As a world religion Islam is based on a highly abstract and absolute notion of the transcendent, which its followers establish and celebrate, in a seemingly contradictory fashion, at very specific sites: Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, and in the vast and complex landscapes of mosques and Muslim saints' shrines around the world. Sacred locality has thus become a paradigm for the relationship between the human and the transcendent, a model for urban planning, regional networks, imaginary spaces, and spiritual hierarchies alike. This importance of saintly places has, however, become increasingly...