Stoning of the Devil
One of a series of rituals carried out by Muslim pilgrims as part of the annual Islamic Hajj pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca
The Stoning of the Devil (Arabic: رمي الجمرات ramy al-jamarāt, lit. "throwing of the jamarāt [place of pebbles]")
is part of the annual Islamic Hajj pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. During the ritual, Muslim pilgrims throw pebbles at three walls (formerly pillars), called jamarāt, from the Jamaraat Bridge in the city of Mina just east of Mecca. It is a symbolic reenactment of Ibrahim's (or Abraham's) hajj, where he stoned three pillars representing the Shaitan (or Satan), and Muslims' temptation to disobey the will of Allah.
On Eid al-Adha (the 10th day of the month of Dhu al-Hijjah), pilgrims must strike the Big Jamarah or Al-Jamrah Al-Aqaba with seven pebbles. After the stoning is completed on the day of Eid, every pilgrim must cut or shave their hair. On each of the following two days, they must hit all three walls with seven pebbles each, going in order from east to west. Thus at least 21 pebbles are needed for the ritual; more stones would be needed if they failed to hit the pillar. It is permissible for the stones to fall into the designated areas of the pillars, and there is no need to throw them again if they land in the appropriate vicinity.
Some pilgrims stay at Mina for an additional day, in which case they must again stone each wall seven times.
“Stoning of the Devil” enters the record as one of a series of rituals carried out by Muslim pilgrims as part of the annual Islamic Hajj pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Stoning, Devil and series can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q585619. Authority coordinates are 21.421, 39.873. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Stoning of the Devil” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.