Pilgrimages

“Mirror of Chivalry: Salâh al-Dîn in the Medieval European Imagination,” in Images of the Other: Europe and the Muslim World before 1700. Cairo Papers on Social Science 19:2 (Summer, 1996), 7-38. Republished in J. Tolan, Sons of Ishmael: Muslims through European Eyes in the Middle Ages. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2008.

Hernández-Pérez, M. (2021). Media Contents and Fan Memories: Experience and Performance in Tourist narratives. Paper presented at the VIII - International Research Workshop “Mutual Images”. JAPAN PILGRIMAGES Experiences and motivations behind cultural and spiritual peregrinations from and to East Asia, Kyoto, Ryukoku University. https://mutualimages.org/2020/12/02/program-mutual-images-8th-international-workshop/

This paper sketches the history of the Señor de Tila (the Black Christ of Tila) and his antecedents, and suggests a relationship to the pre-Columbian Earth Lord. A Spanish version of this 2003 manuscript was published in 2007 in the journal Mesoamérica (49:82-113).

Throughout the nineteenth century, Maskilic journals increased their publication of anti-Hasidic satires. From the eighteen-sixties onward, this literature came primarily as a response to the revival in the publishing of Hasidic hagiography and to the spread of Hasidism into new territory. To this point, no complete review or even general survey has been performed on this extensive polemical literature, despite the fact that it has much to teach us about Hasidism and the Haskalah in those years. We are not speaking of an insignificant bibliographical lacuna, but of a disregard for an entire field of research which would shed light not only on a forgotten chapter of modern Hebrew and Yiddish literature but also on an important chapter in the relationships between Maskilim and Hasidim in that period and the genesis and development of the different streams of Hasidism. This Maskilic literature intended to do more than eradicate Hasidism; it aimed to strengthen the self-consciousness of the individual Maskilim who found themselves alone in Hasidic territory. Paradoxically, the literature documented the very movement it intended to eradicate from the world. The distorted reflection displayed in the anti-Hasidic literature does more than present a caricature of its subject -- it conceals hitherto unknown elements about the nature and development of the Hasidic movement. The present article deals with one such case, a satire on Bratslav Hasidism from 1863, which has at its core a Maskilic satirical text written by Yehiel Meller on pilgrimage to the grave of R. Nahman of Bratslav in Uman.





כתבי עת של משכילים לאורך המאה התשע עשרה הרבו לפרסם סאטירות בגנותה של החסידות. משנות הששים ואילך באה ספרות זו בעיקר כתגובה להתעוררות הדפסת ספרות השבחים החסידית ולהתפשטות החסידות במרחבים חדשים. לא קיימת עד עתה סקירה שלימה, ואף לא מיפוי כללי, של אותה ספרות פולמוסית ענפה, על אף שיש בה ללמד הרבה על דרכי החסידות וההשכלה באותן שנים.  לא מדובר רק בחסרון ביבליוגרפי שאין לו משמעות, אלא בהתעלמות משדה מחקר רב עניין שעשוי להאיר לא רק על פרק נשכח בספרות עברית ויידיש החדשה אלא גם על פרק חשוב ביחסים בין משכילים לחסידים באותה תקופה, ועל דרכי צמיחתם, פיצולם והתפתחותם של זרמים שונים בחסידות. הייתה זו ספרות שיותר מאשר נועדה לבער את החסידות נועדה לחזק את תודעתם העצמית של המשכילים הבודדים במרחבים החסידיים; ספרות שבאופן פרדוקסלי תיעדה תנועה אותה חפצו לבער מן העולם. הבבואה המעוותת בה התהדרה הסאטירה האנטי חסידית לא רק הציגה דימוי – אלא טומנת בחובה הצבעה על אלמנטים חדשים ועל התפתחויות בחסידות. במקרה אחד ממין זה הנוגע לחסידות ברסלב בשנות השישים של המאה התשע עשרה עוסק המאמר. שלפנינו - שעיקרו מהדורה של טקסט משכילי שכתב יחיאל מלר - בשנת 1863 - על העלייה לקבר ר' נחמן מברסלב באומן
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The present chapter traces how the rabbis in the tractate of Hagigah developed the biblical commands concerning cultic pilgrimage into laws for a bygone Jerusalem temple pilgrimage to see and be seen by God. Our investigation points to how the desire for, and loss of, the sight of God’s face punctuates and centers the Babylonian Talmud tractate of Hagigah. The biblical commandment to "see the face of God three times a year" allowed the rabbis to conjure forms and narratives of pilgrimage in an age of Greek and Roman "visual piety" but without the Jerusalem temple. The chapter shows how in varying ways earlier and later rabbis construct a pilgrimage of reciprocal vision (in which pilgrim and god mutually behold and are beheld), particularly in the Babylonian Talmud which emphasizes "homovisuality."

