Mecca was quite far from the al-Andalus and the Maghrib, but they were well-connected to the eastern Muslim world through sea and overland trade routes in North Africa. For the first couple of hundred years of Muslim rule in al-Andalus, the entire Muslim world was ruled by the Umayyad Caliphate and it was relatively easy to perform the Hajj, for anyone who had the time and money. Later, the Umayyad government fell apart in al-Andalus, and North Africa was ruled by different dynasties (the Tulunids, the Fatimids, etc.), but Muslims could still travel from al-Andalus to Mecca without ever leaving Muslim territory.

In the 11th century, the Maghrib came under the control of the Almoravids, a dynasty established following the pilgrimage of its founder, Yahya ibn Ibrahim, around 1035. Ibn Ibrahim brought back teachers and scholars to help reform his the religious practises of his Berber tribe, and his reforms eventually spread to other Berber tribes as well. The alliance of Almoravid Berbers soon conquered the Maghrib and al-Andalus.

The Almoravids were known for their religious conservatism, but a few generations later they weren’t considered quite conservative enough for another Berber pilgrim, Ibn Tumart. He had gone to Baghdad to study, and also went on pilgrimage to Mecca. He returned to the Maghrib and his reform movement ended up overthrowing the Almoravids in the 1140s. They spread into Spain as well by the 1170s. Typically in English we call Ibn Tumart’s dynasty the Almohads, from al-Muwahiddun, “believers in the Oneness of God”, implying that they believed the Almoravids and other Muslims had fallen away from true monotheism.

Pilgrims from this period in the Maghrib arrived in the crusader kingdom of Jerusalem during the reign of King Fulk of Jerusalem (sometime between 1131 and 1143):

“Once a real devil of a Frank called William Jiba went out in a boat of his on a raid and he captured a ship carrying Muslim pilgrims from the Maghrib, around four hundred souls, men and women.” (The Book of Contemplation, pg. 94)

The Damascene poet Usama ibn Munqidh, who often visited the crusader kingdom as a diplomat, was able to ransom some of them, but most of them were sold into slavery. Usama happily notes that 38 of them were later able to escape into the Muslim-majority villages of the kingdom. Were they able to continue their pilgrimages? Did they eventually return home? Unfortunately we don’t know.

A famous pilgrim from the Almohad period is Ibn Jubayr. He was born in Valencia and was the secretary to the Almohad governor of Granada. The governor, so the story goes, had forced him to drink seven cups of wine, but then felt guilty for making him break the religious law against alcohol, so he filled up the seven cups with dinars. Ibn Jubayr used the money to pay for his pilgrimage.

He left Granada on February 3, 1183 and travelled to Sardinia, Sicily, Crete, and Egypt, then down the Red Sea to Mecca, where he arrived six months later on August 4:

We entered Mecca - God protect it - at the first hour of Thursday the I3th of Rabi', being the 4th of August [1183], by the 'Umrah Gate. As we marched that night, the full moon had thrown its rays upon the earth, the night had lifted its veil, voices struck the ears with the Talbiyat ['Here am I, O God, here am I'], from all sides, and tongues were loud in invocation, humbly beseeching God to grant them their requests, sometimes redoubling their Talbiyat, and sometimes imploring with prayers. Oh night most happy, the bride of all the nights of life, the virgin of the maidens of time.

And so, at the time and on the day we have mentioned, we came to God's venerable Haram, the place of sojourn of Abraham the Friend (of God), and found the Ka'bah, the Sacred House, the unveiled bride conducted (like a bride to her groom) to the supreme felicity of heaven, encompassed by the deputations [pilgrims] of the All-Merciful. We performed the tawaf of the new arrival, and then prayed at the revered Maqam. We clung to the covering of the Ka'bah near the Multazam, which is between the Black Stone and the door, and is a place where prayers are answered. We entered the dome of Zamzam and drank of its waters which is 'to the purpose for which it is drunk', as said the Prophet - may God bless and preserve him - and then performed the sa'i between al-Safa and al-Marwah. After this we shaved and entered a state of halal. Praise be to God for generously including us in the pilgrimage to Him and for making us to be of those on whose behalf the prayers of Abraham reach. Sufficient He is for us and the best Manager. We took lodging in Mecca at a house called al-Halal near to the Haram and the Bab al-Suddah, one of its gates, in a room having many domestic conveniences and overlooking the Haram and the sacred Ka'bah. (The Travels of Ibn Jubayr, Pg 75-76)

He stayed in Mecca until March 1184, then travelled to Baghdad, Damascus, and the crusader cities of Acre and Tyre on the Mediterranean, and arrived back in Granada in April 1185. The Mecca section of his “Travels” is about 100 pages, and it’s an extremely interesting account of the city and the Hajj in the late 12th century. But as an Almohad true believer, Ibn Jubayr actually thought the area was corrupted, both politically and religiously (although he praised Saladin, the sultan of Egypt and Syria, as a true Muslim).

There are numerous other examples of pilgrims from al-Andalus and the Maghrib. The prolific scholar Ibn ‘Arabi, who was from Murcia, travelled to Mecca in 1201 and never came back. He died in Damascus in 1240. Ibn Battuta, from Tangier, travelled to Mecca and almost all of the rest of the known world. Unfortunately he doesn’t really mention Mecca in detail, unlike Ibn Jubayr; he just notes that he visited it. From even further away, Mansa Musa of Ghana made his famous pilgrimage to Mecca in the 14th century.

Once the Christian kingdoms in Spain began conquering al-Andalus, Muslims who lived in Christian territory were apparently not prevented from going on pilgrimage, at least not officially. The Christian rulers ensured that they had the legal right to travel safely in the Mediterranean on the way to Muslim territory. In practice, though, Muslims living in Christian lands might be randomly attacked and enslaved, and ships carrying Maghribi or Spanish pilgrims could be attacked by Christian merchants/pirates.

So yes, Muslims from al-Andalus and the Maghrib frequently went to Mecca. It was as simple as walking there or finding passage on a ship, at least for those who could spare the time and money to do it. It would take a few months to get there - Ibn Jubayr took six months to get there, and in total he was gone for over two years, but he made a lot of stops along the way. Muslims who couldn’t afford to travel all the way to Mecca could visit other holy shrines in al-Andalus and North Africa, but of course it was important to fulfill the hajj to Mecca for those who were able.

Sources:

Amira K. Bennison, The Almoravid and Almohad Empires (Edinburgh University Press, 2016)

Mark D. Meyerson, The Muslims of Valencia in the Age of Fernando and Isabella (University of California Press, 1991)

Brian Catlos, Muslims of Medieval Latin Christendom, c. 1050-1614 (Cambridge University Press, 2015)

L.P. Harvey, “The Moriscos and the Hajj”, in Bulletin of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 14, no. 1 (1987)

Primary sources;

The Travels of Ibn Jubayr, trans. Roland Broadhurst (London, 1952, repr. Goodword Books, 2004)

Usama ibn Munqidh, The Book of Contemplation: Islam and the Crusades, trans. Paul M. Cobb (Penguin Classics, 2008)