"The Traffic in Iranian Pilgrims: Historicity and Sociality of Saint Visitation across the Middle East," with Dr. Emrah Yildiz

Emrah Yıldız is Crown Junior Chair in Middle East Studies and Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Northwestern University. He is a historically attuned cultural anthropologist, studying routes of religious, commercial and political mobility between Iran, Turkey and Syria. 

His book project, The Traffic in Iranian Pilgrims: Religion, Economy and Territory across Borders, synthesizes these areas of scholarship to chronicle the pathways of a ziyarat (visitation) route. Often referred to as Hajj-e Fuqara’ (pilgrimage of the poor) in Iran, this route has shuttled Iranian pilgrims as well as contraband goods such as oil, sugar and tobacco, among bus stations in Iran, informal bazaars in Turkey, and the Sayyida Zaynab shrine in Syria.