Chapitre 9 de la thèse de doctorat de Bruno Restif, soutenue en décembre 2004 à l'Université Rennes 2 Haute-Bretagne sous la direction d'Alain Croix : La Paroisse, cadre d'application de la Réforme catholique en Haute-Bretagne (diocèses de Rennes, Dol et Saint-Malo). Histoire d'un processus de transformation religieuse et culturelle (XVIe et XVIIe siècles). Titre du chapitre 9 : Mutations et résistances d'un monde ancien.

Resumen: En este trabajo analizamos las relaciones de benefactoría entre el poder laico y las órdenes redentoras de cautivos –Trinidad y Merced– y el componente político e identitario de las mismas. Se abordan las dinámicas de la redención y las vías económicas por las que estas órdenes consiguieron recaudar el dinero necesario para llevar a cabo su cometido. Se expone la participación de otras órdenes y monasterios en la redención, dando origen al a la popularización de los milagros asociados a sus Vírgenes o santos titulares y las consiguientes peregrinaciones a estos cenobios.

Abstract: In this article we analyze the relations of benefactoría between the secular power and the redeeming orders of captives –Trinitarians and Mercedarians– and their political and identity component. We will address the dynamics of redemption and the economic ways by which these orders managed to raise the money necessary to carry out their task. The participation of other orders and monasteries in the redemption is exposed, giving rise to the popularization of the miracles associated with their Virgin or titular saints and the consequent pilgrimages to these monasteries.

Tattooing practice in Europe beyond the alps was introduced since the  late 15th century by western pilgrims returning from Jerusalem and not by James Cook in 1769 returning from the Pacific. Tattooing was developed in  the Ancient Near thousands of years ago  and was practiced  in  the Mediterranean  basin uninterruptedly by local population regardless religious affiliation.  Western  pilgrims  got tattooes while being in Jerusalem as a  kind of religious memento of their visit . Tattooing was never sanctified by normative religions and its practice among pilgrims belongs to popular religion. It is  practiced until today in Jerusalem, but not anymore  with wooden stamps and needles as before.

As is well known, historians and religious studies have studied the haj, an element of Islam’s globally normative ritual repertoire widely dismissed by anthropologist as ethnographically insignificant. Anthropologists in Southeast Asia, particularly influenced by the anthropology of Islam, have complimented traditional interest in local ritual performances with how haj has impacted Southeast Asian Muslims and Muslim societies. This paper describes the effects of the the haj and umrah on individual salvation and social change. While the empirical data introduced in this paper is based on extensive enthnographic fieldwork undertaken in the overwhelmingly Muslim context of Pattani town (amphur muang Pattani), this paper suggests areas of continuity and disjuncture with other cosmopolitan Southeast Asian port city-states such as Penang. I argue that despite their geographical proximity, significant differences in the economic, ethnic, linguistic, and religious dynamics of these cosmopolitan centres should not be overlooked. Penang might have been the closest port of departure to Mecca for Muslims resided in the western coast of Thailand’s upper south that before the Anglo-Siamese treaty of 1909 was part of the Kedah Kerajaan, but many Malays from Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat left for Mecca from ports on the east coast. This paper argues that a significant similarities between Patani/Pattani and Penang the absence that has has been inadequately dealt with my scholars who shares the authors interest in the Thai/Malay Peninsula is the marginalization of Malay rajas by Siamese and British colonial expansion. Given the importance of these institutions in the patronage and administering of Islam, pilgrims returning to Penang and Patani/Pattani faced different obstacles to disseminating reformist agendas encountered in the Haramyn to than those returning to contexts still within the control of the palace. Whether from Penang and Patani/Pattani, pilgrims enjoyed the personal benefits of fulfilling the fifth and final pillar of Islam and the merit received from pious performances in Mecca’s potent centre, the details of which I delineate and discuss.

This article uses a variety of theoretical approaches on literary criticism, biblical scholarship, orientalist studies and gender studies to explore a chapter in the story of Jabal Mūsā, a desert site traditionally associated with the biblical Mount Sinai. In 1822 Burckhardt’s Travels in Syria and the Holy Land was published. It was the first book to question the biblical identification on the basis of archaeology and topography. Hundreds of essays followed, arguing for or against contestants for the ‘Mount of the Law.’ The controvercy largely conformed to the religious, cultural and gender diversity of the body of authors. Accounts by Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian visitors as well as by female travellers, irrespective of religious persuasion, did not share the critical tone of male Protestants. The latter’s attitude was founded on their certainty of the literal truth of the Bible, their rejection of ecclesiastical tradition and their anti-monastic feelings. During the period in question, Jabal Mūsā was measured, described, sketched and photographed but also questioned and dismissed, a tradition followed by scholars seeking alternative ‘Mount Sinais’ in the peninsula, Negev or Arabia to this day.

