A 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 guardi...