Vast crowds of Muslim pilgrims flocked to Mount Arafat on Thursday to perform the main hajj rites, with those from Arab Spring states praying fervently for freedom and stability for their country.

Men, women, and children from 189 countries streamed from dawn to the site in western Saudi Arabia, some setting up small colorful tents in which they slept and prayed.

Beggars and street vendors also dotted the roads searching for generous souls among the 2.5 million believers expected to converge on the plain for the most important rituals of the five-day hajj.

According to Mecca governor Prince Khaled al-Faisal, around 1.7 million people had traveled from abroad for the pilgrimage, many of them from Middle Eastern countries which have been shaken by Arab Spring uprisings.

At the noon prayers in Namira mosque at Arafat, Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh warned pilgrims against using any "national or extreme slogans" during their stay in the kingdom.

But on the vast plain surrounding Mount Arafat, prayers reflected the instability sweeping the region.

"God destroy Bashar," prayed 30-year-old Mohammed Ahmed, referring to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as he stood atop the "Mount of Mercy" in Arafat plain.

However, his mother nudged him nervously, urging him to keep quiet.

"Now regime troops will kill our whole family back home" in Syria's northern Idlib province, swathes of which, but not all, are under rebel control.