Culture is central to human beings to the extent that the history of their evolution is incomplete without the consideration of cultural attainments across time and space. However, in the domain of geography as a discipline, its conceptualisation and place do not appear clear. The sub-discipline of cultural geography having its roots in late 19th century both in the German and the French traditions, grew and got recognition through the works undertaken by the American geographers, particularly the tradition established by Carl Sauer and his students. No matter whether culture and cultural issues were at margins or centre stage, all through the journey they remained contested. Today, it is a well recognised discipline and rich through scholarly contributions from different perspectives benefitted by the development taken place in the allied disciplines. Indian geography presents a good example wherein cultural geography could not acquire substantive status despite having tremendous scope given the cultural richness of this land. It remains a marginal sub-discipline in Indian geography even in the 21s century; of course, the works of some practicing Indian geographers have acclaimed international repute, but their number is miniscule. The present chapter is an attempt in short to trace cultural geography’s journey vis-à-vis the Indian scenario and to introduce the contents of the volume.
Keywords: Culture, cultural geography, cultural turn, new cultural geography, landscape, heritage, religion, pilgrimage, tourism.

This analysis presents the pilgrimages of Croats in the 18th century across the Adriatic Sea to two great Catholic shrines: Loreto and Assisi in Italy. Pilgrimages are contextualized in the very sources of the search for the sacred, from hierophanies of the Paleolithic and the interpretation of the meaning of κόσμος: man from various historical and geographical coordinates travels, devises answers to the unknown and mysterious that intrudes into his world. Journeys and pilgrimages to the places of hierophanies and theophanies continue throughout history in monotheistic religions of the European littoral space, from Judaism, through Christianity, to Islam. The sea and seas are spaces navigated by mercatores et nautae, travelers and pilgrims, in syncretism and a mesh of religions, philosophies and modi vivendi: the seas have proven to be one of the most efficient modes of travel for pilgrimages. The analysis of 16,000 sources of Regesti marittimi croati I-III vol./Croatian Maritime Regesta vol. I-III yielded the number of 2,513 pilgrims traveling in 303 pilgrimages from one side of the Adriatic to the other, towards the shrines of Our Lady in Loreto and St. Francis in Assisi. These are indisputable topoi of the Croatian Catholics which demonstrate that a journey, traveling, pilgrimage, is a mode of seeking and giving thanks to the sacred and the divine, perpetuated from pre-Christian traditions reaching all the way to the Paleolithic and demonstrating a unique religious koinè of the European religious pietas onto which the Croatian Christian and then Catholic tradition of the Modern Age grafts itself.

Key words

Pilgrimages, pilgrims, travels, prehistory, hierophanies, theophanies, anthropology of the sacred, hermeneutics, Adriatic, 18th century, Croatian Maritime Regesta, Codex Diplomaticus Maritimus Croatiae

Sarvesh Kumar (born: 09 February 1987) has been awarded Ph.D. thesis on the topic “Cultural Landscape and Heritage of Ayodhya-Faizabad: A Geographical Analysis” in  2018, under the supervision of Prof. Rana P.B. Singh. He has presented papers on various aspects of Ayodhya in six International Seminars held: 4-ACLA Symposium at Bali (Indonesia, 2015), 1-APELA Forum at SNU Seoul (Korea, 2015), 2-APELA Forum at SNU Seoul (Korea, 2016), 33-IGU World Congress  Beijing (China, 2016), 5-ACLA Symposium at Lampang (Thailand, 2016), 6-ACLA Symposium at Vladivostok (Russia, 2017, presented by co-author Rana P.B. Singh), and in several National and International Seminars held in India, and he has credit to publish fourteen papers on these aspects of Ayodhya in journals of repute, like South Asian Affairs (Gifu, Japan, 2013), The Geographer (AMU Aligarh, 2015, 2017), ACLA Proceedings (Bali- Indonesia, 2015), Context (Gurgaon, 2017), and Practising Geographer (2017), and in series from Springer, and Routledge. He is also member of the APELA, Asia Pacific Environment Landscape Association (SNU Korea), ACLA, Asian Cultural Landscape Association (SNU Korea) [serving as Secretary], ICOMOS, International Council on Monuments and Sites (India), INTACH, Indian National Trust for Art, Culture and Heritage (representing Ayodhya), and ABISS Akhil Bhartiya Itihas Samkalan Samiti (U.P.). He is also a Founding Secretary of "DHARA", an youth organization devoted to Nature-Culture Conservation in holy cities like Ayodhya since 2018.
Mob.: [+091]-93074 79877 and 0-87562 59470, Email: sarvesh1k@gmail.com
web: https://banaras.academia.edu/RanaPBSINGH/Papers/
# All his works (with abstracts) highlighted here.

