The British Empire and the Hajj, 1865-1956 by John SlightPublication Date: 2015-09-21
The British Empire at its height governed more than half the world's Muslims. It was a political imperative for the Empire to present itself to Muslims as a friend and protector, to take seriously what one scholar called its role as ?the greatest Mohamedan power in the world.? Few tasks were more important than engagement with the pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj). Every year, tens of thousands of Muslims set out for Mecca from imperial territories throughout Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, from the Atlantic Ocean to the South China Sea. John Slight traces the Empire's complex interactions with the Hajj from the 1860s, when an outbreak of cholera led Britain to engage reluctantly in medical regulation of pilgrims, to the Suez Crisis of 1956.