Read an excerpt from the introduction to IMPERIAL MECCA: OTTOMAN ARABIA AND THE INDIAN OCEAN HAJJ, by Michael Christopher Low. In this work, Low analyzes the late Ottoman hajj and Hijaz region as transimperial spaces, reshaped by the competing forces of Istanbulâs project of frontier modernization and the extraterritorial reach of British Indiaâs steamship empire in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea.