Introduction

From the westernmost point of the Maghreb to Pakistan, innumerable holy places are frequented every day, particularly on Fridays and Sundays, and even more so on certain anniversary dates, by worshippers and simple believers from nearby villages as well as faraway regions. The pilgrimage, a near-universal phenomenon, is widely practised in the lands of the Near East, the cradle of the monotheistic religions, and on its margins, in the Maghreb and in central Asia. The study of pilgrimages, esp...