Kapela Majke Božje Snježne na Tekijama kod Petrovaradina jedan je od povijesno najslojevitijih spomenika arhitekture Srijema. Istodobno radi se o ključnom spomeniku vezanom za prijelomni trenutak političke povijesti ne samo Habsburške Monarhije već i cijele Srednje i Jugoistočne Europe 18. stoljeća, bitke u kojoj je Eugen Savojski 1716. porazio osmanlijsku vojsku otvorivši time put prema austrijskom osvajanju cijeloga Srijema te Banata, a potom i sjeverne Srbije i Bosne.
U svoj se literaturi spominje da je u vrijeme osmanske vlasti (16.-17. stoljeće) na mjestu današnje kapele podignuta malena džamija, nedaleko prvotno dva (danas samo jednoga) izvora kvalitetne pitke vode. Nakon što je habsburška vojska osvojila 1687. Petrovaradin i obnovila katoličku hijerarhiju u mjestu župu preuzima isusovački red, koji nekadašnju džamiju, vjerojatno krajem 17. ili počekom 18. stoljeće, konvertira u katoličku kapelu. Nakon bitke 1716. kapela se pretvara, zahvaljujući ikoni Majke Božje Snježne, koju je svetištu poklonio Eugen Savojski, u najvažnije hodočasničko marijansko svetište ovoga dijela Habsburške Monarhije. U to je vrijeme građevina dograđena za dva hvata sredstvima obitelji u bici poginulog habsburškog časnika Siegmunda Breunera.
Kapeli na Tekijama izgled će ponovno biti promijenjen 1754. godine kada isusovci poduzimaju veliki građevinski zahvat s ciljem da osiguraju što više unutrašnjega prostora. Ispred džamije, koja je sada počela služiti kao sakristija, dograđeno je pravokutno svetište i dugi brod koji su u osi malo pomaknuti prema zapadu, u odnosu na prostor džamije, nesumnjivo zbog potrebe prilagođavanja zemljištu, odnosno padu terena prema močvarama uz Dunav. Novi dugi brod pokriven je masivnim baroknim svodovima sa susvodnicama, a zidovi su mu raščlanjeni parovima jonskih pilastara. Glavno pročelje bilo je skromno raščlanjeno pilastrima i nišama sa skulpturama. Ukinućem isusovačkog reda 1773. bitno se mijenja položaj kapele. Petrovaradin prelazi u ruke biskupijskog svećenstva, a potom 1776. godine ulazi u sastav Bosansko-srijemske i Đakovačke biskupije.
Kapela na Tekijama svoj današnji izgled dobila je 1880.-1881. godine obnovom provedenome za vrijeme agilnoga župnika Ilije Okrugića Srijemca (1827. – 1897.).  Dograđeno joj je dvotoranjsko pročelje, po uzoru na pročelje đakovačke katedrale, te sakristija, a na dijelu kapele koji je bio džamija dograđen je visoki tambur s kupolom koja je okrunjena simbolom pobjede kršćanstva nad islamom – križem postavljenim iznad polumjeseca. Prostor džamije povezan je s ranijim isusovačkim svetištem i pretvoren u novu apsidu crkve. Time je potpuno promijenjen izgled ovoga važnog povijesnog spomenika zbog čega je Odjel za bogoštovlje Zapovjedništva Vojne Krajine u Zagrebu (unutar koje se Petrovaradin u to vrijeme nalazio) ovaj zahvat nastojao zaustaviti. Iako se đakovački biskup Josip Juraj Strossmayer složio s mišljenjem Odjela, župnik Okrugić je ipak proveo restauraciju u cijelosti prema svojim nahođenjima, samo je, sukladno odredbama iz Zagreba, promijenio stil restauracije – umjesto neogotičkog odabran je naposljetku neoromanički stil.
Dio izvora projekte za restauraciju pripisuje najvažnijemu arhitektu historicizma u Hrvatskoj Hermanu Bolléu, a dio novosadskom graditelju Georgu Molnáru, no po svoj je prilici Bollé njihov autor.
Novo glavno pročelje znatno je šire od starijega dijela građevine, a i novi je glavni zabat nešto viši od krovišta broda što jasno upućuje na okolnost da je glavni razlog zahvata predstavljala težnja monumentalizaciji građevine te dobivanju reprezentativnijega pročelja koje istodobno estetski odgovara nazorima kraja 19. stoljeća.

From year 1400 the people of Culla village perform a pilgrimage throught the mountains arriving to a mountain shrine and back to the village the second day. Rituals, history and meaning of the pilgrimage are analyse in this book, that counts with the impressive work of David Cantillo photographer

The Western Front has become, once again, and after 100 years, an important and increasingly popular tourist destination. The Centenary is already encouraging large numbers of visitors to engage with this highly poignant landscape of war and to commemorate the sacrifice and loss of a previous generation. Interest is also being sharpened in the ‘places of war’ as battle-sites, trench-systems, bunkers and mine craters gain a clearer identity as war heritage.

