Pious Passengers is a study of the hajj, from Mughal India to Mecca. It covers in detail the economic, religious, cultural and political aspects of this important phenomenon. The hajj was the greatest assemblage of people to take place anywhere in the early modern world with many thousands taking part in it every year. The study thus contributes not only to Mughal Indian history but also to the history of Islam in general. The sources on which this work is based are the few available Persian and Arabic accounts, and a mass of material in several European languages collected over a period of some ten years from libraries and archives in Europe, India and America. The book is a path-breaking piece of social history. It also provides an account of what the hajj actually meant to the thousands of Indians who undertook it in the early modern world.