Memory of the sacred journey: A sociological examination on hajj and umrah memories

Throughout history, the Hajj pilgrimage has held a central position not only as a religious ritual but also through its educational, socio-cultural, and collective memory–building dimensions. Despite variations in its formal and symbolic expressions, this sacred journey continues to function as a powerful sociological phenomenon that brings communities together and contributes to their social organization. During the pilgrimage, the pilgrim is not affected solely on an individual level by the transformative power of Hajj; rather, the influence of the sacred extends outward, generating a collective consciousness and a shared spiritual atmosphere. The pilgrimage experience entails a detachment from the routines of everyday life and profane time, requiring an existential rupture. This inner separation enables the pilgrim to distance oneself from the center of daily existence and to embark on a spiritual journey beyond ordinary being, thereby allowing a re-evaluation of the mundane. Throughout this process, the pilgrim encounters the sacred with diverse emotions and expectations, continuing the journey while intensely experiencing a sense of purification. Upon the completion of the pilgrimage, the religious atmosphere and emotional elevation that emerge within the individual often contribute to a lasting transformation in personal identity. The primary focus of this study is the sociological examination of the Hajj journey within the context of travel and space. In the first chapter, the relationship between travel and sacredness is discussed through the concepts of road, traveler, and journey, while the connection between travel and identity is examined. The second chapter explores the relationship between pilgrimage and travel following the arrival at the sacred destination. In the final chapter, memoirs written by individuals who have undertaken the sacred journey are subjected to qualitative analysis within the framework of the sociology of emotions, and these texts are analyzed in depth. The study employs qualitative research methods, including theoretical review, thematic analysis, and content analysis. After conducting a theoretical survey of the Hajj literature within the context of Islam, memoirs written in Turkish or translated into Turkish were examined. The content of these works was analyzed with a focus on sacred journeying and the sociology of emotions. In addition to memoirs authored by well-known writers and intellectuals, the study also aimed to access and analyze texts written by ordinary individuals as expressions of emotional intensity. The analyses indicate that experiences of Hajj and Umrah are predominantly interpreted in memoirs through themes of emotional intensification, spatial encounters, and transformation. Sacred spaces are represented as symbolic environments that shape individual memory and spiritual orientation, while the act of writing memoirs appears to be associated with the process of making sense of intense experiences and transforming them into enduring memory. Within this framework, the study suggests that the experiences of Hajj and Umrah may be interpreted as multi-layered processes of meaning-making that extend beyond ritual practice, situated within the context of individual and collective memory.