“Mama Hajji” or the Christian Family Hajj to Jerusalem

Lecture by Valentina Izmirlieva, Associate Professor of Slavic Languages, Columbia University

The protagonists of this lecture are Orthodox Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem who took as their model the Muslim Hajj to Mecca. These paradoxical pilgrims from the European part of the Ottoman Empire called themselves “hajjis,” using an Islamic honorific, but insisted on their Eastern Orthodox identity and the Orthodox ethos of their quest. While the Christian Hajj to Jerusalem emerged as an Ottoman phenomenon already in the 17th century, in the early 19th century it underwent a significant transformation. The hajjis began to travel “family style,” taking along not only their wives and male children, but also their elderly mothers and unmarried daughters of all ages. Despite the dangers of the long trip, some took their new brides on a honeymoon pilgrimage so that their first child would be conceived in Jerusalem, and some even took their pregnant wives so that they would give birth in the Holy Land. The Orthodox Hajj to Jerusalem thus emerged as a family project and a surprising vehicle for female mobility, creativity, and empowerment. This talk will explore how this transformation occurred and why.