Pilgrimage to a Ritual

In this article, the author challenges the stereotypical definition of pilgrimage as a journey to a shrine or place of religious importance and shows how Dawoodi Bohras make a pilgrimage to wherever their spiritual leader chooses to deliver his Muharram sermons. Drawing on his ethnography among this religious group, he elucidates how the rituals around a yearly religious ritual shaped the annual pilgrimage of an Indian religious group.

Jamkaran

The author of this article discusses the experiences of Iranian Shiite pilgrims to a mosque where a special connection to Mahdi is expected. In this article, he focuses mostly on the representations of this pilgrimage in the Iranian social media. He shows how social media, in the case of Jamkaran mosque, contributed to the networking of pilgrimage and how this digitized pilgrimage is embodied in different digital scopes. Therefore, a strong relationship between digital technology and pilgrimage appears as a set of individual and social experiences.

Shrines and Pilgrimage in Southern Kazakhstan

Based on the critical role that pilgrimage plays in Islamic ritual cultures of Central Asia, the chapter starts with introducing Kazakhstan and the saints and shrines of the southern part of this country. Then the chapter discusses the manifestations and features of the Muslims saints and discussed the connection of the shrines and religious policy in post-Soviet Kazakhstan. The article concludes by considering the grave of Khuja Ahmad Yassevi Shrine and some other essential shrines as examples of pilgrimage tradition of this country.

Economies of Piety at the Syrian Shrine of Sayyida Zaynab

The author of this article has focused on the shrine of Sayyida Zaynab on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria. The shrine is visited by Iraqi, Afghan, and Iranian Shiite Muslims. This chapter provides a brief history of the shrine town and examines the geographical distribution of economic activities in the shrine town. By examining the various pious "economic” activities in and around the shrine, she contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how space and consumerism influence religious practices and consumer relationships.

Red, White, and Blue

The authors of this article examine the travel narratives of several Muslim Americans who have performed Hajj. They try to provide some insights into the different ways in which they experience the journey. They start with a discussion about the general situation of Muslims in America and explain the modality of arranging to travel to Mecca. At last, they explore the hajj narratives of the American Muslims and read some of the essential hajj travelogues written by American Muslims.

Pilgrimage and Transnational Religious Imagination in the Muslim Communities of Brazil

Focusing on the opening of Brazilian society to transnational and globalized cultural trends in the past decades, the author concentrates on the issue of the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca and other Middle Eastern pilgrimage sites. He discusses the religious and cultural dynamics of the Muslim communities in Brazil and connects that with Brazilian Muslims subjects that experience a kind of globalizing in transnational arenas. The author argues that the transformation of the Muslim religious subjects often implies adherence to a specific codification of Islam or, at least, reconfiguration of previous understandings and forms of living one’s Muslim identity.

The Hajj and Politics in China

The author tries to provide a comprehensive report of the Hajj in China in terms of human participation, management, and implications of hajj to the politics of this country. He refers to the regional and ethnic variations in Hajj activity and explains the “China’s Hajj Belts." By referring to the issues such as female pilgrims, urban-rural gaps, ethnicity, gender, and the problem of hajj as a collective action, he provides a thorough report of hajj done in China currently.

Grave Visiting (Ziyara) in Indonesia

This chapter is about the religious and spiritual observances performed at gravesites in the Republic of Indonesia. The authors of this article have focused on the fact that some of the most important gravesites in this country attract visitors from more than one religion. They explain the non-hajj pilgrimage in Indonesia in general and then elaborately explain Mount Kawi pilgrimage center that is located in a forested hilly region about sixty kilometers from the regional city of Malang, in East Java. Drawing on theories of particularity and materiality, the authors try to bring a postcolonial state and its normative religious discourses into the picture.

Pilgrimages of the Dream

In this article, the author explains the experiences and sensations of Pakistani pilgrims toward a local pilgrimage saint and tries to locate it within the broader context of the visionary aspects of Muslim religious experience. Focusing on the intersections of dreams and shrines, he expands the discussion of the social sphere to include the broader scope of pilgrimage. To understand the local pilgrimage tradition in Pakistan, the author incorporates scholarship on songs, dreams, and architecture and provides an in-depth analysis of the pilgrimage in this country.

On Mediation and Magnetism: Or, Why Destroy Saint Shrines?

The author has analyzed reformist movements that have criticized non-Hajj pilgrimage sites and saint veneration. Discussing “spiritual magnetism” of the shrine, the author describes the shrine destructions in the current Middle East, North and West Africa, and Central Asia and tries to unfold the very social and cultural bases of anti-pilgrimage forces especially the Shabab movement and the Fatwa on Sufi shrines.