This pivot sets Muslim shrines within the wider context of Heritage Studies in the Muslim world
and considers their role in the articulation of sacred landscapes their function as sites of
cultural memory and their links to different religious traditions. Reviewing the historiography
of Muslim shrines paying attention to the different ways these places have been studied
through anthropology archaeology history and religious studies the text discusses the
historical and archaeological evidence for the development of shrines in the region from
pre-Islamic times up to the present day. It also assesses the significance of Muslim shrines in
the modern Middle East focusing on the diverse range of opinions and treatments from
veneration to destruction and argues that shrines have a unique social function as a means of
direct contact with the past in a region where changing political configurations have often
distorted conventional historical narratives.