For the first time this book brings together the three strands of heritage, landscape and tourism to provide a fresh understanding of the multi-layered nature of the Western Front. The book approaches the area as a rich dynamic landscape which can be viewed in a startling variety of ways: historically, materially, culturally, and perceptually. To illustrate these two dominant interpretations of the region’s landscape – commemorative and heritage – are highlighted and their relationship to tourism explored. Tourism is a lens through which these layers can be peeled away, and each understood and interacted with according to the individual’s own knowledge, motivation, and degree of emotional engagement. Tourism is not regarded here as a passive phenomenon, but as an active agent that can determine, dictate and inscribe this evocative landscape. 

The Western Front:  Heritage, Landscape and Tourism is a timely addition to our increasing interest in the First World War and the places where it was fought. It will be indispensable to those who seek a deeper understanding of the conflict from previously undervalued perspectives.

Author biography

Stephen Miles is an Affiliate Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow’s Crichton Campus in Dumfries. He studied at the universities of Durham and Sheffield before undertaking a PhD at the University of Glasgow which he completed in 2012. He has previously written on ‘dark’ tourism and sense of place at conflict sites.

See reviews of this book at:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Front-Landscape-Heritage-Archaeology/dp/1473833760

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13683500.2017.1303983

http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/The-Western-Front-Landscape-Tourism-and-Heritage-Hardback/p/12315

This paper analyses the development of pilgrimages and religious tourism in Poland after the political transformations of 1989. The analysis concerns four time periods: I. 1989-2004, II. 2004-2007, III. 2008-2013 and IV. After 27 April 2014.

Publication date: February 29, 2020

Query/Abstract Deadline: December 20th, 2019
Full paper due upon acceptance of abstract.

Announcements Deadline: February 1, 2020

Theme:

Quests: Magical Journeys and Wayside Attractions

“The road goes ever, ever on…” JRR Tolkien.

Quests...an image that evokes enchanted woods, magical beasts, and knights with and without shining armour. The road into the unknown where a great treasure lies at the end. How many have traveled that road, whether in the waking world or in the realm of the heart? Were there pitfalls and wayside attractions?
The realm of mythopoetics and speculative fiction, popular dramas, and the ancient art of the story-song. From the ancient texts of Inanna, the wonder tales of the Mabinogion and Troyes’ Sainte Grail cycle, to Baum’s Land of Oz and Tolkien’s Hobbits, to the very modern American Gods, or McKillip’s The Forgotten Beasts of Eld the tale of the quest and journeys into the realm of magic and wonder are part and parcel of the art of storytellers.
Whether we explore the realm of story, or use the idea of a quest or journey as a metaphor, or find ourselves walking into the unknown in the waking world, questing after an idea or an object in a laboratory or in the natural world, the image of seeking and finding -- or, not finding -- is a powerful one. In the Spring 2020 issue, we will explore the idea of questing and journeys into the unknown.

Рад се бави описом и анализом једне од икона Јерусалима сачуване у Цркви Рождества Христовог у Пироту. Јужни део Србије се у прошлости одликовао великим бројем хаџија-поклоника Христовом гробу у Јерусалиму. Они су са путовања доносили иконе овог типа као меморију и благослов, а на њима су представљена палестинска света места. У две пиротске цркве сачувано их је неколико примерака. Икона коју овде поближе проучавамо је натписом датирана у 1845. годину, а донео ју је хаџи Игњатије. Централне представе на њој су Црква Светог гроба у Јерусалиму, Страшни суд, Богородица са Христом и Христос Пантократор. Посебно је специфичан тзв. циклус Дрвета часног крста. Икона се одликује једноставном композицијом и живим бојама, а за њу се могу навести директне аналогије у Јерусалимима сачуваним у Београду и у Берковици (Бугарска). Сведочанство је некада јако присутне ходочасничке културе у Пироту, али и до данас неиспитаног иконописа на Блиском Истоку.

The work comprises the description and analysis of the one of the icons of the proskynetaria of Jerusalem which is kept in the Church of the Birth of Christ in Pirot. The southern part of Serbia used to have a
huge number of hajji, pilgrims who made a pilgrimage to the Holy
Sepulcher in Jerusalem. As memory and blessing, they brought back
icons of this kind, representing the sacred places of the Holy Land.
Several examples of these proskynetaria have been kept in two Pirot
churches. The icon which is more closely analysed here dates from 1845
and was brought by Hadzi-Ignjatije. Its central motives are the Church of
the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, The Last Judgement, Mother of God
with Christ and Christ Pantocrator. Most specific is the cycle of the Tree
of the Holly Cross. The icon is characterized by simple composition and
vivid colours and direct analogy to proskynetaria of Jerusalem which are
kept in Belgrade and Berkovica (Bulgaria) can be related to it. It is the
evidence of the once strongly present pilgrimage culture in Pirot, but
also of the Near East 18th and 19th Century icon-painting, which has
been unexplored so far.

