Publisher's Synopsis
"A Shi'ite Pilgrimage to Mecca" is taken from the original nineteenth-century Persian manuscript of the Safarnameh of Mirza Mohammad Hosayn Farahani, a well-educated, keenly observant, Iranian Shi'ite gentleman. The memoir reveals social and economic information about Tsarist Russia, the Ottoman Empire, Egypt, Northern Iran and Arabia. The author is a meticulous observer, recording details of distances, currencies, accommodations, modes of travel and so on. He records the experiences encountered by pilgrims of his day: physical hardships, disease, generosity, banditry, hospitality and exaltation. It describes tensions between the Shi'ites and the Sunnis.
