The Longest Journey Eric Tagliacozzo Sparknotes

In The Longest Journey: Southeast Asians and the Pilgrimage to Mecca, Eric Tagliacozzo presents the history of the Hajj from South East Asia during the early modern period to the present day. From the introduction, Tagliacozzo stresses the importance of the Hajj as a spiritual journey and an important ritual for Muslims across the world, therefore, making it important to study its history (Pages 3-6). The book aims to explain the transformation of Hajj over the years and how it embedded itself as a “tool” of power politics for the empires who controlled it. Therefore, Eric Tagliacozzo uses a variety of resources ranging from written and oral testimonies of pilgrims and accounts of non-Muslims observe the Hajj. Even though this book aims to
It is not till the third part of the book that he mentions in one of the chapters of an account of a pilgrim, however, that too is in a modern age. Even though he is successful in explaining the overall environment of the hajj in three different time periods, he fails to focus on how the pilgrims felt. Instead he makes an assertion on their condition by judging the overall surrounding during those particular time periods. Nevertheless, the accounts that he uses boast his position on the arguments he is stressing throughout the
In part two, Chapter 5, Tagliacozzo uses a fiction book, Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad, and relates to real life events. He argues due to the similarity between both of the events, the book is used to shape the perception of everyday citizens in European countries, respectively in the British Empire. It is concerning to see the author agrees with these claims and promotes the narrative by describing that Conard is a first hand witness of the Hajj and the types of people that participated in it. A question arises about Conard that why didn’t he, instead, write an autobiography about the events he witnessed? Or why didn’t Eric use further resources to connect the ideas emerging in Conards book to reality?
The amount of research Eric Tagliacozzo did for this and the way he presented is remarkable and probably one the strong points. From the very beginning, he builds a foundation of arguments and throughout the book provides conclusive evidence to support his claims. This is a book for people who are keen on learning the history of the Hajj. The author provides illustratives throughout the book as mentions famous personalities and their contribution in determining the