Mount Sinai: A History of Travellers and Pilgrims examines the history of Hagia Koryphē (in Greek) or Jabal Mūsā (in Arabic), a mountain peak above the Monastery of St Catherine at South Sinai in Egypt, known for centuries as the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God, as described in Exodus. The book explores the ways in which the landscape of the summit was experienced and transformed using textual criticism, historical analysis, art history, and, for the first time, archaeological interpretation. Beginning in the third century, when the identification with the biblical ‘Mount Sinai’ was established, the narrative extends through to the early twentieth century. Covering the natural environment, the Bedouin and early Christians, the importance of Mount Sinai in Muslim tradition, the cult of St Catherine, pilgrimage, as well as the scholarly, artistic and tourist phenomenon of the nineteenth century, Mount Sinai: A History of Travellers and Pilgrims is a comprehensive and complete history of this remarkable place.

https://www.hauspublishing.com/product/mount-sinai/

‘Lucid and original; a veritable feast of interesting stories about Mount Sinai’s extraordinary past.’ - Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads

‘As a traveller and pilgrim to Sinai on numerous occasions and now a Trustee of the St Catherine's Foundation, I greatly enjoyed George Manginis's Mount Sinai and learnt much from it…The book is a learned and delightful companion to God-trodden Sinai.’ - Richard Chartres, Bishop of London

‘This book is an absolute mine of riches, reflection, and information… would strongly encourage anyone to pay a visit to this remarkable place of history, holiness and tradition. I recommend this book highly.’ - Vincent Nichols, Cardinal of Westminster

‘This book gives an invaluable insight into the evolution over two millennia of Mount Sinai as a sacred site and a place of spiritual quest.’ - H.R.H. Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan

‘George Manginis has trawled archives and published accounts to create the biography of the mountain, telling the story of the devout, the scholars and the tourists who have helped shape its history. His book is likely to stand as the last word on one of the world's most enduring places, unless an angel appears to tell the divine side of the story.’ - Anthony Sattin, author of Young Lawrence

The article analyses the transformation of the topos of the Muslim enemy by proposing an excursus through the patristic and epic literature until to the diaries of the late medieval pilgrimage. From idea of heresy to that of idolatry, the Western perception towards the Muslim world passes through a representation which depends by political dynamics. In the background of a system of high knowledge, as the monasticism, Islam was considered as a form of Christian heresy. But when the description was developed in the context of the normal people, usually poorly educated, Islam became a pagan idolatry with demonic tones. Although the epic and patristic echoes remain intense, the matter changes deeply when one observes the representation of the Muslims in the pilgrimage diaries. In this kind of sources is obvious the friction between the stimulus derived by the comparison with others and the resistance of a generally conservative cultural background. The research covered the entire corpus of Florentine diaries and this is the peculiarity of the research. Although there are excellent works about the Italian pilgrimages, none had yet developed, in this sources genre, a systematic study on the representation of otherness, a subject full of consequences for the history of Western thought.

Hagiographic writing plays a central role in the processes of promotion and legitimization of sanctoral cults. The hagiographer, when he writes the life of a saint or collects his miracula, uses precise strategies to legitimize the cult aimed at demonstrating the virtue of the saint and, implicitly, his superiority over other saints. In the context of the pilgrimage, an interesting example of these dynamics is offered by what we could call «cooperation between saints». Specifically, these are all those episodes in which a pilgrim in search of healing is exhorted by the saint to whom he has turned with devotion, to go on pilgrimage to another saint, since only the latter is empowered by God to heal. The aim of this article is to develop the theme of «cooperation between saints» in Latin-medieval hagiographic literature and, in particular, to evaluate the consistency of this dynamic – rhetorical-narrative first of all, but also symbolic and cultural – in the context of pilgrimages and devotional practices carried out by pilgrims at the pignora sanctorum. The sources used are mainly hagiographic stories (in particular translationes and libri miraculorum) written in the medieval West between the 11th and 13th centuries. Among the cults examined, that of St Faith, St Appiano, St Leonard, St Nicola and St Stefano in Venice, St Menna of Sannio.

