E 406 | This episode explores the post-World War II travelogues of Bosnian journalist Hasan Ljubunčić, who went on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca after the Second World War. His narrative showcases the entanglements between religion and politics, Bosnian Muslims and their contemporaries in Turkey and the broader Muslim world, and socialism and Islamic modernism. In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, Bosnian Hajjis sought alliances within the Muslim world. The travelogues thus speak to multiple audiences: local Muslim populations, socialist authorities, and international interlocutors. On a broader level, this evolving Hajj discourse speaks to similarities between Islamic and socialist modernist projects and the practical ways these were used in postwar Bosnia.
See more at: https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2019/03/comrades-on-hajj.html
Dženita Karić recently received her PhD from SOAS, University of London and is currently a researcher at the Oriental Institute in Sarajevo. Her research focuses on transformations of religious discourse in Ottoman and post-Ottoman Bosnia, with a particular emphasis on changes in conceptualizations of Hajj.
Taylan Güngör is a doctoral candidate at SOAS in London. His interests are in Medieval and Pre-Modern Eastern Mediterranean trading circles and his research is on trade in Istanbul after 1453. Taylan records and edits podcasts in London at the SOAS Radio studio.
CREDITS
Episode No. 406
Release Date: 17 March 2019
Recording Location: SOAS Radio Studios, University of London
Audio editing by Taylan Güngör
Music: Yegah Sirto by Ehl-i Keyif
Images and bibliography courtesy of Dr. Dženita Karić
Available at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2019/03/comrades-on-hajj.html
