Pobožnost daljine
Piety of Distance

Summary/Abstract: In this paper, I am focusing on the Hajj as a form of the piety of traversing distance. While the Hajj has been a subject of scholarly and Sufi polemics and meaning-making processes, what is often left out are the mechanisms of continuity underpinning the vitality of the Hajj for each and every generation of believers. These mechanisms are embedded in the piety of distance, which is comprised of several elements: the centrality of the traveling body, the ambiguity of the pilgrimage as a moral category, and the responsibility towards other Muslims. Based on the examples from my book ‘’Bosnian Hajj Literature: Multiple Paths to the Holy’’ (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2022) and other Hajj related publications, I show how Muslims, Bosniak, and non-Bosniak, both in the past and present, cultivated the piety of distance.

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