
































Globalization and the Hajj Pilgrimage: From a Brief History to the Future 

Management of Mecca and Medina 

Review by Solaiman M. Fazel 

Hajj: Global Interactions through Pilgrimage 

by Luitgard Mols & Marjo Buitelaar, eds

Sidestone Press, 2015

Mols and Buitelaar’s edited volume places the Hajj within a wider historical scope that informs us of

the ways that the political and cultural spheres of the Middle East have been restructured as a result of

interactions with the global economic system since the second half of the nineteenth century. These

social  transformations  have  been instigated  by  the  advent  of  modern  technologies,  new modes  of

transportation, and the rise of a middle class that has placed travels to Hajj (and Umra) within reach of

increasing number of Muslim pilgrims from the so-called Muslim heartland and overseas. The volume

shows the processes of change by tracing the flow of contemporary objects and ideas on networks of

scholars, entrepreneurs, artists, and communities.

Hajj weaves  together  a  rich  and  eclectic  collection  of  material:  (new)  primary  sources,  curated

collections, material culture, fieldwork data, and in-person interviews. It discusses the theory, rituals,

and  personal  experiences  of  the  Hajj  from  various  social,  class,  and  personal  perspectives.  The

individual chapters make effective use of maps, graphs, scrolls, murals, and paintings to help the reader

along. The twelve chapters are organized into two overlapping sections. The first section covers the

broader “religious, social, and political meanings of the Hajj,” (p. 1) and the second section reminds us

that Mecca has always been a venue for the exchange of products. Contributors to the second section

study Hajj-related objects and tell us about the implication of Hajj “pilgrimage in the daily lives of

Muslims in the past and present” (p. 2).



Chapter  one opens with a  brief  overview of  the  pilgrimage theories.  Buitelaar  includes  the  1980s

developments when the gaze of pilgrimage studies shifted from intrinsic quality toward shrines as sites

of contestation among different social groups. Buitelaar argues for a methodological approach for an

anthropology of Hajj  that  could transcend the “intrinsic” and “constructed” debate.  In chapter two

Werbner states how Pakistani Muslims in the United Kingdom interpret Hajj as a ritual of purification

and connection between distant places. The sequence of Hajj rites that pilgrims perform connects them

to a “powerful chain of placed memory,” and gives them a sacred “homing desire” (p. 49). In chapter

three  McLoughlin  shows  how Muslim identity  is  constituted  through  the  enactment  of  normative

religious scripts such as the Hajj among the British Muslims. In addition, he points out the lucrative

Hajj industry sadly remains risky, “and fraud has become a problem” while the need to modernize

services and facilities that can safely accommodate over three million pilgrims at once looms large (p.

46).

Bianchi’s chapter discusses that Hajj travel has become a politicized feature of daily life in Indonesia

and  Turkey.  In  both  countries  government  “sponsorship  of  the  Hajj  generates  a  steady  stream of

scandals, subsidies, services, contracts, investments, and patronage” (p. 65). Requests for favoritism

intensifies when Saudi officials suddenly change the national Hajj quotas, which are often politically

driven. Bianchi argues for restructuring the Hajj management since Saudi officials remain out of touch

with  the  more  advanced  cosmopolitan  societies.  Moreover,  Saudi  officials  continue  to  “demolish

historic sites in the Holy Cities, and systematically mistreat Shi’ite, female, and non-white pilgrims

from every corner of the world” (p. 78). The final chapter of section one is by Leeuwen who revisits

the theme of transnational “network of scholars,” the “place of religion in future societies,” and the

“purification of  the faith” that  were part  of Rida’s  1916 pilgrimage account  (p.  91).  The essential

question  of  how  to  reform  and  by  what  method  that  would  not  result  in  more  conflict  in  the

heterogeneous Muslim societies are not discussed. Some of the ideas brought forward in Leeuwen’s

chapter overlaps with Langner’s section in A Global Middle East (2015).

The second section of the volume covers nineteenth century arts and material cultures related to the

Hajj and Medina. Porter in chapter six gives an overview of the symbolic meaning of the gifts that were

sent by the elites and kept safe in the Qubbat al-Sharab structures in Mecca. This notion of gift giving

is reminiscent of the social system of reciprocity in which the honor of giver and recipient are engaged,

and forms the central thesis of Marcel Mauss in The Gift (2000).



