Empire and the Hajj

Pilgrims, Plagues, and Pan-Islam Under British Surveillance, 1865–1908

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8966060
AutoresMichael Christopher Low (0000-0002-5254-4654, autor de correspondencia)
Año2008
Volumen40
Número2
Páginas290b-290b
Fecha de publicación2008-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaInternational Journal Middle East Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0020-7438 • E-ISSN: 1471-6380
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0020743808080896
OpenAlexW4239063362
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas52
Referencias citadas52

From the mid-19th to the early 20th centuries, the forces unleashed by the age of European imperialism and its rapid encroachment on dār al-Islām increasingly brought the hajj under the scrutiny and regulation of non-Muslim powers. The driving force behind these dramatic changes in administration of the hajj was the expansion of the British Empire. As Britain's power in the Indian subcontinent grew, so too did its maritime supremacy throughout the Indian Ocean basin. Looking to secure its access to India, ward off its European competitors, and expand its commercial interests in southwestern Arabia, the Red Sea, and the Gulf of Aden, Britain's role in the region was intensified by the transit opportunities that emerged with the development of regular steamship routes between the Mediterranean and India from the 1830s to the 1860s and the eventual opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. With the exponential growth of maritime traffic that accompanied these technological advances came a similarly dramatic rise in the oceangoing pilgrim traffic from and through British India. Owing to this expansion in the number of seaborne pilgrims, the hajj soon came to be recognized as the primary conduit for the globalization of epidemic diseases, such as cholera and plague

Ancient history · Archaeology · British Empire · Colonialism · Economic history · Empire · Geography · Hajj · Hegemony · Indian ocean · Islam · Ottoman empire · Political science · Politics · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · Hispanic-African Historical Relations · History · Islamic Studies and History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Maritime Security and History · Oceanography · Travel-related health issues