Saudi Arabia has welcomed over 1.5 million international pilgrims for this year’s hajj, surpassing last year’s numbers despite the most severe regional conflict in years. The pilgrimage, culminating in rites that began on Monday, stands as a striking display of religious determination against a backdrop of military escalation.

The surge comes weeks after US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran in late February triggered waves of Iranian reprisals against Saudi and Gulf targets. The attacks forced widespread airspace closures and drove up travel costs, with Gulf carriers in the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain racing to restore operational capacity in the weeks before the hajj. Saudi authorities, viewing the pilgrimage as both a sacred duty and a logistically intensive national project, invested heavily in mitigating disruption.

Viewed from Western capitals, the determination of pilgrims like Fadel, a US national who said he would have attended even “if the war were still ongoing”, reflects a common faith-driven resolve. Many cited the Koran’s description of Mecca as the “safest place in the world”, a conviction that has long insulated the hajj from temporal anxieties. Yet for security planners in Riyadh, the stakes were higher, with millions converging on sites recently threatened.

The hajj’s global reach is also reshaping local observances far from the Arabian Peninsula. In India, the country’s Muslims will mostly celebrate Eid al-Adha on 28 May, a day after Saudi Arabia, owing to moon sighting conventions. Kashmir, however, will align with Saudi Arabia on 27 May, a divergence underscoring the complex social and political currents running through the Islamic calendar.

Analysts in London note that the robust turnout reinforces the Saudi Vision 2030 ambition to expand religious tourism, even as the kingdom navigates a volatile neighbourhood. But the hajj’s orderly completion, if achieved without major incident, may also signal that Gulf airspace and infrastructure can absorb shocks — a marker of resilience tested as never before.