The duty of the pilgrimage to the sanctuary of the Ka'ba (ḥajj), as imposed by Qur'ān 3: 91 on every Muslim, has been expounded in all the collections of traditions (ḥadīth) and all the textbooks of canonical law (fiqh). Historians dealt with the institution of the pilgrimage, and geographers described the sacred cities of Makka and Madīna as well as the surrounding country of al-Ḥijāz. The traditional and topical information about the pilgrimage had in time increased so much that in the sixth century A.H./twelfth century A.D. the celebrated Baghdād polyhistor Ibn al-Jauzī could compile it in a medium-sized handbook.