Tale of Two Keys

For eight centuries, a secretive fraternity of eunuchs held the keys to Islam's holiest sites. Adel Alquraishi, the only photographer ever granted access, reveals the secret they kept.

For more than eight hundred years, the Prophet's Mosque in Medina was tended by the Āghawāt: a secretive fraternity of eunuchs entrusted with the key to the Prophet's burial chamber. Today only one remains.

In The Tale of Two Keys, Adel Alquraishi, the only photographer ever permitted to document these guardians, sets out to answer the question their existence poses: why were the keepers of Islam's holiest places required to be eunuchs? His investigation turns on two keys, one to the Prophet's Noble Chamber in Medina, one to the Kaʿba in Mecca. Through more than 100 photographs of places, objects and rituals rarely seen by any outsider, Alquraishi uncovers a hidden symmetry between the two sanctuaries, of male and female, one and many, that has shaped Islam's sacred geography for centuries. A landmark of access and artistry, and a companion to his acclaimed The Guardians and Al Astar.