The Ottoman Empire and the Modern Hajj: Converging Histories from Central Asia to the Indian Ocean

Abstract

From a devastating pandemic to worldwide protests for racial justice, 2020 is likely to stand out to scholars of globalization and human interconnectivity for several reasons. Thanks to a pair of original and remarkably complementary monographs by historians Lâle Can and Michael Christopher Low published in 2020, we can add groundbreaking scholarship on the hajj pilgrimage to the list. Drawing from diverse but equally impressive stocks of Ottoman, colonial, and privately held archives from the long nineteenth century, Can and Low have unearthed a lost world of contacts and collisions on the high roads and seas to Mecca. Together—and each in its own way— Spiritual Subjects and Imperial Mecca offer fresh historical insights and compelling arguments on the making of the largest annual gathering of people in the world that is the modern Muslim hajj.