Holy places in Islam

From the emergence of Islam, Muslim societies were confronted with the notion of the holiness of specific sites. They developed different positions on this issue, which ranged from adopting specific sites to dismissing or destroying them. In addition, several new Islamic holy sites emerged.

The International Network for the Study of Holy Places in Islam (INSHPI) investigates the modalities that led to the formation and development of different positions with regard to holy places in various Muslim societies. In order to analyse these processes the project seeks to integrate both material culture and literary texts.

The website aims at creating a database of holy sites and figures by charting all data on a geographical map. The data gathered in the website will be fully available to scholars participating to the network and to a less degree also to a wider audience. Data can be filtered down, according to typology, periodization and geographical region.