This book discusses cults surrounding sainted figures in Islam, and secondarily in Judaism, from many points of view. It urges researchers to go beyond “the traditional methods of interpreting Jewish and Islamic texts,” and to probe the “human dimension of spirituality.” It maintains that studying the practices, beliefs, and idiosyncratic deeds directed to sainted personages—both alive and dead—allows us to explore spiritual paths along which we meet the poor as well as the powerful, and both the theologian and the unschooled believer.