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The desire to be present in religious places is not confined to any one group; all members of society wish to visit and benefit from the spiritual atmosphere of such sites. This desire is steadily increasing among diverse social groups. Persons with disabilities are among these groups; due to the limitations they face, they have fewer opportunities to be present in crowded places. This article seeks to identify the important needs of disabled pilgrims when visiting the Shrine of Imam al-Rida (PBUH). It employs a mixed qualitative–quantitative approach, drawing upon documents and theoretical studies, expert interviews, and content analysis. Six principal dimensions and thirty-one components of need were identified, followed by analysis of their causal relations using fuzzy cognitive mapping. According to the findings, accessibility facilitation, environmental adaptation, and rehabilitation constitute the three main dimensions of need, each with associated components that point to practical strategies.

In this article I draw attention to a little-studied phenomenon in the study of pilgrimage and sacred sites: how famed pilgrimage locations and routes may be replicated on a smaller scale in other locations. The article focuses mainly on Japanese pilgrimages, using primarily the example of the 1300-kilometre-long Shikoku pilgrimage, and shows how local small-scale versions of this pilgrimage developed historically throughout Japan from the seventeenth century onwards and were also taken abroad by Japanese migrants. A key factor in the development of these localised versions of the pilgrimage was that, for most people in earlier times, long distance pilgrimages were difficult if not impossible. Yet there was a widespread sense that such pilgrimages and the sacred figures associated with them were universal in nature and should be available to all. As such, localised replications on a smaller scale were developed so that those unable to go to sacred sites and make long journeys to distant famed pilgrimage sites, could have access in their own localities. While outlining key factors behind such developments in Japanese contexts the article shows that this is not something only evident in Japan; it is a phenomenon found globally and across numerous religious traditions and geographic settings. Examples are provided of similar developments in Catholic, Hindu and Buddhist contexts globally. In outlining some of the underlying implications of this phenomenon, of pilgrimages and sacred sites being replicated in localised versions, the article particularly highlights the issue of movement and mobility, a topic that has rightly been highlighted as an analytical theme in studies of pilgrimage. However, thus far, discussions of mobility and movement in pilgrimage contexts have focused on movement to and around sacred sites, and on the people—pilgrims—who do this. As the article argues, movement can also go the other way: of pilgrimages and sacred sites moving to where potential pilgrims are, and it flags up this issue along with the need for more research into replicated pilgrimages, as key areas of pilgrimage studies research.

Visiting religious sites is one of the customary programs in the journeys of diplomats and officials from Muslim countries when traveling to other Islamic lands. The shrine of the eighth Shiʿi Imam in the holy city of Mashhad—which is considered the most important pilgrimage site in Iran—has, in the last century, received dozens of Sunni statesmen. This study, conducted through a descriptive–analytical method, seeks to identify the reasons for the pilgrimage of these figures to the shrine of Imam al-Rida (PBUH). The findings indicate that the Sufi inclinations of certain Muslim statesmen constituted one of the reasons for their visitation to the Imam al-Rida’s shrine. Some Muslim politicians, such as Zahir Shah, Abul Kalam Azad, Imran Khan, Abdoulaye Wade, Benazir Bhutto, and others, from countries including Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Senegal, and beyond, when visiting Iran, traveled to Mashhad with the intention of pilgrimage to Imam al-Rida’s shrine. In their homelands, these individuals were known for supporting Sufism or for their affiliation with ṭarīqas such as the Suhrawardiyya, Qādiriyya, Naqshbandiyya, Chishtiyya, and Murīdiyya, and there exist numerous reports of their pilgrimages to Sufi shrines. Accordingly, it seems that these political leaders, whether by conviction or out of reverence for the position of Imam al-Rida (PBUH) within Sufi silsilas undertook the visitation of his tomb. In this respect, one may expect that the shrine of Imam al-Rida could serve as a point of reliance contributing to the improvement and strengthening of political and cultural relations.