it was customary for large groups of pilgrims to move in tent encampments with an armed escort for protection from nomads and bandits. When the present picture was sold in these Rooms in 1976, it was proposed that the foreground figures were from Khabili, an area inland from Algiers, and the scenery North African. The straw hats worn by two of the men in the foreground are, however, characteristic of Moroccan dress and the verdant mountains suggest that the caravan has left North Africa and reached Ottoman territory, possibly the coast of Syria. Ottoman flags are shown on the encampment and the horsemen are playing the popular Turkish sport of jirid or lance-throwing