Hajji Mama, or the Christian Family Hajj to Jerusalem

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This event will be held in English.

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From the 17th through 19th centuries, the Balkan Christians of the Ottoman Empire modeled their pilgrimage to Jerusalem on the Muslim Hajj to Mecca. They even called themselves ‘hajjis’, using an Islamic honorific, while insisting on the strictly Christian nature of their quest. Through archival narratives and other scattered clues, Valentina Izmirlieva will explore how this paradoxical Christian Hajj evolved into a family project and a surprising vehicle for female empowerment in late Ottoman society.

Valentina Izmirlieva is Professor of Slavic Cultures at Columbia University, where she has taught since 1999. She has published widely on the interdependence of religious and political cultures in multi-religious empires and their successor states, with topics ranging from the medieval societies of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions to the post-Soviet cultural space. She founded and leads the global initiative Black Sea Networks and is currently the Director of the Harriman Institute for Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies at Columbia.

The Rendez-Vous de l’Institut Series is generously supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. You will find a full calendar of the Fellows’ Talks.

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