ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the experiences of three British converts to Islam - Lord Headley, Eldon Rutter, and Lady Evelyn Cobbold, who performed the hajj during in the interwar period. Studying these three converts on hajj highlights the connections between religion and politics and how these influenced each other. Performing the hajj during this period exposed these converts to the political changes that affected the pilgrimage in this period. Their status as citizens of an empire that ruled over half the world’s Muslim population made their hajj experiences different from many of their co-religionists, but their elite status meant there were many similarities between their pilgrimages and those of their fellow elite Muslim pilgrims.