In chapter seven, Moore explores the visual manifestations of Chinese relations to the Hajj, the books

written in Chinese known as Han Kitab, and refers to Liu Zhi (1660-1739) who argued that Islam does

not conflict with obedience to the Chinese imperial state. In the next chapter, Tütüncü studies a three

dimensional oil painting of Mecca from approximately 1710-1712. He gives insights about the nature

of urban Mecca and its cultural topography. Kruk and Oort surveys the decorative murals in parts of

Egypt,  which was usually  added by relatives  and friends of the pilgrims for  their  homecoming to

highlight the major elements of the pilgrimage fulfillment. They argue against the notion that murals

had an apotropaic function (p. 165). Similar to murals that were painted on the interior and exterior

walls was the pilgrimage scrolls, another manifestation of the Hajj pilgrimage. Mols’ chapter studies

the textual and pictorial Hajj Certificates from the late-nineteenth century, and elaborates on the impact

of pilgrimage on the local social relations.

Vrolijk  approaches  the  study  of  Hajj-related  objects  from a  different  perspective.  He  studies  and

contextualizes a mid-fifteenth century map with Ka’ba at its center. He argues that a Mecca-centric

world is an aberration in the tradition of Islamic cartography. The depiction of the Ka’ba in maps is a

relatively late phenomenon, dating from the mid-15th century onwards (p. 216). The second object that

he looks at is a group portrait taken at the Dutch consulate in Jeddah, which he argues is not an accurate

depiction of daily life in late nineteenth century, but an artificial view with strong orientalist overtones

(p. 225). In the final chapter, Neil van der Linden, offers a collection of twentieth and early twenty-first

century songs from Egypt,  Syria,  and Lebanon that  celebrate  “the departure and the return of  the

pilgrims” and concludes that this genre of songs are not as diverse as it once was (p. 229). He argues

that the nature of music celebrating pilgrimage has been impacted by the parallel rise of puritanical

teachings and bourgeoisification.

The writing throughout this volume is rich, thoughtful, and engaging. Scholars of Pilgrimage Studies

and students will find this timely publication useful since there is not a lot of prior anthropological

studies on this range of topics. The bibliographies at end of the each chapter includes a list of old and

new published works, which are useful for theorists and anthropologists of Hajj. It is also important for

Hajj bureaucrats since the issue of (mis)management that led to the tragic loss of life of hundreds of

pilgrims was amplified at the United Nations General Assembly 70th Session.

Lastly,  this  volume is  a welcome addition to  the anthropology of the Middle East  and Islam. The



chapters force us to rethink the impulse toward homogenization, canonization, and legal consensus of

scholars that is often given priority and appears to be inconsistent to historical Islam and to today’s

cosmopolitan realities. It remains to be seen if the problem of sectarian, class, and ethnic discrimination

will intensify or vanish with the rise of religiously inclined bureaucrats. How, one wonders, will the

present  frustrations  with  Saudi  control  over  Mecca  impact  the  personal  experience  and  the  Hajj

Industry in the near future.  Hajj leaves us with the palpable question of whether the management of

Islam’s holy sanctuaries in Mecca and Medina should become under the auspices of Muslim majority

countries.

References Cited

Langner, Joachim

2015 Religion in Motion and the Essence of Islam: Manifestations of the Global  in Muhammad

Abduh’s Response to Farah Antūn. In A Global Middle East: Mobility, Materiality and Culture in the

Modern Age,  1880-1940.  Liat  Kozma,  Cyrus  Schayegh,  and Avner Wishnitzer  eds.  Pp.  356-364.

London: I.U. Tauris and Co. Ltd.

Mauss, Marcel

2000. The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies. Trans. by W.D. Halls. New

York: W.W. Norton.

Solaiman M.  Fazel is  a  Ph.D.  Candidate  in  the  Department  of  Anthropology,  and  an  Associate

Instructor  of  Sociocultural  Anthropology  and Persian  at  Indiana  University.  His  research  interest

includes Globalization,  Minorities and the State, and the Middle East. His doctoral dissertation is

tentatively titled,  A Historical Ethnography of Qizilbash: State, Modernism, and A Shi’a Minority in

Kabul, 1880-1978.

© 2015 Solaiman M. Fazel 


