Bosnian Hajj Literature: Multiple Paths to the Holy

Summary

Bosnian Hajj Literature: Multiple Paths to the Holy focuses on conceptualisations, images and descriptions of Hajj and Islamic geography by Bosnian Muslim authors in different writing genres from the 16th to the 21st centuries. It shows how meanings of Hajj differed across time, while its significance for the believers remained unchanged. The analysis of conceptualisations includes looking into meanings that are ascribed to rites, narratives used to explain the ritual, emotional expressions that are connected to the pilgrimage, and social meanings attached to the gathering. On another level, because Hajj entails a journey as well, the book observes changes in the perception of travel including mechanisms of narrative and descriptive inclusion and exclusion, the image of Others (generally non-Muslims, but occasionally Muslim women), the role of transportation, food and lodging. Finally, the book shows what Bosnia meant for pilgrims in the creation of the sacred Islamic geography.This is the first critical and theoretically grounded book-length study of Hajj literature as a medium. Covering a period of several centuries and encompassing literature written in several languages, it redefines the ways pilgrimage can be understood and offers new methods for investigating the meaning and importance of Hajj for generations of premodern and modern believers.