A Shi'ite Pilgrimage to Mecca, 1885-1886: The Safarnâmeh of Mirzâ Mo?ammad ?osayn Farâhâni - Softcover

Farâhâni, Mirzâ Mohammed Hosayn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0292776225 ISBN 13: 9780292776227

Publisher: University of Texas Press, 1990

Synopsis

Western accounts of the Hajj, the ritual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, are rare, since access to Mecca is forbidden to non-Muslims. In the Muslim world, however, pilgrimage literature is a well-established genre, dating back to the earliest centuries of the Islamic era. A Shiʿite Pilgrimage to Mecca is taken from the original nineteenth-century Persian manuscript of the Safarnâmeh of Mirzâ Moḥammad Ḥosayn Farâhâni, a well-educated, keenly observant, Iranian Shiʿite gentleman.

This memoir holds a wealth of social and economic information about Czarist Russia, the Ottoman Empire, Egypt, Northern Iran, and Arabia. The author is a meticulous observer, recording details of distances, currencies, accommodations, modes of travel, and so on. He records the experiences encountered by pilgrims of his day: physical hardships, disease, generosity and compassion, banditry, hospitality, comradeship, and exaltation. And, without prejudice, he discusses the tensions between the Shiʿites and the Sunnites in the holy places—tensions that still exist and have erupted in bloody clashes during recent pilgrimages.

A Shiʿite Pilgrimage to Mecca will appeal to a wide audience of general readers, Middle Eastern scholars, anthropologists, and historians.

About this title

About the Author:

Mirzâ Mohammed Hosayn Farâhâni (1847–1912) was a Persian diplomat.

Language Notes:

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Persian

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0292776225
• ISBN 13: 9780292776227
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 432