At the beginning of this century only a few thousand pilgrims performed the Hajj (annual pilgrimage to Makkah) owing to the arduous nature of the journey but during the last decade, due to ease of transportation, this figure has reached 3 million. During the Pilgrimage, pilgrims stay in Makkah, a city of 500,000 for about 10 days. The impact of such large numbers of visitors to the city severely stretches the city's services and infrastructure and, indeed, has resulted in immense physical changes such as larger roads, the construction of urban motorways and an ever increasing building size. The only way, therefore, of finding solutions to these problems is to proceed with a systematic analysis of the whole city system including transportation, accommodation and supporting services such as water, sewerage and electric power.

     In the past, the pace of change was so rapid that solutions to these logistical problems were managed on a priority and emergency basis but which are now being managed on an increasingly sophisticated basis since the techniques of Hajj management have become more scientiflc. It is in this area of logistical management that this publication represents a significant hallmark since it describes a holistic method of logistic analysis the application of which has already made an important breakthrough and must, therefore, form the foundation of future Hajj planning.

     However, it is important to appreciate that the methodology developed in this book has wider application in that it is also relevant to other similar large scale movement phenomena.

     Adnan Abdulbadie Al-Yafi, former Deputy Director-General and Assistant Professor at the Hajj Research Centre, was born in Jeddah in 1950. He was awarded his Bachelor's degree in 1973 and his Master of Business Administration in 1977 from Saint Edward's University, Austin, Texas. In 1983, he received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Texas at Austin. In 1978, he was appointed a Research Assistant at the Hajj Research Centre and in 1984 was appointed Assistant Professor.

Dr. AI-Yafi has made many significant contributions in the field of Hajj research particularly in the areas of movement and traffic analysis, land use and pilgrim accommodation, overall statistics and forecasting, socio-economic profiles of pilgrims and detailed studies of ritual activities such as lapidation and animal sacrifice. He has written many research papers, technical reports and documents concerning the Hajj in addition to advisory papers to the Hajj planners and decision makers. The original research presented in these publications has been instrumental in initiating new applications to the planning and management of Hajj.

Dr. Al-Yafi has represented the Hajj Research Centre in many official and executive committees and has participated in several conferences and seminars which focused on the application of modern technology and logistical management techniques in the analysis of Hajj research.