From Mecca to Sarajevo

The exhibition From Mecca to Sarajevo: Muslim Pilgrimage and Western Medicine showcases photos of Bosnian pilgrims returning from Mekka in 1902. Jakob Saidenfeld, a physician working in Sarajevo, took these photos at the Egyptian quarantine of El Tor upon the return of pilgrims from Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the time, the authorities feared the introduction of the plague and cholera from the holy places of Islam, where the Bosnian pilgrims had encountered their peers from India and Southeast Asia ‒ places where both of these diseases were endemic. By reflecting the portrayed Hajjis, the exhibition aims to illuminate the West’s former relationship toward them and Islam in general as well as to contribute to the current juxtaposition of ‘European’ and Muslim cultures and lifeworlds in a critical way.

Coordination: Christian Promitzer