Muslim Pilgrimage in the Modern World

“This multidisciplinary volume demonstrates how the hajj is impacted in the modern world by commerce, technology, and political concerns . . . [by] incorporating history, memory, and materiality and a consideration of communication, new media, and space.”—CHOICE

“Fascinating and eclectic. . . . A welcome contribution to the growing theoretical and empirical scholarship on Muslim pilgrimage in English. . . . Rahimi and Eshagi have done a fine job compiling essays that are packed with fresh insights and new ways of thinking about the practices and meanings of Muslim pilgrimages.”—H-Net Reviews

“A serious and theoretically informed set of studies that should constitute the basic starting point of any study on Muslim pilgrimage. At the very least, one can envisage setting the editors’ introduction profitably to a class of students to introduce them to the topic.”—Muslim World Book Review

“Featuring an innovative focus on the notion of ‘embodiment,’ this multidisciplinary volume’s attention to non-Hajj pilgrimage and the aesthetic and material cultures of pilgrimage—as well as to race, gender, class, and nationality—meshes well with issues that pervade the contemporary practices of Muslim pilgrimage. With its coverage of Muslims outside of the wide swath of lands that are traditionally the focus of scholarship on Islam, this book provides a nice glimpse into today’s landscapes where pilgrimage is a daily, normal part of life for many citizens.”—Eric Tagliacozzo, Cornell University

“This thematically organized volume on Muslim practices of religiously substantiated travel goes both far beyond mere descriptions—and far beyond the Hajj. A substantial contribution to a number of fields in the study of Islam.”—Jan-Peter Hartung, University of Goettingen