Death Cases During Pilgrimage to Mecca As Included into the Documents of the Sarajevo Supreme Sharia Court at the Time of Austro-Hungarian Rule in B&H

Abstract

Through analysis of death cases during the trips to hajj from Bosnia and Herzegovina and on the way back, the paper attempts to stress the importance and complexity of the issue. In historical context, the literature so far dis- cussed this problem only marginally. Based on the documents of the Sarajevo Supreme Sharia Court, we are trying to determine the number of such cases, causes of death, personal belongings the pilgrims carried on their trips, and also the consequences that their families in their homeland had to deal with. The analysis of the matter indirectly reflects the travel conditions, material status of Bosnian pilgrims, as well as relationships between pilgrims and the official government during the Austro-Hungarian occupation.