Saudi Arabia: Hajj ambassador

British ambassador Simon Collis made headlines worldwide when on 13 September his conversion to Islam was confirmed when he was pictured having completed the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, along with his Syrian wife Huda and some 18,000 other British pilgrims. One of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s most prominent remaining Arabists – GSN has followed his travels around the Middle East and North Africa for the best part of 30 years – Collis is the first ambassador to the kingdom to declare his conversion, although at least one predecessor was said to have become a covert Muslim.