Mahmal

Categorized as Terms

Mahmal

Richard McGregor

Related Terms:

  • ‘alam (standard)
  • Kaʿba (the most sacred structure in Islam)
  • Kiswa (the inscribed covering for the Ka‘ba)

Related Khamseen Videos:

Sabiha Göloğlu, “Touching Mecca & Medina: The Dalā’il al-Khayrāt and Devotional Practices,” Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online, published 28 August 2020.

Richard McGregor, “Hajj Materials and Rites from Egypt,” Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online, published 9 February 2021.

References:

Jomier, Jacques. Le Mahmal et la caravane égyptienne des pèlerins de la Mecque (XIII-XX siècles). Cairo: Presses de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale, 1953.

Lane, Edward. An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians. Cairo: Livres de France, 1989.

McGregor, Richard. Islam and the Devotional Object: Seeing Religion in Egypt and Syria. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2020.

Meloy, John. “Mahmal.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam, Three. Leiden: Brill, 2012.

Porter, Venetia. “The Mahmal Revisited.” In The Hajj: Collected Essays, edited by Venetia Porter and Liana Saif, 195-205. London: British Museum, 2013.

Citation:

Richard McGregor, “Mahmal,” Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online, published 26 April 2022.

Richard McGregor is Associate Professor of Religion and Islamic Studies at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. His primary field of research is medieval Egypt and Syria, with a focus on religious thought, ritual, and Sufism. His most recent book, Islam and the Devotional Object: Seeing Religion in Egypt and Syria (2020), explores the lives of a series of religious objects. He also works on the devotional gaze, in theory and historical Islamic practice.