In the late nineteenth century, as a consequence of imperial conquest and a mobility revolution, Russia became a crossroads of the hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. The first book in any language on the hajj under tsarist and Soviet rule, Russian Hajj tells the story of how tsarist officials struggled to control and co-opt Russia's mass hajj traffic, seeing it as not only a liability but also an opportunity. To support the hajj as a matter of state surveillance and control was controversial, given the preeminent position of the Orthodox Church. But nor could the hajj be ignored, or banned, due to Russia's policy of toleration of Islam. As a cross-border, migratory phenomenon, the hajj stoked officials' fears of infectious disease, Islamic revolt, and interethnic conflict, but Eileen Kane innovatively argues that it also generated new thinking within the government about the utility of the empire's Muslims and their global networks.

An Introduction to Swaminarayan Hinduism, third edition, offers a comprehensive study of a contemporary form of Hinduism. Begun as a revival and reform movement in India 200 years ago, it has now become one of the fastest growing and most prominent forms of Hinduism. The Swaminarayan Hindu transnational network of temples and institutions is expanding in India, East Africa, the UK, USA, Australasia, and in other African and Asian cities. The devotion, rituals, and discipline taught by its founder, Sahajanand Swami (1781-1830) and elaborated by current leaders in major festivals, diverse media, and over the Internet, help preserve ethnic and religious identity in many modern cultural and political contexts. Swaminarayan Hinduism, here described through its history, divisions, leaders, theology and practices, provides valuable case studies of contemporary Hinduism, religion, migrants, and transnationalism. This new edition includes up-to-date information about growth, geographic expansion, leadership transitions, and impact of Swaminarayan institutions in India and abroad.

The "Festpredigten" festival sermons were originally published in German in Frankfurt am Main in 1903. A window into the past, they offer a fascinating glimpse of German Jewry at the turn of the century. The author, Isaac Rosenberg, received his semichah at the Rabbiner-Seminar (Hildesheimer) in Berlin in 1888, and graced the synagogue pulpit in the eastern German city of Thorn for twenty-five years. He belonged to a new class of rabbis known as Rabbiner Doktor with Ph.D.s as well as rabbinic ordination. A leader in his community, Dr Rosenberg delivered passionate sermons in impeccable High German sermons that uplifted and inspired rather than rebuked. Yet they contain messages that are as fresh today as they were a century ago. This English volume includes an intriguing introduction by Dr Fred Gottlieb on the history of German- Jewish homiletics and associated controversies.