This dissertation describes pilgrimages and pilgrims who traveled from the Croatian coast to Loreto and Assisi in the 18th century. The origin of passengers, their number and organization into groups, the time they spent on the pilgrimage, as well as the seasons and vessels they traveled on have been analyzed based on 16,000 documents of the Croatian Maritime Regesta of the 18th century / Regesti marittimi croati del Settecento vol. I-III. Particular attention will also be given to small entrepreneurs, captains and shipowners, Croats and Italians, who have made these pilgrimages possible. The first two volumes of the maritime regesta were published in Padua (1985 and 1993), while the third one, that the author of this work had edited for print, was issued last year as an edition of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Split (2017). The documents pertaining to pilgrimages have been singled out and processed using a computer program that provides for faster analytics and facilitates further work.
The dissertation describes the pilgrims' preparation for such an important journey, which transforms from a personal decision into a choral act of a broader community that travels and prays. 
In addition to the classical historiographic approach and consideration given to the achievements of social, demographic and maritime history, the analysis of sources and coverage of the topic are also approached from the point of view of anthropology of the sacred, which indicates the sources and essence of the quest for the sacred and the divine since prehistoric times. A religious experience happens in a certain cultural and historical environment: one cannot reduce it solely to the historical, social or psychological dimension, or rule out in advance any transcendental perspective. A historian must not withdraw before those experiences but rather define clearly the role of man woven into the very source of the religious phenomenon.
The documents are not mere records of the arrivals and departures of vessels from ports, of the transport of goods, paid taxes and people’s journeys. They testify to the primordial human need for the supernatural, which does not settle merely for prayer in the community in which one lives and works, but is rather manifested in the readiness and boldness to embark on a long journey, often uncomfortable and unsafe, in order not only to realize in the walk towards the Unknown one's own faith, but also to share in meeting people from the other coast the cultural, social, religious and, naturally, economic koinè of Mare Nostrum.
A total of 303 pilgrimages to Loreto and Assisi have been found, attesting to 2,513 pilgrims travelling, mostly in large and organized groups of up to 80 people, from the east coast of the Adriatic - from Umag in the north to Boka Kotorska in the south - to these old and to Croatian believers well-known sanctuaries. At the forefront were the residents of Lošinj, who had demonstrated their loyalty to the Mother of God in 75 recorded journeys with 1,132 pilgrims setting off from that great Kvarner island.
The novelties presented in this dissertation are three-fold:
- Analysis of 16,000 Croatian maritime sources of which 4,000 have just been published. These are as of yet unprocessed documents in the Croatian historiography, providing us with a huge database and enabling us to gain completely new insights not just into the history of the Croatian 18th century in the Adriatic, but specifically into pilgrimages as a constitutive element of general Croatian history;

- Hermeneutics of the anthropology of the sacred in the historical analysis of pilgrimages;

- Use of computer software that reads digitalized documents like words (OCR) and enables saving them as Excel documents in which results can be systematized and synoptically analyzed – which in the case of such a large number of documents is also a valid methodological solution for similar and further extensive research.

Key words
Pilgrimages, pilgrims, captains, shipowners, maritime affairs, Croats, Loreto, Assisi, 18th century, Croatian Maritime Regesta, religious anthropology, sacred, sacral, prehistory, Mare Nostrum, Adriatic, Nikola Čolak

This course will delve into the major moments of Bratslav Hasidism from its founding through the Holocaust. Through a study of central texts in Hasidism we will evaluate the daring theological picture that negotiated change in relation to a shifting reality. In the first semester we will read from the works of R. Nahman of Bratslav and R. Nathan of Nemirov, and in the second we will study the development of Hasidism through the twentieth century.

Excavations were conducted at the Riverbank Site (33RO1059), located by the Hopewell Site (33RO27), in 2004 and 2006 to gather data from the site before it is eroded away by the Paint Creek and to improve understanding of the role of small sites located near large Hopewell earthworks. Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) was conducted on pottery from the Riverbank Site to help clarify its relationship with other nearby sites. Fifteen sherds from the site were sent to the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR) for INAA, and the results were compared to the larger database of Hopewell ceramics. Baed on the results, which show that the fifteen sherds formed a unique trace element compositional group, the site likely represents a short-term occupation, possibly for a pilgrimage to the Hopewell Site, and the ceramics were likely either locally constructed for use at the site or constructed elsewhere to carry items on the way to Hopewell.

The research was aimed at identifying changes in tourist traffic-religious tourism and museum tourism to the Museum of the Holy Father John Paul II Family Home in Wadowice in 1996-2019. The museum was opened in 1984 in the house where Karol Wojtyła, Pope John Paul II, was born in 1920. The thorough reconstruction between 2010 and 2014 resulted in the establishment of a museum with a modern multimedia narrative exhibition. In recent years, the museum has been visited by more than 200 thousand tourists a year, including 40 thousand foreigners from more than 100 countries worldwide. During the years 1996-2019 the number of international tourists rose more than twice. The greatest boom in the visits to the museum was noted in 2005 and was associated with the disease, death, funeral, and increasing worship of Pope John Paul II. Following decreased interest in visits to the museum during the period of 2010-2014, which was due to the museum renovation, a revival and increase in visits to the museum was observed again. Changes that were observed in the museum during the last twenty-five years were identified, among other things, thanks to field research involving observations and interviews with museum curators and staff. Analyses of tourist visits to the museum were based on detailed data provided by the museum managers. In the elaboration of the collected research results descriptive-analytical, dynamic-comparative and cartographic methods were used.

