A teacher of Islamic history used travelogues by 17th-century Ottoman pilgrims to develop “The Haj Trail”, a role-play game
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskTyler Kynn, a teacher of Islamic history now at Central Connecticut State University, was looking for a way to bring the past to life when he remembered a computer game from his youth. “The Oregon Trail”, first released in 1971, introduced a generation of American schoolchildren to frontier life in the mid-19th century.
Working with a friend, and using travelogues by 17th-century Ottoman pilgrims, Mr Kynn developed “The Haj Trail”. It is a browser-based strategy game crammed with historical detail. Players can choose the role of one of five characters, from an Ottoman princess to an impoverished widow . Travelling companions provide assistance, as do soldiers for hire and animals encountered along the way, such as the White Gyrfalcon . As in “The Oregon Trail”, the challenges are many.
Despite the sometimes frustrating difficulty of the game, Mr Kynn’s undergraduates were soon hooked. Gameplay made 17th-century travel more accessible than “giving them a book and saying: read these 100 pages of an account where the guy says ‘I get robbed here’.” Teachers from as far afield as Malaysia and Anatolia have stumbled on the game online and used it in their classes. Mr Kynn’s goal is to make the role-play widely available for educational use at no cost.
The appeal arises not from fancy graphics but from the game’s multilayered texture. At each stop, players have the chance to explore local shrines. They can gossip in coffeehouses, picking up valuable tips on the route ahead, or go to the local market to barter goods. They frequently confront trade-offs in time, risks and supplies.pilgrimage to just 1m, far below the pre-pandemic peak of 2.5m. And for non-Muslims interested in the Islamic world, thewill forever be forbidden.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline"To be a pilgrim"
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