The Political Management of the Hajj in Contemporary Times: An Introduction

This chapter has three objectives: first, it situates the book in relation to the literature on the politics of the hajj. Second, it offers an analytical framework for the study of the political management of the hajj, highlighting three key dimensions: security, legitimation, and clientelism. Through these dimensions, the framework sheds light on how the state seeks to impose its domination over the various actors involved in the organization of the hajj (top-down dynamics), while also emphasizing how these actors understand their experience with the state and how they deploy their own agency (bottom-up dynamics). Finally, it presents the book’s contributing chapters, using the analytical framework to underline their main contributions, while underscoring the relationships amongst them.