"Hajji Mama," or the Christian Family Hajj to Jerusalem

Lecture by Valentina Izmirlieva, Professor and Chair of the Department of Slavic Languages, Columbia University

Respondents: Sarit Kattan Gribetz, Assistant Professor of Theology, Fordham University

Ebru Turan, Assistant Professor of History, Fordham University  

Wednesday, March 8, 2017 | 6 p.m.

O'Hare Special Collections Room | Walsh Library | Rose Hill Campus | Fordham University 

From the 17th to 19th centuries, in the European part of the Ottoman Empire, some Orthodox Christians modeled their pilgrimage to Jerusalem on the Muslim hajj to Mecca. They even called themselves “hajjis,” using an Islamic honorific, but insisted on the Christian ethos of their quest. This lecture will show how the Orthodox “hajj” emerged within Muslim Ottoman culture as a Christian family project and as a surprising vehicle for female empowerment.