Muslim Travellers (COMPARATIVE STUDIES ON MUSLIM SOCIETIES) - Hardcover

Eickelman

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0520070194 ISBN 13: 9780520070196

Publisher: University of California Press, 1992

Synopsis

Focusing on travel in Muslim societies from Malaysia to West Africa to Western Europe from the first centuries of Islam to the present, the contributors to this edition investigate the role of religious doctrine in motivating travel. While pilgrimage is usually seen as travel with a uniquely religious purpose, this exploration of the role of travel in Muslim societies and in Islamic doctrine shows that other forms of travelfor learning, visits to shrines, exile, and labor migrationalso shape the religious imagination. Conversely, travel for specifically religious purposes often has important economic and political consequences.

The contributors explore the transnational and local significance of pilgrimage and migration, showing how these journeys heighten a universal sense of "being Muslim" while also inspiring the redefinition of the frontiers of sect, language, territory, and nation. In this way, encounters with Muslim "others" have been as important in shaping community self-definition as encounters with European "others."

Linking pilgrimage and migration to issues such as class, ethnicity, and gender, Muslim Travellers will be of special value to students of history and anthropology and to those in cross-disciplinary courses such as Islamic civilization and world religions.

About this title

About the Author

Dale F. Eickelman is Ralph and Richard Lazarus Professor of Anthropology and Human Relations at Dartmouth College.James Piscatori is Senior Lecturer in Political Science at University College of Wales in Aberystwyth.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0520070194
• ISBN 13: 9780520070196
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 310