Zainab’s Traffic

"Zainab's Traffic is an exceptionally creative and multifaceted ethnography of a critical Muslim pilgrimage route across multiple nations and territories in southwest Asia. Emrah Yıldız brilliantly shows how people navigate movement and trade in this unusually complicated context while simultaneously teaching readers about Shi'ism, the region, political economy, trafficking, ritual, and a variety of commodities."—Lara Deeb, Professor and Chair, Department of Anthropology and Program in Middle East and North African Studies, Scripps College

"Carefully researched and elegantly written, this work is the first and only book in English on the significance of the current Iranian Shi'i pilgrimage across Iran, Turkey, and Syria. The ethnographic account is written in such a way that you not only read about the pilgrimage but also travel with the pilgrims. Zainab's Traffic is a pleasure to read."—Minoo Moallem, author of Between Warrior Brother and Veiled Sister

"A remarkably innovative and fascinating ethnographic account of a modern pilgrimage that is filled with memorable individuals, important theoretical insights, and more than a few surprises along the way. Highly recommended!"—Dwight F. Reynolds, Distinguished Professor of Arabic Languages and Literature, University of California, Santa Barbara, and editor of The Cambridge Companion to Modern Arab Culture