In this episode, Richard McGregor discusses his new book, Islam and the Devotional Object: Seeing Religion in Egypt and Syria with Candace Mixon. Why do scholars of religion have such a variety of incomplete and messy tools to “follow the objects”? Find out with the curious stories of devotional objects from Cairo and Damascus.

Two rationales inspired the book, McGregor notes. First, while there are “many impressive objects in the living practice of Islam,” the popular narrative is that Islam “is mistrustful and even hostile to images, representation, and sensory indulgences.” What can we do to resolve this difference? Second, our “imperfect tools for making sense of… objects of devotion” led him to consider the role of aesthetics and the complex histories of devotional materials, especially before and after the impact of colonialism.

Listen in to their conversation as they consider the limits of theological or religious agendas that encourage scholars to ask who controls our understanding of objects like the mahmal (a ceremonial palanquin used in the Hajj) when they resist neat models of signification?