Call for papers Spring 2020

Publication date: February 29, 2020

Query/Abstract Deadline: December 20th, 2019
Full paper due upon acceptance of abstract.

Announcements Deadline: February 1, 2020

Theme:

Quests: Magical Journeys and Wayside Attractions

“The road goes ever, ever on…” JRR Tolkien.

Quests...an image that evokes enchanted woods, magical beasts, and knights with and without shining armour. The road into the unknown where a great treasure lies at the end. How many have traveled that road, whether in the waking world or in the realm of the heart? Were there pitfalls and wayside attractions?
The realm of mythopoetics and speculative fiction, popular dramas, and the ancient art of the story-song. From the ancient texts of Inanna, the wonder tales of the Mabinogion and Troyes’ Sainte Grail cycle, to Baum’s Land of Oz and Tolkien’s Hobbits, to the very modern American Gods, or McKillip’s The Forgotten Beasts of Eld the tale of the quest and journeys into the realm of magic and wonder are part and parcel of the art of storytellers.
Whether we explore the realm of story, or use the idea of a quest or journey as a metaphor, or find ourselves walking into the unknown in the waking world, questing after an idea or an object in a laboratory or in the natural world, the image of seeking and finding -- or, not finding -- is a powerful one. In the Spring 2020 issue, we will explore the idea of questing and journeys into the unknown.

Opis putovanja Jurja Husa. Descriptio peregrinationis Georgii Huszthii, ur. Mario Kolar, prevela Zrinka Blažević, predgovor Irena Radej Miličić, Društvo hrvatskih književnika-Podravsko-prigorski ogranak, Koprivnica 2017., 184 str. Svi znanstvenici koji se na razne načine bave hodočašćima, putovanjima, civilizacijskim i kulturološkim dodirima u ranom novom vijeku sa zahvalnošću su dočekali kritičko izdanje i tiskanje knjige-putopisa Opis putovanja Jurja Husa. Descriptio peregrinationis Georgii Huszthii iz 1566. godine. Time se, kako napominje Irena Radej Miličić u uvodnom poglavlju naslov-ljenom Izvještaj s rubova carstva: Juraj Hus i njegov zarobljenički putopis, renesansna putopisna literatura hrvatske provenijencije proširuje za još jedan vrijedan povijesni izvor, književno os-tvarenje i djelo hrvatske renesansne latinističke protuosmanske proze. Radi se o dosada slabo korištenom, iako ne i nepoznatom, izvoru renesansnih osobina koji je sastavio Hrvat iz mjesta Rasinja pored Koprivnice-Juraj Hus. Ista priređivačica ovog izdanja napominje da zapravo postoje dvije redakcije Husova rukopisa.

The valorisation and evaluation of the tourism and cultural potential of the Way of St. James Camino Polaco (“Suwalszczyzna” and “Warmia and Masuria”: Dusznica – Olsztyn sections)

Abstract:
Camino Polaco (Polish Way) is one of 36 currently functioning Polish sections of Camino de Santiago – the route that goes to the tomb of St. James in Santiago de Compostela. It is the second longest Polish section of the Way of St. James (after the Way of St. James Via Regia – 957 km). The total length of the Polish Way from Ogrodniki to Trzemeszno amounts to 651 km.

Research concerned a section of the Way of St. James known as Camino Polaco (Polish Way), leading from the border between Poland and Lithuania in Dusznica to Olsztyn and covering a total length of 313 km. The analysis of the tourism and cultural potential of the Polish Way (Dusznica – Olsztyn) was conducted with the use of the point bonitation method developed by Armin Mikos von Rohrscheidt for theme tourist and cultural routes as tourism products. Field studies were conducted in 2017 in the section of the route from Dusznica to Olsztyn. Facilities of key importance to the functioning of the route, its management in touristic terms, availability for transportation and theme events were evaluated. The general assessment of the functioning of the route was performed and solutions which may have an influence on the further development of the section of the Way of St. James were indicated. When presenting research results, the descriptive and analytical method as well as cartographic methods were used.

As a result of the valorisation of the Polish Way (Dusznica – Olsztyn) with the use of the method developed by Mikos von Rohrscheidt, it was proven that, considering the overall score (627 points), the examined section of the route should be classified as a route of considerable tourism potential. The conducted studies allowed us to pinpoint strengths and weaknesses of the entire route, its considerable attractiveness to tourists, very good coordination as well as deficits. The deficits mainly result from the short functioning of the route which has not been permanently recorded yet in the awareness of residents of Suwalszczyzna, Masuria and Warmia regions.

Third short documentary movie from the cycle produced by Migrating Art Historians deals with the notion of the light in the medival pilgrims' experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfGIwHiR-tg&list=PLRfeyjVJZQnonH5TsdgNHmyY9FbXQW69W&index=4