In this episode of the afikra podcast, Professor Michael Christoper Low – director of the Middle East Center at The University of Utah – explains how Mecca and its burgeoning influx of pilgrims from around the world — transported by the recently invented steamships — became ground zero for cholera. He maps out how this situated the Hejaz within broader colonial interests. We reflect on perceptions and understandings of Mecca — placing it in a "trans-imperial" space — and Michael underscores that to understand the Arabian Peninsula we need to go beyond studying the Middle East and include the Indian Ocean and British Empire.
Michael Christopher Low received his PhD from Columbia University in 2015. He is the director of the University of Utah's Middle East Center and his primary research and teaching interests include the Ottoman Empire, the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian Ocean world, and environmental history. He is the author of Imperial Mecca: Ottoman Arabia and the Indian Ocean Hajj (Columbia University Press, 2020) which in 2021 won the Middle East Studies Association’s Albert Hourani Book Award.
Theme music: Peninsular, Tarek Yamani
Hosted by: Mikey Muhanna
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About afikra | عفكرة: We are a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity. ⚡ Become a member today.