STRUCTURING THE MUSLIM PILGRIMAGE TO MECCA: THE ROLE OF MONARCHS REVISITED

2024-2-24
ELLITHY, AMR MOHAMED HASSAN
The thesis investigates the role of monarchs in myth making and producing policy agendas for the organization of state politics in Saudi Arabia. Structures of meanings that are implied in the struggle between state and society are developed by the monarchs according to their interpretations of their time imperatives. Through contesting the monarch’s authority over the melange of social organizations of the state during the Hajj, the thesis argues that monarchy system in Saudi Arabia can be studied through investigating how its monarchs tend to organize (to order or to change) the vast shrine spaces and the prolonged times of the Hajj. The Muslim pilgrimage is a religious celebration, a human occasion, and a social phenomenon that promotes the ethico-islamic foundations of the state through publicly expressing specific rituals over the shrine places in Makkah and Madinah and broad-based sentiments during the Hajj times.
Citation Formats
A. M. H. ELLITHY, “STRUCTURING THE MUSLIM PILGRIMAGE TO MECCA: THE ROLE OF MONARCHS REVISITED,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2024.