The Hajj

Dr. Rashid Begg is the Acting Director of Resources and Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Kurdistan - Hewler, Iraq. Prior to his move to Kurdistan he worked as a lecturer at Stellenbosch University in South Africa and prior to that, as a researcher at the University of Toronto, Canada. Dr. Begg, a native South African and a Canadian citizen, holds a Ph.D. in Sociology with special interests in social theory and understanding the historical linkages between religion, politics and economics. His primary methodological interest is historical sociology. He focuses on the seminal works of the political-economist-sociologist-historian Max Weber. His most recent works include, The Afrikaners, Capitalism and Max Weber's Ghost, based on his doctoral dissertation. His recent papers include "Otherwise than Being: Levinas' compassion and Nagarjuna's karuna", "Cult-Church Dynamics within the Nation of Islam", "Hadith as a Means of Routinizing Charisma", "Towards a historical sociology of almsgiving in South African Islam" and "Anselm of Canterbury and Abu Hamid al-Ghazali: Christian and Islamic Rational Mysticism".