The center for Pilgrimage and Tourism Studies of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad hosted the third specialized meeting about the system of research topics on pilgrimage on 13 February 2023 with Dr. Alireza Baligh as the keynote speaker.

In this meeting, Dr. Baligh stated that despite our nearly 200-year encounter with modernity, pilgrimage to holy places, especially the shrine of Imam Reza, has remained to be a manifestation of Iranian people's adherence to the Holy. The Holy is a focal point that affects the entirety of a culture and all its elements in one way or another.

What is happening in the modern world is that the centrality of the Holy is being damaged which apparently distorts the special meaning of different places and times in relation to the Holy. Modernity creates other places and times, of course, this time with the focus on the inner sanctity of man and humanism. Referring to Arbaeen Pilgrimage as a new manifestation of pilgrimage, he said that pilgrimage transcends political geography and has created a unique cultural geography that has great potential for research.

Also, pointing out that unfortunately many of our holy places are losing their centrality, he explained the causes of this issue. Finally, in response to the idea of corpulence of rites, he stated that in a world that is becoming empty of meaning due to nihilism, man is looking for something that reproduces that meaning, and the fact that new concepts emerge from the core concepts of religion does not contradict Islamic principles