Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: agency of history: the symbolic potential of the transnational mosque -- Turkey and a neo-Ottoman world order: history as ethno-imperialism -- Global Islam and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: an architecture of assimilation -- Iran and Shiʻi pilgrimage networks: a postrevolutionary ideology -- Grand mosques in the United Arab Emirates: domesticating the transnational -- Epilogue: the mutability of history.

"Kishwar Rizvi, drawing on the multifaceted history of the Middle East, offers a richly illustrated analysis of the role of transnational mosques in the construction of contemporary Muslim identity. As Rizvi explains, transnational mosques are structures built through the support of both government sponsorship, whether in the home country or abroad, and diverse transnational networks. By concentrating on mosques--especially those built at the turn of the twenty-first century--as the epitome of Islamic architecture, Rizvi elucidates their significance as sites for both the validation of religious praxis and the construction of national and religious ideologies"--