About this item
Muslim pilgrims travel to a wide variety of places, not only the holy cities of Mecca and Karbala. Around the world there are countless sacred sites, including the graves of important historical and religious individuals, the tombs of saints, and natural sites such as mountaintops and springs. All of these places are located within an Islamic universe that is present with the spirit of Allah and holds the promise of barakat - the blessings that pilgrims often seek.Challenging the simplistic presentations of Islamic pilgrimage existent in much of the scholarship, Dr. Sophia Rose Arjana explores the diverse traditions practiced by the 1.7 billion Muslims across the world. Issues such as time, space, tourism, virtual pilgrimages, and the use of computers and smartphone apps all come under consideration in this wide-ranging study.
About the Author
Dr. Sophia Rose Arjana is Associate Professor of Religious Studies in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Western Kentucky University. She has published articles, book chapters, and books on several subjects in the study of Islam, including pilgrimage, Islamophobia, popular culture, and feminism. These include articles in Shi'a Studies, a journal published by the Centre for Islamic Shi'a Studies in London, an article in ARTS: The Journal of the Society of Arts in Religion and Theological Studies, book chapters on the trope of "Turning Turk" in Orientalist discourse, an article on the film Argo and the representation of Iranians in American film, a book chapter on the political philosophy of Ali Shariati, and more recently, a chapter on religion and popular culture in the United States. Dr. Arjana has also published several several encyclopedia articles on subjects ranging from dreaming in Islam to contemporary Islamophobia. Her first book, Muslims in the Western Imagination (Oxford University Press) , examines the history of anti-Muslim rhetoric in Europe and North America. It received accolades from fellow scholars and is being published in an Arabic edition in 2018. Her second book, Pilgrimage in Islam: Traditional and Modern Practices (Oneworld Academic) , is a comprehensive study of pilgrimage, ritual, sacred space, and technology in Islam. In November of 2017, Dr. Arjana's third book was published, a study of Muslim female superheroes, such as Ms. Marvel, Qahera, Raat, and Burka Avenger. This work, titled Veiled Superheroes: Islam, Feminism, and Popular Culture, is published by Lexington Books. Her latest book focuses on the commodification of mysticism in North America and Europe, new age religion and spirituality, and cultural colonialism. Titled Selling Rumi, Buying Buddha: Mysticism in the Modern World, it will be published by Oneworld in August 2020.
